…it is high time Nigeria speedily graduated from implementing a whistleblowing policy that is increasingly losing momentum to enacting a whistleblower protection law that offers full protection to whistleblowers. It is unfortunate that an administration that had the presence of mind to introduce the policy as an anti-corruption mechanism was never able to summon the needed political will to strengthen it with a proper legal framework, more than six years after the policy was introduced.
Whistleblowing is steadily growing to become the dominant theme in ethics literature. It has earned a prime position as a forceful vehicle, not only for delivering clarity and openness in workplace culture, but also for defining the responsible behaviour expected of an individual.
On a wider scale, whistleblowing has shaped up to become a democratic accountability tool, and a check on secrecy and abuse of power in many different contexts.
In July 2016, the ECOWAS Commission met in Cotonou, Benin Republic, to launch a whistleblower protection strategy and plan of action to encourage member states to enact whistleblower protection legislations. This move was borne out of the regional body’s acknowledgement of corruption as the main cause of the underdevelopment of West African States, and whistleblowing as one of the most direct methods of exposing corrupt acts and fostering accountability in the internal management of organisations.
The Cotonou meeting happened about the same time the...
The legal team representing Joana Quaye, estranged wife of entrepreneur Richard Nii Armah Quaye, has described allegations made by the Bills Microcredit CEO in a recent television interview as sub...