Thursday: March 28, 2019 – The African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL) has reiterated its determination to help establish clear rules as well as ensure protection for whistleblowers in the drive towards a successful anti-corruption war through whistleblowing.
Speaking in Minna, Niger State, during its North-central zonal town hall meeting on whistleblowing and the fight against corruption, Abdulaziz Abdulaziz, programme manager at AFRICMIL, said more than anything else, it was important to safeguard the integrity of the process and to protect whistleblowers as a first step to sustaining the whistleblower policy.
Through the Corruption Anonymous (CORA) project which is supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, AFRICMIL has in the last two years been working with the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA), a unit in the Ministry of Finance which manages the whistleblowing policy, to create awareness about whistleblowing and making Nigerians see it as a tool for fighting corruption in the country.
In his keynote address, Johnson Oludare who represented PICA, said the unit would continue to collaborate with relevant stakeholders to create awareness for the policy. He noted that adequate funding and the absence of a legal framework had continued to obstruct effective implementation of the policy. Oludare hoped that this would change with the inauguration of the 9th National Assembly in June.
In his remark, the representative of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Jimoh Sulahiman, said without whistleblowing the job of the Commission would be difficult. Sulahiman said whistleblowing is the plank on which the functions of ICPC stand.
According to him, most investigations and prosecutions arise from whistleblowing. He commended AFRICMIL for mobilizing Nigerians to adopt whistleblowing as an effective tool for fighting corruption.
Yahaya Ibrahim, the Assistant State Director at the National Orientation Agency (NOA) who represented the Director-General, Dr. Garba Abari, said the Agency would aggressively promote whistleblowing through public enlightenment in order for citizens to own the policy.
He said NOA was working to inculcate positive attitude in Nigerians and educate them on the harm corruption is doing to the society. Ibrahim said if people’s attitude changes, they would no longer celebrate thieves in the society.
Delivering a goodwill message, Mallam Zubairu Abdulrauf, Managing Director of Prestige Communications, also a MacArthur Foundation cohort, described AFRICMIL as a worthy partner in the struggle for a corruption-free society. His Prestige FM station is currently running a programme on whistleblowing.
AFRICMIL had previously held town hall meetings on whistleblower sensitization in Kano, Owerri, Yola, Port Harcourt and Lagos. Like the ones before it, the Minna meeting was a huge success.
