News Ghana: Ghana: Tuesday,
September 27, 2016.
The Coalition
on the Right to Information (RTI), Ghana has observed with interest the
selection of His Excellency, President John DramaniMahama by UNESCOto deliver
the keynote speech at an event scheduled for September 26thto mark the first
International Day for Universal Access to Information (IDUAI) (officially
September 28), at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris.September 28 was previously
called the ‘Right to Know Day’ before it was declared by UNESCO member States
in November 2015 as an international day to be celebrated as the ‘IDUAI’ Will
the selection of President Mahamato speak at the September 26th event mark a
new dawn for access to information in Ghana?
Should we
expect that after this international event, H.E will be motivated to, upon his
return, engage Parliament to secure the passage of the RTI Bill with the
critical amendments, as his government committed to do under the 2012-14 and
2016-17Open Government Partnership (OGP) Action Plans? President Mahamais
scheduled to speak on Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions specifically
elaborating on the role of media and access to information in promoting
peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, promoting access
to justice for all and on building effective, accountable and inclusive
institutions at all levels.The event which is aimed at highlighting the key
importance of Access to Information in the success of implementation of the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will bring other guest speakers including
journalists, NGO workers, entrepreneurs, academics etc. to share their
experience and ideas on eleven SDGs with emphasis on how access to information
will help in achieving them.
The RTI
Coalitionbelieves that the selection of President Mahamato speak on such a day
as the ‘IDUAI’and on such a topic, even though ironic given that Ghana has
failed for more than a decade to put in place an access to information
legislation, presents an opportunity for the President to make concrete
commitments on the passage of an effective and efficient RTI legislation before
the current Parliament lapses in 2017. The Coalition would like to remind
President Mahamathat theprogress to secure the review and passage of the RTI Bill
since 2013 when H.E resubmitted the Bill before Parliament, has been very slow.
In June 2016
the consideration of the Bill wasstalled due to the lack of political will by
the current Parliament to prioritize the consideration of the Bill as they promised.
As a Coalition, we are concerned thatPresident Mahamahas not demonstrated
strong commitments to the passage of the RTI Bill despite his party’s
commitment to same in their 2008 and 2012 manifestos. Being an election year,
the failure by the 6th Parliament to pass the Bill before its tenure lapses
would mean that the process will have to commence all over again with the new
government and the new Parliament. As a result of this, the Coalition sent a
petition to President Mahama through the Chief of Staff on August 18 2016
asking him to deliver on his party’s previous manifesto promises on the RTI
Bill.
Till date the
Coalition has not received any response to the petition. It is interesting to
read the NDC’s 2016 manifesto promising as part of its 2017–2021 commitments
to ‘implement the Right to Information Bill when passed by Parliament, same
promise that was made in 2012. However the 2016 manifesto omitted the very
relevant part of the 2012 manifesto on the passage of the Bill as follows ‘the next NDC Administration will…and work with the legislature to prioritize
the passage of the Freedom of Information Act’,meaning that government is not
committed to engaging Parliament to ensure the passage of the Bill before and
even after the elections.
Does this
mean that Ghanaians should wait for another four years before this law is put
in place? As the Co-Chair of Eminent persons on the SDGs and given that the
UNESCO’s celebration this year is focused on ‘powering sustainable development
with public access to information’, shouldn’t the passage of an RTI law IN HIS
EXCELLENCY’S OWN COUNTRY be a priority now? We would like H.E to know that
Ghana as the beacon of democracy in Africa,as he emphasized at the recent UN
General Assembly (UNGA), is lagging behind in terms of promoting access to
information for citizens to effectively participate in governance and make
informed choices.
Several other
African countries including countries in transition have successfully passed
the law. For example: South Sudan,Guinea,Niger,Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra
Leone, Togo, Nigeria, Rwanda and most recently Kenya and Tanzania to mention
but a few, have all passed the law.
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