Article Sidebar
Published:
Jun 1, 2024Keywords:
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright to submitted papers when accepted is transferred to the journal, together with the associated reproduction rights. The Publisher reserves the right to alter the text to suit the journal style, particularly in terms of punctuation, spelling and usage. If submitted article contains any material whose copyright (s) are held by other parties, then the author is required to have obtained all the necessary clearances or permissions and show evidence of having done so. Such permission must be sought for citations of text more than fifty words in length, figures/illustrations and/or tables originating or derived (adapted) from other sources.
Main Article Content
Challenges to Protection and Management of Official Records in the Era of Freedom of Information Law in Nigeria
Abstract
Official records and data of strategic value are generated daily in government service through
files, electronic mails and in computer sets in the course of governance and administration of the
State. These official records and data are necessary ingredients for policy making and policy
implementation process in government. Large numbers of these official records and data are
sensitive in nature hence requires protection for State’s security and in the public interest in spite
the press freedom guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution and the freedom of information law. This
paper examines challenges facing the protection of official records, data privacy and record
management despite the freedom of information Act (2011). The issues of leakages of official
memoranda; theft and burning of records; hacking and the problems of conflicts between
subsisting laws on secrecy and protection of official records and some relevant provisions of the
freedom of information law were extensively analysed, with a view to striking a balance between
the necessity for protection of official records and data privacy for security and public interest;
and the increasing needs for transparency and accountability in democratic dispensation which
the freedom of information laws seeks to achieve in Nigeria’s fourth republic. The study is
anchored on the record continuum theory and it adopted a qualitative based-content analysis as
well as the literature-review approach to examine and analyse existing laws and challenges
relating to protection of official records, data privacy and record management in this era of
freedom of information law.
