Abisoye, Nigerian IVLP alumna in top 10 CNN Heroes - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

A Nigerian alumna of the 2017 United States government-sponsored International Visitors Leadership Program (IVLP), Ms. Abisoye Ajayi-Akinfolarin, has been named one of the 2018 top 10 CNN Heroes of the Year by the Cable News Network (CNN), reports ITREALMS.

Ajayi-Akinfolarin’s organization, Pearls Africa Foundation, which she founded in 2012, assists girls from underserved communities in Nigeria gain relevant technological skills to transform their lives. The beneficiaries get training in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python and Scratch and visit tech companies to reinforce their learning and broaden their horizons.

Her GirlsCoding project has reached more than 400 beneficiaries, including girls from orphanages and correctional homes, in addition to young women fleeing the violence perpetrated by Boko Haram. The GirlsCoding project is being supported by the U.S. Consulate General Lagos.

In 2017, Ajayi-Akinfolarin also founded Lady Labs Innovation Hub, a female-focused tech centre which caters specifically to the technological needs of female university students enrolled in the STEM fields of study and female entrepreneurs.

The graduate of the University of Lagos participated in a three-week IVLP exchange program focusing on “Education and Activism for Young Women.” The International Visitors Leadership Program is the U.S. State Department’s premier professional exchange program.

CNN described the 10 finalists as “remarkable trailblazers who have truly changed the world.” Each Top 10 CNN Hero will be awarded $10,000 and the CNN Hero of the Year will receive an additional $100,000. The honorees will also receive free capacity-building training from the Annenberg Foundation, a leading supporter of nonprofits worldwide.

To vote and select the CNN Hero of the Year, visit: CNNHeroes.com

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ARC applauds Africa Disaster Risks Financing by AfDB - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

The African Risk Capacity (ARC) has applauded the approval of the Africa Disaster Risk Financing Programme (ADRiFi) Programme by the African Development Bank (AfDB), reports ITREALMS.

The discussions to establish the ADRiFi as a mechanism to enhance the resilience and response to climate shocks and natural disaster risks in Regional Member Countries (RMCs) was formalized in March 2017.

Since then, the African Development Bank and the African Risk Capacity, under the signed technical collaboration agreement began to orchestrate activities to enhance risk management infrastructure and policy across Africa as well as supporting countries in building resilience against climate shocks.

During the African Development Bank Annual Meetings 2018 in Busan, South Korea, a special session on ‘Climate and Disaster Risk Financing’ gave a fresh impetus to the realization of the set objectives.

The ADRiFi programme is a timely response for a premium financing support request from a number of RMCs to bridge the resource gap impeding the necessary participation in the African Risk Capacity insurance pool.

“This is one of those moments when one feels very proud as an African”, stated Mohammed Beavogui, the Director-General of ARC, while reacting to the announcement by the AfDB. “The faithfulness and commitment of President Adesina and his team to the realisation of this initiative begs for emulation by other regional and multilateral partners. This is critical for us to achieve food security in the continent through ensuring that Africa’s vulnerable populations are insured against the often-overwhelming impacts of climate-induced natural disasters.”

Saluting the unstinting support of President Akinwunmi Adesina, and tenacious hard work of the AfDB and ARC teams involved in birthing the ADRiFi programme, the Board Chairperson of African Risk Capacity, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, shared her excitement. According to her, “The disaster risk financing landscape in Africa has received an empowering shot in the arm…let us now move quickly to extend our disaster risk insurance coverage to more member countries which, before now, could not join the ARC pool owing to fiscal constraints.”

The CEO of African Risk Capacity Limited, Dolika Banda, equally lent her voice in appreciating the huge commitment from both institutions that went into the realisation of the trailblazing initiative. “We now know that collaborative partnerships work when there is good fidelity. ARC will leverage on the crest of this great achievement to connect with other institutions towards a more inclusive disaster risk insurance coverage for Africa”, she said.

