Whistle-blowing policy in Nigeria is an anti-corruption programme that encourages people to voluntarily disclose information about bribery, looted government funds, financial misconduct, government assets and any other form of corruption or theft, to Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Finance.
December will mark the 6th year of the policy, which the federal government introduced in December 2016.
Citizens’ participation is meant to enable them blow the whistle on financial crimes and other corrupt practices.
While the policy was initially greeted with enthusiasm, a combination of government action or inaction, as well as citizens’ lackadaisical attitude, contributed to its waning.
A whistleblower who provides information about any financial mismanagement or tip about any stolen fund to the ministry’s portal is entitled to 2.5 or 5 per cent of the recovered amount.
When President Muhammadu Buhari assumed office on May 29, 2015, one of his cardinal focuses was the fight against corruption because of his belief that, “If we do not kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria.”
The fear of corruption became so palpable that the ‘body language’ of the president assumed a warning signal, especially with his anti-corruption stance when he was a military head of state.
While the government launched some strategies to tackle corruption, the whistle-blowing policy, unveiled by a former minister of finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, was seen as one of the cardinal measures to tackle the menace.
At its early stage, the policy was greeted with ovation as courageous citizens voluntarily disclosed information about looted public funds and assets, financial misconduct and other forms of malfeasance to security agents and anti-graft agencies.
This led to massive responses with billions of supposedly looted funds discovered, arrests made and legal cases instituted against suspects.
The then permanent secretary, Special Duties in the Ministry of Finance, Dr Muhammad Dikwa, said the federal government saved as much as N594.09billion since the inception of the policy.
However, rather than receiving more tips and seeing corrupt practices and illicit financial flows exposed on a wider scale, the scenario started witnessing a decline in the desire of citizens to submit reports because of safety concerns following the unpleasant experiences of early whistleblowers.
This fear is informed by the fact that the policy has not provided adequate protection for whistleblowers, thus leaving them exposed to attacks when corruption fights back.
A victim who pleaded not to be named once said, “The aftermath came with unmitigated persecution, intimidation and victimization at workplace. And many, including known persons, were suspended or dismissed from their jobs and heaven did not fall, with the victors who turned victims leaking their wounds alone.”
One of the whistleblowers, Mr Joseph Akeju, a chief lecturer at the Yaba College of Technology, Lagos, was dismissed from work just two weeks to his retirement because he dared to report financial irregularities to the tune of N1.68bn perpetrated between March 2008 and 2014.
Till date, his case has not been resolved, even with the intervention of the Senate Committee on Public Petitions.
Another case was that of Dr Murtala Ibrahim, an internal auditor in the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), who exposed corruption in the bank.
He obviously did not bargain for the retribution that followed as he was first transferred to Jalingo in Taraba State and later had his appointment terminated in May 2017.
His quest to getting official justice in the National Industrial Court is yet to materialize.
Another one is that of an architect and head of the Physical Planning Division of the Federal College of Education, Asaba, Delta State, Joseph Ameh, who in 2020 exposed some corrupt practices at the college.
Although the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) found merit in his petition by taking those found culpable in the crime to court, the school sacked Ameh months later, and he has since remained jobless.
Another celebrated case was that of the head of Internal Audit, Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) Plc, Mr Sambo Abdullahi, who had his salaries and other allowances withheld for about three years for daring to blow the whistle on the shady deals of his ‘iron lady’ boss.
Recounting his ordeal, Abdullahi said, “I went to work for almost three years without pay. During that period, I had no money and could not make ends meet. I had to depend on family and friends to survive.
“Everybody suffered it; my children felt it, my wife, my mother. There was a day we went out and my son said, ‘Dad, I would have asked you to buy us shawarma, but we know you do not collect salary.’ They knew what it meant, and unfortunately, I did not prepare for such because I thought I was doing something good.”
In another case, a former chief information officer in the Police Service Commission (PSC), Mr Aaron Kaase, who blew the whistle on a former chairman of the commission, Mr Mike Okiro, was suspended without pay for three years, and in between, was harassed regularly and even had his life threatened.
This and other cases loom in the heart and psyche of would-be whistleblowers who would rather be at peace with themselves and loved ones than risk losing their peace to harassment and possible assault.
Speaking on the development, the Africa Director of the MacArthur Foundation, Dr Kole Shettima, noted that the number of whistleblowers in the country had reduced, compared to when the policy started.
He said that at the beginning of the policy, there were more people coming out to reveal individuals and institutions that were not doing things right.
