FOI Act, not just another ‘bail is free’ signpost?

In the midst of the cartwheels and congratulations about the long
awaited birth of a freedom of information (FOI) Act for Nigerians, I
am wary. The hesitation comes not because the FOI law has been
allegedly watered down or because I do not believe that the FOI could
herald wonderful things; I am tempted to pull the plug on the party
because I think…so what? So what if Nigerians have access to a lot
more information than they had in the past? The real issue is; what
will change?

Today, thanks to the reach, space anonymity of the Internet we have
access to a lot more information than we did a few years ago. Granted,
it is a little harder to sift through the sheer volume of what we have
access to in order to scoop the nuggets of quality information but it
is there. We know that Dimeji Bankole and the leadership of the 6th
House of Representatives borrowed and spent 10 billion Naira that the
House did not have. What have we done with that information? Years
ago, in the early days of the Obasanjo administration, someone thought
it was a good idea to publish the allocation of electricity for each
State in the newspapers. Then it stopped because someone else was
worried that the public might notice that the states considered as
‘opposition’ where getting the least amount of electricity even when
they had the greatest industrial activity. There was a tense period
while they waited to see if anyone had picked up on it…silence. No one
noticed. Even when the information is all around, pasting itself
desperately to our eyelids and morphing into a gas which seeps into
our skin, but still we feel and do nothing.

This means that while we will technically have more access to public
information, it is doubtful if this access will magically transform
our society. There are many other things which have to co-exist with
the FOI in order for it to work effectively and unfortunately we
cannot merely legislate these things into being.

We the people have to realise that while corruption has become a way
of life for us, there is a cost and that cost is captured in all the
things we complain about – the lack of basic amenities, the absence of
accountability amongst politicians and public officers and the slow
pace of development. With the realisation, then comes the desire to do
something about it, to take the effort, individually or collectively
to challenge those who are responsible. Challenges to the injustices
and inconsistencies which float to the surface do not always have to
be made through the courts – the favoured route of lawyers and
activists such as Fawehinmi and Falana. We can protest by boycotting
those responsible by refusing to be associated with them. Already this
is happening. Recently, a former Minister of Petroleum from the north
who went to a wedding fatiha and as is custom, took of his shoes
before entering the house. However while he did his part by taking off
his shoes, none of the people participating from the outside did
theirs; apparently, someone should have offered to hold his shoes for
him. So he looks round for a minute and then tries to hand his shoes
to a man standing closest to him. The man declines to extend his hand
and instead says loudly and clearly – “what did you do for us?” The
former Governor of Nassarrawa State, Doma got a taste of what is to
come when he attempted to slink out of Doma, his village to return to
Lafia, after the results of the gubernatorial election which he lost
were announced. His people created a barricade to prevent his
departure and invited him to ‘stay and enjoy’ the haven he had helped
create during his four year tenure. The rejection of corrupt, weak,
ineffectual, lazy, selfish public officers is slowly happening but we
need to ramp up the pressure. Complete social excommunication is a
good way to challenge the people in government who misuse their
mandate. We might not be able to create our own Tarhir Square to
insist on good governance, but if we shun their weddings, parties,
dinners, talks, book launches and refuse to invite them to ours, I
promise they will wither up and die as surely as the harmattan winds
dry up plants.

We need more than lip service from the government about
transformation. Real transformation in government is going to mean a
break from the norm and the norm is corruption and impunity.
Unfortunately, there is little indication that we are serious about
doing anything about all the major obstacles to our development: a
civil service bloated with conniving and devious people who take pride
in ensuring that nothing changes and the institutionalised corruption
which has resulted in the crater in our physical and mental
development, which billions of dollars should have filled. The United
Kingdom is preparing for the launch of the UK Bribery Act on July 1
2011, a law which they are marketing as ‘tougher’ than the United
States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The UK wants to use transparency
and zero tolerance to corruption as a competitive advantage for
attracting business and investments to their country. We on the other
hand have had the Corrupt Practices Act since 2003 and as far as we
know, no one has been successfully prosecuted under this law. A few
cases have been prosecuted by the Independent Corrupt Practices
Commission but nothing has stuck…and the message remains the same –
Nigerians are not serious about reducing corruption.

The problem is familiar. Walk into a Nigerian police station and there
is a sign somewhere saying ‘BAIL IS FREE’ supposedly there to inform
the public that we do not have to bribe in order to bail anyone out.
But what happens in practice? I think this is what the FOI will end up
as – a sign post saying ‘look at us we know what we are supposed to
do’. It is not enough to just know; we need to act. As we celebrate
the passage of the FOI law, for the development in our awareness which
the law signifies, the law needs good followers to be the teeth in the
bite of the law to it does not end up as a ‘bail is free’ sign –
meaningless.

Published in Thisday Lawyer June 7 2011