African Anti-corruption Day: Group urges governments to make laws to protect whistleblowers

The African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL) has called on the Nigerian and other African governments that have yet to enact whistleblower protection laws to take urgent steps to do so to encourage their citizens to expose corrupt acts and other illegalities hampering good governance and accountability in the continent.

In a press statement to commemorate the 2024 African Anti-Corruption Day, the Coordinator of AFRICMIL, Chido Onumah, said, “We find it most disappointing that so far only about 10 countries including Ghana and South Africa, out of the 54 countries in Africa, have put in place initiatives such as legislations to promote whistleblowing.” AFRICMIL noted that unfortunately, Nigeria is not one of them.

“Nigeria only has a whistleblowing policy introduced in 2016 to address public sector corruption, but what we need is a broader, stronger and reliable instrument than a policy. Nigeria needs a specific dedicated, and comprehensive whistleblower protection law to encourage public interest whistleblowing,” the statement noted.
The African Union (AU) Assembly declared 11 July of every year as the African Anti-Corruption Day.

The AU Advisory Board against Corruption will be having the 8th edition of the Anti-Corruption Dialogue followed by this year’s celebration under the theme: Effective Whistleblower Protection Mechanism: A Critical Tool in the Fight against Corruption.

According to the statement, “The theme highlights the importance of whistleblowing as an effective tool for fighting corruption and provides the window for stakeholders to reflect on the challenges, best practices and recommendations for popularising whistleblowing in AU member states.”

It further observed that Article 5(5) of the AU Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption (AUPCC) obligates state parties to adopt legislative and other measures to protect informants and witnesses in corruption and related offences including protecting their identities, while Article 5(6) obligates state parties to adopt measures that ensure citizens report instances of corruption without fear of consequent reprisals.
The statement noted that although there are provisions for protection in Nigeria’s whistleblowing policy, authorities rarely comply with these provisions.

“Whistleblowers in public institutions are anything but protected. They are mostly left to suffer all kinds of retaliation ranging from outright loss of jobs to death threats and this, in addition to the general notion that no action would be taken when issues are reported, makes would-be whistleblowers fear to engage the process,” it stated.

AFRCMIL reiterates its commitment to a progression of the whistleblowing policy into a whistleblowing law with the prompt passage of the whistleblower protection bill approved by the Nigerian government in December 2022, adding that it’s long overdue.

“As we often do, we use this occasion of the African Anti-Corruption Day to once again call on the Federal Ministry of Finance, through its unit, the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA), and the National Assembly, to speed up the process and give the country a whistleblower protection law. That is the surest way of promoting whistleblowing, protecting whistleblowers, and enhancing accountable governance across all sectors of the polity,” the statement said.

Chido Onumah, PhD
Coordinator, AFRICMIL