OPEN GOVERNMENT : LESSONS FOR THE NIGERIAN SENATE
By:Tony Iredia
Last week, the Nigerian Senate decided to bar the media from reporting sessions of the current budget defence by certain public bodies. The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Publicity, Senator Adedayo Adeyeye was quoted to have said that ‘sensitive issues cannot be discussed in the presence of press men.’ He reasons that the media coverage of the defence sessions would constitute a distraction adding that at the end of the sessions, the media would be told what was discussed. Like the average Nigerian politician who believes only his class deserves to be trusted with sufficient patriotism, Adeyeye wants the media to be kept away from serious national issues and be told only what is supposedly safe for public consumption. The Senator was no doubt in grievous error because if his reasoning was that bad journalists could collect brown envelopes and distort the story of how the budget defence went, bad legislators known for collecting ‘Ghana-must-go’ can hardly serve as better compatriots
In truth, the centrality of the mass media to the operations of modern societies makes it virtually unimaginable for any progressive society to survive without the media. The adverse implication of placing impediments in the way of the media is therefore quite grave. To start with, the posture of our senate runs counter to Section 22 of our Constitution which mandates the media to make government accountable to the people. Is the media supposed to carry out this fundamental function under the supervision of a law maker? Contrary to the perception of the Senate, the role of a news reporter is non-simplistic because nothing is news no matter how important or when it happens, until it is reported. What Adeyeye did last week was to invite, media speculations, sensationalism and the avoidable recourse to fake news. It is certainly safer to allow journalists manage the coverage of events than to subject such activities to the new trend of citizen journalism in which every person now reports events and day to day happenings within and around different communities.
Whatever the media is barred from reporting, will still reach the people through the citizen journalist who in the strict sense, is engaged in ‘freebased journalism’ featuring amateurish accounts of events by a mere storyteller that lacks the knowledge of the difference between the subject and the object of news. Put differently, the citizen journalist can hardly undertake the interpretative dimension of a news report which enables society to understand the implications to their lives of the event being reported. It is probably because our senate committee on media prefers the mundane approach to news that their chairman chose to be unaware of the highly damaging reports in the media of how the senate got embroiled in secret recruitments. We are now left to imagine that while the senate was engrossed in barring the media from covering its activities, its spokesperson became too busy to know about allegations in the media of secret allocation of employment slots to members of the National Assembly.
Yet, a major newspaper had reported an alleged allocation of 100 slots to the Senate by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) out of which the Senate President alone reportedly got 26 slots for his constituents. There was no rebuttal from the Senate. Interestingly, the FIRS is one of those whose budget defence is allegedly being done in secret. Of course, Nigerians ought to show more than a passing interest in anything concerning the FIRS which we rely upon to raise enough revenue to help the nation at this crucial time of financial crisis. Only a few weeks ago, the federal government publicly observed that the agency was no longer meeting her target - an observation which seemed to have frightened her into planning to seize our constitutional freedom of expression by introducing communication tax to the country
Anyone who is surprised that the Senate Committee on Media and Publicity is unaware of events, needs to listen to how secrecy in government was rationalized by a member of the committee, Senator Sandy Obuh (Cross River). who says that “in governance, there is the secrecy oath.” According to Obuh, if there was no need for secrecy in government, the Official Secrets Act would have long been abrogated. For this reason, the senator thinks that the details of the budget defence should be a secret to which only legislators should be privy. Apparently, the senator is one of those not conversant with the import of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, passed by our National Assembly some 8 years ago. We shall not go into that today, other than to direct the attention of the senate to Section 27 of the FOI Act.
A nation eager to develop, needs to do away with rules and regulations which encourage smart practices by official actors during public events. We are all familiar with how our political system has been bedeviled by officials who purport to conduct credible, open and transparent elections while emasculating a crucial segment, the collation of results, in secrecy. The process normally runs as follows: Open accreditation and voting; open counting of votes; followed by secret collation of votes from which the media is excluded; and then open announcement of results amidst LIVE television coverage, only after incalculable damage had been done to the secret segment. Perhaps the senate wants to re-enact same process by instituting: Open compilation of budget proposals, open presentation of budget by the President; secret defence of the budget details; and then, open ceremonial passing of the budget into law.
Our premise is that Nigeria must recognise the indispensability of the media to open government because it is practically impossible for the public to understand the workings of any arm of government without the media serving as the tool for public enlightenment. Accordingly, we see the opposition to the media directing their searchlight to any matter of public interest as illogical. Everyone should in earnest be encouraged to embrace the latest global culture of open government including open justice, by developing a favourable disposition towards transparency in government.
Last week’s decision of the Senate to bar the media from budget defence was a blunder which the Senate and other powerful arms of government ought to be dissuaded from ever repeating. With the attribution of the massive development in the western world to technology, there is now a growing belief even in developing societies that technology is the key governing force in society and the redeeming feature of humanity. It is therefore retrogressive to shy away from LIVE broadcasts of even court proceedings which can best narrate how a case was honestly handled. As a matter of fact, Regulation 21 of the International Criminal Court (ICC), now provides for the broadcast of ICC proceedings including witness testimony. Nigeria must join other progressive nations rooted in open government.
