Grandiose Parlor

It is just getting tougher not being cynical about Nigeria!

The Nigerian national lawmakers have been grappling to pass the FOI Bill into law. The bill almost made it during the Obasanjo tenure, but because it was bundled with a controversial bill that would have extended President Obasanjo’s tenure, it was thrown out.

The FOI bill has been presented, again, at the House of Representatives, and this time it didn’t go far. The legislators kicked it out, more or less spitting on the faces of Nigerian people they swore to represent.

The Punch reports:

There was a rowdy session at the plenary, presided over by the Deputy Speaker, Alhaji Bayero Nafada, as the sponsors of the bill and those opposing it shouted at one another.

For close to 20 minutes, Nafada battled to restore order at the session with many lawmakers shouting “No, no, we don’t want the bill;” “Kill it;” “Present this bill 10 times and we shall reject it;” “This is a media bill, there are many issues that have to be addressed.”

The behavior of the nay-sayers is in sharp contrast to the image the House leadership and some members are trying to project: One built on accountability and transparency.

This image has been projected via the probing of power contracts under OBJ, and it was even demonstrated by Demiji Bankole, the House Speaker, on a recent BBC interview.

Judging by the manner the FOI bill was handled, the House of Representatives has been reduced to a house of jokers in my book. I was hopeful some good will come from there, not any more.

The FOI is still in play though, as I mentioned in a blog comment yesterday. As the House of Rep shamefully plays the politics of convenience, the Senate continues to discuss the bill. It appears there is still hope.

What remains unclear is how the bill will be turned into law without the House, even if it passed the Senators’ scrutiny.

When the American forefathers empowered the people and created the concept of democracy Nigeria has been bastardizing, it was far from perfect. Over the years, the vanguards of the system, essentially the legislature, have put in place several mechanisms that have improved and make it more meaningful to the electorate and the elected. One of the mechanism created was the enactment of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act.

As explained by the Wikipedia, the FOI Act “allows for the full or partial disclosure of previously unreleased information and documents controlled by the United States Government. The Act defines agency records subject to disclosure, outlines mandatory disclosure procedures and grants nine exemptions to the statute.”

Some 60 countries have some form of FOI law in play.