The ADRiFi Programme will focus on national institutional strengthening, policy development, risk profiling, and contingency planning for disasters for participating RMCs.

In line with the agreed structure, it will support countries in developing climate risk profiles, strengthen contingency plans and support risk transfer through premium subsidies of up to 50% over a five-year period. By Year 5 of the programme, the country will be paying the full premium.

The ADRiFi programme is open to all AfDB Regional Member Countries that are ARC Member States and signatory to the ARC Establishment Treaty.

Nenye Dom/GEE

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The unravelling of President Buhari - ITREALMS

MidWeekCommentary@ITREALMS:

One thing supporters of President Muhammadu Buhari can’t deny is that many of those who oppose him today, almost three and half years after he was sworn in as the fourth president of the Fourth Republic, rooted for him 2015. Many of them are not politicians; they are not angry because Presdient Buhari has blocked their illegal sources of wealth; and they are not people who have cases with anti-corruption agencies. I am one of them.

For this category of Nigerians, it was their belief in Nigeria and hope for an inclusive country and new ways of doing things that made them take that chance. After the Jonathan debacle, very few Nigerians imagined that the country could sink lower in terms of its leader’s capacity to understand and confront its problems. Expectations were high. Buhari and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) had made promises.

During the campaign, Candidate Buhari, without prompting, promised to declare his asset publicly on his first day in office and we believed him. The APC promised to address the vexed issue of national unity and integration and we trusted them. Four months after, journalists were still debating with Garba Shehu, the president’s Senior Special Assistant, Media and Publicity, on the meaning of public declaration of asset.

It was in faraway Ghana, in September 2015, that President Buhari told curious journalists: “I have declared my assets and all that I have four times, and you (the media) have the right to go and demand for my declaration. Instead, I am being harassed.” I am sure if the president had made his asset declaration public, as he promised during his campaign, journalists would have saved him the harassment and embarrassment.

In July 2013, my colleague, Godwin Onyeacholem, and I, wrote a piece titled “2015: Why Buhari Matters.” In it, we argued that Mr. Buhari was perhaps the only politician who could defeat former president, Goodluck Jonathan. In another article in May 2015 titled, “President Buhari: Dead end or the rebirth of a nation?” I argued, enthusiastically, that under Mr. Buhari, Nigerians didn’t expect it to be business as usual and that notwithstanding his foibles—“alleged provincialism and antecedent as a military dictator”—since corruption remains one of Nigeria’s biggest problems, perhaps, “President Buhari, ‘Mr. Anti-corruption’ can deal with corruption and get the Nigerian state to function.”

That has turned out not to be the case. As we have seen, President Buhari’s foibles are not superficial. They are ingrained. On the issue of corruption, I will allow Senator Shehu Sani speak on Mr. Buhari’s anti-corruption war. A preeminent party man, Senator Sani was in the APC until a few weeks ago when a combination of intrigues and highhandedness forced him to resign and join another party, the People’s Redemption Party (PRP). According to Senator Sani, “When it comes to fighting corruption in the National Assembly and the Judiciary and in the larger Nigerian sectors, the President uses insecticide, but when it comes to fighting corruption within the Presidency, they use deodorants.”

But, as we have noticed, fighting corruption should be the least of our concern under a president who seems to make a mockery of the very essence of our survival as a nation. The clear and present danger in Nigeria today is the existential crisis confronting it. Not since the civil war have Nigerians questioned their citizenship the way they have done in the last three and half years, thanks to a president whose philosophy and politics of exclusion and resentment, of “we vs them,” of “97 and 5 percent,” is redefining what it means to be a Nigerian.

President Buhari has foreclosed the prospect of any kind of meaningful conversation on Nigeria and its existential crisis. It will be an egregious folly to allow this indifference to go on for four more years. If Mr. Buhari wasn’t sworn in on May 29, 2015, he would have remained “the best president Nigeria never had.” Now that we have watched him painfully flounder, not knowing exactly what to do and squandering the goodwill of a nation in search of direction, it would be catastrophic to reward him with another four years.

