By Samuel Malik

Despite the much-touted change agenda of the Muhammadu Buhari administration, the Office of the National Security Adviser, ONSA, continues to deny Nigerians access to public information in its possession, just as it brazenly did under the Goodluck Jonathan government.

The NSA’s office under Jonathan was notorious for wilfully ignoring requests for information made in line with the Freedom for Information Act 2011, so much so that other agencies of government also denied information to the public with impunity by claiming that the required data was domiciled with the ONSA.

More than a month ago, the www.icirnigeria.org wrote a letter to ONSA requesting for information on the procurement of x-ray vans used by security agencies in the country, particularly in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, for scanning and screening in strategic locations.

Specifically, the information requested included copies of procurement plans and information, including needs assessment, evidence of advertisements of invitation for bids; a copy of the Standard Bidding Documents issued to all bidders with respect to these contracts; a list of all bids tendered on this project and letter of notification of contract award.

Other information sought also included signed final contract document; documentation showing schedule of payments; documentation showing release of contract sums; list of beneficiaries of the contracts and documentation on the current status of the project.

The letter dated December 7, 2015 was delivered on December 8 and received and acknowledged by one Ibrahim in the NSA’s office the following day.

However, as it has always done with such requests, the NSA’s office has completely ignored to respond or provide the requested information in spite of the fact that the maximum seven days prescribed by the FOI Act have lapsed.

ONSA has notoriously developed a pattern of denying FOIA requests, not only to journalists and civil society groups. Under Sambo Dasuki, former NSA who is facing prosecution for misappropriating $2.1 billion while in office, secrecy reigned supreme and not even civil society organisations could get his office to provide information on government security sector contracts.

The secrecy in which security sector expenditure was shrouded, no doubt, contributed to the impunity with which funds meant for prosecuting the anti-terror war were misapplied and diverted for political reasons.

In November 2014, while conducting an investigation into a frivolous $3 million PR contract awarded to an American firm to lobby the US government to give Nigeria used weapons, the www.icirnigeria.org wrote a Freedom of Information request to the NSA’s office but the request was completely ignored.

To make matters worse, under the Jonathan administration, other agencies of government dodged critical scrutiny of their expenditure, especially relating to contracts, by claiming that information requested for under the FOI Act is domiciled with the office of the NSA.

For example, in 2014, the NSA helped the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, to dodge providing information on a controversial contract awarded to a US firm, Levick Strategic Communications, to counter the Bring Back Our Girls campaign.

In May, 2014, the Public Private Development Company, PPDC, a civil society organisation that promotes transparency in public procurement, wrote to NAN asking for details of the contract but the agency referred it to the NSA’s office, claiming that the information it required was domiciled there.

When the PPDC wrote a FOI Act request to the ONSA, it did not even get a reply.

Earlier, in March 2014, the PPDC had requested details of the sums approved to the NSA’s office as capital warrants for 2013, including names of all projects for which the capital warrants were approved, dates of payment, approval documents and amounts approved after fulfilling procurement procedures, among others.

ONSA responded that the information sought was in the public domain, meaning it was not bound to release such information.

This, however, was a lie, as no information in that regard was publicly available anywhere.

The organisation’s request in April 2014 relating to the failed CCTV cameras project in the FCT also met a brick wall as the NSA’s office said disclosing any information in that regard would jeopardise the nation’s capital’s security.

According to the coordinator of African Centre for Media and Information Literacy, Chidi Onumah, there is no justification for the NSA’s office not to disclose the information requested for, as it does put the nation’s security at risk.

“The request you are making, I don’t think is anything that will negatively affect the security of the country. I don’t think Nigeria will come under threat if you know how much the vans cost or who got the contract for their supply, particularly with respect to the revelations coming out the defence sector and the Office of the National Security Adviser,” Onumah said.

The journalist, columnist and author explained that although the Freedom of Information Act is a good law, getting government institutions, especially the military, to disclose information will be difficult due to a lack of control.

“You have a situation where even though we a have civilian government, we are supposed to be in a democracy, there is no effective civilian control of the military, first in the constitution or any other law, and that explains why nobody can check the budget of the defence ministry,” Onumah observed.

“It is quite unfortunate that Nigeria is a place where public officers and institutions are prone to keeping information from the public. Ordinarily some of these things are things that ought to be in the public domain,” he added.