The Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye has promised protection of the identities of informants and Nigerians who report corrupt acts.
While participating in a radio town hall meeting on whistleblowing, organised at the weekend in Abuja by the Progressive Impact Organisation for Community Development (PRIMORG), Owasonoye gave the assurance owing to growing concerns that the Federal Government’s whistleblower policy is declining in momentum as citizens are reluctant to report wrongdoings over fear of reprisal and lack of protection.
Represented by ICPC’s Director of Public Enlightenment and Education, Alhaji Mohammed Ashiru Baba, the ICPC boss emphasised that the commission is duty-bound, in line with section 64 of the ICPC Act, to protect the identity of whistleblowers. But warned prospective whistleblowers against exposing themselves to reprisal attacks by “talking carelessly”, adding that ICPC is working on an internal mechanism to protect whistleblowers.
He said the general impression that whistleblower policy is not succeeding is because people view it from a narrow perspective, especially discovering or reporting money and getting a percentage.
He explained: “Section 64 of the ICPC Act says that ICPC officers are duty bound to conceal the identity of the informant and the content of the information. And any ICPC officer found violating this section of the law, is liable to jail term for 10 years. The danger mostly is from the whistleblowers themselves, they don’t keep their mouth shut.
“The ICPC Act provides for reporting of corruption orally or in writing. You can even send an anonymous petition if you don’t want your names to appear for security reasons but you have to avail your name and contact details to the anticorruption agency, that is, the ICPC in case we need you for further clarification. There are many ways to send in your petition. Even if you don’t know how to read or write, you can come to our offices and report your findings and it is written on your behalf.
“When we say whistleblowing, we mean reporting anti-corruption activities even if they are activities that mark lack of integrity like sexual harassment; It’s a broad term. Why we are generally under the impression that the whistleblowing policy of the Federal Government is not succeeding is because we give it a very narrow perspective”.
Participants at the radio town hall meeting expressed their worries with the whistleblower policy with emphasis laid on the need for the outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari administration to ensure that the whistleblower draft bill it approved a couple of months ago get passed into law before exiting office.
According to Programme Officer at the African Centre for Media and Information Literacy, Mr Godwin Onyeacholem, reprisal attacks against whistleblowers remain rife in Nigeria despite provisions for protection captured in the policy.
Onyeacholem expressed optimism that the current administration would sign into law the whistleblower bill approved by the Federal Executive Council last December before its terminate date on 29th May.
“There are many people out there suffering one form of persecution or the other for exposing corruption. There are all kinds of violations coupled with intimidation, and threats; And we are thinking it is because there’s no legislation yet.
“Section 12 of the whistleblowing policy stipulates protection for whistleblowers, there are public servants who are facing all kinds of victimization because of making disclosure in their institution. But this section stipulates protection for them but then it is just there in the policy, there is little or no provision for anybody.
“I understand that the Honourable Minister of Finance wants to ensure that whistleblowing law will be a legacy of the present administration, I’m optimistic it will happen”, Onyeacholem stated.
Former General Secretary of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Rafat Salami called for the protection of journalists to be made paramount as they are very vital to the anti-corruption fight using whistleblowing as an instrument.
She regretted that the media, which relies heavily on the citizens for information in order to hold the government accountable, are targets and endangered, adding that the effectiveness of the media is also hit by poor or even lack of remuneration for journalists.
Salami said: “Until Nigerians come together unitedly and agree that we need to fight and stamp out corruption there is a limit to what the government can achieve. Until non-payment of salaries of journalists there is a limit to how much a journalist can hold the government to account”.
A public good advocate, Prince Kevin Fyneface joined the calls for journalists to get the right remuneration, while alluding that whistleblowers and informants are no longer willing to come forward because of lack of protection.
Fyneface lamented that Nigeria has a cobweb of corruption that inhibits holistic anti-corruption fight, stressing that flawed recruitment process in the public service remains a serious problem and as well blamed dying family values in the Nigerian society for booming corruption in the country.
The PRIMORG’s Town Hall Meeting Against Corruption series is aimed at calling the public and government attention to specific issues of corruption in Nigeria.
The syndicated radio programme runs with support from the MacArthur Foundation.