The 2019 election, therefore, will either be about enabling a tribesman or finding a patriotic alternative. As a people, we should be interested in President Buhari’s capacity—his ability to understand what the country needs—to steer the Nigerian state for four more years as he seeks a second term in the February 2019 general elections.

President Buhari may have good intentions, if you believe those around him. But again, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. For a nation in a hurry, President Buhari’s tardiness goes beyond the pale. It took him six months to appoint some of the same people he campaigned with, as ministers, creating uncertainty and imperiling the economy in the process. The security situation gets worse by the day and you scarcely hear any coherent response from the president.

It seems Mr. Buhari hardly knows what is happening around him. A few months ago, at the height of the murderous herdsmen/farmers crisis in Benue State, the president sent the Inspector General of Police to personally take charge of the situation. When the president finally visited Benue State, after weeks of public outcry, and was confronted by residents who said the police chief was a no-show, he told a bewildered nation that he did not know that his police chief defied his orders. And, of course, he did nothing.

No wonder when asked in February what he would tell President Buhari if they met, Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, replied: “I will say to him, Mr. President I think you are under a trance.” There couldn’t have been a more apt description of a president we elected almost four years to take charge and pull the country from the brink. I don’t think President Buhari has woken up from that dream. What we have in place of an elected president is a space holder surrounded by a bunch of nefarious enablers.

President Buhari’s listlessness and nonchalance is only matched by his parochialism. Take his handling of the crisis at the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) or the appointment of a new head for Nigeria’s internal security agency, the Department of State Security (DSS). In August 2018, while President Buhari was away on medical vacation in the UK, the acting president, Yemi Osinbajo, sacked Lawal Daura the notorious director general of the DSS and Mr. Buhari’s kinsman after a botched DSS invasion of the National Assembly. He was replaced by Matthew Seiyefa, from Bayelsa State, the most senior director at the DSS. Mr. Seiyefa appeared, at least from media reports, to be doing a good job at his new post, clearing a backlog of unpaid allowances and repositioning the institution in accordance with equity, fairness and respect for the rule of law.

For someone who had been assailed for his manifest nepotism and utter disregard for the country’s diversity, it was expected that the president would allow the appointment to stand. Not President Buhari. A month later, the president, predictably, had to recall “one of his own”, Yusuf Magaji Bichi, from retirement, to replace the acting president’s appointee.

It is an understatement to say President Buhari is stuck in the past. But if that alone was the problem, then it wouldn’t matter. The president has no notion of nationhood. He certainly needs a lot of lesson in running a modern, diverse and multi-ethnic nation like Nigeria. Unfortunately, it is too late.

The beauty of democracy—if we follow its tenets—is the prospect of peaceful and periodic transfer of political power. As a nation, let’s not be afraid to take our chances, to try something different. It may not always work out, but it deepens our sense of understanding and purpose.

We took our chance with Mr. Buhari in 2015 and it has turned out to be an unmitigated disaster. Now is the time to move on.

*Contributed by Chido Onumah, the author of We Are All Biafrans: A Participant-Observer’s Interventions in Country Sleepwalking to Disaster.

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Buhari receives report on national minimum wage - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

President Muhammadu Buhari has received the report of the National Minimum Wage Tripartite Committee (NMWTC), at the Aso Villa on Tuesday, November 6, 2018, reports ITREALMS.

NMWTC, ITREALMS recalls was inaugurated on 27th November 2017, with a mandate to recommend a new minimum wage for the workers in the country, saying that the Federal Government under his leadership is in support of the state government paying workers the minimum wage.

“We supported State Governments to pay workers salary. And of course, we set up a committee in order to review the minimum wage of workers,” he said.

Buhari also said that this exercise became necessary for many reasons, noting that the last review took place in 2011.

