By Ogenyi Ogenyi
Abia State has emerged as the leader in access to publicly held information in the Niger Delta, according to a new ranking for 2024. The ranking was conducted by Policy Alert and its partners under the Niger Delta Open Government Observatory (NOGO). It was presented during an event in Abuja marking the 2024 International Day for Universal Access to Information, celebrated on September 28 each year.
In a statement issued by Policy Alert at the National Freedom of Information (FOI) Ranking organized by the Public Private Development Centre (PPDC), the rankings evaluated public institutions based on their proactiveness, level of disclosure, and responsiveness to FOI requests.
The assessment targeted 180 public institutions across the nine Niger Delta states, revealing a response rate of only 1.7% and an average level of responsiveness of 44.4%. This metric measures the response time against the requirements of the FOI Act.
Furthermore, the average level of disclosure among the nine states was found to be 11.11%, with Abia State providing more than 50% but less than 80% of the requested information.
The ranking highlighted that the states performed poorly in proactive disclosure, which assesses the types of information provided on public institutions’ websites, yielding an average performance of just 8.33%.
Overall, Abia State topped the FOI ranking, followed by Delta and Imo in second place, while Cross River and Edo shared the third position. Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Ondo, and Rivers states ranked at the bottom of the list.
“Access to information is the lifeblood of democracy, governance, and development,” said Lucy Abagi, CEO of the Public Private Development Centre (PPDC). She emphasized that it empowers citizens to participate in decisions affecting their lives and hold public leaders accountable. Abagi expressed optimism that the Niger Delta FOI Ranking would inspire a competition among states to improve access to information.
The report also indicated a poor state of access to information among Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) in the Niger Delta region. It recommended that states yet to enact Freedom of Information (FOI) laws should do so to enhance the legal framework for access to information at the sub-national level. Additionally, the report called for the complete digitization of public records to facilitate seamless retrieval and access to proactively disclosed information.
