Partner With Us To Make FOI Act ‘Effective’ In Kwara, ENETSUD Urges Media, Residents 

The Elites Network for Sustainable Development (ENetSuD), an anti-corruption Civil Society Organization in Kwara State, on Tuesday welcomed the Supreme Court ruling that clarified and declared that the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act applies to all tiers of government in the country.

Recall that contrary to the line of arguments canvassed by some state governments, the nation’s apex court ruled on Friday that the FOI Act is a federal legislation that applies to all tiers of government in the country adding that the National Assembly is competent to enact laws on public records and archives.

The FOI bill was signed into law by former president Goodluck Jonathan on May 28, 2011.

Presiding over a press conference in Ilorin on Tuesday which was attended by journalists including Team@orientactualmags.com , the Coordinator, Elites Network for Sustainable Development (ENetSuD), Professor Lateef Alagbonsi welcomed the court ruling while emphasizing the role of the media in making it achieve its desired outcomes in Kwara State.

Noting that the social audit initiative introduced by the Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq administration in 2020 which had civic groups and communities monitoring projects and issuing independent reports was supported by ENETSUD as an interim measure that will help to ensure transparency and accountability but was never a replacement for FOI.

He urged journalists to request for information through the FOI act while refusal by any government agency to provide the requested information should be considered as an affront to all journalists.

 ENETSUD, he noted, will be a willing partner and would support journalists and other members of the public who seek information from any government agency and have such denied by helping them to institute lawsuits.

.’We will fight together, we will help with lawsuits, a joint effort and joint action is needed to ensure transparency and accountability in government.

 Openness, transparency and accountability is important, and we should all fight for it, everyone must have access to documents. People should be free to request for documents that have to do with any administration’ he said.

He also urged the media to help in reporting anomalies and dishonest deals and ensure that they lead the campaign for an ‘open Kwara’ where an average citizen will know how public funds are spent.

 Alagbonsi also clarified that the CSO is not out to attack the current administration in Kwara State noting that previous administrations were in the past subjected to scrutiny through the ‘social audit’ initiative.

‘People should not assume that we are out to attack the Abdulrazaq administration. Recall that we audited the Geri Alimi underpass project, the cargo terminal project which were the projects executed by the Abdulfatah and Saraki administrations respectively.

 We did that of Abdulrazaq administration too including GHS, Adeta,  it is not about a particular administration, you can even request information that has to do with projects executed in 1999, the records are there at the ministries they must produce them. If they fail to do that, they are in trouble’ he said.

ENETSUD has also promised to give needed support to anyone planning to request information from government agencies using the FOI act .

‘We wish to be a technical guide as a CSO, we believe we have the needed experience we have been tracking projects since 2018.

 I cannot remember the number of projects that we have tracked , Federal government, state government projects , so, we have gotten the needed experience.

We want a partnership that will make all of us have an ‘open Kwara’ that we are yearning for’ he submitted.

Alagbonsi also noted that it will be wrong to make people slam agencies with lawsuits before releasing requested information as it will amount to waste of money on the part of government.

He urged the state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Barrister Senior Sulyman to issue  a directive to the MDAs to comply with the FOI act in order not to make him devote energy and time to lawsuits arising from failure to comply with the act.

‘We urge the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice to advise the MDAs to comply so that he will not be made to appear in court every day.  He should do the needful to avoid wasting our money on litigations’ he added-Team@orientactualmags.com  Do you have any information you wish to share with us? Do you want us to cover your event or programme? Kindly send SMS to 08059100286, 09094171980 or get in touch via orientactualmag@gmail.com.  Thank you