Chief Executive Officer of the Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors, Senyo Hosi, has challenged President Akufo-Addo to pass the Right to Information bill in order to avoid any embarrassment during his administration.
This call to action was made during the commemoration of the International Day for Universal Access to Information, organized by the Coalition on the Right to Information at the International Press Centre.
“It will be a big embarrassment for the current government, and I daresay H.E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, it will be the biggest embarrassment for him if he fails to ensure that the Right to Information bill is passed. Because he has been an advocate for transparency. He has been an advocate for democracy. He has been an advocate for human rights”, he posited.
He challenged the president to show Ghanaians his true colours and not throw dust into the eyes of Ghanaians.
“I don’t hope that he will wait for it to get to his last year and then he passes it in hope that if he goes into opposition, he can now use that against those in power. Not at all. He should pass it now. Let’s have it now and let us see it have the right effects through his tenure and that is through commitment to the rights of the people”, he suggested.
The Right to Information bill has been subject to several parliamentary deliberations since the year 2000. A number of pressure groups have called on government to initiate the passage of the bill into law.
Earlier at a summit in the USA, President Akufo-Addo reiterated his administration’s commitment to ensuring the RTI Bill was passed.
In a speech read on his behalf, the President said “my government intends to pass the Right to Information Bill into law very soon. We know that transparency protects officials and the public in the dealing with the public purse. The public has the right to know what politicians and the public officials do in their name,”.
The enactment of the Bill into law will make it easier for Ghanaians to seek and obtain information from the various government sectors.
