If I read this headline on any other website, I’d have dismissed it as clickbait and continued scrolling through my Twitter feed. But I kid you not, the Government of Lagos State has “fulfilled their obligation to create easy access to state laws” by attempting to sell them online. C’mon guys, I know we all agreed that E-commerce rules, but I think this is taking things a notch too far.
Governor Akinwunmi Ambode just sent out a bunch of tweets making the announcement.
Lagos State laws can now be easily accessed via digital platforms – https://t.co/xOSpLwX1Hk
— Akinwunmi Ambode (@AkinwunmiAmbode) April 10, 2016
The online platform was in fulfillment of the obligation of the State to create easy access to State laws, thereby promoting accountability
— Akinwunmi Ambode (@AkinwunmiAmbode) April 10, 2016
The online platform will enable investors to make informed decisions about their investments in the state https://t.co/UUB7LzH4aa
— Akinwunmi Ambode (@AkinwunmiAmbode) April 10, 2016
This administration is committed to drive governance & administration of justice through innovation and information technology.
— Akinwunmi Ambode (@AkinwunmiAmbode) April 10, 2016
…and just when things were going fine…
I encourage lawyers and the entire public to visit the site https://t.co/xOSpLwX1Hk to view the laws and make purchases.
— Akinwunmi Ambode (@AkinwunmiAmbode) April 10, 2016
The online platform would enable people to search, view & download the laws of the state anywhere in the world by just the click of a button
— Akinwunmi Ambode (@AkinwunmiAmbode) April 10, 2016
Payment cards including MasterCard, Visa, Verve and Interswitch have all been integrated to the online platform
— Akinwunmi Ambode (@AkinwunmiAmbode) April 10, 2016
Surely, His Excellency must see the cognitive dissonance in announcing that state laws can be easily accessed and then proceeding to erect a paywall. Worse still, I visited the site, Mastercard-in-hand, but I was greeted with an Error establishing a database connection error.
Hi @AkinwunmiAmbode, digitizing laws should spread access and strengthen transparency. Putting a pay wall is not in interest of democracy.
— BudgIT Nigeria (@BudgITng) April 10, 2016
I was gonna ask same thing but decided to visit the site first. I was welcomed with database error. Shameful https://t.co/hbED8lGCVR
— Ifeanyi Gbemudu (@ifeanyibold) April 10, 2016
Interesting fact: Ope Adeoye from Interswitch told us as Africabeta 2.0 that even though 97 million Nigerians were connected to the internet, there were only 200,000 cards active. So, out of the massive population of Lagos State, less than 200,000 can “buy” access to the laws that bind them.
Because I’m a curious cat, I went a-googling, to see if any other countries had implemented similar systems, and I found this. Go on…read it.
Hat tip to the good guys at BudgIT for bringing it to my attention.
