Corruption: CSOs Advocate Legislation Of Whistleblowing

The Whistleblowing Advocacy Coalition has called for the legislation of whistleblowing and protection of whistleblowers in Nigeria.

The coalition made the call yesterday at a press briefing in commemoration of the 2022 International Anti-Corruption day, tagged: UNCAC at 20: “Uniting the World Against Corruption”, in Abuja.

It identified the lack of protection for whistleblowers as a major setback in the fight against corruption through whistleblowing.

“As a coalition, we have identified one of the gaps in the fight against corruption as  the undue delay in putting in place a framework for the protection of citizens who are courageous enough to report corruption and illegalities in society.

“We note that unlike in the early stages of the whistleblowing policy when people showed tremendous enthusiasm about submitting reports which resulted in frequent recovery of looted public funds, there has been a noticeable severe reduction in people’s interest in passing on information to the anti-corruption agencies. The major reason is that the whistleblowing policy which this administration introduced six years ago has remained a policy, with no framework for protecting whistleblowers who are continually subjected to all kinds of punishment for reporting fraud and corrupt practices in their offices.

“And so our specific mission as a group is to strengthen advocacy for the passage of the whistleblowing and whistleblower protection bill and its enactment as a law before the Muhammadu Buhari administration winds up next year,” the coalition said.

The programme manager, African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL), Kolawole Ogunbiyi said as critical as the whistleblower protection law is, the CSOs have not seen the political will by the appropriate bodies to establish the law.

On his part, the programme officer, AFRICMIL, Godwin Onyeacholen stressed on the need for the current government to legislate on Whistleblowing and also sign the whistleblower protection bill into law, as according to him, another administration might take over and give less attention to signing the bill.

The coalition also released the Abuja Declaration, a document of action on whistleblowing legislation and whistleblower protection in Nigeria.

According to the join press statement released by the coalition during the briefing, the Abuja Declaration features two major highlights. The first is the recognition of whistleblowing as not just a mechanism for addressing fraud and illegalities, but also as a right of freedom of expression which is a fundamental human right that needs to be fully protected.

The second feature is the unanimous endorsement of a strong coalition of duty bearers to intensify the campaign for an urgent realisation of protection legislation.

The press statement was jointly signed by the coordinator, African Centre for Media & Information Literacy (AFRICMIL), Chido Onumah, Executive director, Progressive Impact Organisation for Community Development (PRIMORG), Augustine Agbonsuremi, executive director, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Auwal Rafsanjani, programmes coordinator, Social Development Integrated Centre (Social Action), Botti Isaac, executive director, International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR), Dayo Aiyetan, country director, Amnesty International Nigeria, Osai Ojigho and the executive director, Orderpaper Advocacy Initiative, Oke Epia.