THE African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL) on Wednesday, presented to the public, the report of a survey on five years of whistleblowing policy in Nigeria.
In his welcome address, the AFRICMIL coordinator, Chido Onumah, stated that the survey was made possible with the support of The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, which birthed the project tagged Corruption Anonymous (CORA).
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He added that the project was designed to mobilise citizens to key into the whistleblowing policy, which the Nigerian government announced in December 2016 as a mechanism for fighting corruption in the country.
“This month marks five years since the introduction of the whistleblowing policy. To assess its performance over this period, AFRICMIL commissioned a survey in July targeting 7000 respondents in six states across the six geopolitical zones as well as in Abuja.
“The survey involved key informant interviews with revenue-generating MDAs, anti-graft agencies, media, civil society groups and other stakeholders. It also featured online respondents from the public, including professionals, youths, students, academic institutions, artisans, market women, religious leaders and organized labour.”
Speaking at the event, the Executive Secretary, Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti Corruption PACAC, Prof. Sadiq Isah Radda, decried the attitude of Nigerians towards reporting corruption cases, urging them to get involved in order to contribute their own quota to the development of the country.
“The problem of corruption is human and therefore it requires human efforts to eliminate it. We started the issue of whistleblowing believing that our anti-graft agencies cannot be everywhere but the people who perpetrate corruption are everywhere in the country. Therefore somebody has to say something is going wrong somewhere for the authorities to take action.
“Since the business idea of whistleblowing began, we have realised some problems by people who want to blow the whistle. I have always said that we must be willing to pay the price for doing what is good, including losing our lives.”
Radda also challenged anti-corruption advocates in the country to focus on humanitarian interventions, adding that there is a lot of corruption going on in the distribution of relief materials to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
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Also present at the event were representatives of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices & Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
Overview of the survey report
The findings from the survey revealed that an overwhelming majority (98.2%) of Nigerians perceived corruption as a serious problem and menace in the country.
It also revealed that one-quarter of the respondents are willing to report any form of corrupt practices while three out of four respondents have stopped reporting cases of looted funds due to nepotism, fear and other challenges.
The report findings also revealed that legislative protection and monetary reward for whistleblowers were considered key motivators for potential whistleblowers.
It also revealed that one out of every four Nigerians is somewhat satisfied with the available channel for reporting corrupt practices.
'Niyi worked with The ICIR as an Investigative Reporter and Fact-checker from 2020 till September 2022. You can shoot him an email via [email protected]. You can as well follow him on Twitter via @niyi_oyedeji.