Graphic Online: Ghana: Saturday, July 22, 2017.
Many years
down the lane, Ghana is still struggling to pass the Right to Information (RTI)
Bill. This bill, which will ensure enhanced transparency in the governance
process, has remained on the drawing board and all efforts to get it passed
into law continue to be a mirage.
The right to
information is a fundamental human right guaranteed by the country’s 1992
Constitution and recognised as a right under international conventions on human
rights.
The bill,
when passed, will give substance to Article 21 (1) (f) of the Constitution
which states: “All persons shall have the right to information subject to such
qualifications and laws as are necessary in a democratic society.”
Clearly, the
right to information has been provided for by the Constitution, but how to
access that vital information has become the albatross hanging on the nation’s
neck.
It will be
recalled that during the latter stages of last year, the National Democratic
Congress (NDC) government appeared poised to pass the bill, but, somehow,
strangely, the whole move fizzled into thin air. Earlier governments too
had expressed their intentions to pass
the bill but to no avail.
The Daily
Graphic thinks that our inability to pass this all-important bill into law is,
to say the least, very worrying. This is because it is not only members of the
media fraternity who will gain so much with its passage but the entire Ghanaian
society.
The bill,
when passed, will embolden Ghanaians to hold their leaders, especially the
government, to be accountable.
It will also
provide access to official information held by public institutions and private
entities which perform public functions with public funds.
It is,
therefore, gratifying that our President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, while
delivering the keynote address yesterday at the 2017 Africa Open Data
Conference which is currently ongoing at the Accra International Conference
Centre, stressed the resolve of his government to speed up the passage of the
long overdue RTI Bill by Parliament.
According to
the President, if African leaders were to succeed in improving the living
standards of their peoples, a critical piece of the puzzle had to be the
availability and use of information and data.
Ghana can no
longer delay for a moment in passing this bill if we are to maintain our global
status as a democratically free society ready to entrench democratic principles
in the governance process.
In line with
this, the 7th Parliament of the Fourth Republic must not fail the nation by
passing the Bill this year to deepen democratic accountability and curb
corruption, real or perceived, from the body politic.
It is equally
important for all stakeholders, including civil society organisations, to
support and work to facilitate the passage of the bill this year.
The
President, as he has promised, must be given the necessary support and push to
ensure the speedy passage of the bill, which was drafted in 1999 and reviewed
in 2003, 2005 and 2007 but was not presented to Parliament till 2010.
The Daily
Graphic believes the time is simply ripe for this all-important piece of
legislation to be passed. We cannot delay a day further.
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