CBN makes history: Becomes first Agency to partially comply with FOI Act

The story is from Premiumtimes
The Nigerian Central Bank did not respond to all the requests.
The Central Bank of Nigeria has become the first government agency to positively respond to a Freedom of Information, FOI, request; albeit partially.
The Bank partially responded to an FOI request made by a law firm, Bamidele Aturu and Co., requesting details of the salary and remuneration of its Governor, Lamido Sanusi.
In December, the law firm made the FOI request, “in the interest of transparency and openness,” asking for the details of Mr. Sanusi’s salary, fee, wages or other remuneration or allowances.
The firm made the request after the boss of the apex bank called for the sack of half of the workforce in the Nigerian civil service to curb redundancy and reduce recurrent expenditure.
The response
Details of the response sent to the law firm show that the CBN boss gets a daily allowance of N25, 000 for local travels. Though the law firm had requested for Mr. Sanusi’s allowance for foreign travels, the CBN did not provide that information. It stated that the governor collects what is approved by the government.
But head of the firm, Bamidele Aturu, will have none of that.
“We expect him to give a specific figure. The N25, 000 he takes locally was also approved by the Federal Government. So why disclose one and not the other,” he said.
The CBN did not also provide detail of its governor’s remuneration. In its response, it explained that the Governor’s remuneration which is “benchmark against the banking industry” is stipulated by the board of the bank and approved by the federal government.
It, however, refused to state the exact salary and allowances of the governor saying it is a subject on an on-going litigation.
Mr Aturu said his firm is aware of the case in court and did not ask for comments about it. He said what he wanted is the exact amount the governor is paid.
“The answer we expected was a specific figure not a comment on an existing case. We still expect the Governor to answer the question as he is in a position to know exactly what he earns and if he does not know he could have simply said so,” he said.
It’s all first class
The response from the CBN also shows that Mr. Sanusi travels on business class tickets within Nigeria and first class when on foreign assignment. It also revealed that the governor “occasionally used chartered planes to travel within and outside the country as dictated by exigencies.”
However, it did not provide a list of the instances the Governor had used chartered planes, the cost and duration of such charters. According to the bank, the time lag of the request makes it impossible for it to provide such details.
Further, the response shows that governor does not maintain an imprest account and has no cleaner assigned to him by the CBN.
While thanking the Bank for it response, Mr. Aturu said his firm will do a follow-up request and promised that the CBN will be given more time to provide details of the aspect of the request it failed to respond to:
“We agree with the Bank that the time frame we gave, as required by law, was insufficient to calculate or sum up the amount spent on chartered flights within and outside Nigeria. To this end, we shall be doing a follow up and although we are required to give 7 days, we promise the bank not to sue immediately until about 28 days after the follow up to give the bank added time to add up the figures,” the lawyer said.
“We are of the view that the reaction of the bank to our request will encourage public institutions to conduct their affairs transparently,” he said.
Other responses
The Central Bank’s response is the first by any Nigerian agency to respond positively to an FOI request.
Several Nigerian agencies, ministries, departments, and arms of government have in the past ignored or failed to answer FOI requests.
Some of those who have declined such requests include the National Assembly, the Attorney General of the Federation, the Lagos State House of Assembly, and the Code of Conduct Bureau which refused to release the details of the asset declaration form signed by President Goodluck Jonathan.