SECTOR 1 and conduct trade therein” and was therefore not a public institution within the meaning of the Freedom of Information Act.9 The following month, a Nigerian court denied an access to information request for details of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s medical bills. The request was filed to the Central Bank of Nigeria by the Advocacy for Societal Rights Advancement and Development Initiative.10 ‘They do not understand the objectives of the Act and do not feel any obligation to give citizens access to information,’ said another panellist. Since 2017, the Nigerian military has systematically ignored FOI requests from civil society organisations (CSOs) to give account of the anti-terrorism war effort in the north-east. In other cases, authorities have used long appeal processes to stall releasing information (for instance, in Oyo, where some citizens have taken state officials to court for FOI refusals). Ironically, the National Assembly is considered one of the leading violators of the FOI Act. Other hurdles are technical in nature. Panellists said Nigerian public services and agencies were poor at record keeping. Information is usually held in forms that are neither easily retrievable nor readily useable. Federal and state budgets, for example, often constitute hundreds of pages and volumes of information. Additionally, ‘access requires that this information is available online proactively,’ said one panellist. However, this is not the norm. Many commentators have identified a range of obstacles to the implementation of the FOI Act in Nigeria. Pastor Elijah Ogbuokiri, the director-general of the Public Administration and Management Development Institute (PAMDI), noted quite early that Nigeria’s FOI Act ‘came with many deficiencies’. Five months into the Act, he observed that: …the Act contains more exemption sections and clauses than sections that grant access to information, alerting that some mischievous public officers can use these sections for unjust and mischievous purposes. For instance, only Sections 1 and 3 grant access to information; but as many as ten sections (Sections 7, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 26) are meant to deny the public access to information.11 Nonetheless, panellists observed that except for the National Assembly, federal institutions made more effort to honour the FOI Act than other public services and agencies. 9 See Ade Adesomoju (2018). FoI: NNPC refuses to give fuel import details to Falana. Available online at https://punchng. com/foi-nnpc-refuses-to-give-fuel-import-details-to-falana/. Last accessed on 15 August 2019. 10 See Evelyn Okakwu (2018). Court refuses request for compulsory disclosure of Buhari’s medical bills. Available online at: https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/271284-court-refuses-request-for-compulsory-disclosure-of-buharismedical-bills.html. Last accessed on 15 August 2019. 11 Pastor Ogbuokiri (2011). Nigeria: The limits of Freedom of Information Act. Available online at: https://www.right2info. org/recent/nigeria-the-limits-of-freedom-of-information-act. Last accessed on 31 July 2019. 16 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER NIGERIA 2019