The National Assembly has been urged by the Center for Fiscal Transparency and Integrity Watch (CeFTIW) to move quickly to guarantee that the 2016 whistleblower bill is passed.
The Center said that the widespread corruption in the nation has made the law more necessary and described it as a safe substitute for exposing dishonest business practices.
At the presentation of Civil Society’s Monitoring Mechanism for Nigeria’s Implementation of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, or UNCAC, Executive Director of CeFTIW Umar Yakubu called attention to the Nigerian system’s reputation for throwing money at problems instead of critically analyzing them before offering long-term solutions.
He said that in order to combat corruption in the nation, a long-lasting legislative structure utilizing the whistleblower statute is needed, ”Although the federal government said it is not backing down on the whistleblower policy, the enthusiasm for whistle-blowing to tackle corruption has reduced over the fear of attacks and reprisals”.
”We need a legal framework to back people who see corruption and speak out against it. We need safe desks at MDAs where workers can safely and anonymously report corruption.
Presenting the corruption monitoring mechanism created by a coalition of CSOs, Tamara Berepubo, Program Officer at the Center, stated that the document serves as a reference for evaluating Nigeria’s application of the global anti-corruption framework.
She pointed out that the template identifies the difficulties and shortcomings in Nigeria’s efforts to combat corruption and offers specific, doable solutions.
”The monitoring template will also showcase some of the good practices and innovations that responsible government organizations in Nigeria have implemented to promote the UNCAC principles and values.
”We arrived at these mechanisms through consultations and validation from experts, including government agencies, civil society organizations, academics, and international partners.
Remember that Nigeria signed the UNCAC in October 2004, pledging its allegiance to the legally binding global anti-corruption agreement.
UNCAC is a global anti-corruption tool that addresses several different topics, including asset recovery, criminalization, international cooperation, and prevention.
