By John Ikani
Former President of Nigeria Goodluck Jonathan says his administration signed the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act in 2011 to expand media freedom, Nigerians’ access to governance.
Jonathan said this shortly after being honoured with a Special Recognition Award at the 10th anniversary of the FOI Act awards night.
The 10th anniversary of FOI Act in Nigeria is organised by the International Press Centre (IPC), in collaboration with the Media Rights Agenda (MRA) and the European Union (EU).
The former President who was represented at the event by Ms Ann Iyonu, the Executive Director of Goodluck Jonathan Foundation said: “I believe that for a society to grow and develop, people should be granted more access to official information.
“We are now in an official age, which means the society will not function well if the people do not have adequate information on how government business is conducted.”
The ECOWAS special envoy went on to stress that if the process of governance was not reasonably opened up, some people would generate too much false information that would create problems for the society.
Speaking further, Jonathan commended organisers of the FOI awards night, noting that “access to information is important to the growth of our society considering the times we are in today.”
He also congratulated and encouraged all the awardees who he said deserved the recognition.
