No fewer than 175 federal  Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) failed to respond to requests made through the Freedom of Information Act, a survey by a coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) has revealed
  
The report listed the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) and National Orientation Agency (NOA) as top agencies with high levels of compliance and transparency.
  
The CSOs include Accountability Lab, International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR), Public-Private Development Centre (PPDC), Right to Know (R2K), Media Rights Agenda (MRA) and BudgIT.
   
In the document, a total of 238 MDA operating in Nigeria were ranked. Head, FoI Desk, ICIR, Olugnenga Adanikin, while speaking in Abuja during the launch, noted that the impact of promoting open governance through the FOI Act cannot be overemphasised. He said the philosophy of the law underlines that civil servants are custodians of public trust, held on behalf of Nigerians, who have the right to know what they do.
   
Adanikin noted that most times, the information demanded are either consumed for personal use or deployed to hold agencies of government to account.
In recent times, he said CSOs and other stakeholders in the media space, including journalists, have had reasons to utilise the FOI Act to demand information of public interest such as road contract details, loan agreements and budget releases to public institutions.
  
The activist observed that although not all responses came within the stipulated seven days, nevertheless, there has been considerable improvement.  He said agencies of government proactively disclose information to Nigerians through their websites.
  
Also, PPDC’s software developer, Sadiq Sambo, said the MDAs were ranked on their parameters, level of responsiveness within seven to 14 days, level of disclosure  and proactive disclosure of relevant information to the public.
 
 A data analyst with the ICIR, Ibukun Akangbe, shed more light on the challenges limiting the level of responsiveness and disclosure by MDAs. They include denial of FOI requests on the basis of confidentiality and  requests for exorbitant fees by some of the MDAs before processing FOI requests.
   
Akangbe recommended a clear definition of information that should be regarded as a security or public threat, adding that the boundaries of confidentiality must be addressed as regards issues of public and private funds and disclosure of information on MDAs’ websites.
 
National Coordinator of Open Government Partnership, Gloria Ahmed, who maintained that access to information remained a critical tool to help governments succeed, she  urged MDAs to leverage data and technology to publish their information on their websites, noting that such a move would reduce the traffic of persons seeking information.