RTI law: I don’t doubt that Akufo-Addo genuinely wanted to pass this bill – Samson Anyenini

A leading member of the Right to Information Bill Coalition (RTI Coalition), Samson Lardy Anyenini has lauded the President’s disposition about the passage of the RTI bill into law.

The RTI Bill which was laid before the seventh government after its failure to be passed by the 5th and 6th parliaments was finally approved Tuesday March 27, 2019 and awaiting the President’s assent to be made law.

Prior to this however, it had been in Parliament for close to two decades despite calls from the media and civil society groups for its passage.

Mr. Lardy Anyenini, speaking to Ghanaweb noted that he had trust in the President’s willingness to pass the bill and is looking forward to swift action from him as far as assenting is concerned so processes can begin towards its implementation.

“The President’s promise was that immediately this law was passed, he would assent to it to make it law, I expect that by now he should have assented to it. I know that deep within him as the president, he wanted this bill to be passed and that’s good”, he stated.

“Let the state commit sufficient resources to do the groundwork including the LI so that we can get off with it”, he added.

He was of the conviction that ‘good faith’ and commitment to the implementation will drive the relevant authorities to take action in that direction to ensure results.

Mr. Anyenini was also optimistic about the role of the law in promoting transparency and accountability in governance.



“We might have to continue to push for those who want to give excuses.
“I believe that once there is good faith and we are committed to the implementation, we can work towards the perfection of this particular law”.

“I believe that we have something that we can work with moving forward that expands the frontiers of access to information, will help open governance, transparency and will help citizens better do their job which they are mandated to do in article 41F of the constitution that they should combat misuse and corruption, they should expose that, so I think it is in the good direction”, he added..