IN commemoration of the International Day for Universal Access to Information (IDUAI) 2022, the National Freedom of Information Ranking Cohort is set to unveil its annual Freedom of Information Compliance and Transparency Rankings at the Federal Level.
The cohort comprises the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR), Right to Know (R2K), Public and Private Development Centre (PPDC), Basic Rights Watch (BRW), Media Rights Agenda (MRA) and BudgIT.
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The annual event, which would take place on Wednesday, September 28 at the Umaru Yaradua Centre, Abuja, would feature the unveiling of rankings of 250 ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) in Abuja on their level of compliance with the Freedom of Information Act 2011.
According to the organisers, this year’s edition is themed, ‘Artificial Intelligence, E-governance and Access to Information.’
The ranking methodology assesses public institutions based on the following compliance with their proactive disclosure obligations under the Act, their level of responsiveness to requests for information in terms of timeliness, the level of disclosure in terms of the completeness of the information provided to requesters (whether they conducted FOI training for their staff as mandatorily required by the Act, and whether they had designated their FOI Desk Officers as required by the Act), and their level of compliance with their FOI annual reporting obligation for the year under review.
The event will also feature a panel discussion by the Director-General, Bureau of Public Service Reforms, D. I. Arabi; Director, E-government Master Plan, Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, Olufemi Olufeko; Executive Director, Centre for Transparency Advocacy, Faith Nwadishi; and Manager, Corporate Strategy, Galaxy Backbone, Henry Okelue.
It will be moderated by the Nigeria Country Director, ONE, Stanley Achonu.
The rankings are intended to improve access to information (ATI) in Nigeria, as well as encourage all public institutions to comply with the various legal frameworks by improving their disclosure practices in order to increase citizen participation in governance.
Nurudeen Akewushola is an investigative reporter and fact-checker with The ICIR. He believes courageous in-depth investigative reporting is the key to social justice, accountability and good governance in society. You can reach him via [email protected] and @NurudeenAkewus1 on Twitter.