By Doyin Ojosipe
Women have been asked to actively engage in whistleblowing as a way of helping to reduce corruption in society.
Speaking as one of the panelists at a radio townhall meeting organised by African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL) in collaboration with Progressive Impact Organisation for Community Development (PRIMORG) on Raypower 100.5FM, Ene Ede, a human rights advocacy development professional, said as victims of corruption in many ways and especially in health-related issues, women have every need to blow the whistle.
Ede cited as example the issue of maternal and infant mortality which, according to her, is sometimes tied to the fact that facilities and medical equipment that were meant to treat women and save their lives had not been supplied by some corrupt individual.
Comparing how women could fare in leadership positions, she said if there were a good number of women in power, there would be less corruption.
She said, while it is paramount for women to blow the whistle, the social, cultural, and political bottlenecks cannot be ignored.
“Women cannot be insulated from the challenges of the environment, there are lot of women who naturally will want to respond because they have seen these negative linkages if there is corruption, it affects maternal mortality, it affects infant mortality, it also affects their welfare then, talk about the trauma they carry because when the home is not stable, the woman carries the heavier burden,” she added.
She however noted that while it was easy for men to escape after blowing the whistle, it was difficult for women who may consider blowing the whistle to do the same due to family attachments.
In her words, “A man can take a stroll, culturally it is accepted, environmentally it is accepted but where will the woman go to, will you leave your family, children, job, the men could change jobs, any other thing but it will be counted as negative for the woman.”
Ede said if there was sincerity of purpose and a detailed framework then everyone should blow the whistle against corruption.
Similarly, a Public Policy Analyst, Babatunde Oluajo speaking on the program said the effects of corruption know no gender and as such should be dealt with by everyone through exposing all forms of corruption.
Responding to a question on how students at the University can blow the whistle on corrupt lecturers who demand money for marks and or sex for marks, he said everyone should understand that they are all at the mercy of corruption, noting that whistleblowing was possible in such environment if the appropriate systems were put in place.
He said “There is need to have systems that can guarantee anonymity and protection for people who want to report and reward ultimately because when you do it, you suffer losses, we have people who have lost jobs, income and even family members, friends who have been ostracized because they chose not to be silent.
“To do these in the University, we need a collective committee of the student council, senate, and independent individuals in the society who can receive the tips anonymously and investigate.”
He said using the whistleblowing tool to fight corruption will continue to suffer setbacks if it remained as a policy and not a law.
Another guest speaker, Segun Adesanya who works with the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), said the level of mistrust of the government has made the use of the whistleblowing policy difficult.
He said some people have given the same tip to different antigraft agencies which has led to more confusion.
Adesanya also noted that some people only blew the whistle for personal vendetta which sometimes defeats the objectives of the policy.
In the same vein, Florence Marcus, Legal Practitioner and Co-founder of Amputee Coalition said everyone, irrespective of disability status is duty-bound to report any act of criminal offense.
She said may be difficult for persons with disability to blow the whistle because they are already being discriminated against. She said the Persons With Disabilities (PWD), can be engaged through their stakeholders who understand how to engage them.
Marcus queried the thoughts that PWD could blow the whistle when they are not even engaged to be where they could witness corruption first-hand and report.
The radio town hall meeting is part of AFRICMIL’s Corruption Anonymous project, supported by the MacArthur Foundation.