“We all know since then, the prices of key consumables have increased and the most vulnerable of our workers are struggling to make ends meet,” he said.

Since 2011, Buhari pointed out that many changes have taken place, underlining that Nigeria rebased its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to become the largest economy in Africa, which led to the country reported very strong GDP growth rates and exceptional performance of our capital markets, which successes did not flow into the pockets and homes of majority of Nigerians.

President Buhari further said that in the last three years, APC government had focused on correcting this deficiency.

“We are working to create a diversified and inclusive economy,” he said.

Nenye Dom/GEE

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Pix: President Buhari with committee Chairman, Mrs Amal Pepple.

MDIF launches media loan fund with Sida-backed first-loss protection - ITTREALMS

ITTREALMS:

The Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF) launched an MDIF Media Finance I, a blended-value loan fund for independent news media companies in select emerging and frontier markets, reports ITREALMS.

In a ground-breaking partnership MDIF, a New York-based investment fund for media companies in countries where access to information is limited, and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) are providing investors with 55 per cent first-loss protection.

The fund will provide up to USD6 million in affordable debt to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the media sector with high social impact – outlets that provide the news, information and debate that people need to build free, thriving societies – and pay investors a 4 per cent annual coupon.

ITREALMS also reports that the loans will finance investments in software, equipment, content production and work-space, as well as working capital and short-term cash-flow needs. Prospective borrowers are based in countries such as Myanmar, Ukraine and Malawi.

“MDIF Media Finance I offers investors 55% first-loss protection, 4% annual interest and high mission impact, a highly attractive combination,” said Harlan Mandel, MDIF CEO. “The fund builds on MDIF’s 20 years of media investment experience and will provide financing that enables independent news businesses to compete with state-supported and other captured media. It will help news entrepreneurs in emerging markets to build strong businesses while providing the public with reliable news that isn’t available anywhere else.”

The loan fund adds to MDIF’s existing vehicles for providing debt and equity financing to news and information companies in countries with limited access to reliable information. Sida will also provide grants for technical assistance, enabling MDIF to provide strategic advice and management capacity building services, to help investees optimise their businesses.

“Sida has cooperated for many years with MDIF on a grant-basis so we are very much aware of MDIFs special qualities,” said Eva Lövgren, Head of the Sida Department for International Organisations and Policy Support. “We are quite excited over this possibility to help MDIF attract private capital for investments in independent media actors, as independent media is of crucial importance to peaceful democratic development. Independent and professional journalism is challenged today and we believe that reasonable loans are very much sought after by most media houses.”

MDIF is a New York-registered non-profit corporation, providing debt and equity financing to independent media businesses in countries where access to reliable quality information is under threat. Since making its first loan in 1996, MDIF has provided more than $155 million in financing to more than 100 media companies in 39 countries, returning $38 million to investors. It currently manages $59 million in outstanding loans and equity investments.

Nenye Dom/GEE

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Discourse: IoT moving forward in cross domain sectors - ITREALMS

Discourse@ITREALMS:

As the IoT week event in ETSI came to an end last Friday, there was no doubt that the huge tractor in front of the building was the star of the week. But this wasn’t only for the size of its tyres…

The showcase was indeed a worldwide first: a tractor connected to a car to mitigate the risk of collision on the road and bring down the 400 fatal yearly car accidents caused by farm vehicles that are not visible when coming into the road. Using ETSI’s ITS-G5 standard and the oneM2M gateway, the use case demonstrated how standards help provide interoperability between two sectors such as agriculture and automotive.

Other showcases proved how products based on the oneM2M platform have evolved from prototypes to commercial applications over the last 5 years. Implemented in all parts of the world, they addressed such diverse domains as smart cities, smart agriculture, automotive, smart home, smart living, testing, smart body area, aquiculture or healthcare. There was also the opportunity to test interoperability with interworking platforms or emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence or blockchain. Large global companies, SMEs, start-ups, R&D centres worked together to build up these projects and put them on the market, showing the dynamic IoT ecosystem and how the diversity of actors and expertise can be a real asset for industry at large.

