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Why Nigerians Abandoned Buhari’s Whistleblowing Policy Six Years After Introduction –Coalition

buhari
December 9, 2022

The policy was launched by President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration in December 2016.

Whistleblowing Advocacy Coalition said many Nigerians have been discouraged from making disclosures on wrongdoings and corruption by government officials due to a lack of whistleblower protection laws that would guarantee their safety six years after its introduction.

The Programme Manager, AFRICAN Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL), Mr. Kolawole Ogunbiyi disclosed this at a press conference on Whistleblowing legislation and Whistleblowing protection in Nigeria to mark the International Anti-Corruption Day 2022 on Thursday in Abuja.

The policy was launched by President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration in December 2016.

The Coalition said there has been a noticeable severe reduction in people’s interest in passing on information to anti-corruption agencies unlike in the early stages of the policy when people showed tremendous enthusiasm about submitting reports which resulted in the frequent recovery of looted public funds.

Ogunbiyi said the reason for the lack of interest was 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.

 

Ogunbiyi said, "Many whistleblowers in the public sector have been visited with adverse actions ranging from dismissal, suspension without pay, denial of salary and promotion, intimidation, harassment, etc. Even to exercise the right to refuse participation in corrupt acts attracts punishment from the management of public institutions.

"Thus, because workers see that their colleagues who report a crime or refuse to be part of a crime are being victimized without any form of protection, many of them are discouraged from making disclosures on wrongdoing even when they see one.  

"Therefore, our convergence today is to use this year’s International Anti-Corruption Day to reaffirm our resolve to fill this yawning gap exemplified in the absence of a whistleblowing and whistleblower legislation that offers robust protection for citizens who carry out whistleblowing in the interest of the public.

"A significant step in concretizing this resolve was taken on November 8 in Abuja where the civil society and media partners who have for long demonstrated the passion to curb corruption in our polity and recognized the importance of whistleblowing in achieving this objective, came together to deliberate on whistleblowing practice in Nigeria.

"The group came up with what is now known as The Abuja Declaration of Action on Whistleblowing Legislation and Whistleblower Protection in Nigeria.

 

“It is the Abuja Declaration that this coalition has the honour of unveiling today with the generous support of members.

"The coalition considers this a significant milestone in our struggle to ensure that a whistleblower protection law is enacted as a positive and sincere way of encouraging citizens to join the fight against corruption which is the original intent of the whistleblowing policy.”

He added that part of the steps taken by the coalition was the resolutions taken on November 8 in Abuja where the civil society and media partners who have for long demonstrated the passion to curb corruption in the country came together to deliberate on whistleblowing practice in Nigeria.