Freedom of Information Act and the Nigerian Press and Public as Big Brother

I have just read a news story titled “Kaduna free Ramadan feeding controversy: It’s highly deceptive –ACN]” in the online edition of The Sun newspaper. The Kaduna State government has refused to disclose how much it is spending on Ramadan feeding of Muslims in the state and the Action Congress of Nigeria is accusing the government of going against the spirit and letter of the FOI: “In Kaduna State however, some government officials appear to still be living in the past, as they still find it difficult to volunteer information, as little as the cost that would be required in allegedly feeding certain category of residents of Kaduna, free, throughout the 30 days period of the Ramadan fast.” I knew this was going to happen sooner or later and expect more of these kinds of issues. The reason being that public officers and [s]elected officials in Nigeria are masters of the art of making public (government) business private and shrouding same in secrecy.

The New York State Freedom of Information Law; specifically, Public Officers Law, Article 6 Section 84 Legislative Declaration captures the essence of the FOI Law: “The people’s right to know the process of governmental decision-making and to review the document and statistics leading to determinations is basic to our society. Access to such information should not be thwarted by shrouding it with the cloak of secrecy or confidentiality. The legislature therefore declares that government is the public’s business and that the public, individually and collectively and represented by a free press, should have access to the records of government in accordance with the provision of this article. On a related note, and one of the few times that I am proud to be a Nigerian is contained in the Explanatory Memorandum to the Nigerian FOI Act: "An Act to make public records and information more freely available, provide for public access to public records and information, protect 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; for related matters.”

But I do know that the noble and ambitious intentions of the FOI will have to clash with the reality of the conduct of the Nigerian government business. The Kaduna issue is just the beginning of the Titanic battle. Even in the U.S., Government agencies have been known to flout the spirit and letter of the law. Treasury Department, the US Air Force, CIA at one time or the other won the Rosemary Award; a doubtful distinction named after Ex-President Nixon’s Secretary –Rose Mary Woods - who erased about eighteen minutes section of a key Watergate conversation on the White House tapes. The beauty of the Nigerian FOI Act is that it anticipates this behavior: “It is a criminal offence punishable on conviction by the Court with a minimum of 1 year imprisonment for any officer or the head of any government or public institution to which this Act applies to willfully destroy any records kept in his [or her] custody or attempts to doctor or otherwise alter same before they are released to any person, entity or community applying for it.” Now, to which past Nigerian leader, master of the art of secrecy and corruption, should we institute and name the Nigerian version of the Rosemary Award after?

In practical terms, the FOI Act means that our servants - the President, Vice President, Ministers, Parliamentarians, Governors, Local government Chairpersons and the plethora of public servants who I do not have the space to mention need to cultivate the habit of looking over their shoulders as big brother (the public; sounds too good to be true ehn?) is watching your every move. When you decide to give that contract to the company that has promised you ten per cent of the contract sum, engage in nepotism so that you less qualified relation gets the position instead of the more qualified compatriot, blatantly steal public funds, embark on a jamboree to foreign lands with wife and children in tow in the guise of attracting investors and all the other misdeeds that have come to characterize government business in Nigeria, know assuredly that we shall apply for that information, which you will provide in seven days! And that is a promise. You would of course try to stall and hide behind all kinds of barriers. The FOI Act also anticipated that move: applicants who do not need to demonstrate any specific reason for asking for the information can approach the courts which will hear the case ex parte. Glory, glory, Hallelujah!

The press which has a bounded duty to hold government accountable on the public’s behalf have a duty to apply for any and every information about government (I mean public) business and make this available. The dry news days are over all of a sudden; this is a news goldmine given the present arrogant and insensitive disposition of public office holders who go against the letter and spirit of the Nigerian constitution that specifies that the welfare of Nigerians is the main purpose of government.

