By Queen Kunde
The leadership of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Center (CISLAC), has again emphasized the need for ensuring information accessibility for all stakeholders within the defense and security sectors.
This move, as made known by them, is essential to achieving budgetary transparency and fostering accountability within these critical sectors.
The organization stated this on Wednesday at a one-day workshop on “Improving external oversight and information disclosure in defence and security sector”, highlighting that open access to information will enable better oversight and promote responsible governance will ultimately strengthen the nation’s defense infrastructure.
Focusing on public procurement, financing and personal management, the exercise which took place in Yola, the Adamawa state capital, drawn participants from the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corp, ( NSCDC) , the Nigerian Police Force, the Academia, Civil Society Organizations, Women groups and Traditional and Community leaders.
Speaking, the Project Manager, Jimoh Abubakar, said the issue of responsibility and accountability within the defence and security sector has become a subject of concern that oversight is very important, such that non State actors and critical Stakeholders must not ignore .
Jimoh who was of the view that the Nigerian state is grappling with security crisis regardless of the increase in budget for defence and security sector, said, “the increase in defence and security budget notwithstanding, insecurity continue to linger in all the geo-political zones in Nigeria “.
Adding that, “the defense and security sector spending is one that is covered in secrecy , hence access to information is difficult.”
Citing section 11 (1) of the FOIA which provides that a public institution may deny an application for any information the disclosure of which may be injurious to the conduct of international affairs and the defence of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Freedom of Information Act , 2011 and Official Secret Act LFN 2004, as noticed by him, is at variance with each other in understanding transparency international defence and security project
