Almost one year after the Muhammadu Buhari administration formally launched a whistle-blowing policy as part of its anti-corruption campaign, the policy cannot be said to have succeeded yet.
This was the unanimous agreement reached at the end of a media dialogue organized to review the whistle-blowing policy and its performance so far.
The media dialogue was organised by the African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL), under its Corruption Anonymous (CORA) project.
Speaking at the event, Theophilus Abba, Managing Editor of Daily Trust newspaper, noted that the whistle-blowing policy should not have been domiciled in the Ministry of Finance as is the case.
Abba also pointed out that the anti-corruption campaign should not be centred around theft of funds only.
“What has taken place in Nigeria over the years is much more than theft,” Abba said.
“For instance, one is given N33 million to build a Primary Healthcare Centre, now the healthcare centre is not built, government knows that the health centre was not built, government knows that the money has been released, why will government wait for a whistle-blower in order to recover the money?
“If government is really serious about whistle blowing, then we need to do much more than what we are doing right now.
“Journalists have published stories about corruption based on tips (from whistle-blowers) and I discover that nothing was done. People will do big stories exposing fraud here and there, and one would think that the National Assembly or the Presidency would take it up, but everybody will be looking at it.
“And you (as a journalist) will be like: ‘what’s the importance of what I’m doing’? So I’m thinking that government needs to do more to convince Nigerians that they really want to fight corruption using this policy.”
Also, participants at the dialogue picked holes in the Whistle-blower Act, wich was recently passed by the Senate, saying it leaves so much to be desired.
Catherine Agbo, former Editor at Leadership Newspaper, pointed out a clause in the Act that prohibits public officials from blowing the whistle to the media, arguing that ordinary citizens seem to trust the media more than government agencies.
“Many whistle-blowers prefer to go to the media because they feel safer, they are sure that their security is guaranteed especially when they want to give the information anonymously,” Agbo said.
Participants also criticized government’s handling of the Ikoyi cash recovery saga, and the failure of the finance ministry to reward the whistle blower whose information led to the recovery.
Chido Onumah, Coordinator of AFRICMIL, urged the government to do more to ensure that persons who volunteer useful information that exposes wrongdoing are protected.
He cited the example of Murtala Ibrahim and Teslim Anibaba, staff of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), who are yet to be reinstated months after being dismissed for blowing the whistle on the bank’s management.
Not even a directive from Babatunde Fashola, Minister of Power, Works and Housing, was enough to get them reinstated.