By Joy Ude
The Coordinator, African Center for Media and Information Literacy(AFRICMIL), on Thursday called for prompt passage of the whistleblowing bill into law to strentectgthen the fight against corruption.
Dr. Chido Onumah,the Coordinator for AFRICMIL, a Non-Governmental Organisation made the call during a one-day workshop for Law Enforcement and Anti-Corruption Agencies organized by the group in collaboration with SocialAction, and supported by MacArthur Foundation in Port Harcourt.
The Starreporter recalled that the whistleblowing policy was introduced by Federal Government in Dec.2016 to fight against corruption in the country.
According to Onumah, whistleblowing has been described as one of the most effective methods of exposing corrupt acts and fostering accountability in the internal management of organisations.
Onumah said that the workshop with the theme “Strengthening Anti-Corruption and Promoting Accountability through Whistleblowing and Whistleblower Protection” was designed to bring together critical institutions tasked with arresting corruption and other crimes that endanger society’s wellbeing with a view to exposing them.
Onumah said that as reports of disclosures and recoveries continued to rise in the public sector, whistleblowers in different government agencies increasingly became victims of vicious retaliation in the absence of a protection law and despite provisions for their safety as captured in section 6 of the whistleblowing policy.
He said that lack of protection of citizens, mostly public sector workers made them lose interest in blowing the whistle on corruption and other types of wrongdoing due to fear of consequences.
Onumah said that various attacks on the whistleblowers such as suspension,denial of salaries and other benefits, punitive transfers, denial of promotion to outright dismissal brought a steady reduction in the volume of disclosures recorded over the years, making it seem as if the policy had been abandoned.
“We expect that the workshop will give richer and stronger resolve to investigate reports of corruption and wrongdoing and protect our compatriots who become victims of impunity and abuse of power only because they made disclosures against corrupt and other illegal practices that threaten society’s wellbeing.
“Prompt Passage of whistleblowing policy and the protection of whistleblowers bill into law will promote whistleblowing and strengthen the fight against corruption,”Onumah said.
Similarly, Mr Johnson Oludara, the Deputy Director, Federal Ministry of Finance, while speaking on the topic “Understanding Nigerian’s Whistleblowing Policy”, said that the need to continuously discuss the whistleblowers policy cannot be overemphasized.
Oludara took into consideration the fact that many Nigerians thought that the policy is no longer in force, stating that it’s important to the success of the fight against corruption, economic and financial crimes.
Oludara explained some of the benefits of the whistleblowers policy in Nigeria as helping to combat fraud, encourages people to report suspected wrongdoing, or preventing occupational fraud and unfair treatment in the work place in most cases.
According to him, having a whistleblowing system is enough to deter people from committing any misconduct for fear of legal prosecution.
“The whistleblowing policy in the country is a big threat to the corrupt elements,”he said.
The Deputy Director also mentioned some of the challenges facing whistleblowing policy as lack of involvement by Nigerians and ownership of the fight against corruption.
He advised Nigerians to take ownership of the fight against corruption by reporting to economic and financial Crimes using various options made available including the whistleblowers policy.
In a speech,Dr Isaac Osuoka, the Executive Director Social Action, a Non-Governmental Organisation, also called for the passage of whistleblowing bill into law, saying that the whistleblowers should be protected to strengthen fight against corruption in the country.
Osuoka represented by the Acting Executive Director of the group, Mercy Atsekurubu, called for collaboration between the anti-corruption agencies, the civil society organisations and the media to strengthen fight against corruption.