Have Nigerians lost interest in whistleblowing? Or they just lost faith in the whistleblowing policy? Or maybe they are simply confused about its implementation? Or perhaps they are wondering what has been done with money recovered as a result of the policy?
The chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, prompted these questions following his observation at an event, on June 30, in Awka, Anambra State, organised by the Africa Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL) on the whistleblowing policy designed to increase exposure of financial crimes. He noted that “enthusiasm for the policy appears to have waned a bit.” Bawa was represented by the zonal commander, EFCC, Enugu, Oshodi Johnson.
The Federal Government introduced the whistleblowing policy in December 2016 as a weapon to fight corruption. Bawa said: “It was heralded by a frenzy of sorts with a deluge of information by informants, some of which led to the recovery of humongous sums of money by the EFCC.”
Indeed, in mid-2019, Information, Culture and Tourism Minister Lai Mohammed boasted that the whistleblowing policy had checked corruption, and helped the government to recover looted funds. He added that the government had recovered billions of naira and about $53m through the policy. Also, in the same period, the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, boasted that the government had recovered N605b through the whistleblowing policy.
According to the EFCC boss, “Two of...
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