By Doyin Ojosipe
The African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL), and the National Orientation Agency have agreed to work together to address the issue of election fraud through whistleblowing.
The partnership was announced during the organisation’s courtesy call on the Director General of NOA, Dr Garba Abari, at the Agency’s headquarters in Abuja.
AFRICMIL and NOA had initially birthed the thought of deploying the whistleblowing tool in Nigeria’s electioneering process at the launch of the Partners United/AFRICMIL whistleblowing reporting portal in July.
Addressing AFRICMIL’s delegates, Dr Abari stated that the issue of vote buying was chief in the stagnant economic quagmire Nigeria finds itself in. He said hungry and unwise youths keep selling their votes and future to desperate politicians for money.
Abari also mentioned that NOA had made an initial move to educate the youths but tackling the issue could only be successful when all stakeholders such as the civil society organisations (CSOs), government and Nigerians work in partnership. He noted that little has been achieved due to the trust deficit that exists between citizens and government.
He said that the NOA is pleased to make available its platform to popularise whistleblowing as a tool against vote buying
Responding, AFRICMIL Senior Program Officer, Godwin Onyeacholem, said whistleblowing remains a viable tool for tackling fraudulent practices and other forms of wrongdoing in society. He said AFRICMIL has been raising awareness through its advocacy activities such as town hall meetings and mediation between embattled whistleblowers and their ‘employers’.
Kolawole Ogunbiyi, AFRICMIL’s Program Manager, said the not-for-profit organisation was most comfortable collaborating on awareness creation with the NOA due to its reach and huge recognition. He said NOA officials at the grassroots are in the best position to help popularise whistleblowing as a tool for addressing vote buying.
Nkechi Ugwu, AFRICMIL’s Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, said the whistleblowing reporting portal could also be used in generating data.
