A CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT, 2011

The Freedom of Information Act is a law that gives you the right to access information from the federal government. It is often described as the law that keeps citizens in the know about their government. After a prolonged checkered history, the Nigerian Freedom of Information Act was signed into law by former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan on May 28, 2011. The Act aims to make public records and information more freely available, provide for public access to public records and information, protect public records and information to the extent consistent with the public interest and the protection of personal privacy, protect serving public officers from adverse consequences for disclosing certain kinds of official information without authorization and establish procedures for the achievement of those objectives. Additionally, the Act provides ways of getting access to records by Court, materials and documents under the security classification. This work examines the Nigeria Freedom of Information Act, 2011 by appraising its salient provisions. The progress that has been made so far in implementing the Act, and challenges confronting same are highlighted while solutions are proffered to the overcome those challenges. The paper also looks at what obtains in other jurisdictions with similar legislation with a view to learning a lesson or two from them.