No institution has fully complied with FOI Act – DG NIALS

Would you say that journalists are taking advantage of the FOI Act?I think they are taking advantage of the act but not in a way that I thought they would. I think everyone needs capacity building in this field. NIALS is trying to have a forum on the FOI Act which will bring together both […]

Would you say that journalists are taking advantage of the FOI Act?
I think they are taking advantage of the act but not in a way that I thought they would. I think everyone needs capacity building in this field. NIALS is trying to have a forum on the FOI Act which will bring together both the demand and the supply side.  
We have had instances where, like the NNPC, institutions have come out to say that they did not come under the FOIA and we have many cases where others have refused to give information when demanded, would you agree that the FOI Act is just a paper tiger?
The flurry of court cases is not surprising. Everyone knew that transiting from a regime of secrecy to a regime of transparency would take a while. Fortunately, the FOI Act does not have a moratorium period by which institutions could have put their framework in order or by which government would have budgeted for things that require record keeping. I know some institutions that just cannot find the records that you are asking for.
Would it be correct to say that no institution has completely complied?
Yes, especially when you talk about the proactive disclosures. But these are things that require capacity in terms of human resources as well as the material resources. If we really want a proactive disclosure regime, like telling people to update their websites so as to have quick retrieval system, what you are in fact saying is that they should digitise their records.
If they digitise their records and don’t have backup and we are in a country where power is epileptic, then it is a recipe for disaster. So, the progress has to be incrementally. It will come eventually. One thing you should also know is that for every one case taken to court for failure to release, there are probably three or four cases that were not taken to court because the institutions released the information, but you will not know.
I was pleasantly surprised in my own institute that although we don’t have the full-fledged FOI Unit but it has released two or three requests, but you will not know because nobody is told.
Do you think that the Nigerian Law School campuses in Kano and Yola should be shut down because of insurgency in the country?
It really depends on the geographical location of the campuses. Chibok is in the fringe, more or less not within the metropolis. These two campuses are not cut off from the cities unlike the fringe areas that Boko Haram attacks and gets away before anybody knows.
In order to get into these campuses they have to get into the cities, and it would take a very daring operation for such. I am not saying that security should be relaxed. No, we have seen Boko Haram attack campuses in Bayero University; they have attacked even barracks situated in the city but they probably would not be able to mastermind a kidnap in these campuses.  I have friends there and I think that the greatest area of concern is probably when students or would be law students transit to and from these campuses. You see the NLS DG has assured that the two campuses themselves are safe but people have raised issues about when students leave the campus. Coming home or going to some other legitimate assignments, who will guarantee their safety, especially if they have to be in that vicinity. That is the most important thing to consider but then, again, I just want to believe that the two campuses are safe.
What the DG told us was that they are safe and I want to believe him. I would, however, caution that as much as possible the posting to Law Schools situated in Kano and Yola should be drastically reduced. So that at least we are managing a compact size and these set of student must be instructed and ready to live by the rules by the authorities there.  In that kind of environment, there are certain places that would be danger zones.
Should the NBA be excluded when the proceeding for the discipline of judges is going on?
The NBA is not really excluded. What I understand from the position of the NBA is that they want to be the ones  to pick their nominees unlike the case right now where it is the Chief Justice of Nigeria that picks the NBA members in the National Judicial Council (NJC).
I also do not think that it will be justified to excuse lawyers in the NJC when it gets to the discipline of judges because once you are a member of a body and constitutionally that corporate body is empowered to take on issues of appointment and discipline, then you have to see it through.
The NBA has also demanded that the president should be a member of the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee for the award of SAN, do you agree?
I don’t think the issue of the NBA president being a member of the LPPC is here nor there. What is important is that there is representation. There must be adequate representation for the Bar. The SAN rank is, after all, recognition of members of the Bar. I don’t think that the NBA president needs to be there but the interest of the NBA should be there. The NBA prides itself in being republican and we do not need to encourage the aggregation of too many powers in someone.
The way we have always done it is to take the name of the nominee to NEC where it is approved and that person is taken to represent the NBA. When you say one person it may be the NBA president  but I believe that if the president really wants someone there he would be there  but when you make the president a member, you will open the flanks of the NBA and what else is there if a president makes a mistake. That is why I think it is better to have first a vanguard and then if there is something else to be done you fall back to the president.
It’s over 120 day that the Chibok girls have been abducted and the Boko Haram has demanded the release of their men in return for the girls. Where do you stand?
We have lessons to learn all over the world. We have the Americans on the one hand who say that they don’t negotiate with terrorists, difficult as that may be there is sense in it. If you start to negotiate with terrorists and once you start paying, the next target is anybody. Because when they pick anybody the issue is why did you negotiate for this and you did not want to negotiate for this.
I believe that we should not negotiate and that is the hard way out. Chibok or no Chibok it is a very sorry episode. How it happened and the missed opportunity, we have all sorts of accounts but the account that is acceptable is that where they are being  kept,  you cannot storm the place by mounting a frontal attack.
I cannot imagine the grief. My advice is that in whatever form, government should support the kith and kin psychologically. Much counselling is needed. It is only time and God that can heal these wounds. It is not good pushing government, the government is doing something but the best they can do is what we see. One fine day I hope the girls would be reunited.