By Kate Ebere
Media Rights Agenda, MRA, has blacklisted the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, by inducting it into its enhanced Freedom of Information (FOI) Hall of Shame, for non-compliance with the FOI Act obligations.
This is contained in a statement signed by MRA’s Programme Director, Mr. Ayode Longe to newsmen, on Monday, as a result of NCS’s “refusal to be transparent, lending credence to widespread public perception of pervasive corruption in the agency.”
“It is the second public institution to be inducted into the revamped FOI Hall of Shame, after the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which the organization named in August as probably the most opaque and unaccountable public institution in the country.” Longe maintained.
He explained that “MRA had taken steps to file legal proceedings against the NNPC, for its persistent non-compliance with the FOI Act, and would be doing the same with the Nigeria Customs, as part of the organization’s efforts to put an end to their contemptuous disobedience of the Law.”
Longe also said MRA “accused the Customs Service of ignoring all its obligations, under the FOI Act, by failing to proactively publish the range of information that it is required to disclose by the Law; refusing to designate an FOI Desk Officer; not providing the appropriate training for officials of the institution on the public’s right of access to information, and for the effective implementation of the Act; and consistently neglecting to submit to the Attorney-General of the Federation, its annual FOI implementation reports for the past eight years, all of which are mandatory requirements of the Law.”
“Such level of impunity should not be tolerated in any decent society, and it amazes us that a Government that expects ordinary citizens to obey the Law, allows an agency of the Government to get away with such blatant disregard for a Law, validly made by the same Government, in accordance with the Constitution, thereby presenting an imagine of a lawless society, and a Government that condones such lawlessness.” He regretted.
He said “an approach to governance in which Government officials and agencies disobey the Law, sets a bad example for ordinary citizens, robs the Government of legitimacy, as well as the moral authority to enforce any Law against citizens. It is more disheartening when the Law in question is one aimed at fostering transparency and accountability in governance, and the Government involved is one that claims to be championing a war against corruption, particularly in the public sector.”