And if the press fails or is compromised, Citizen Imoh, Preye and Zoaka can apply for the information and all that s/he is required to pay is the cost of photocopying the material that can assist in instituting impeachment proceedings against the president, governors and whoever. And when these big men and women, formerly invisible and untouchable demigods begin to fall like a pack of cards, a clear signal would have been sent to the effect that if you do not have the interest of the people at heart, don’t seek public office.

And to public servants and other category of government officials who might be pressured into destroy incriminating records to protect fraudulent and criminal “Excellencies”, the bill protects you as a whistle blower. So, sing like a bird and let their (not our) Excellencies go down alone instead of dragging you down with them. The FOI act has firmly put power back where it was supposed to reside all along – with the Nigerian people. I see a glorious dawn: “Nigeria we hail thee” and so “Arise O Compatriots”.

President Jonathan’s visit to Akwa Ibom State: The fallouts, the moral.

There was a robust debate online about whether or not President Jonathan endorsed the sitting Governor of Akwa Ibom State in his comments when he visited the state recently. The gist of the debate involved accusations and counter accusations about the performance of the governor given that Akwa Ibom State gets the largest allocation among the thirty six federating units and his second term ambitions. Throw in issues of ethnicity, name calling, the kidnapping saga … and eureka you get a very clear picture. The whole brouhaha about endorsement is a throwback to the conviction that without this (not the voters who wear the shoes and feel the pinch, if any!) the incumbent would not make it at the polls.

The ethnicity question is really my concern here and you can extrapolate my thinking to the Nigerian nation; the choice is yours. The governor is from the minority Annang ethnic group and there are charges that he is promising to deliver the governorship title to other minority groups like the Oron, Eket … to spite the Ibibios who he perceives to be more stridently opposed to his second term ambitions. Again, voters are not factored into the equation when democracy involves the minority having their say and the majority having their way.

Like Achebe, the distant kinsman is a brother in a far country. Akwaibomites living outside of the state regard themselves as brothers and sisters, and the common term is akobusem (if you are expecting me to get the spelling right, you must have another think coming having never lived in the state for up to a year continually at any given time). The Ibibio language that I speak is the real mother tongue (from my parents, of course). I did pick up a few words during my undergraduate days at the University of Calabar but I did also notice that the Efik speakers looked down on my brand of Lagos Ibibio while seeming to understand the Uyo etc brand so I had to tuck in my neck and speak English as much as possible to avoid being corrected over and over again. I was pleasantly surprised when my mother came to visit once and I could hear her speak fluent Efik for the first time to a cab driver. I also recall going to visit my Aunt in the village and she commented on my code switching with something like “you can’t even speak proper Efik (not Ibibio which we all speak)”.

Our oneness as a people came out clearly during one of my long distance bus trips to Uyo. A quarrel ensued between two of the passengers on the bus. I could feel for the lady as she launched into Ibibio to verbally abuse her opponent. He quickly switched from the Ibibio he was speaking to Oron language (I presume, which was Greek to me) which he was more comfortable with for the purpose of hitting back. The lady screamed at him to speak the language she could understand and the other passengers who could follow both languages insisted that it was OK since he was speaking an Akwa Ibom language. Talk of another Lagos Akwaibomite in addition to yours truly.

The plot thickens. My late in – laws are an interesting example. My father – in –law was from the Annang ethnic group and my mother – in – law was from Eket and they lived in Lagos almost all their lives. As a compromise, my wife and her siblings learnt and speak the neutral (for their purpose) Ibibio language. Of course, my wife is proud of her Eket roots and tries to dazzle me once in a while with some Eket (as opposed to Annang) words. At home, we speak English and Ibibio; and Yoruba if we do not want Akwa Ibom people around us to understand what we are saying. If we do not want the children to be privy to our discussion we speak Ibibio although my eldest daughter is picking up, maybe we should try Yoruba; what do you think?

