Data For Accountability

In this episode, Lanre Suraj and Dapo Olorunyomi discuss how to use publicly available information to drive transparency in accountability. They also discussed policies and legal frameworks that enable data-driven accountability.

Transcript

Intro: [00:00:02] You're listening to partners United on accountability brought to you by Shehu Musa Yar'Adua Foundation.

 Lanre Suraj: [00:00:12] Hello everyone, my name is Lanre Suraj, and I am the Executive Director of the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) Resource Center. HEDA engages citizens on core human development issues, including agriculture, food security, climate change, human rights, public sector accountability and electoral reform. HEDA and the Yaradua Foundation are part of a community of civil society actors working to promote accountability practice through the Partners United platform. Joining me today to have the discussion on the topical issue data for accountability. Is Mr. Dapo Olorunyomi, a veteran journalist, human rights activist. A publisher, I consider a reporter as well. Based on the experience on some of the ground breaking report that has been associated with Mr. Dapo Olorunyomi, Mr. Olorunyomi has also been part of several initiatives leading to quite a whole lot of ground breaking efforts at promoting accountability, good governance, freedom of expression and empowerment of journalists across the country and in West Africa. Mr. Olorunyomi was part of the founding member of the News Family of the NEXT newspaper before becoming the publisher of Premium Times news that has Premium Times newspaper The Premium Times Center for Investigative Journalism. The project called UDEME and also DUBAWA. A new enforce through brief explanation on data for accountability and the concept of it.

 Dapo Olorunyomi: [00:01:54] I think when we're talking about data accountability, what comes to mind is how we use information that is popularly available and accessible by citizens and institutions for promoting transparency and accountability in a very general sense. Then this will be media in a sense and civil society organizations. I think in a broad sense, what we'll then be talking about is how to make meaning and substance of a democracy and how to give that democracy consequential meaning to the extent that people have the information they need, as at when due to be able to improve life, to hold that democracy accountable, to ensure that key actors of democracy, both individually and institutionally come to effective reckoning. But above all, that's information that can help the development of citizens in every walk of their life as true, meaning not just paper meaning, as it were. I think basically this is what we'll then mean when we're talking of data accountability, is just to make information available and truly substantive for us to give democracy its true meaning and development a true purpose.

 Lanre Suraj: [00:03:38] Thank you. This is very interesting. You've listed some of the actors I've been talking about, the media and civil society and even government. Can we get more from you on the list of those that consider actors in the issue of data and accountability and even data for accountability? And also, if we have really embraced the concept of the data for accountability as actors in the system?

 Dapo Olorunyomi: [00:04:05] Thank you so much. Sometimes the way we present the case for data tends to mystify it as if it's something very big, something very new indeed. Data is no more than just the information of everyday life. True. It's important, then, that we understand that even if information is available, we need to be able to present information in a way that will serve a particular kind of purpose. So when we're talking of data in that regard, I think it's always important to lay the context very clearly, especially now that we're talking of it, in the sense of accountability. I think it's important for us to understand the political environment around which we are discussing data. And, you know, the environment can change so for our own purpose. These days, we're talking of data in the context of a democracy. We're talking data for the purpose of development. So to that extent, everybody's an actor. On the one hand, you have international actors from the development sectors. These would be institutions like the World Health Organization, Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the UN itself, UNICEF, the African Union, the ECOWAS and so on and so forth. The institution of the Nigerian Bureau on Statistics and institutions like Nigerian Population Commission. The Identity Management Commission.

 Dapo Olorunyomi: [00:05:54] National Communication Commission and so on and so forth, the Science and Technology Agency of the government. These are key institution that if you have to grade national actors, you then put them at, say something like a prime, a actors role. They are all just coming to life. And, you know, if you look at their books, their acts. I mean, the statutory language of these agencies you still see that we're at the water's edge of data awareness and data use. But the most important, though, is between civil society and citizens. Because just as civil society plays its role in every other regard, it's the third actor in this platform, if you like. And  society needs to catch up and turn data that is available and convert them very quickly for advocacy and the empowerment of citizens so that they can make more concrete, substantive demands on government. Needless to say that for institutions like the media that have statutory rule, data awareness is still very low. And that's really making the whole problem of the point you raise about awareness and so on a little bit problematic and challenging, but it's growing by the day. Better late than never. I think that's the point that we really have to start this discussion.

 Lanre Suraj: [00:07:43] In addition to your mentioning of the constitutional provision, which reference to Section Twenty two and Section Thirty nine Act. We look at some of the possible policies and framework that are existing within the country that enables the concept of data for accountability and the current state of some of these policies and legal framework. If we're actually making any good use of them.

 Dapo Olorunyomi: [00:08:10] Yes, I think discussion around data just like the discussion around any information. So let's now say structured and unstructured data must start. Let's say, at a national level, it must start from the Constitution. The two key articles in the Constitution that gives basis for data accountability. Section twenty two and section thirty nine of interest though, in section thirty seven of the Constitution because it makes a case for privacy. That is, that's at the point of usage of data and also at the point of the acquisition of data, because thirty seven, of course, is dealing with privacy rights. But besides that, there are other instruments. The most interesting of all is the Nigerian data protection rights, we say, is a policy that's not really moved. As you know, it's been morphed into an attempt to create a law out of the data privacy and freedom bill, which means famously called the H.R. 490 has been, dangling between Parliament and the executive, and the president had been unwilling to sign it. But then there's the agency called the NIMC, which is the if you like, the identity management agency for all citizens of the country. I think one other law that we need to bear in mind will then be the INEC Act, INEC in The Electoral Commissions Act, because then in the exercise of democracy, this is the agency that plays the role of the key regulator and then it houses a lot of our data. The same is true of the Population Act. So now that federal law, which also provides regulatory power over our identity and therefore our data as persons in between all this is a general problem, the problem being that citizens have not effectively taken hold and control of their own right over data.

