Benin: When Nigeria's Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill was signed into law on May 28, 2011, it was heralded as a major victory for transparency, accountability, and citizen participation in governance. The Act came after more than a decade of advocacy by civil society groups and the media who demanded an end to the culture of secrecy in public institutions. The law stipulates opening up government files, empowering citizens to ask questions, and forcing public officials to provide answers.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, fourteen years later, the promise of the FOI Act has been partially realised, but not without significant gaps and ongoing challenges, especially at the subnational level. States like Delta, Ekiti, and Lagos have enacted the law with records of compliance, but a recent roundtable convened in Benin by the Centre for Transparency Advocacy (CTA) with stakeholders across the South-South region laid bare the troubling reality in other states of the federation. The roundtable was part of the Strengthening Accountability and Governance in Nigeria Initiative (SAGNI), a CTA project supported by the Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption Programme (RoLAC) and funding from the European Union through International IDEA to strengthen institutions, empower citizens, and foster a culture of accountability.
This project focuses on selected federal institutions, departments in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) in Anambra, and Edo States. Participants observed that in spite of its federal scope and the recent Supreme Court judgment reaffirming its applicability nationwide, the FOI Act remains more in theory than in practice at the subnational level. Regrettably, the law is still treated with suspicion or indifference. For instance, in Akwa Ibom, civil society organisations report that government agencies routinely ignore FOI requests, delay responses beyond the seven-day legal deadline, or refer requests to higher authorities unnecessarily.
Faith Paulinus, Lead for Governance Reform and Anti-Corruption at Policy Alert, based in Akwa Ibom, explains how his team sent 180 requests to public institutions in 2023, but none received timely or satisfactory responses. Even with extensive training for information officers, he said, the default reaction remained non-compliance, highlighting a troubling persistence of bureaucratic secrecy. His organisation trained information officers and directors of planning, research, and statistics within various ministries, departments, and agencies. Yet, when Policy Alert sent those requests to the institutions across the Niger Delta, not a single response from Akwa Ibom came within the seven-day statutory window or, in some cases, at all.
In Delta, modest progress has been made. Besides the enactment of the FOI law in the state, the government also publishes its annual budgets online. Dr Rachael Misan-Ruppee, Founder of the Development Initiative for Community Development Impact (DICDI), testifies that the state government now uploads its budget documents online, a step forward in terms of transparency. According to her, the FOI Act in Delta has enabled dialogue. However, she said that actual compliance was sluggish as she rated the implementation a mere four out of ten.
Elsewhere, legal confusion continues to undermine the law's effectiveness. In Bayelsa, some officials still claim that the FOI Act does not apply because it has not been domesticated by the state assembly, even with the April 2025 landmark judgment of the Supreme Court affirming the nationwide applicability of the Act as a federal law. For grassroots advocates like Princess Elizabeth Egbe of the Global Care Rescue Mission, based in Bayelsa, this misinterpretation is not only frustrating but dangerous.
In Cross River, years of legislative efforts to domesticate the FOI Act have stalled, leaving the law in limbo. Felix Ikam, Executive Director of CHEDRES, recalls how his organisation supported the drafting of a state version of the Act, only for it to be shelved without explanation. He fears that without political will and renewed civic advocacy, progress will remain slow.
CTA's Executive Director, Faith Nwadishi, described FOI Act's 14-year journey as one of 'progress overshadowed by persistent opacity', particularly at the state and local government levels. She said that many public institutions still operated in a culture of secrecy, with some even demanding outrageous fees for information that, by law, should be publicly available. Nwadishi praised the 2025 Supreme Court judgment affirming the applicability of FOI Act across all the 36 states, calling it a 'game-changer' that affirmed the national character of the right to information.
Observers say notwithstanding these setbacks, the FOI Act has created new avenues for engagement between citizens and government, especially in states where civil society remains active. In some cases, journalists and activists have used the Act to demand transparency around constituency projects, health funding, and procurement processes. Public analysts and FOI advocates have unanimously agreed that a lack of public awareness, institutional resistance, poor documentation, and absence of sanctions for non-compliance will continue to blunt the law's impact.
As the FOI Act marks its 14th anniversary, experts and stakeholders agree that the road ahead requires renewed commitment. These awareness campaigns, they say, must be broadened to empower citizens to use the law. 'Public agencies must be compelled to set up dedicated FOI desks manned by trained officers,'' they said.