Our Reporter, Abuja
The much awaited whistleblower protection law in Nigeria must cover all gaps in the existing laws in the country and globally, to compensate for the long wait for it following a journey that was said to have lasted over a decade.
This was the consensus of participants at the national conference on whistleblowing, corruption and human rights organised by African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL), in collaboration with Amnesty International Nigeria.
The conference took place on Thursday, September 19, 2024, at the Reiz Continental Hotel Abuja, and had many stakeholders in the anti-corruption fight including the representative of the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA), a unit in the Federal Ministry of Finance which manages the whistleblowing policy; anti-corruption agencies; human rights activists; senior legislative aides and allegedly victimised whistleblowers, in attendance.
In his message, Mr. Johnson Oludare, a deputy director in the Federal Ministry of Finance and representative of PICA, admitted that the journey to enacting a whistleblower protection law in the country had taken nearly a decade; but that a lot of progress has been made in that direction. He however stated that having done all the cross-checking especially with the anti-corruption agencies and stakeholders in the fight against corruption, the bill which was not able to be passed by the 9th Assembly has been sent back to the President for re-presentation to the current National Assembly. He also promised to alert major stakeholders like AFRICMIL and the civil society when it gets to the legislature so that they can make their inputs towards strengthening the proposed law.
Presenting the Lead Paper titled, “Whistleblowing, Corruption & Human Rights, An Exploratory Discussion,” the keynote speaker, Maxwell Kadiri, an anti-corruption lawyer and Senior Legal Officer at the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI), while taking participants through the gamut of the laws to protect whistleblowers already in existence both in Nigeria and the world over, observed that the whistleblowing policy and its activities is nearly as old as the 4th Republic, meaning it is older than a decade. He identified the Pencom Act of 2008 as the first attempt at whistleblowing policy in the country.
“The first attempt at enthroning a culture of whistleblowing in Nigeria, dates back to 2008, when the National Pension Commission (PENCOM), within the ambit of its oversight role as the regulator of the then nascent contributory pension scheme being implemented by the licensed private sector operators, including the Pension Fund Administrators and Pension Fund Custodians, amongst others, issued various circulars, requiring industry operators to proactively disclose certain information, thus clearly showing PENCOM’s understanding of the need to prioritize the promotion and protection of the public’s right to know in the area of pension administration.”
He also regretted that in spite of the pieces of laws in the financial sector, the Central bank of Nigeria (CBN) has not done enough to ensure that banks and other financial institutions implement whistleblowing frameworks as part of their internal processes.
Kadiri said, “if the journey has taken this long, then the whistleblower protection law that must come out should be worth the paper it is written on.”
“The law to protect whistleblowers that the government should enact must be an improvement of what already exists in all parts of the world.
He also noted that whistleblowing, goes beyond fight against corruption as it could be seen in the context of health, environment and even education. He cited for instance, the recent cases involving university lecturers in the “sex for marks scandal.”
“Maybe it is a blessing in disguise that the whistlebower protection law was not passed by the 9th Assembly. Now that we are being told that the law is headed back to the Nattional Assembly, it gives us another opportunity to take another look at the bill to make it more comprehensive,” Kadiri said.
In his contribution, human rights activist and President Public Interest Lawyers League (PILL), Abdul Mahmud, tried to dispel what he called “misconceptions in whistleblowing” by asserting that the character of the post-colonial African states was such that they were not created to serve the interest of the people, which makes it difficult for them to implement most of the protocols and international agreements especially in the area of fighting corruption. He also attempted to make a conceptual distinction between a whistleblower and a mere bell ringer and concluded that the problem of whistleblowing in the country today is the lack of “hearer’s action.”
The former President of National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) also agreed with the keynote speaker, Mr. Kadiri, that the official secret act of 1962, which government has been relying on to punish citizens who blow the whistle on corrupt activities no longer exists.
“My submission is that the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2011 supersedes the Official Secret Act, 1962, which was originally enacted in 1911 as a nasty colonial piece of legislation. By Section 1 of the FoI Act, obtaining any information, whether classified or not, is no longer punishable. The Official Secret Act in light of Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act is a dead law. I’m also of the view that the Freedom of Information Act supersedes the Official Secret Act because it is the later legislation in time,” Mahmud argued.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Coordinator of AFRICMIL, Dr. Chido Onumah, noted that there is relationship between whistleblowing and the protection of human rights to free expression and access to information.
“Over the years, they have uncovered and disclosed information on various alleged corrupt and suspicious dealings linked to different actors and institutions, including, security sector officials, those in the academic community, and several others in key sectors and communities, leading to wider public debates about corruption, human rights violations and the need for accountability.
“The right of citizens to report wrongdoing is part and parcel of the right of freedom of expression and access to information, and is linked to the principles of transparency and integrity. Not only do people have the right to protect fellow citizens and the larger society, they also have the duty to report wrongdoing,” Dr Onumah stated.
Also in their good will messages, the Amnesty International Nigeria represented by its Programme Manager, Barbara Shitnaan Magaji, thanked AFRICMIL and partners for their tireless effort. She also stressed the importance of contextualising human rights saying the conference was part of the advocacy to push for the whistleblower protection law and help put its conversation in the front burner. Other goodwill messages came from Oke Epia of the Order Paper; the representatives of PPLAAF; the Code of Conduct Bureau; Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD); and the National Human Rights Commission.
One of the highlights of the event was the sharing of experiences by three whistleblowers.
Ameh Joseph Eche, a chartered architect and former Head of Physical Planning Division of Federal College of Education (Technical), Asaba, Delta State, for instance narrated how his appointment was allegedly terminated for exposing fraud and other illegal practices endangering the lives of staff and students, as well as visitors to the college. On his part, Mr. Yisa Usman, deputy director and Kaduna State Coordinator, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), narrated how he was dismissed from service in July 2023, and has been in the courts facing “malicious charges” for exposing corruption allegedly involving the JAMB Registrar & Chief Executive Officer, Professor Ishaq Oloyede. The third whistleblower shared his difficult experiences after exposing the activities of Boko Haram in a book.
