The Media Rights Agenda (MRA) has called on members of the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly across Nigeria to make use of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, 2011, as a strategic tool for obtaining information from government agencies to strengthen legislative oversight, promote transparency, and improve governance.
MRA, in a statement, noted that while the FOI Act is often associated with journalists and civil society organisations, legislators can also deploy the law to reinforce their constitutional oversight responsibilities, particularly when executive agencies fail to provide information through conventional parliamentary channels.
MRA’s Legal Officer, Monday Arunsi, said the FOI Act offers lawmakers an additional avenue to access official records and documents needed for informed decision-making, effective investigations, budget monitoring, and evidence-based lawmaking.
According to him, the Act guarantees access to information for “any person” without requiring applicants to justify their interest in the requested records, making lawmakers equally entitled to utilize its provisions.
“The Constitution empowers Legislatures to oversee the Executive through investigations, hearings, and committee activities. However, the FOI Act provides a complementary legal mechanism that legislators can use to obtain official records and information necessary for effective oversight and informed legislative action,” Arunsi said.
He observed that legislative committees frequently encounter resistance from public institutions and officials who either delay or refuse to release requested documents. He noted that invoking the FOI Act places legal obligations on such institutions to disclose information within specified timelines and provides remedies when access is wrongfully denied.
Arunsi stressed that using the FOI Act does not undermine the constitutional authority of legislatures but rather strengthens accountability by reinforcing the principle that public information belongs to citizens and that public officials must remain accountable for their actions and management of public resources.
He added that lawmakers who actively use the Act would also encourage citizens, journalists, researchers, and civil society groups to take advantage of access-to-information laws as tools for promoting transparency and participatory governance.
Drawing from international experiences, Arunsi cited the United Kingdom, where members of Parliament and the House of Lords have used the UK’s Freedom of Information Act, 2000, to obtain information from government departments when parliamentary questions and other oversight mechanisms proved insufficient.
He noted that British lawmakers have successfully used FOI requests to access data on National Health Service waiting times, government expenditures, police and crime statistics, immigration figures, education funding allocations, environmental reports, and official correspondence, among other records. Such disclosures, he said, have frequently informed parliamentary debates and committee investigations.
He also pointed to countries including Ireland, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Mexico, and Peru, where parliamentarians regularly utilize access-to-information laws to support their legislative and oversight functions.
Arunsi urged Nigerian lawmakers to systematically deploy the FOI Act to obtain budget implementation reports, procurement records, contract documents, public expenditure details, audit reports, personnel records, environmental impact assessments, policy papers, concession agreements, and public-private partnership documents.
According to him, greater legislative use of the Act would enhance governance by promoting evidence-based policymaking, exposing corruption and waste, strengthening fiscal accountability, and increasing public trust in democratic institutions.
He further noted that direct engagement with the FOI Act would allow lawmakers to assess the effectiveness of the law and identify areas requiring reform or improvement.
MRA also called on the leadership of the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly to institutionalize the use of the FOI Act by developing internal procedures for information requests, training legislative staff on the law’s provisions, and incorporating access-to-information strategies into routine oversight activities.
Reaffirming the importance of transparency in democratic governance, Arunsi urged lawmakers to embrace all available legal mechanisms, including the FOI Act, to ensure that public institutions operate with openness, integrity, and accountability.
