The National Assembly has been urged to speed up passage of the Whistle-blower Protection Bill.
The call was made by the Christian Rural Urban Development Association of Nigeria, CRUDAN, through its South-West Zonal facilitator, Mr. Adewale Adeduntan.
According to the development and advocacy organization, “The Whistle-blower Protection Bill is one of the tools that can be used to wage war against corruption. The constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Section 39 affirms that every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression, including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference. This includes speaking out in a case of observed unjust or wrongful conducts and corrupt practices”.
Adeduntan, who spoke with SUNDAY PUNCH, noted that employees, who were whistle-blowers, did not feel protected enough to come forward with information on misconducts and corrupt practices.
He said, “Sometimes in August, 2011, Dr. Ben Agada of National Women Development Centre, Abuja was illegally dismissed from service for exposing N300m meant for poverty alleviation programme allegedly embezzled by some top officers at the centre. In November 2012, the Executive Director of Technical Services of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Dr. Bashir Gwandu, was relieved of his position for uncovering corruption in the commission.
“Similarly, the recent revelation of wastefulness in the aviation industry by one Mr. Nicholas Edwards, a staff of the Ministry of Aviation has posed some threats against his job and life. These among other cases have brought to the fore the importance of whistle-blowers in Nigeria.
“Though whistle-blowing would have gone a long way at exposing all manner of corrupt practices in the nation’s socio-political and economic atmospheres, the absence of laws guiding whistle-blowing and protecting whistle-blowers has restricted the endeavours of whistle-blowers to expose corruption”.
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