AN ASSESSMENT OF WORKABILITY OF FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA) IN JOURNALISM PROFESSION IN NIGERIA

ABSTRACT: This work set out to study the workability of freedom of information Act (FOIA) in Journalism profession in Nigeria. In  2011, the bill FOIA was assented to by the president of the federal republic of Nigeria president Goodluck Jonathan after eleven years of foot dragging in the N/ Assembly, and the hope of every Nigeria was that the Act would a respite to the rigorous Suffering the Journalists have been subjected to in the course of  digging out facts and figures containing in both Government and private institutions to which such contents, they have be been denied access to on demand. A survey technique was used to obtain date from three hundred respondent respondents were chosen purposively to found out that the good intention of the FOIA has been dished or jettisoned due to the provisions of official secret Act in Nigeria which barrnigadle the access to Government documents by Journalist. The study recommend that the stakeholders being the legal luminaries, law makes in the states and national Assemblies and Journalists too should revisit the contents of the two acts of Nigeria parchment and assiduously response any parts that could man or muzzle Journalists from reporting the truth which is the only denfence  for any society such as ours.