Corrupt Nigerian elite too powerful, sabotaging anti-graft war
The Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee against Corruption (PACAC), Prof. Itsey Sagay, has lamented that the prevailing situation of things, the Muhammadu Buhari Presidency and Federal Government are powerless when it comes to protecting whistle-blowers from victimization in Nigeria.
Sagay made this remark on Thursday at the Two-Day Roundtable with the theme: ‘Entrenching Whistleblowing In Regulatory And Revenue Generating Agency’, organised by PACAC in collaboration with African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL) with the support of MacArthur Foundation.
According to him, without any legal backing, authorising Act and body, the Nigerian corrupt elite are too powerful for patriotic individuals and whistle-blowers.
He disclosed that many Whistle-blowers who dared to step forward and report their superiors have paid dearly for it with some having their salaries withheld for over two years and some even out rightly sacked while few others with their family members have death threats hanging over their necks.
The PACAC chairman said the most disturbing discovery is that the Ministries and Presidency seems to be impotent over this as they have not been able to stop the victimisation of these Whistle-blowers, instead those accused of corruption still retained their jobs and became even more powerful.
To this end, he advised that the suggestion to have a whistle-blower units domiciled in every Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) be discarded as it would be counter-productive with many being victimised.
Despite the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, Nigerian public service still have the draconian Official Secrets Oath Act with which the alleged corrupt superiors use to silence as well as punish critics and whistle-blowers
“Finally, I said this one yesterday is that the whole idea of having Whistleblowing units in the MDAs is not attractive. Training their colleagues on the ethics and management of funds should be encouraged. You know that there is no Act right now establishing Whistleblowing, it is just a policy. You should have a body outside the MDAs to lead the investigation, recovery and rewards instead of leaving to the Agencies,” Sagay said.
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He continued: “I know certain individuals and Whistle-blowers who have suffered terribly. There is a case of someone who has not received his salaries for over two years because of whistleblowing and some of them are even sacked. Yes they ended up being sacked. I followed up one case in Yaba College of Technology and the man was eventually sacked and nothing happened. People who are guilty of these allegations of corruption seem to be very powerful to the extent that the Nigerian Government is not able to do anything.
“Some have reported to the Minister and even the Presidency yet they have remained in power doing all the havoc they have been doing. So I do not think it is safe to have this Whistleblowing units in the MDAs as one cannot even report their boss without being victimised but they should report anonymously to outside entity.”
Speaking further, Sagay expressed frustration on the assumption that certain Nigerian elites are hell-bent on sabotaging and scuttling the war against corruption.
According to him, these elites are not happy that with the new measures being put in place by the Presidency, the old ways through which they were alleged to have corruptly enriched themselves would be permanently removed.
He said: “Governing this country is hard as these bitter elites are making it difficult. The critics every policy of the government including the Social Investment Programme. This is in bad faith for Nigeria, especially by the elites pretending not to know what the government is doing but only hell-bent on maligning the government.
“Why are these elites bitter with government? I think its because their (corrupt) sources of wealth have been permanently cut off.”
To curtail unwarranted criticisms, Sagay urged the Ministry of Information to initiate steps aim to disturb, destabilise and deliberately distort the programmes as well as policies of the government.
Speaking, the Coordinator of AFRICMIL, Mr. Chido Onuma, emphasised on his earlier warning that the bane of Nigeria’s development is corruption.
Onuma also stressed on the importance of whistleblowing in curtailing the adverse impact of corruption in the country.
On his part, the Mr. Maxwell Kadiri of Open Society Justice Initiative, while speaking on the topic: ‘Operationalising Whistleblowing for Protective Disclosure’, warned that the security of the whistle-blowers and their families are not guaranteed in the current arrangement.
Kadiri said that Nigeria unlike Uganda and Ghana does not enshrined it in it laws, the relocation of whistle-blowers, their family members and even a change of their identities in case of threats to life.
“It is not even about losing jobs but also about Whistle-blowers losing their lives and that of their families. It can also lead to a situation of identity change and relocation of whistle-blowers as well their family members,” he stressed.