Tonnie O. Iredia
October 20, 2019
By:Tony Iredia
Last week, the Nigerian Senate decided to bar the media from reporting sessions of the current budget defence by certain public bodies. The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Publicity, Senator Adedayo Adeyeye was quoted to have said that ‘sensitive issues cannot be discussed in the presence of press men.’ He reasons that the media coverage of the defence sessions would constitute a distraction adding that at the end of the sessions, the media would be told what was discussed. Like the average Nigerian politician who believes only his class deserves to be trusted with sufficient patriotism, Adeyeye wants the media to be kept away from serious national issues and be told only what is supposedly safe for public consumption. The Senator was no doubt in grievous error because if his reasoning was that bad journalists could collect brown envelopes and distort the story of how the budget defence went, bad legislators known for collecting ‘Ghana-must-go’ can hardly serve as better compatriots
In truth, the centrality of the mass media to the operations of modern societies makes it virtually unimaginable for any progressive society to survive without the media. The adverse implication of placing impediments in the way of the media is therefore quite grave. To start with, the posture of our senate runs counter to Section 22 of our Constitution which mandates the media to make government accountable to the people. Is the media supposed to carry out this fundamental function under the supervision of a law maker? Contrary to the perception of the Senate, the role of a news reporter is non-simplistic because nothing is news no matter how important or when it happens, until it is reported. What Adeyeye did last week was to invite, media speculations, sensationalism and the avoidable recourse to fake news. It is certainly safer to allow journalists manage the coverage of events than to subject such activities to the new trend of citizen journalism in which every person now reports events and day to day happenings within and around different communities.
Whatever the media is barred from reporting, will still reach the people through the citizen journalist who in the strict sense, is engaged in ‘freebased journalism’ featuring amateurish accounts of events by a mere storyteller that lacks the knowledge of the difference between the subject and the object of news. Put differently, the citizen journalist can hardly undertake the interpretative dimension of a news report which enables society to understand the implications to their lives of the event being reported. It is probably because our senate committee on media prefers the mundane approach to news that their chairman chose to be unaware of the highly damaging reports in the media of how the senate got embroiled in secret recruitments. We are now left to imagine that while the senate was engrossed in barring the media from covering its activities, its spokesperson became too busy to know about allegations in the media of secret allocation of employment slots to members of the National Assembly.
Yet, a major newspaper had reported an alleged allocation of 100 slots to the Senate by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) out of which the Senate President alone reportedly got 26 slots for his constituents. There was no rebuttal from the Senate. Interestingly, the FIRS is one of those whose budget defence is allegedly being done in secret. Of course, Nigerians ought to show more than a passing interest in anything concerning the FIRS which we rely upon to raise enough revenue to help the nation at this crucial time of financial crisis. Only a few weeks ago, the federal government publicly observed that the agency was no longer meeting her target - an observation which seemed to have frightened her into planning to seize our constitutional freedom of expression by introducing communication tax to the country
Anyone who is surprised that the Senate Committee on Media and Publicity is unaware of events, needs to listen to how secrecy in government was rationalized by a member of the committee, Senator Sandy Obuh (Cross River). who says that “in governance, there is the secrecy oath.” According to Obuh, if there was no need for secrecy in government, the Official Secrets Act would have long been abrogated. For this reason, the senator thinks that the details of the budget defence should be a secret to which only legislators should be privy. Apparently, the senator is one of those not conversant with the import of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, passed by our National Assembly some 8 years ago. We shall not go into that today, other than to direct the attention of the senate to Section 27 of the FOI Act.
A nation eager to develop, needs to do away with rules and regulations which encourage smart practices by official actors during public events. We are all familiar with how our political system has been bedeviled by officials who purport to conduct credible, open and transparent elections while emasculating a crucial segment, the collation of results, in secrecy. The process normally runs as follows: Open accreditation and voting; open counting of votes; followed by secret collation of votes from which the media is excluded; and then open announcement of results amidst LIVE television coverage, only after incalculable damage had been done to the secret segment. Perhaps the senate wants to re-enact same process by instituting: Open compilation of budget proposals, open presentation of budget by the President; secret defence of the budget details; and then, open ceremonial passing of the budget into law.
Our premise is that Nigeria must recognise the indispensability of the media to open government because it is practically impossible for the public to understand the workings of any arm of government without the media serving as the tool for public enlightenment. Accordingly, we see the opposition to the media directing their searchlight to any matter of public interest as illogical. Everyone should in earnest be encouraged to embrace the latest global culture of open government including open justice, by developing a favourable disposition towards transparency in government.
Last week’s decision of the Senate to bar the media from budget defence was a blunder which the Senate and other powerful arms of government ought to be dissuaded from ever repeating. With the attribution of the massive development in the western world to technology, there is now a growing belief even in developing societies that technology is the key governing force in society and the redeeming feature of humanity. It is therefore retrogressive to shy away from LIVE broadcasts of even court proceedings which can best narrate how a case was honestly handled. As a matter of fact, Regulation 21 of the International Criminal Court (ICC), now provides for the broadcast of ICC proceedings including witness testimony. Nigeria must join other progressive nations rooted in open government.
Tonnie O. Iredia
October 20, 2019
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