Developers were happy to go into details in a tutorial dedicated to IoT applications and to build small projects with developers’ kits provided to them. In parallel, security experts discussed the challenges for IoT security and privacy. While the chair of the ETSI cybersecurity committee gave a list of very similar issues to those found in desktop OS vulnerabilities in the 90’s, he also gave a set of 3 main recommendations for IoT devices security: no default passwords, implement a vulnerability disclosure policy and keep software updated.

Smart cities was another hot topic of the event. It was addressed through use cases, standardization challenges and first implementations. As was outlined by the speakers, there is no ‘one size fits all’ for cities as they have various needs including those for towns, islands and rural areas which are different from large urban areas. If the cities’ priority is to solve societal issues, it’s a fact that interoperability of the various types of data collected is crucial, but standards are then essential.

Some very positive feedback from commercial implementations were presented. Bordeaux metropolis smart lighting in France was an example and their goals were achieved: reduce energy consumption, optimize services suggested for users by the metropolis and measure the impact of the deployment of street-connected infrastructures. A few Irish cities are also deploying several services. Other cities have implemented, or are going to implement, valet parking, highway use, platooning or urban driving for instance, this includes Livorno in Italy, Tampere in Finland, Versailles in France, Daejeon in South Korea, Eindhoven in the Netherlands or Vigo in Spain.

This year, SmartBAN, smart body area network, was also a new and very interesting topic. The use of wearables and body sensor devices is rapidly growing in the Internet of Things (IoT). Addressing eHealth is of course a technology challenge, you need to deal with interoperability in heterogeneous use cases, low power, low latency, security, robust operation and the ability to interact with embedded intelligence in smart environments. 

ETSI’s technical committee on Smart BAN presented its work but other industry players, including a prominent sportswear actor, offered technology solutions and visions to solve these issues. Speakers concluded that SmartBAN can not only provide connectivity for our portable and wearable devices in the IoT, but it can also serve as the personal interface to the digital world, in particular the healthcare system of the future. To do so, new solutions are needed both technically and in terms of interoperability.

Admin/GEE

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42% online purchases influenced by family, friends - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

Out of the estimated 2 million online purchases made annually, 42 per cent said they were influenced by recommendations from family and friends, reports ITREALMS.

According to the WeAreTop10 latest research, says that online shoppers are more likely to buy due to a recommendation from family and friends over advertisement.

In addition, 42 per cent of these people, the search says have purchased due to a family recommendation.

Digital PR and Outreach manager at WeAreTop10, Rachel Troutman, informed ITREALMS that 87 per cent of shoppers cited price as a factor, and 80 per cent, will chose an item due to the speed of shipping as well as the costs.

The study also indicated that some 71 per cent of online shoppers are influenced by discount offers they receive online with seniors being the least influenced by discounts at 47 per cent.

Even as millennials and Gen Xers, the study said, are more often influenced by advertising than the older generations with 27 per cent, citing influence and 14 per cent, respectively.

“Online shoppers prefer products with pictures with 78 per cent, citing photos as influencing their purchasing behavior,” part of the study stated.

The study further revealed that females will spend more time looking for a deal online than their male counterparts with 60 per cent for females and 46 per cent for males. While 21 per cent of shoppers cited abandoning purchases due to hard to navigate websites.

Chuks Egbune/GEE

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Pix: Courtesy: WeAreTop10

How Ekweremadu escaped assassins again - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

The Deputy Senate President (DSP), Chief Ike Ekweremadu, has once again escaped assassination by gunmen, early Tuesday morning in his residence at Apo Legislative Quarters in Abuja, reports ITREALMS.

