A Communication on Freedom of Information Bill In Nigeria: Background, Merits And Challenges Ahead

Abstract

Praise of Folly; the classic written by the legendary Erasmus that chronicles the moral atrophy of his age, is a work with ageless essence. Juxtaposing his philosophy of rectitude in public office with the moral decadence of his era, he wrote as though he had Nigeria in mind, since public service here had exhibited much negativism. Nigeria has severally been adjudged one of the most corrupt nations. Corruption, many posited, is the unyielding obstacle in our count1y’s path to development. This is because it does not only drain our scarce resources; it also frustrates all efforts at broader socio-economic development (See Daily Independent Editorial of November 24, 2006). Regrettably, beneficiaries of this conupt system have over the years resisted attempts by the mass media (press) to keep a tab on governance and official records. For example, two Guardian newspaper journalists, Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabo, were in 1984 jailed fora story they wrote on diplomatic postings, which the Buhari junta considered offensive and promptly promulgated Decree No. 4 (Accusation against public officers) under which they were tried and jailed. Tony Momoh, the then General Manager, (GM) of Daily Times said of the implications of the obnoxious Decree No. 4, “the pity, however, is that without intending it, arrest and detention ofjoumalists may well serve as a blanket for unbridled corruption in our public life" (Madike, 2006: B12). Attention in media circles at present is centered on the trial of two Nigerian journalists arrested for alleged seditious publications. Rotimi Durojaiye of Independent Newspapers Limited and Gbenga Aruleba of Africa Independent Television (AIT), are charged with sedition in connection with materials they authored on the cost and age of the controversial presidential jet recently purchased by the President Oluscgun Obasanjo’s administration.