President Muhammadu Buhari has never been pretentious about his intent to confront the vices ravaging the country, especially corruption, which has eaten deep into the fabrics of the Nigerian society.
Although, it is on record that there were efforts to fight the menace in the past, lack of political will on the part of the leaders and those saddled with the anti-corruption crusade marred such efforts.
To give fillip to the anticorruption fight, the Buhari administration introduced the whistleblower policy. The concept encourages anyone with information on any corrupt person or act to voluntarily provide such to government, with the promise of a mouth-watering reward.
Fittingly, the concept has been whole-heartedly welcomed by Nigerians as a complimentary effort to graft fighting; what with a few states across the country having also taken a cue from the Federal Government.
Ironically, one of the greatest tests of the Federal Government’s whistleblower policy is the recent suspension of a former Chairman of the House of Representatives’ Appropriation Committee, Abdulmumin Jibrin, for exposing the infamous budget padding.
Rather than appreciate his efforts at blowing the whistle on his colleagues, he was rather vilified and punished by the House.
Whistleblowing, the world over, empowers employees and patriotic individuals, to act on incidences of misconduct and help maintain a safe public/workplace, while protecting profits and reputation.
Whistleblowers are regarded as those patriotic citizens, who take extraordinary risks in reporting illegal activity, often risking not only their professional careers, but their lives to ensure a continual egalitarian society that runs on socio-economic fulfilment without compromising justice.
Therefore, the need to compensate whistleblowers in our clime and to also guarantee their safety, if we are to fully utilise their powers, cannot be over-emphasised.
As good as the policy may seem, there is the need for the government to ensure total protection and non-disclosure of the identity of any whistleblower in order to ensure a successful anti-corruption fight and for government to see far-reaching results from the introduction of the policy.
Corruption comes in different shades and means. Without doubt, whistleblowing would strengthen the fight against graft and help root out waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement in governance. And those suspected to have soiled their hands must be duly punished
Government ought not to leave anything to chance in giving absolute protection to any whistleblower, against harassment or intimidation from their bosses or employers.
For whistleblowers to be up and doing, these patriots must be assured that the risks they are taking are worth the potential impact their reporting can have on the overall national corruption index, while at the same time, not compromising the legal mechanisms that are capable of incentivising them as potential people’s informants.
In a society as ours, where whistleblowing is a novelty, analysts have said that is important that whistleblowers are, first, made aware of their rights before reporting any potential violations.
They opined that how well government allayed their concerns and fears, and who they reported to, could be the defining difference between winning a case or otherwise.
According to anti-graft agencies, over N800 trillion is said to be unaccounted for in the nation’s economy; and such money only represents financial fraud perpetrated by state officials, ranging from embezzlement, payment for jobs not done, over-invoicing, double debiting, inflation of contracts, and outright theft, among others.
Corruption comes in different shades and means. Without doubt, whistleblowing would strengthen the fight against graft and help root out waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement in governance. And those suspected to have soiled their hands must be duly punished.
However, there must be proper orientation to ensure that whistleblowers have genuine information and are not out to tarnish an otherwise good image.
In the mean time, billions of naira and foreign currencies running into millions have been so far recovered through clues and information provided by whistleblowers to the office of the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation.
This has, in a way, lent credence to claims by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, that Nigeria’s treasury had been primitively and mindlessly looted by successive administrations.