Shettima said, “I see that the tempo has reduced because of certain reasons, including the fact that there is no adequate protection for them. I also think that it is because there has been delay or no payment of incentives for whistleblowers. I think that informed the reason the policy has not been effective as it used to be.
“So we need to reconfigure the policy by setting stronger legal backing and ensuring that there is more transparency in the administration of the whistle-blowing policy.”
He also urged lawyers to provide pro bono services for people who are blowing the whistle to avoid reprisals.
Also, the Coordinator of the African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL), Dr Chido Onumah, whose organisation is among the leading voices for the sustenance of the policy and protection of whistleblowers, said the policy was one of the creative additions to the fight against corruption by the current government.
He said the idea of the policy was to make citizens part of the fight against corruption, adding, however, that the absence of protection of whistleblowers has slowed down citizens’ interest in it.
“There is no law to back the whistle-blowing policy; therefore, citizens are not eager to blow the whistle because there is no legal guarantee that if they do, they are protected. Protection is essential in the whole process,” Onumah said.
He also said that countries like South Africa, Uganda and Ghana had put in place broad laws around whistle-blowing to protect blowers and define the parameters of the policy, thus the need to protect ‘Nigerian whistleblowers’ identities.
On his part, a former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, noted that lack of legal framework was one of the major factors affecting the efficacy of the policy.
He said the fact that it had taken over five years to have a legal framework for the policy showed “our national inertia to fighting corruption.” He added that it would require a lot of effort to get the National Assembly to pass the bill.
He said the policy itself, which is a very laudable one, needed to be properly contextualised for Nigerians to get the benefits attached to it, adding that because it is a federal policy, implementation at state and local levels is very constrained.
The Osborne-Ikoyi case
The country was thrown into hysteria in early April, 2017 over the discovery of a large stockpile of cash in a four-bedroom apartment in an upscale Osborne Street compound in Ikoyi, Lagos State.
Hours after whetting public curiosity with live pictures from the operation that afternoon, the premier anti-corruption agency, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), said it found $43.4m, N23.3m and €27,800 in the unoccupied building, totaling N13bn.
It was a record cash recovery, one of the biggest ever in Nigeria’s history of counter-fraud effort, which drew huge commendation from startled citizens.
Despite the controversy that trailed the source and purpose of the funds, which the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) claimed at the time, the monies were subjected to forfeiture processes and sent back to government’s coffers.
However, while the anti-graft agency basked in the euphoria of the feat, not much was made public about how the victory came about until the trio of Abdulmumin Musa, Stephen Sunday and Bala Usman, who gave the information leading to the discovery of the money dragged the federal government to court when the monetary incentive for their information was not forthcoming.
It is also unclear if the whistleblowers were eventually rewarded as information about them or their lawyer was not forthcoming despite repeated calls for such.
Dr Onumah had also said that AFRICMIL, with MacArthur Foundation, had been working on a project tagged Corruption Anonymous (CORA) designed to mobilise citizens to key into the whistle-blowing policy.
He said to assess its performance over this period, AFRICMIL commissioned a survey in July, targeting 7,000 respondents and including key informants in ministries, departments, agencies and unions.
He said the objective of the survey was to catalogue the data of the impact of the policy in addressing corrupt practices and other wrongdoing in Nigeria.
“We feel it is important for us to know why people are willing or not willing to blow the whistle, and how well the protection mechanism has worked. The protection of whistleblowers against retaliation is key to the effectiveness of any whistle-blowing regime.
“AFRICMIL also wanted to learn from this project how whistle-blowing will change the face of Nigeria’s fight against corruption. The goal is to strengthen the policy to become an acceptable tool for exposing corruption and other forms of wrongdoing that endanger the society,” he said.
Legislation to the rescue?
The Senate, on March 23, passed the Public Interest Disclosure and Complaints (Enactment) Bill, 2021.
Passage of the bill followed the consideration and adoption of a report by the Joint Senate Committees on Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes; and Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions.
The chairman of the committee, Senator Suleiman Kwari, in his presentation, said the public interest disclosure, also known as the whistle-blowing, is a critical component of the anti-corruption war, which needs a streamlined framework for implementation.
The Senate action still requires a concurrence from the House of Representatives and the eventual assent by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Experts have said that one of the keys to boosting the whistle-blowing policy is to ensure its legislation.
Some said that if the National Assembly could pass that law, it should spell out protection measures for whistleblowers, as well as spell out punitive measures for those who commit reprisal attacks.
“Once we have a special legislation on the policy, Nigerians will be encouraged to blow the whistle,” Onumah said.
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