 Dapo Olorunyomi: [00:10:47] That's why the data privacy and freedom bill ought to be passed. Let me just talk of two or three very quick laws that pose a problem for citizens in this regard. The first is what is generally called the Cybercrime Act, which is the law presumably supposed to help regulate the nefarious activities of cyber criminals in the age of digital. A lot of the crimes that we are used to have now moved online if moves to cyberspace. And they certainly can be far more lethal than what we have, there is the need for a law to follow the crime. Otherwise, the TPA was called the Terrorism Act, which is given the difficulties in the country today with extreme expression of identity and ethno national religious terms. We've had a case of insurgency that's almost blowing up the upper corner of the country, so you cannot ignore that fact that this is a problem. But the exercise and the need for the liberties and freedom of citizens seems to be totally ignored within that, the making of that law. So that's the kind of danger that we have. An agency for instance, like NIMC, you'll be surprised about the kind of access that it grants to so-called third party institutions that you don't know. It's not defined in the law. Ultimately, of course, this third party are enabled to have control over our data, if you probe further, you'll find that almost invariably and always this is a pathway for security people to have access to.

 Lanre Suraj: [00:12:54] I must say we really appreciate how much you have assisted in details highlighting critically some of these issues that are associated with data and also the actors that are responsible for some of the activities. But it would be important to borrow from your own experience as part of your organization and also your personal experience in the field to look at what has been the experience in your embracing of this concept of data accountability, and also look at some of the positives and the challenges that you must have encountered in dealing with this issue. In closing remarks, we would appreciate to take recommendations from you for some of the actors that you have listed and the other ones that are not in your list. This would assist us in jointly advancing the use of data for accountability in promoting good governance in the country.

 Dapo Olorunyomi: [00:13:47] I think it's important to bear in mind that when we're speaking of data in this regard, it really is important to also understand the transition that has happened in the general technological environment of information processing, by which you say the transition to digital. Effectively, most of the world's population transited to digital in the 90s and in Nigeria specifically, it's 1995. After this date, a whole lot of what we do as a media organization changed. Basically, we do three broad things we collect information, we process it and then of course, we share this information. The age of digital has transformed how we do distance from analogue age, which then imposes on us as media organization to understand that transition to digital has re-natured our identity in a way. And one way to really appreciate that is to see that media now finds itself at the interface of technologies than at any other time in the history of that institution. So for you to do effective media, we at least in our own organization, the first thing that we all knew was that we have to really create cubicles. Around which we have to ourself extract and structure data so as to be able to hold people, government accountable, we have the institution in house which is called UDEME which is a social accountability platform and which deals with three key areas. It's development data, but mostly around constituency projects, around capital projects then the ecology funds. This, if you look at it, is 40 percent of our annual budgeting so we try to focus a whole lot on that through the UDEME program.

 Dapo Olorunyomi: [00:15:59] UDEME being a term from most of the South-South language groups of Nigeria to mean accountability in itself. This is where work has to be done. Luckily, the admin groups have shown great pathway in this regard. Look at just the kind of impressive work that you guys are doing with respect to anti-corruption work that you are doing at HEDA, look at what Cleen Foundation is doing with police accountability. Look at Budget is doing with Budgetary Accountability and Literacy. Look at what DataFight is doing. DataFight is doing tremendous, important work in the whole area of data and development. Anyone can go on and on and on Accountability Lab, you see the kind of work that they're doing. So this is the area that we really have to invest more in, to recognize that civil society, as media, data has come, that is structuring of information has become far more important in the way that we can do this work, and the platform, the key for doing that will also be fostering awareness of the central role that technology has come to play has re-natured our identity and the way we need to walk to the extent that we are actually small technology companies not pretending to call yourself tech giants, but that you are a really smart technology companies if you want to truly do the work of accountability in an age of digital.

 Lanre Suraj: [00:17:41] Thank you very much Mr Dapo.Olurunyomi for joining us today. It's been a great delight and pleasure to learn from your wealth of experience and knowledge, and also the level at which you have elucidated on some of those key issues and how much you have also assisted the listeners in understanding that we are all actors in the field and the generation, the storage, the management, the dissemination of data is not only a function of government or even inter-governmental agencies, but of every citizens. And also, we're more than happy that we've provided this opportunity for the listeners, even though we can take questions. But the opportunity to listen to you, expatiate on these issues, break down some of these knotty areas of understanding the issue of that, and also the generation of data. Sometimes that the classification of data, which really should not be the case in many instances where they are used for the support of promotion of good governance in the system. On behalf of HEDA Resource Centre and the Yaradua foundation in our Partners United Forum. We are more than grateful for your time and for your support in this regard. To our listeners, every opportunity must be taken to expatiate on this issue, promote good governance and bring everybody together, all the actors in the areas of accountability and also promotion of it. So it is on this note that I say thank you to every listener and also promise on behalf of the partners our engagement of these issues with different resource persons that would be invited to join us and keep looking forward to the next episode. Thank you for your attention. Good bye.

 Outro: [00:19:39] To join the conversation about accountability in Nigeria. Visit partnersunited.org .You can also visit reports.corruptionanonymous.org. To blow the whistle on any perceived corrupt act or to make a report on accountability or governance issues in Nigeria.