President Jonathan signs historic Freedom of Information bill into law

"By signing the FOI Bill, I am committed to lifting the veil covering governance. In the 80's we heard of Glasnost (Openness) and Perestroika (Restructuring) from Gorbachev and the Berlin Wall came down. In Nigeria, there is a breath of Fresh Air ushering an era of Transformation and Transparency and the walls of Corruption will be brought down not just by the government but by you the good people of Nigeria." GEJ on FB

Under the new legislation, all public institutions will have to be open about their operations and expenditure while citizens will have the right to access information about their activities.

The FoI bill was first submitted to the National Assembly in 1999, 2003 and 2007 but it did not make much progress.