Advocates of the whistleblowing policy introduced by the Federal Government in December 2016 to fight corruption in the country have expressed fears that the policy has been abandoned.
They identified strategic engagements with key stakeholders as a major way the policy could be revitalised.
They made their position known in Abuja at the National Conference on Whistleblowing, Corruption and Human Rights with the theme: ‘Amplifying Whistleblowing to Reduce Corruption and Protect Human Rights,’ put together by the African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL) and Amnesty International Nigeria.
Articulating the consensus at the conference, the Coordinator, AFRICMIL, Dr Chido Onumah, regretted that the reduced attention to the policy was being compounded by the non-adherence to access to information laws that would enable stakeholders and others to obtain information held by public institutions and empower them to hold powerful individuals and corporate entities to account.
Onumah also identified the lack of effective and independent judicial institutions tasked with provision of access to justice and valuable remedies for human rights violations as another bottleneck to the fight against corruption.
According to the coordinator, as a good governance mechanism, whistle-blowing has been described as one of the most effective methods of exposing corrupt acts and other wrongdoings and fostering accountability in the internal management of organisations.
He further disclosed that whistleblowers play a positive, legitimate and crucial role in the prevention of and in the fight against corruption and the protection of human rights.
He added: “As reports of disclosures of corrupt practices continued to rise in the public sector shortly after Nigeria announced a whistle-blowing policy, whistleblowers in different government agencies increasingly became targets of vicious retaliation in the absence of a protection law and despite provisions for their safety as captured in Section 6 of the policy.
“Over the years, they have uncovered and disclosed information on various corrupt and suspicious dealings linked to different actors and institutions, including security sector officials, those in the academic community, and several others in key sectors and communities, leading to wider public debates about corruption, human rights violations and the need for accountability.
“The right of citizens to report wrongdoing is part and parcel of the right of freedom of expression and access to information, and is linked to the principles of transparency and integrity.”
According to Onumah the workshop is aimed at deepening the promotion and protection of freedom of expression and access to information, which are fundamental human rights as enshrined in Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution.
