Information Needs And Seeking Behaviour Of Lawmakers

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Information has been recognized as a veritable tool for the elevation of man in his environment. Relevant and up-to-date information propels the process of decision making by both organization and individuals.

Information creates awareness in man. It elevates him from the position of ignorance to that of knowledge, and from that of passivity or in action to that of activity and action (Onwubiko, 2006). Predicated on the above consciousness, the provision of information and the use made of it should not be relegated to the background by individuals, information centres, libraries and other causes of information.

According to Adimoral (2007), information is the common wealth or common resources of all citizens of a nation. It is as important as the other factors of production like land, labour, capital and entrepreneur. Information is the resource used to harness and process the proceeds in the other factors of production. As a matter of fact, information is needed at the personal, group, corporate organization, governmental, and indeed at all levels of human endeavours.

The possession of the right information at the right time and in the current format will enable individuals, professionals and organizations to make rational decisions. In fact, the possession of the current and up to date information makes for functional and strategic decision-making and implementation (Onwubiko, 2005).

The information needs to be passed to the general public or the consumers and users of information have generally been neglected and relegated to the background. The neglect is largely as a result of the methodological problems that arise from researching the group, one of such syndicate of the public that require information in order to be productive and successful in other chosen career are the law makers.

In the government system, there are men and women who decide, formulate policies and those that make laws. These could be federal representative in Congress, or local representative on a city council, but either way, the same duties and responsibilities are being carried out by government officials on behalf of the public.

As lawmakers, they need information to make decisions regarding the issues and problems that they are presented with. Lawmakers play a tremendous role in policy making, and that policy should create the greatest good for the greatest number of people.

According to Uhegbu, (2003) information is very important in the entire life of man and it is needed by different clients for a variety of reasons. This implies that the provision of information must be tailored or customized in order to effectively satisfy the needs of the user or consumer (Onwubiko, 2009). The above goes to buttress or reinforce, the view held by Laurami (2010), that effective information dissemination must be anchored on the paradigm of community study or community auditing. This implies that acknowledgement of the characteristics factors of the target group is inevitable. Also imperative is the knowledge of their information needs.

It is against this backdrop that this study seeks to carry out an empirical survey on the information needs of lawmakers in Imo State. This is with a view of ascertaining their kind of information needs, their information seeking behaviour, factors affecting the realization of their information needs and possibly proffering solution to identified problems and background information of the instructions understudy.

1.2.1 Brief History of Imo State

Imo state was created on February 3, 1976 out of the Old East Central state by the then regime of General Murtala Muhammed. Abia state creation excise of 1991. It has Owerri as it capital and largest city. Other major towns are Okigwe, Oguta, Ukwerre, Orlu, Mbaise, Ujoagba, Emekuku, Orodo, Mgbidi situated in south eastern Nigeria, Imo State cover an area of 5, 530 square kilometers.

Imo State shares boundaries with Enugu and Eboyi state to the North, Anambra state to the West, River state to the south, cross river and Akwa Ibom state to the east. The inhabitants of Imo State an Igbo. The official language of the state is Igbo along- side English Imo State derives its name from Imo River, which takes course from the Okigwe/Awka Upland Imo State has many rivers. The main rivers in the state are: Imo, Otamiri and Njaba. The major lakes are in Oguta and Abadaba in Obowo local government area.

Administrative structure, like other states of the federation, the administrative structure of the state is there tier states local and autonomous community levels. At the state level, it is composed of three arms the executive, the legislative and the judiciary.

The chief judge of Imo State is appointed by the Governor of Imo State, screened and confirmed by the Imo state House of Assembly and recommendation of the national judiciary council. He or she is the appointed head of the judicial branch. Chief is also the most senior judge and presiding member of the high court of justice. Among other responsibilities, the chief judge has the ceremonial duty of administering the oath of office of the Governor of Imo State.

In modern tradition, the chief judge retires voluntarily at sixty five. Since 1999 the present democratic dispensation was born in Nigeria, Imo state has had nine Assemblies, meaning that the Imo legislature has ran for nine tenures with different group of law makers for twenty five years now.

Imo lawmakers or legislators are twenty seven in number, representing the twenty seven local government areas of Imo state, otherwise called constituencies. Therefore, whoever emerges as the legislator from any of these constituencies is in the house of assembly courtesy the people’ of that LGA, who have the constitutional power to recall whichever lawmaker that does not meet his opinions.

These legislatures after election gather the state capital where they elect their own officers on their terms and caprices and have the power to remove or sack any of the officers who fail to lead up to expectation. The speaker is the chairman. However, Imo State House of Assembly, by law, is expected to be independent, as their main job is to originate and pass bills for Imo people, which would be signed into law by the executive (governor).

In other words, the entire Imo people, in terms of promulgation of laws, depend on these twenty four men and women, who ought to operate with the protection of their constituents as the first of their priorities. However, any state that has a bulk of lawmakers who rather than think of their constituents, bother only about their own personal welfare and pocket is doomed.

This type of lawmakers could be described as merchandizing than facing the responsibility for which they were elected in office by the teeming electorate of their constituencies, which is to make laws that will protect and benefit the masses, and the state.

1.3 Statement of the Problem

Lawmakers play tremendous role in the state, when their legislative body is in session, state legislators create and process bills that becomes state law if approved. The state cannot do without them. Therefore, they need a tremendous deal of information. The need not only information, but also appropriate current and timely information to perform their functions effectively and efficiently.

This neglect of largely as are resent of the methodological problems that arises from researching this group and also because of the absence of good government (special) libraries and information centres and libraries to cater for the information needs of lawmakers.

A review of literature on this subject area shows paucity of any significant study on the information needs of lawmakers in Imo State House of Assembly. There are therefore, inadequate empirical studies on them. There information needs have remained unknown to people. It presupposes that they require information only on creating, processing bills that will become information only on creating, processing bills that will become state law in order to perform effectively on this area.

Conscious of these and other problems this study seeks to ascertain the information needs of lawmakers in Imo State House of Assembly, the type and sources of information material required and use to satisfy their information needs and the role libraries play in satisfying the information needs of this user group.

1.4 Objective of the study

• To identify the information need of lawmakers in Imo State House of Assembly
• To determine how the information needs of this user group are satisfied.
• Determine the purpose for such information needs.
• To find out the relationship between the provision of information needs to and their job performance.
• To identify other problem that militate against the satisfaction of the information needs of lawmakers and
• To proffer solutions to the identified problems

1.5 Research Questions

The following research questions are formulated to guide this research work.

• What type of quantity information needs of lawmakers in Imo State of Assembly?
• What are the vital role lawmakers play in the Imo State House of Assembly?
• What are the passage of bills that become laws when assented to by the Governor?
• What kind of current and timely information to perform their functions effectively and efficiently?
• What are the solutions to the problems?

1.6 Scope of the study

The study is on needs and seeking behaviour of lawmakers in Imo State, House of Assembly. Particularly, the study will ascertain the information needs of these lawmakers their source of information and how they are satisfied.

The other areas of focus are role of libraries in satisfying their information needs, relationship between information needs satisfying and problems militate against satisfying the lawmaker’s information needs, and proffer solutions to identified problems.

1.7 Significance of the study

The significance of the study is to help in correcting erroneous impression by people being and end with their work in the state. The research is also significant which will show the information needs of lawmakers for a variety of reasons. By so doing, the study will provide already reference source or libraries and other information needs of lawmakers. It will also add to the existing body of literature in the field of library and information sciences.