In Nigeria, whistle-blowing is an anti-corruption programme that encourages people to voluntarily disclose information about fraud, bribery, looted government funds, financial misconduct, government assets and any other form of corruption or theft to the country’s federal ministry of finance.
The policy which was launched on December 21, 2016 by the federal government came with an incentive of 2.5 percent of the recovered funds for anyone who provides tips or information about any financial mismanagement or stolen funds to the ministry’s portal by the Nigeria government.
Reports indicated that funds recovered through the Whistle-blowing Policy within the first two months of taking effect in the country amounted to over $178 million that were stolen from the government.
According to reports, by June 5, 2017, the federal ministry of finance received a total of 2,150 tips from the public, 128 tips came through the website of the ministry, 1,192 was through phone calls, 540 through SMS and 290 through email to the ministry amongst others.
However, an assessment carried out by an NGO, Prison Inmate Development Initiative (PIDI-Nigeria) in conjunction with Cleen Foundation in Bauchi state shows that the policy is no longer effective because the government lacks the political will to implement it.
A Bauchi based journalist, Mr. Ishola Michael Adeyemi, who spoke to the organization described the policy as “very good because it was articulated to fight corruption.”
“The reason behind its introduction was that, it is not every act that government officials or security agencies can be aware of, but definitely somebody within the society may be aware of it”, he said.
Mr. Ishola who said that the policy is not working not only in Bauchi state but the country as a whole argued that governments have shown no seriousness about it.
“Emphatically, I will say that the policy is not working in Nigeria because number one, when the government introduced the policy, the agent of government didn’t educate or enlighten the people to know when and how and what it takes to blow the whistle on corrupt tendencies”, he explained.
“If you follow the trend of the few cases of whistle blowing that we had, it was only the substance that was apprehended but no body, no body up-to now, two, three years after, nobody has been linked to the act”, the journalist added.
Mr Ishola while citing an instance where ‘Ghana must go’ stuffed with money was found in Kaduna airport, regretted that nobody was arrested for having links to the money.
“Remember the one that was found in Lagos, in dollars at the NIA office, nobody was linked to it, remember the one discovered in Lagos airport, the money was evacuated and nobody was linked to it”, he recalled.
He said that “recently, the Nigerian customs intercepted another one, nobody has been arrested, nobody has been linked to all these. It was people that raised the alarm but nobody was linked to it”.
The journalist said a case of a man who blew the whistle that led to the recovery of some money but was denied the percentage meant for is also one of the reasons why the policy is not working today.
“We were made to understand that the percentage that was supposed to be given to him was not given. That was why the man has to now come up to reveal that he was denied a percentage that is due for him based on the arrangement by the Federal government.
At that time the man made the revelation, he was not given the percentage and that was how the issue died down”.
“Like I said and is still repeating that in Nigeria, the whistle blower policy is not working, so we need to make it work”, Ishola opined.
He said people are no longer willing to blow the whistle because the government is not fulfilling its own part of the obligations.
“Government said in the policy that if you blow whistle and they are able to trace that the whistle you blew was correct and it leads to recovery of the substance or the arrest of the suspect, you are entitled to certain percentage of that amount and somebody has done it, you refused to give him not even half of what you promised, it will discourage another person to blow the whistle”, he submitted.
“That is the reason why if you look at it, in the last one year or so, nobody has blown any whistle because the government is not ready to fulfil its own part of the promise”.
Mr. Adeyemi said since the policy was introduced he has not heard any issue of whistle blowing in Bauchi state, adding that, although people spread some rumors but no body has come out to blow any whistle.
“I think this is not because things are not happening, they are happening. Every day you will be hearing rumors, this and that. But like I said, people are not properly and adequately sensitised on the issue”.
According to him, many people think it is only when money is involved that one is expected to blow the whistle.
“They think it is only when money is involved that corruption takes place, no they need to be educated more on this policy otherwise it is going nowhere”, he said.
Adeyemi who said people are not adequately informed about the policy and do not know what and what the policy entails, at what stage should one blow the whistle.
“They don’t know how, when and where to blow the whistle. What are those things that will happen before they blow the whistle, people don’t know because they are not educated on the policy”.
According to him, the government is reluctant on the policy because it was fashioned out to victimize perceived political opponents.
“Now that there are no more opponents to harass, now that the corruption is happening within the government circle regardless of political party differences, in APC state, they will not blow the whistle because they are involved, in PDP state, PDP will not blow because they are involved, so it cut across”, he said.
Adding that, “before, there were perceived opponents who had money, who the government perceived to be a threat to them, they used the policy to silenced them”.
He said that the whistle blower policy is not working now because there is nobody to harass again, as they are the ones in government.
On his part, Mr David Ayodele, a freelance broadcast journalist in Bauchi state said at the initial stage, the policy was somehow effective.
He however, regretted that it has been abandoned due to lack of political will on the part of the government.
“But the publicity given to it earlier and euphoria with which people accepted it is gradually fading or dying down. This may not be unconnected with the fact that people are probably scared of being hunted by those involved in shady deals, corruption and mismanagement of public funds”, he said.
Mr. Ayodele said aside from that, the other aspect is that individuals don’t see the government being serious about it at all.
“You can see what happened to Magu now. When the National Assembly then, headed by Saraki refused to approve his appointment, the presidency insisted he must be there, believing that he was above board, that he is not a corrupt person but at the end see how he has been humiliated out of that same office”, he pointed out.
He explained that people have lost interest in the whistle blower policy of the federal government because they feel there is a kind of game of deception in the whole thing.
“And today we haven’t heard anything concrete about the action the government has taken over this issue or against Magu and the host of others who are within the government circle”, Mr Ayodele said.
“You remember a statement credited to one of the APC top notches who said if you are a sinner just join the APC and you are forgiven, your sins are forgiven. So, by the time you say that, people will understand that there is a kind of duplicity”, he added.
He said that the policy was actually meant to witch hunt perceived political opponents.
“That is why any moment someone criticises this government, they will start saying Obasanjo is mismanaged, so and so billions of power. If it is true, why haven’t they carried out an investigation on that to date, why are they scared, if they know they don’t have a skeleton in their cup board let them carry out an investigation so that heads will roll”, the broadcaster averred.
He said that the whole idea of the whistle blower policy is a gimmick if a highly placed personality in the ruling party will invite any corrupt person to join the APC and have his or her sins forgiven.
According to him, other stakeholders in the fight against corruption such as the press, labour organizations, CSOs amongst others have not lived up-to expectation due to lack of political will from the part of the government.
A legal practitioner in Bauchi, Barr. Usman Yakubu of Annur Chambers who described said since the policy was launched, he has never heard someone blow the whistle against any sharp practice in Bauchi.
He attributed the ineffectiveness of the policy to failure from the part of the government to fulfill its promise of giving a certain percentage to some of the whistle blowers that led to recovery of billions of dollars.
Some residents in Bauchi state claimed ignorance of the whistle blower policy. This qualifies the assertion made by some people that there are inadequacies in terms of sensitization of members of the public.
This Article Was Published With Support From PIDI-Nigeria/Cleen Foundation