A direct attempt, ITREALMS recalls was made on the Senator representing Enugu West Senatorial District on November 17, 2017, when his convoy was blocked at about 10:00am between Apo Flyover and Dantata Construction Company’s yard, close to the Old Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Headquarters junction on his way to work.

However, on Tuesday early hours, gunmen invaded his rresidence in Abuja but every member of his family at home escaped including his wife and children, despite the security cordon around the premises at the Apo Legislative Quarters in Abuja.

Confirming the attempt on DSP, his spokesman, Uche Anichukwu, gave a graphic description of the incident, in a statement, on Tuesday, saying however, that the top federal lawmaker, was able to survive the attack while one of the suspected assailants, was arrested.

“The Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, his wife, and son escaped an assassination attempt at about 4am on Tuesday.

“The armed men discreetly evaded the security at Ekweremadu’s Apo Quarters residence, to gain entry into his house. The attackers, who could not immediately shoot in order not to attract the attention of the security personnel on duty, took hold of his son and commanded him to lead them to the Senator’s bedroom.

“It was at the Senator’s bedroom that a struggle ensued, leading to the arrest of one of the assailants with dangerous weapons and housebreaking devices, while the rest managed to escape. The arrested member of the gang reportedly refused to divulge any information on the operation and has been handed over to the police.

“Ekweremadu, his wife, and one of his sons were in the house at the time of the attack.”

Chuks Egbune/ED, Ops

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ICANN publishes 2018 financial statement - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has published several documents containing financial information in accordance with bylaw requirements, reports ITREALMS.

The financial information published, ITREALMS gathered, relates to ICANN and inclusive of its affiliate Public Technical Identifiers (PTI), as well as PTI as a separate entity.

Also, ITREALMS reports that ICANN published its Financial Year 2018 (FY18) Consolidated Financial Statements on Monday, November 5, this year, was accompanied by the "unqualified" audit report from BDO LLP, the independent auditors, which means that the audit was clean and no material issue was found.

Equally, ITREALMS reports that PTI published its FY18 Financial Statements, accompanied by the "unqualified" audit report from BDO LLP, the independent auditors.

This, ICANN said, is in accordance with the Section 22.3 of ICANN's Bylaws, and Section 9.8 of PTI's Bylaws, these financial statements must be posted within 120 days after the close of the fiscal year, or by 31 October 2018.

ICANN also shared the FY18 Annual Report of Expense Reimbursement and Other Payments to ICANNDirectors [PDF, 545 KB] for the period 1 July 2017 through 30 June 2018. This is part of its accountability and transparency commitments, and in accordance with the ICANN Bylaws.

This report includes a description of any payments made by ICANN to and on behalf of Directors, including compensation, reimbursements of expenses, payments made to third-party vendors such as hotels, restaurants, and travel agencies.

In support of a continued commitment to accountability and transparency, these and other financial documents are posted to the ICANN Current Year (FY18) Financial Information page and the Financial Information for Public Technical Identifiers (PTI) page, just as ICANN invites the community to review this information and submit questions and comments.

ITREALMS recalls that Public Technical Identifiers (PTI) is responsible for the operational aspects of coordinating the Internet's unique identifiers and maintaining the trust of the community to provide these services in an unbiased, responsible, and effective manner. Mainly, PTI is responsible for the operation of the IANA functions on Domain Names, Number Resources, and Protocol Parameter Assignments.

Additionally, Public Technical Identifiers (PTI) was incorporated in August 2016 as an affiliate of ICANN, and, through contracts and subcontracts with ICANN, began performing the IANA functions on behalf of ICANN in October 2016.

Chuks Egbune/GEE

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Why CommTech was inducted into FOI hall of share - ITREALMS

MediaWatch@ITREALMS:

The Media Rights Agenda (MRA) has why the Federal Ministry of Communication Technology (CommTech) was inducted into the “Freedom of Information (FOI) Hall of Shame”, accusing the Ministry of extremely poor performance in its implementation of the Act over the last seven years, reports ITREALMS.

