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.