Another case in point, my traditional wedding was in Lagos and we tried to replicate as much as possible how it is done in the motherland. In fact, when I told some people in Uyo that we did our traditional wedding in Lagos they insisted that we got it all wrong; it should have taken place in Akwa Ibom state. My response: It is a free world and everyone is entitled to their opinions. I mean look at the Yorubas, who do traditional weddings of their sons and daughters using pictures of the couple who are domiciled abroad and the Heavens do not fall. How does the venue add or detract from the marital bliss which should be the natural outcome of the married state? You can search me too.

The moral is that we have lived together for too long to allow politicians and other self serving persons to play up our differences to Rwanda and Burundi us in this towering Babel of ethnicities and languages that is Akwa Ibom state, Nigeria and Africa.

Now that President Jonathan is on facebook

As a matter of academic and professional interest, I have been following GEJ, that is the trademark sign off of the President on his facebook page and of course also browsing through comments and views of Nigerians. Let me declare my interest promptly: I teach media and communication outside the country and I have been racking my brain as regards what to research on about Nigeria for the numerous conferences and publication that await! I do not deserve your pity; my choice of career was self-inflicted. So the activities on this facebook page was a God sent. I refuse to divulge the slant of my research so that other academics don’t beat me to the gun.

One comment did stand out though; when a Nigerian posted that whoever is impersonating the president and deceiving Nigerians by writing on the page should stop forthwith. A poignant commentary about the arrogance of our past leaders who were completely insulated from the daily lives, struggles and challenges of their compatriots. So, some Nigerians can’t in their wildest imagination see the Nigerian head of state relating directly to the people. In the part of the world where I live it is a pleasant surprise that the political movers and shakers mix with the people; go to the same shopping malls and people don’t bat an eyelid when they see them. These leaders have learnt their lessons quite well: You climb on your high horse, like the award winning Axe commercial model to tell the ladies how their man should smell, and you are voted out. Where to view the axe commercial? YouTube, you technophobic reader! That Nigerians are hungry for this kind of conversation is apparent from the increasing number of persons who like the page and keep commenting.

Of course the president cannot possibly read all the comments. Even I am struggling with the few friends I have on facebook, twitter and Foursquare. If I need to meet a deadline, I forget to check in at the tennis club where I am mayor on Foursquare, forget to tweet for weeks and black out facebook. To my peeps on facebook this explains why I did not send you birthday wishes. Next year will offer another opportunity. Of course I do all these to keep in touch but also, as an academic, I do not want to become a museum piece in the area of media and communication. I won’t bore you with the apps I have downloaded from the iTunes store and how I do not have a need for many of them and how my children have invaded my iPhone space. When I get the iPad, remind me to upload the video on YouTube of my five year old listening to old - fashioned bedtime stories by swiping her hands to turn the pages of my iPhone.

But this provides a good opportunity for the many media and communication graduates to get off their butts and play a role in the communication machinery of government. Away with the fixation of hiring former journalists as communication and public relations executives and their narrow media relations outlook! To my former students, you can see I am rooting for you, so carry go! So they can go through the various postings and give an executive summary to the president. And the president, just like other statesmen/women who pretend to have written the speeches they deliver at the UN, will then respond to Nigerians’ concerns. His re-election will then be guaranteed by the people not by Godfathers whose only credential is stuffing stolen ballot boxes and, as a reward, getting hefty pay offs from the state treasury. Just like the sad ending of the silent movies’ era, where some talented persons had to move over with the coming of sound, these relics would be consigned to the dustbin of history with the envisaged electoral reforms, like the good looking stars with squeaky voices.

All government setups will also have to have email addresses and facebook pages so that Nigerians can complain/commend service provided. If this was in place, I would have posted my disenchantment with the goings on at the Nigerian High Commission in Johannesburg where my wife, our four little children (ala I have a dream) and I were subjected to a grueling and distasteful experience last December in our quest for the ePassport after traveling down from a neighbouring country. In the same vein, I would have also posted how the collection of the ePassport experience went smoothly like a well-oiled wheel. This way, all the arrogance, bribery, tribalism etc would be exposed and this might even be the beginning of the revolution that would be agreeable to Nwabueze and Danjuma. Shi kena.