Justice Anukam Tasks Nigeria On Citizens, NGO’s Access To African Court

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Judge of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Justice Stella Anukam has reiterated the need for the Nigerian Government to ensure that citizens and Non- Governmental Organisations (NGOs) have direct access to the African Court.

Justice Anukam said Nigeria should activate Article 34(6) of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, allowing citizens and NGOs direct access to the court in Arusha, Tanzania.

Article 34 (6) Declaration requires that State Parties to the Protocols make a separate declaration in order to allow direct access to individuals and NGOs to bring cases of human rights violations before the continental court for adjudication.

She gave the charge while speaking at the maiden Freedom of Information (FOI) Awards ceremony which was held on Friday in Abuja. The event which marked the 10th year anniversary of the existence of the FOI Act in Nigeria, coincided with this year’s celebration of the International Human Rights Days.

The event was convened by the Media Rights Agenda and the International Press Centre (IPC) with support from the European Union (EU) to honour some persons and organisations who made various contributions to the emergence of the Act, or are playing significant roles in making the exercise and enjoyment of the right to information meaningful for Nigerians, through the different roles they are playing in applying the Law and ensuring its implementation.

The individual category honorees include Nigeria’s immediate past President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, who signed the FOI Bill into law, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Hon. Jerry Ugokwe, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, Senator Ayogu Eze, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, the Executive Governor of Ekiti State, the first state in Nigeria to enact an FOI Act. Two tertiary institution students were also honoured under the Students FOI Essay Competition category.

The corporate awardees include, the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), the Nigeria Guild of Editors (NGE), the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), the International Centre of Investigative Reporting (ICIR), among others.

Justice Anukam who chaired the occasion noted that the mandate of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, is to strengthen the human rights protection system in Africa and ensure respect for and compliance with the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights as well as other international human rights instruments.

“While it is true that we perform our functions within the framework of the African Court principally through the adjudication of human rights cases and rendering of judicial decisions, it is also indisputable that the enjoyment of human rights, including the right to information, will be better enhanced when people are aware of their rights and can exercise them. Events such as this are therefore doubly important for me because they serve to acknowledge and honour the efforts of those who are making or have contributed to making the right to information meaningful.

“As I understand it, some of those being honoured have earned recognition because of different roles that they played to ensure the codification of the right of access to information in the form of the FOI Act or by their efforts in ensuring the effective implementation of this instrument that guarantees the right to information.

“I see these as being consistent with my engagement and interest in ensuring that people are able to exercise and enjoy the rights that are guaranteed in key human rights instruments applicable on the African continent, including the right of access to information for which the African Court has established a robust jurisprudence”, she said.

The FOI Act, according to her, is also particularly close to her heart because of her personal interest and belief in the right of people to access information which enables them to make informed decisions on various issues affecting their lives.

“But as some of you may also be aware, before my current appointment, I served as the Head of the Freedom of Information Unit at the Federal Ministry of Justice, which is actually the engine room for the implementation of the Act in Nigeria.

“In that role, I was privileged to see the implementation challenges confronting the FOI Act as well as to see its many benefits to the society and the country as a whole, both for duty bearers, that is the government and its officials and institutions, as well to the rights holders, namely the citizens”, she added.

Justice Anukam also expressed her gratitude to the organizers for inviting her to chair the gathering of distinguished Nigerians from diverse fields of endeavour united by a common interest on the issue of public access to information.

“As we celebrate today and reflect on the journey that resulted in the passage of the FOI Act in 2011 and the 10 years of its implementation, we should also take the opportunity to examine some of the implementation challenges that have continued to impede the effectiveness of the Law and the full enjoyment of the right to information by Nigerians.

“We should therefore see today as a milestone in the journey to create an enlightened and informed society and think of the steps that we still need to take to get to our desired destination. I want to congratulate all the awardees and honorees and urge them to see this recognition of their efforts so far as a call on them to do more to ensure the full realization of their vision of a country where citizens have access to information held by government and public institutions”, she stressed.

Similarly, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan thanked the organizers for honoring him in recognition of his humble contributions towards advancing the right to information in Nigeria.

The former president who was represented by the Executive Director of Goodluck Jonathan Foundation, Ms. Ann Iyonu said his administration signed the FOI Bill into law in order not only to expand media freedom but also give Nigerians reasonable access to information on the activities of government, for the good of society.

“I believe that, for a society to grow and for a country to develop in a sustainable manner, the people should be granted access to official information thus promoting citizen’s participation in governance.

“We are now in an information age which means that the society will not function well if the people do not have adequate information about the way government business is conducted. This is because if the process of governance, is not reasonably opened up, some people will generate too much false information that could create problems for the society”, he further explained.

Earlier in his welcome address, the Executive Director of IPC, Lanre Arogundade said although tremendous progress has been made in the implementation of the FOI Act in the last ten years, yet there are opportunities for more to be done.

Describing the event as a celebration of history, he added that despite the challenges of implementation both on the supply (government) and the demand (public) side, they are convinced that it is a milestone worth celebrating, more so as the occasion also affords them the opportunity to take stock and strategise on improving the implementation and usage of this important law in the years ahead.

“We commend the vision and enormous sacrifice of all those who played active roles in the 12-year struggle including the leadership of the NUJ, the NGE and NPAN over the period. And we cannot take for granted the immense support of media organisations and individual journalists who contributed in no small measure towards bringing FOI Act into reality.

“We believe many of them will be in the league of those to be honoured at subsequent outings. We congratulate all the award winners of today. We hope this gesture will encourage state institutions to do better in proactively disclosing information, and heeding FOI requests. We also expect this to spur the citizens, especially journalists and civil society activists to utilise the FOI Act the more”, he added.