The Freedom of Information Bill suffered another major setback at the House of Representatives on Thursday as lawmakers rejected a fresh bid to revisit the document.

Thursday’s development, coming in spite of the assurances by the House that it would pass the bill, left the document in an apparent state of hopelessness.

Twenty-one members of the House led by the Chairman of the Committee on Rules and Business, Mr. Ita Enang, had sponsored a motion seeking to re-commit the FOI bill to the Committee on Information/National Orientation and Justice.

The idea, according to the sponsors, is to allow the committee to conduct a public hearing on the bill and allow members of the public to trash out any grey areas.

Presenting the motion, Enang said, “Dear colleagues, the motion on this subject is asking for one resolution; that the FOI bill be re-committed to the Joint Committee on Information and Justice to conduct a public hearing and bring its recommendations on the bill.

“Colleagues may please recall that when the bill was read a second time, it was committed to the Committee of the Whole.

“But, from serious issues of law raised by members, it has become pertinent that the public be heard on the provisions, and members may also make presentations in the course of the hearing.

“I, therefore, pray you, dear colleagues, to please support that this motion, with a simple, non-committal prayer, be passed so that you will have an opportunity to make inputs before the bill is listed for consideration in Committee of the Whole.”

After the motion was read, the Speaker, Mr. Dimeji Bankole, called for votes on whether to approve it, but there was a thunderous “nay.”

Bankole, who appeared shocked over the reaction of his colleagues, immediately called for an executive session (behind closed doors).

The chamber again thundered “nay,” leaving both Bankole and the sponsors of the motion bewildered.

The speaker then said, “As your speaker, I will always do what you say (to reject the bill).

“It appears that more work needs to be done; I therefore, stand down the motion.”

One of the sponsors of the motion, Mr. Ezuiche Ubani, expressed disappointment over the decision of the House.

He said, “The speaker said that more work has to be done; what more work are we going to do again?

“This bill has spent so much time in this House; it is a simple bill that will do all of us good but I just can’t understand why my colleagues are afraid of it.

“I don’t know what else we are to do; but we shall continue to push for the passage of the bill. This is not the end yet.

“If they are talking of lobbying, we have to talk to more stakeholders to meet with members and still try to assure them that this bill is good and means no harm to them.”

Ubani commended the “courage” of the 21 members for coming out openly to support the bill in spite of the stiff opposition against it in the House.

The 21 courageous members are Ita Enang, C.I.D Maduabum, Sylvester Ogbaga, A.T. Sam-Sokwam, Adegoke Festus, George-Ford Nwosu, Mohammed Garba, Shuaibu Abdulihi, Samson Osagie and Emmanuel Adedeji.

Others are Bala Kuta, Patricia Etteh, Sani Saleh-Minjibir, Takori Sani, Ezuiche Ubani, Mutu Nicholas and Ishaku Shara.

Also on the list are Mohammed Monguno, Jacobs Elubiosu, Aminu Shagari and Samaila Mohammed.

The House of Representatives had, on June 3, 2008, refused to debate the FoI Bill, barely 24 hours after the Senate concluded a public hearing on it.

It took the Deputy Speaker, Alhaji Bayero Nafada, about 20 minutes to douse the pandemonium generated by the development.

Journalists covering the House had threatened to boycott its activities if the bill was not given a considerable time to facilitate its passage.

But the sponsor of the bill, Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, had blamed the behaviour of her colleagues on the fear of the media.


http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201001222363078

Naija for show

The latest rejection of this bill - clearly confirms to move forward in this country the action lies in the hand of masses

Thes "dis"honourables again

naija is just one big Animal Farm:

All nigerians are equal, but some are more equal than others.
Andooaka is always right, we will work harder.
Hard work is good, curruption is better.

just as i expected.

Greedy fools with cupboards full of skeletons.

those goons certainly have something to hide so i'm not surprised.

True! The way the agitators of the bill are going about it is not good. Why trying to lord it over the house that they must pass the bill, inasmuch as we know what it has to put in place when passed into law. Somehow its sounds intimidating, which every right thing man must reject. For goodness sake they(Legislators) have their ego to protect. Lets apply some element of DIPLOMACY in situations like this. . .

blacksta:

The latest rejection of this bill - clearly confirms to move forward in this country the action lies in the hand of masses

HOW?

asha 80:

Naija for show

lol

Proposed Bill - Harmonized Version
[url]http://www.foicoalition.org/PDF%20Files/FOI_BILL_Harmonised_Version.pdf[/url]

The Freedom of Information Bill 2007
An act to make public records and information more freely available, provide for public access to public records and information, project public records and information to the extent consistent with the public interest and the protection of personal privacy, protect serving public officers from adverse consequences for disclosing certain kinds of official information without authorization and establish procedures for the achievement of those purposes and related purposes thereof.

I am wont to believe that when a consensus position is arrived at, (especially at a gathering of "Honorables" It is one that is matured from the experience of several men of intelligence & knowledge; ones elected by their various constituencies to represent their very best interests on a national platform.

