FOI Bill, AT LAST!

Passed. Since everyone is congratulating the Senate, we must join in to say bravo! We still have to await the harmonization of the nine areas of differences with the House. Any reluctance on our part on this matter is suspended because the presidency has refuted reports of any “adversarial ambush” at the Villa! Do we have a perfect/preferred law yet? Nah.  But let dem sign this one, first. We wait.

How then do we put the point that the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) has yet to be treated in an economy that totally relies on this sector for survival? Not passing this all-important law before going for reelection was grossly insensitive on the part of parliament. After the polls, you can imagine the hard times ahead for things like “quorum“, “punctuality“, “kola“, “vested interests”, “blackmail”, etc. You know the story, and the insinuations, and all dem Wikileaks stuff! But again, we wait.

Kudos then to the National Assembly on the FoI Bill. Because they have a way of rising to the occasion (as with INEC case, Constitution Amendment, Third Term saga, Acting President issue, Minimum Wage matter, et al), we can safely say Kudos-in-Advance for the PIB Bill as well. Bravo!

Nigeria To Pass FoI Bill....At Last!

Nigeria's House of Reps has passed the Freedom of Information (FoI) Bill. Good news! It now goes to the Senate for concurrence. Happily, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is reported to be awaiting it for immediate assent.

There are of course a few areas of concern to civil society: exemption of military budgets and lack of express provisions for citizen-action and protection. These can and should be resolved at "conference" once the Senate is fully sensitized and engaged. Otherwise, the next parliament should take up appropriate amendments fro July 2011.

Let us thank the reps for their part, and encourage the senators to do full justice to this bill once and for all.

The war against corruption may now look really serious!