The National Commission for Colleges of Education on Thursday stressed the need for the implementation of the Freedom of Information Act in Federal Colleges of Education across the country.
According to the commission, this will help the proper dissemination of information among citizens while also curbing fake news and hate speech.
Speaking during a workshop designed for FOIA desk officers in Federal Colleges of Education in Abuja, the chairman, NCCE FOI Committee, Ameh Oche, said, “Information properly harvested, processed, and disseminated with understanding feedback remains the power of reasoning and imagination that reactivate development in our society.”
Speaking further on the non-implementation of the FOI Act by some colleges of education, Ameh said, “As part of our efforts to address this menace of non-implementation of the Act, we sought the expertise of seasoned resource persons who will take us through ways FOIA can be better implemented to make information in our institutions more accessible and ameliorate the challenges.
“One of the many benefits is to promote an acceptable image among all states of our teaching and learning institutions.”
Speaking on the objectives of the workshop which was designed for selected officers in all federal colleges of education, Ameh said, “These trained officers will train their individual Colleges of Education FOI committee staff which will create more awareness on the dictates of the FOI act across our colleges in preparation for visit from NCCE for evaluation and inauguration of the college committee”.