MRA’s Programme Officer, Mr. Idowu Adewale, announced the selection of the Ministry as this week’s inductee in a statement issued in Lagos, saying “the Ministry’s overall performance in the implementation of the FOI Act since the enactment of the Law in 2011 has been extremely poor and certainly falls far short of what is required of public institutions covered by the Act”.

According to Mr. Adewale, MRA’s analysis of the Attorney-General of the Federation’s annual statutory reports to the National Assembly on the implementation of the FOI Act between 2011 and 2017, shows that out of the seven annual reports which the Ministry ought to have submitted to the Attorney-General under Section 29 of the Act as of February 1, 2018, the Ministry has only submitted one report for 2011 to date.

The Ministry, established in 2011, is charged, amongst other things, with the tasks of fostering a knowledge-based economy and information society in Nigeria; facilitating ICT as a key tool in the transformation agenda for Nigeria in the areas of job creation, economic growth and transparency of governance as well as creating and formulating policies that will propel the Nigerian economy to a digitized economy.

Explaining the reasons for the Ministry’s induction, Mr. Adewale said the institution was assessed based on its level of compliance with its duties and obligations in five areas of the FOI Act and the Attorney-General’s Guidelines on the Implementation of the Act, which are: its obligation to provide information to members of the public on request, its duty to submit annual implementation reports to the Attorney-General of the Federation, its proactive publications obligations; its duty to train its staff and officials on the public’s right of access to information as well as its obligation to designate an FOI Desk Officer and proactively publish the title and address of the official.

Noting that the Ministry performed woefully in most of the categories, he added that the failure of the institution to consistently submit its annual implementation reports to the Attorney-General of the Federation had also made it impossible to determine the number of applications for information that it has received, the number of such applications that it processed as well as the number of requests for information it has granted or denied over the years.

Mr. Adewale accused the Ministry of breaching section 2 of the FOI Act, which requires all public institutions to proactively publish some categories of information even without anyone making any request for such information as well as to update such information regularly and whenever changes occur.

Explaining the potential benefits of the Ministry complying with its proactive disclosure obligations, he stressed that if it fulfills this obligation, it would find that the pressure on it arising from receiving and having to process too many FOI requests would be considerably reduced.

He accused the Ministry of not having published either on any its website, or anywhere else, the 16 categories of information that it is required by the Act to publish and disseminate widely to members of the public through various means, including print, electronic and online.

According to him, although Section 13 of the FOI Act requires every government or public institution to ensure the provision of appropriate training for its officials on the public’s right of access to the information and records that it holds for the effective implementation of the Act, these there is no indication that the Ministry has fulfilled this obligation as there is no information available about its training of its staff on the Act.

On the Ministry’s obligation to designate an FOI Desk Officer, Mr. Adewale said although the Database of FOI Desk Officers available at the Federal Ministry of Justice, which is the oversight institution for the implementation of the FOI Act, shows that the Ministry has designated an official to whom requests for information should be made, the Ministry itself has failed to publish the title and address of the officer on its website or anywhere else, as required by Section 2(3)(f) of the Act.

He urged, the Ministry to make good use of its website to proactively publish those categories of information which the Act requires all public institutions to proactively disclose, adding that by so doing, the Ministry would not only put itself in a good stead as regards the implementation of the FOI Act, but would also lessen the burden of repeatedly processing individual requests for information from citizens touching on those issues.

Mr. Adewale called upon the Minister of Communication Technology, Mr. Adebayo Shittu, to take urgent steps to ensure the provision of appropriate training for the staff and officials of the Ministry so as to acquaint them with their duties and obligations under the FOI Act, which would hopefully lead to improved compliance with and implementation of the Act by the Ministry.

Launched in July 2017, the FOI “Hall of Shame” highlights public officials and institutions that are undermining the effectiveness of the FOI Act through their actions, inactions, utterances, and decisions.

Ayo Midele/GEE

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