By Doyin Ojosipe and Nnenna Okonkwo
The African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL) and the Anti-Corruption and Transparency Unit (ACTU) of the Ministry of Water Resources have agreed to collaborate in institutionalising the whistleblowing policy in the Ministry.
The partnership was against the backdrop of the sensitization event which was organised last year by AFRICMIL in collaboration with the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA), as part of the activities to take whistleblowing to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
Although federal government had announced adopting whistleblowing as one of the strategies for fighting corruption, the MDAs are yet to fully understand much less adopt the policy notwithstanding the existence of ACTUs in the various government institutions.
Speaking during a courtesy visit at the Federal Ministry of Water Resources in Abuja, Tuesday, Godwin Onyeacholem, Senior Program Officer said the purpose of the meeting was to reiterate AFRICMIL’s position on the importance of whistleblowing and protection of whistleblowers’ identity as key to the efficacy of whistleblowing as a tool for fighting corruption.
Citing the examples of cases of victimised whistleblowers, he stated that it had been tough travelling the road to justice with whistleblowers, hence, AFRICMIL was collaborating with other Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and pro-bono lawyers who are also available to litigate on behalf of the whistleblowers should the need arise.
Onyeacholem mentioned that public servants who have tips on and other forms of wrongdoing can do so by visiting the Partners United Corruption Anonymous (CORA) whistleblowing portal “and they would do so without disclosing their identity.”
Responding, Bolaji Adeosun, Deputy Director, ACTU said while institutionalisation of the whistleblowing policy was needful, the anticorruption unit of the ministry need to be brought abreast with what the policy entails so as to be able to contextualise it in running the unit.
In the same vein, Lewis Asubiojo, AFRICMIL Director, promised that the organisation was willing to partner with the ministry by making available resource persons including materials on how to institutionalise whistleblowing in view of expected deliverables.
On her part, Nkechi Ugwu, AFRICMIL Monitoring and Evaluation Officer said the visit was a follow-up to harvest reports on what has changed so far since the whistleblowing sensitization event. She enjoined the representatives of the ministry to fast-track the process of institutionalising the policy in the organisation.
Doyin Ojosipe, AFRICMIL Media and Advocacy Officer, also urged the ministry to look into tackling the challenge posed by the ‘oath of secrecy’ which most civil servants had pointed out in the past as one of the bottlenecks responsible for keeping civil servants from fearlessly exposing acts of fraud and wrongdoing. She noted that a well-established ACTU should be able to protect a whistleblower.
Responding, Bolaji Adeosun, Deputy Director and head of ACTU, said while institutionalisation of the whistleblowing policy was needful, the anticorruption unit of the ministry need to be brought abreast with what the policy entails so as to be able to contextualise it in running the unit.
