Information access: A prospective pathway to national transformation and development in Nigeria

Abstract

Development is critical and essential to the sustenance and growth of any nation and Information is an important key of achieving this sustainable national development. For a state or society to achieve a sustainable national development, the quality of its information should be improved. This paper attempts to explain the concept of information, the concept of sustainable national development and relationship between information and sustainable national development. The paper provides an insight into various challenges confronting information in Nigeria such as illiteracy, digital divide, gender divide, inadequate public knowledge of the FoI Act, poor record keeping practices and infrastructures etc. It finally suggested way on how to solve challenges confronting access to information in Nigeria. This is done through allocation of enough funds to various information institutes, improving on the infrastructural facilities in information centers, discouraging gender disparity by an enlightenment program, ensuring that access to information, open access and information provider reflected in national development plan etc.