The Executive director, Media Rights Agenda, MRA Mr. Edetaen Ojo has called for the involvement of major stakeholders across different sectors of the society in the full implementation of the Freedom of Information FOI Act.
Speaking at the opening of a two-day national summit of the FOI Act organised by MRA in Abuja yesterday,Ojo said that there have been a number of initiatives within the civil society and government aimed at developing strategies for the complete implementation of the Act. He, however, noted that none of these efforts had adequately engaged most of the critical stakeholders.
According to Ojo, following President Jonathan’s bold move of signing the freedom of information bill into law about a year ago, some progress has been recorded. But he added that there were many rivers to cross as the challenges of the full implementation has continued to confront the media.
In his words; “It is hoped that at the end of this summit ,we would be able to look at issues from different perspectives and harvest ideas from a broad range of stakeholders on how they can be most effectively engaged in the implementation process’’.