By Doyin Ojosipe
President Mohammadu Buhari has been called upon to ensure the passage of the whistleblower bill as it is long overdue.
The appeal was made on Friday by discussants at a whistleblowing radio townhall meeting organised by the African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL) in collaboration with the Progressive Impact Organization for Community Development (PRIMORG), at Raypower 100.5fm, Abuja.
Focusing on the impact of lack of a whistleblowing law in the past 5 years of the policy, the panelists who were mainly members of the civil society and the media said the absence of a law has continued to negatively impact on the efficacy of whistleblowing as a strategy for fighting corruption and checking wrongdoing in Nigeria.
Godwin Chigbu, lawyer and whistleblowing expert, said the whistleblowing policy of the federal government was not comprehensive enough as it only mostly deals with financial corruption at the expense of their forms of wrongdoing. He said the scenario was a major lacuna that should be looked into.
He urged President Buhari to leverage on his cordial relationship with the leadership of the National Assembly for the passage of a whistleblowing law before the end of the 9th assembly.
Abdulaziz Abdulaziz, Assistant Editor at Daily Trust media, said although the constitution made provision for journalists as watchdogs, they have not been able to do their work as they should because people are not willing to disclose information given the lack of a whistleblowing legislation that would guarantee protection.
Godwin Onyeacholem, AFRICMIL’s Senior Program Officer said it seemed the Federal Government was not necessarily interested in the whistleblowing policy given the fact that some anti-corruption laws have been passed but whistleblowing law bill has remained untouched. According to him, it clearly shows that the political will was never present.
Responding to a caller; Yinusa Abdulahi, who knocked civil society organisations for not being up and doing in ensuring the passage of the whistleblowing law, Suleiman Mukhtar, Strategic Communication Manager at Accountability Lab, noted that members of CSOs are human and so should not be the only group tasked with the sole responsibility of pushing for a whistleblowing bill when it is meant to be a collective action from every citizen.
However, he tasked anti-corruption civil society organisations to strategically collaborate and compel government to pass the whistleblowing bill.
