By Michael Oche
The Federal government and Civil Society Group, the Centre for Transparency Advocacy (CTA) on Friday in Abuja, challenged women and other vulnerable groups to take advantage of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to address obstacles and biases faced by women in all spheres.
CTA Executive Director, Faith Nwadishi in her opening address at a town hall meeting organised to mark the 2025 International Women’s Day (IWD) said women have not taken advantage of the FOIA to address the challenge of exclusion.
The meeting organised in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Justice and the National Council of Women Societies (NCWS) is part of the Strengthening Accountability and governance in Nigeria Initiative (SAGNI) project being implemented by CTA with support from the Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption Programme (RoLAC) and funding from the European Union through International IDEA.
Nwadishi said, “despite the potential of FOIA, women and many vulnerable citizens often face significant barriers in accessing information that will aid personal and collective development in a male dominated spaces.”
She explained that, this challenge justifies the importance of the meeting to enable stakeholders come together to share experiences, build knowledge, and develop strategies for leveraging FOIA to promote women’s rights, equity, and inclusion.
She said, “it is important to note that corruption is almost becoming a pandemic, pervasive and a threat to to our collective existence as a people, a threat to democratic governance, a threat to economic development, and a threat to social justice. We need not be reminded that corruption undermines the rule of law, “ perpetuates inequality, and disproportionately affects women and marginalized communities.
“Nevertheless, our gathering today is not to lament and see women as victims of corruption but as amazons and powerful change agents. All women need are information, access to resources, and opportunities to be able to demonstrate the transformative role that promotes accountability, transparency and good governance.”
The theme of the meeting is “Leveraging FOIA to Promote Women’s Rights and Inclusion in the Fight Against Corruption”.
In his keynote address, the Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, said that the momentum usage of the Act by Nigerian women would totally remove the systemic obstacles faced by women in personal and occupational spheres.
Fagbemi who was represented by Mr Garuba Godwin, Head, FOI Unit in the Ministry of Justice said, “Women should leverage on the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, 2011 to accelerate their inclusion in the activities of the President Bola Tinubu administration.”
He added that, “The president is very ready to improve women’s involvement in the governance of this great country.”
He further said that the fight for accelerate action should not be left for the women alone.
“The other gender must ensure that women are not discriminated against as both genders have equal right before the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“According to this year slogan “Let’s Accelerate Action for gender equality. All hands must be on desk to ensure gender inclusivity in human endeavour”.
Also speaking, Minister of Women Affairs, Hajiya Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, said that the rights of women, promoting gender equality and inclusion “is a thing that is very dear to my heart”.
Sulaiman-Ibrahim was represented by EmemMaria Offiong.
She said that as Nigeria joins the world to mark IWD, it was expedient to state that the Ministry’s arms were wide open to collaborate and to give the enabling environment for these ideals to be implemented.
“And to do this, we need to create more awareness on this Freedom of Information Act.
“To recreate public perception towards this act, and to reenact various ways that we can apply this act,” she said.
