Nearly fifteen years after Nigeria enacted the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act in 2011, the legislation that was meant to pry open the doors of government secrecy remains largely underutilised by journalists and civil society organisations (CSOs) across the Nigerian South-East states.
Despite its promise as a transformative tool for transparency and accountability, the Act’s adoption in the region has been plagued by a combination of institutional resistance, knowledge gaps, judicial bottlenecks, and a culture of official secrecy that continues to frustrate those who seek to hold power to account.
Awareness Without Application
One of the most striking paradoxes in the South-East is the disconnect between awareness of the FOI Act and its actual application.
Findings indicate that journalists in the zone are generally aware of the Act’s existence, yet public institutions remain largely non-compliant with its provisions.
There are indications also that many Nigerian journalists in the area do not possess a detailed understanding of the Act’s content, and many do not yet understand how important a legal tool it is for their professional responsibilities.
This knowledge deficit is not merely academic, it has tangible consequences.
At a February 2026 training workshop in Enugu organised by the Media Rights Agenda (MRA), participants acknowledged that many journalists and CSO actors lack sufficient technical and legal knowledge to effectively utilise the Act, significantly limiting its full impact.
The gap between knowing the law exists and knowing how to deploy it strategically has rendered the FOI Act a paper tiger in much of the region.
The situation is compounded by a broader lack of public education.
In this light, the former Anambra State Attorney General, Silvia Ifemeje, had in June, 2025 called for the inclusion of the FOI Act in civic education curricula, noting that citizens must understand not only their rights but also how to assert them.
“Imagine if secondary school students understood how to write an FOI request,” she remarked. “That’s how we build a future of informed citizens”.
Institutional Resistance and the Culture of Secrecy
Perhaps the most formidable barrier to FOI adoption in the South-East is the deep-seated culture of secrecy within public institutions.
Despite a Supreme Court ruling affirming that the FOI Act applies to all tiers of government -including state institutions – many state governments in the South-East continue to resist implementation.
Some officials still advance the legally untenable argument that the Act requires “domestication” at the state level before it becomes applicable, a claim definitively laid to rest by the courts.
This legal confusion, whether genuine or feigned, continues to undermine the law’s effectiveness and provides public officials with convenient grounds to deny information requests.
The resistance manifests in multiple ways: delayed responses that stretch far beyond the seven-day statutory deadline, outright denial of requests without lawful justification, and a general disregard for proactive disclosure obligations.
At a stakeholders’ roundtable in Umuahia, Abia State, civil society actors warned that persistent non-compliance with the FOI Act is weakening grassroots administration, deepening poverty, and eroding public trust.
Dr Emeka Ononamadu, convener of the event, described poor record-keeping practices, institutional resistance, and weak enforcement mechanisms as factors that have made access to information “an exception rather than a right”.
Structural Challenges Within the Media
The journalism profession in the South-East faces its own internal obstacles to FOI utilisation.
Media ownership in Nigeria is often tied to governments, political actors, or business interests aligned with public authorities – a structure that exerts significant influence on editorial independence.
This ownership pattern sometimes places journalists under subtle or overt pressure to shape coverage in ways that protect proprietors’ interests, including in the use of the FOI Act.
Additionally, journalists across the South-East have reported frequent misuse of various laws, particularly the Cybercrimes Act, leading to harassment by law enforcement agents and government officials.
This climate of intimidation has a chilling effect on investigative journalism and discourages journalists from invoking the FOI Act to pursue sensitive stories.
Judicial Bottlenecks and Enforcement Gaps
Even when journalists and CSOs muster the courage to file FOI requests and pursue legal action when denied, they confront a judiciary that has been slow to adjudicate FOI-related cases.
Participants at the February 2026 Enugu workshop urged the judiciary to expedite the hearing and determination of FOI cases, stressing that delays in court processes weaken accountability and undermine the public’s right of access to information.
The inability of civil society organisations and individuals to pursue legal action against the government for refusal of FOI requests remains a significant challenge to enforcing the Act.
Litigation is expensive, time-consuming, and often yields results only after years of legal battles – a major deterrent that effectively silences many potential claimants.
A Vicious Cycle of Disuse
The poor adoption of the FOI Act in the South-East has created a vicious cycle.
Low usage means few public institutions face consequences for non-compliance, which in turn emboldens further resistance.
The lack of a robust body of FOI jurisprudence from the region means there are few deterrent precedents. And without consistent pressure from journalists and CSOs, the culture of secrecy remains entrenched.
The limited usage is not for lack of effort by civil society organisations. Groups like the MRA and the International Press Centre have conducted numerous training workshops across the South-East, equipping journalists with the skills to make effective FOI requests.
However, these capacity-building efforts have been undermined by the broader environment of institutional resistance and weak enforcement.
A reporter with PREMIUM TIMES, who is based in the South-east, told FACTWATCH Nigeria that the main reason for the poor utilisation of the FOI Act is the fact that there are only a few journalists in the South-east doing accountability reporting.
He said: “You know FOI is mainly used for deep reporting, deep investigations.
It is only when you hold your own institutions accountable that there is a need to make an FOI request.
“You cannot be writing a story about what somebody said and you are writing FOI requests, because it’s just there. FOI is for deep investigative inquiry that a journalist wants to make about certain things that are not available in the public domain.
“So the reason for the poor use of the FOI Act is because the number of journalists in the South-East doing accountability reporting is very low.”
Asked if the government’s refusal to give out information to journalists in the region is also the reason, Ugwu pointed out that it is partly the fact, but it is not essentially the main reason.
“I know for a fact that most institutions in the South-East, aside from a state like Imo, often respond to FOI enquiries, FOI letters, except for Imo State where I understand that government officials do not always want to respond to such enquiries.
“However, I don’t think it is a major reason for the low use of the FOI Act, it could be part of what is discouraging many journalists, particularly in Imo State but it cannot be the issue across the entire South-East, because I have used FOI letters across other parts of the South-East and I got my responses.”
Breaking the Cycle
Breaking this cycle of poor usage and application of the Act will require concerted action on multiple fronts.
First, there is an urgent need for continuous training and mentorship for journalists and CSOs on the effective use of the FOI Act.
Second, the judiciary must prioritise FOI cases and issue sanctions for wrongful denials – when legal remedies are swift and decisive, they serve as a deterrent to non-compliance.
Third, state governments in the South-East must demonstrate stronger political will by establishing functional FOI desks, proactively disclosing information, and training officials on the public’s right to access information.
As the former Anambra Attorney General rightly noted, public servants should not view the FOI Act as an enemy, but as a shield that protects them from the erosion of trust.
Until this perspective takes root across the South-East, the FOI Act will remain what it has largely been for the past fifteen years: an unfulfilled promise of transparency in a region that desperately needs it.
