Media Rights Agenda (MRA) has officially called on members of the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly across Nigeria to aggressively utilize the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, 2011. The advocacy group stated that the law serves as a powerful statutory instrument to extract critical data from executive agencies, which will ultimately strengthen evidence-based lawmaking, enhance budget oversight, and boost public accountability.
In a statement released in Lagos on Monday, June 15, 2026, MRA pointed out that global trends prove FOI laws are not meant exclusively for journalists and civil society organizations. Instead, the group emphasized that lawmakers can strategically deploy the Act to reinforce their constitutional oversight powers, especially when executive ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) delay or withhold information requested through traditional parliamentary channels.
A Complementary Tool for Legislative Oversight
MRA’s Legal Officer, Mr. Monday Arunsi, clarified that while the 1999 Constitution already empowers the legislature to conduct oversight through committee hearings and investigations, the FOI Act offers a parallel, legally binding pathway to secure official records.
“The right of access to information guaranteed by the FOI Act is available to ‘any person’, without requiring the applicant to demonstrate any specific interest or reason for seeking the information. Legislators therefore enjoy the same statutory right as every other person to request and receive information held by public institutions,” Mr. Arunsi stated.
He further noted that legislative committees frequently lament the stubborn refusal of public institutions to cooperate with oversight inquiries. By invoking the FOI Act, lawmakers can legally compel these institutions to deliver records within strict statutory timelines, backed by judicial remedies if access is wrongfully denied.
Mr. Arunsi maintained that adopting the FOI Act does not diminish parliamentary authority but rather cements the democratic principle that public information belongs to the citizens.
Global Precedents of Parliamentary FOI Usage
Drawing comparisons from mature democracies, the MRA highlighted how lawmakers in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Mexico, and Peru routinely use access-to-information laws to bypass executive secrecy.
In the United UK, members of parliament (MPs) and the House of Lords frequently combine the country’s Freedom of Information Act 2000 with traditional parliamentary questions to unearth deeper documentary evidence. UK lawmakers have successfully used FOI requests to expose National Health Service (NHS) waiting times, government spending anomalies, immigration statistics, and hidden departmental correspondence to fuel heated parliamentary debates.
Target Sectors for Nigerian FOI Requests
The MRA urged Nigerian legislative committees to systematically target critical operational areas of the executive arm to weed out corruption and mismanagement.
Specifically, the group advised lawmakers to issue strategic FOI requests demanding budget implementation reports, procurement records, contract agreements, public expenditure details, and public-private partnership (PPP) arrangements. Furthermore, legislative committees were tasked to scrutinize travel expenses of public officials, audit reports, personnel records, and environmental impact assessments to ensure total fiscal responsibility.
Institutionalizing the FOI Act in Parliaments
To achieve seamless implementation, the MRA called on the leadership of the National Assembly and State Assemblies to institutionalize the culture of transparency within their chambers. This includes setting up internal guidelines for filing information requests, training committee clerks on the technicalities of the Act, and weaving FOI strategies directly into legislative oversight frameworks.
By using the law, MRA argued that lawmakers will gain firsthand experience regarding the operational bottlenecks of the FOI Act, enabling them to sponsor necessary amendments to strengthen the legislation. Mr. Arunsi concluded by reminding lawmakers that transparency remains the bedrock of democratic governance, urging them to embrace the FOI Act to ensure the executive operates with uncompromised openness and integrity.
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