Utilization of the 2011 freedom of information act in selected states of north central Nigeria

Before the passage of the freedom of information Act in (2011) the concerns about bad governance, corruption, poor accountability and the poverty of leadership have been blamed on the absence of the FOI instrument among other things to institute a people centred governance through its unarguable merit in accessing relevant government information. Therefore, the study on “the utilization of the 2011 freedom of information act by journalists in North Central Nigeria” was conducted with the objective of examining the extents to which the Act is utilized since its passage 5 years ago and also determine journalists’ knowledge about the benefits and challenges in the utilization of the Act to guarantee access to vital information. The study therefore adopts the survey research method and administered copies of the questionnaire on 95 journalists across three States in the region selected through the random sampling technique to address the research questions. As such the findings of the study reveal that the Act is not utilized in the region despite the enormous knowledge of journalists about the legislation largely due to laziness, the existence of obnoxious laws and the culture of secrecy among others. The study therefore recommends that Government should initiate the process of repealing obnoxious laws while journalists should stop being lazy and rise to appropriate the benefits of the Act for the good of all.