The African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL) has commended Dr Ishaq Salako, Minister of State for Environment, for ordering the reinstatement of a whistleblower, Abraham Taiwo Joseph, a senior accountant at the Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN) who was dismissed from service in September 2021 for raising concerns on abuse of office and other illegal practices at the institute.
In a press statement, Dr. Chido Onumah, Coordinator of AFRICMIL, said: “The Minister made the right judgment by directing that the whistleblower be returned to his job. We commend him for this decision which we believe is in the best interest of promoting transparency and accountability in our public institutions.”
The statement noted that the whistleblower was called back to work after three years without a job and persecution including police harassment, threat to life and a frivolous lawsuit by the immediate past head of the institute, Professor Adepoju Olusola.
To get his job back, Abraham had challenged his dismissal at the National Industrial Court. The court had begun to hear the case when Dr Salako, on being briefed, intervened by asking the whistleblower to withdraw the suit for a fair in-house resolution. His withdrawal of the suit led to the constitution of an investigative committee whose report cleared the whistleblower of any wrongdoing and compelled the Minister of State to order his reinstatement into service.
The statement referenced a letter signed by Umasabor Omoh, on behalf of the Minister of State, directing the Director-General/CEO of FRIN to “calculate and pay all entitlements that are due to him with effect from September 2021 to date in the interest of the Public Service.”
While expressing satisfaction with the recall of the whistleblower, AFRICMIL regretted the continuation of the victimisation of the whistleblower through what it called “punitive posting of the whistleblower with his transfer out of the FRIN headquarters in Ibadan to a much farther branch of the institute in Idi-Ayunre, a border town to Ogun State.”
According to the statement, this is a clear sign that the whistleblower is still being punished, and the onus is on the management of FRIN to prove that this is not the case.
Onumah said whistleblowers deserve full protection from all kinds of retaliation.
“A system where citizens who are brave enough to report or challenge public interest wrongdoing are attacked simply for doing the right thing while the wrongdoers go unpunished will not provide citizens with the confidence they need to engage whistleblowing as an anti-corruption and good governance tool,” he noted.
