By Doyin Ojosipe
Whistleblowers are holding- back on blowing the whistle because they are not protected and are not compensated on time the MacArthur Foundation has said.
Kole Shetima, Country Director of the Foundation said this while fielding questions from Journalists at a whistleblowing workshop for lawyers which was organised by the African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL), in collaboration with the CLEEN Foundation in Abuja.
Shetima said there was a need for all stakeholders to work together in reviving the waning tempo of whistleblowing in the country.
He said, “ We need to invigorate the policy by certainly providing stronger legal backing to whistleblowers and try to ensure that there is more transparency in the administration of the whistleblower policy so that those who have come out to blow the whistle are provided for and compensated in our legal system.”
The Country Director who noted that there has been some form of coherence between legal associations and civil societies said the collaboration was needed now more than ever before to secure legal establishment for the policy in order to strengthen the anticorruption fight.
Similarly, Chido Onumah, Coordinator of the African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL), said while there is so much advocacy about the Whistle blowing policy by the Not-for-Profit organization, the Federal Government has not done enough in promote the whistleblowing policy or raising awareness.
He government has to show good faith, “have political will, You have to invest money inin providing information you know radio jingles, adverts in newspapers about the benefits more importantly, Nigerians will need to have confidence in government that it will do the right thing. Government needs to make sure that corrupt individuals are prosecuted that is key.”
Onumah said AFRICMIL hopes that a whistle blowing law is passed and is that a coalition of pro bono Lawyers Is formed at the end of the training because the organisation is more concerned with the protection of whistleblowers urged the media to also view it from that angle.
He said collaborating with lawyers was very important to the implementation of the whistle blowing policy.
He noted that the workshop was to take lawyers through good practises about the whistleblower protection And to also hear from them what they can do as citizens as Nigerians to support the whistle blowing policy whether it’s providing support or pro bono services advice for whistleblowers on how they should go about engaging with the process.
The coordinator said that AFRICMIL hopes to rely on the expertise and experience of the lawyers as we look forward to formulating a whistleblower law for the country.
In his presentation on ‘The Role Of Lawyers and Civic society in Whistleblowing, Noah Ajare, A principal partner Noah Ajari & Co said lawyers are more or less the first estate of the realm as they are meant to serve as a check on the executive, legislature, and judiciary and to work in line with the press in ensuring a good and working system devoid of corruption.
He said it was unfortunate that the country does not have a law that protects whistleblowers adding that there cannot be protection without a legal framework that provides for protection.
Ajare said while the duty of lawyers was to protect the constitution as stated in section 37 of the constitution of the country, it was also their duty to protect the innocence of the accused until proven guilty.
He pointed out that many of the whistleblowers are living below the poverty line and are not able to afford legal services when taken to court.
He therefore called on lawyers to join the whistle blowing advocacy by providing legal services to whistleblowers on pro-bono.
In his words, “The whistleblowers need our encouragement, they need to be defended, supported because they might not be able to afford legal services to defend themselves. Lawyers in summary should embrace advocacy for whistle blowing.”
The lawyer knocked the federal government for making whistle blowing policy a difficult task saying that when whistle is blown and crime is discovered, most of the time, culprits do not get to be prosecuted while they turn around to file a case against whistleblowers.
Godwin Chigbu, one of the resource persons who spoke on The inadequacy of legislations on whistleblowers protection in Nigeria: International Laws and International Good Practices said apart from providing protection for whistleblowers, federal government needs to come up a with a law that provides for sanction of any government official who blows the cover of a whistleblower.
