RTI Bill: Ghana’s Security Mustn’t Be Compromised – Kufuor

A former President of Ghana, John Agyekum Kufuor has urged for a reexamination of the content of the Right to Information (RTI) bill so that information that may endanger the country will be preserved.

Delivering a lecture at the Annual Leadership Lecture organised by the University for Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) on the theme: “Leadership in Ghana: Meeting Global Standards”, the former president said though the passage of the RTI would greatly check corruption among others, it is important to consider the security implications.

He said: “Successive governments have been grappling to pass this bill. The real challenge is not governments refusing to pass the bill, I don’t think so, but the text of the bill, the content of the bill has not been visited enough to offer guarantees to information that are of security and stability concerns to the integrity of the nation itself.

“We must look at the stability and security aspects of the bill. This bill must be passed to achieve better governance but it must not be at the cost of security and stability of the nation. It is obvious that governments not passing the RTI frustrate the fight against corruption and civil society groups are up in arms for the lack of passage and they are entitled to protest.”

For close to two decades, parliament has failed to pass the bill into law despite advocacy by the media and civil society organisations for its passage.