ICPC Assures Whistleblowers Of Identity Protection
The Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Professor Bolaji Owasanoye, has promised the protection of the identities of informants and Nigerians who report corrupt acts.
This was as it was noted that there was a decline in momentum as citizens were reluctant to report wrongdoings over fear of reprisal and lack of protection by the authorities.
Owasonoye, who gave the assurance as a result of the growing concerns over the decline in the Federal Government’s whistleblower policy, said that the Commission is duty-bound in line with section 64 of the ICPC Act to protect the identity of whistleblowers.
The ICPC Chairman, made the promise while participating in a radio town hall meeting on Whistleblowing organized by the Progressive Impact Organization for Community Development (PRIMORG), at the weekend in Abuja however, warned prospective whistleblowers against exposing themselves to reprisal attacks by “talking carelessly”.
Owasonoye, who was represented by the Director, Public Enlightenment and Education of the ICPC, Alhaji Mohammed Ashiru Baba, said that the Commission was working on an internal mechanism to protect whistleblowers, adding that the general impression that whistleblower policy is not succeeding was as a result of the fact people view the whistleblowing policy from a narrow perspective, especially discovering or reporting money and getting a percentage.
He further said; “Section 64 of the ICPC Act says that ICPC officers are duty bound to conceal the identity of the informant and the content of the information. And any ICPC officer found violating this section of the law, is liable to jail term for 10 years. The danger mostly is from the whistleblowers themselves, they don’t keep their mouth shut.
“The ICPC Act provides for reporting of corruption orally or in writing. You can even send an anonymous petition if you don’t want your names to appear for security reasons but you have to avail your name and contact details to the anticorruption agency, that is, the ICPC in case we need you for further clarification. “There are many ways to send in your petition. Even if you don’t know how to read or write, you can come to our offices and report your findings and it is written on your behalf.
“When we say whistleblowing, we mean reporting anti-corruption activities even if they are activities that mark lack of integrity like sexual harassment; It’s a broad term,” he said.
Other participants at the radio town hall meeting expressed worries with the whistleblower policy with emphasis laid on the need for the outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari administration to ensure that the whistleblower draft bill it approved a couple of months ago get passed into law before exiting office.
In his contribution, the Programme Officer, African Centre for Media & Information Literacy (AFRICMIL), Godwin Onyeacholem, noted that reprisal attacks against whistleblowers remain rife in Nigeria despite provisions for protection captured in the policy.
Onyeacholem, who expressed optimism that the current administration will sign into law the whistleblower bill approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) in December 2022, before May 29, 2023.
He said; “There are many people out there suffering one form of persecution or the other for exposing corruption. There are all kinds of violations coupled with intimidation, and threats; and we are thinking it is because there’s no legislation yet.
“Section 12 of the whistleblowing policy stipulates protection for whistleblowers, there are public servants who are facing all kinds of victimization because of making disclosure in their institution. But this section stipulates protection for them but then it is just there in the policy, there is little or no provision for anybody.
“I understand that the Honourable Minister of Finance wants to ensure that whistleblowing law will be a legacy of the present administration, I’m optimistic it will happen,” he said.
Also speaking, former Secretary of the Abuja Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Rafat Salami, called for the protection of journalists to be made paramount as they are very vital to the anti-corruption fight using whistleblowing as an instrument.
She noted that the media which relies heavily on the citizens for information in order to hold the government accountable are targets and endangered, adding that the effectiveness of the media is also hit by poor or even lack of remuneration for journalists.
According to Salami; “Until Nigerians come together unitedly and agree that we need to fight and stamp out corruption, there is a limit to what the government can achieve.
The PRIMORG’s Town Hall Meeting Against Corruption series is aimed at calling the public and government attention to specific issues of corruption in Nigeria.
