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.