A report by Socio-Economic and Accountability Rights Project (SERAP) has revealed that 57 million Nigerians still lack access to clean water while 59,500 children under the age of five years die yearly due to poor water and sanitation.
The Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Lagos (UNILAG), Akoka, Lagos, Prof. Ayodele Atsenuwa disclosed this yesterday at the media presentation of the latest report of SERAP titled: “Using Your Right to Information to challenge Corruption in the Health, Education and Water Sector” at the Citi-Height Hotels, Ikeja, Lagos.
The report, published with support from Omidyar Network, a philanthropic investment firm.
Prof. Atsenuwa, in the 46 page report, simplified the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act 2011 and how Nigerians can use it to curb corruption and improve access to public services, particularly education, healthcare and water in Nigeria.
She remarked that a significant amount of the country’s disease burden is linked to lack of access to clean water by the citizens.
“The major problems affecting the health, education and water sectors are mismanagement of funds appropriated for these sectors, embezzlement, diversion of public resources, and other forms of corruption”, she stated.
According to Prof. Atsenuwa, “Nigeria ranks 187th out of 190 countries in the world on the health index, which means that the Nigerian health sector is one of the world’s worst in terms of healthcare delivery”, she said.
She also highlighted indices relating to health that may be monitored and tracked using FOI Act to include: ‘level of realization of the right to safe, clean, accessible and affordable drinking water and sanitation; all level of funding provided for ensuring safe, clean, accessible and affordable drinking water and sanitation; all budget performance on water and sanitation-related goals, and level of implementation of government obligations under the Partnership for Expanded Water, Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (PEWASH) Programme Strategy (2016-2030).
“Education, health and water are basic needs of all human beings and they are major areas of our lives that drive national growth and development. The primary purpose of government is to make policy and implement actions that ensure that citizens have access to education, health and water. Government is not infallible, and it is the duty of citizens to serve as watchdogs of government decision-making”, she said.
Prof. Atsenuwa identified corruption and abuse of power as the bane of good governance.
To address these twin problems, she said citizens must have access to information to exercise judgment on propriety or impropriety of governmental decisions and action. The FOI Act provides access to information upon which citizens can engage in evidence-based advocacy with government.
“With the FOI Act, citizens can expose and fight corruption. They can request for information or documents relating to budgets, financial allocation, procurement and projects implementation. The information will enable citizens to track what is being done. If citizens identify impropriety through the search of records, such findings can be forwarded to the Police and anti-corruption agencies for further investigation and where appropriate, prosecution.
“Using FOI Act helps prevent wastage of public resources. A major problem in Nigeria is wastage of public resources through ineptitude, corrupt practices, neglect and non-accountability. FOI enables citizens to get factual evidence which they can use to take legal and/or political action. By tracking information on various aspects of public spending, citizens can identify specific instances of public funds wastage and call the relevant actors to account.
“By relying on the FOI Act, citizens can become involved in the management of the education, health and water sectors. They will be able to track and monitor the use of resources within the sectors as well as make their complaints heard through direct engagement with government officials such as law enforcement officers, civil and public servants either by the means of petition or through direct demand for accountability of government officials at all levels; and indirectly through media, civil society and representatives”, she stated.
She emphasized that wrongful denial of a request for information or record is a criminal offence.
According to her, both the officers who wrongfully denies access and the institution that she represents are criminally liable for wrongful denial and will be liable on conviction to a fine of N500,000, adding that anyone who willfully destroys any records kept in his/her custody or attempts to doctor or otherwise alter same before they are released to any person, entity or community applying for it commits a crime and faces a minimum of one-year imprisonment.
She emphasized that FOI Act applies to the government of the federation as well as to state governments to monitor government funding of health and management of the funds and other critical decision-making which affects service delivery in the sector.