Can we quickly dismiss their actions as one borne out of selfishness, ignorance, deliberate acts of injustice or worse, a move to entrench and sustain a lush environment where corruption thrives without hindrance.? (our reasoning lean towards that)

Retrospectively, when a bill is enacted into law, you find that the promulgation process is less rancorous when it rides on the backs of similar or ancillary legislation already in place. in other words, do we have in the constitution, similar/dissimilar  law(s) that proves deficient (or supportive of) enough to amass legislative support for the one being proposed? for example  Article 39.3 sub (a)(b)

39.  (1) Every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression, including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference.
(2) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1) of this section, every person shall be entitled to own, establish and operate any medium for the dissemination of information, ideas and opinions:
Provided that no person, other than the Government of the Federation or of a State or any other person or body authorised by the President on the fulfilment of conditions laid down by an Act of the National Assembly, shall own, establish or operate a television or wireless broadcasting station for, any purpose whatsoever.
(3) Nothing in this section shall invalidate any law that is reasonably justifiable in a democratic society -
(a) for the purpose of preventing the disclosure. of information received in confidence, maintaining the authority and independence of courts or regulating telephony, wireless broadcasting, television or the exhibition of cinematograph films; or
(b) imposing restrictions upon persons holding office under the Government of the Federation or of a State, members of the armed forces of the Federation or members of the Nigeria Police Force or other Government security services or agencies established by law.

There are 195 independent countries of which 85 have legislated a Freedom of Information Bill. 3 countries are from Africa (S. Africa, Zimbabwe and Uganda). Do we have access to information on what challenges these nations faced and how they were resolved, We cannot be a uniquely discordant nation that we must seek a unique and constitutionally laborious path to an otherwise common problem (with a common solution)

Its clear Military ruling in nigeria is better than the so called democracy . .
Democracy in Nigeria is non existence
What a bunch of jokers . . .

This clearly shows who those "honorables" are representing. If they don't have skeletons in their cupboard, why are they so scared of passing the bill?

well am not surprise, cos they have hiding agenda, by signing the bill will not favour them
our leaders are far away from truths, too bad

how did we even expect these bunch of charlatans to sign such a sensitive bill in the first place?

tboy1:

Its clear Military ruling in nigeria is better than the so called democracy . .
Democracy in Nigeria is non existence
What a bunch of jokers . . .

Same FOI bill is getting passed this year in Lagos.

We don't need the military to do the right thing, we just have bad people running things.

I need News that will surprise me

I am a young Nigerian and have always wondered if truly the one we call our elders and leaders ever think about us when they make certain decisions,especially decisions that affects us ,although ultimately I know that our future is in our hands,it goes without saying that the leaders are responsible for laying the ground work for whatever future it Might be,and it is pretty obvious that these crop of leaders are not the ground work laying type,and there are so many evidence to that effect.I would not want to go into what FELA would call Old story thats why I would rather post a reply here,I think this is Huge,yes the FOI bill,it is huge for whatever democracy we think we have now or one that we would like to have in the future,It is a visionary Idea and one that has lived with every democratic government since the system of government was created,what shackles would break from the necks and legs of the masses by the passing of this Bill goes without saying once again,so why foot drag,why stall something that could actually put this generation of politicians in a good light in the eyes of posterity,even though some of them deserve never to be remembered? why lose the only chance to redeem the damage that their Politricks have brought on the Nigerian People,are there actually sincere Elders/leaders out there with the future of the nation in Mind.what sort of solution do we expect to get from people who dont even care about how we live,eat,drink or sleep.Half hearted ones at best.ELDERS /LEADERS INDEED.

Yeye people. had it been that bill is in place now, we would have gotten the real truth about the condition of our runnaway Presido.

Why wouldnt they reject the bill?You wouldnt want them to shoot themselves in the leg would you?This is another classic case of CYA - Cover ASSistant!

we need to get a list of people who are opposed to the bill and list them as opponents of freedom

fools , they hate truth , their hand full of evil, so dont what to be question, like it or not a o be o wo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

babapupa:

Same FOI bill is getting passed this year in Lagos.
We don't need the military to do the right thing, we just have bad people running things.

The democracy system is so bad in nigeria that i cant see military doing worse

When they have a lot of skeleton in their cupboard, how can they allow the bill to see day light. Nigerian legislators, can they be upright for once God help Nigeria.

those guys are even afraid of their shadows. bunch of thieves and crooks!

The Nigerian electrorate is to blame, until people can make this an election issue in their various constituencies, this will continue to happen and the bill will never see the light of day. It shows that most of the people in the various arms of govt have things to hide and are afraid of the transparency it brings.

that is if our votes counted in the first place.

when we get our electoral system right,then the right people will make laws for us,those ass hole were not elected by us.what do you expect

asha 80:

Naija for show 

More like naija for talk.

Johnnoo:

True! The way the agitators of the bill are going about it is not good. Why trying to lord it over the house that they must pass the bill, inasmuch as we know what it has to put in place when passed into law. Somehow its sounds intimidating, which every right thing man must reject. For goodness sake they(Legislators) have their ego to protect. Lets apply some element of DIPLOMACY in situations like this. . .
HOW?
lol

meaning they are doing the right thing, abi?
na wa for u o.

Well, they have something to hide

anybody who thought those dis-honorable men called senators would willingly pass a bill that threatens
to expose their electoral fraud must have been dreaming.