Whistle-blowing Policy in

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

is an anti-corruption programme that encourages people to voluntarily disclose information about fraud, bribery, looted government funds, financial misconduct, government assets and any other form of corruption or theft to the Nigeria's Federal Ministry of Finance. A

whistle-blower A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...

who provides information about any financial mismanagement or tip about any stolen funds to the ministry's portal is rewarded or entitled to 2.5% - 5% percentage from the recovered funds by the Nigeria

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

. The policy was launched on December 21, 2016 by Nigeria's Federal Government and facilitated through the Federal Ministry of Finance.

Funds recovered through the whistle-blowing policy

It was reported that within the first two months of the Whistle-blowing policy in Nigeria that Nigeria's

Federal Government A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...

recovered over $178 million that were stolen from the government. By June 5, 2017, Federal Ministry of Finance received a total of 2,150 tips from the public, 128 tips came through the website of the ministry, 1,192 was through phone calls, 540 through SMS and 290 through email to the ministry. By July/August 2017, a total of 5000 tips was received. In October 2017, the Acting Chairman of the

Economic and Financial Crimes Commission The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is a Nigerian law enforcement agency that investigates financial crimes such as advance fee fraud (419 fraud) and money laundering. The EFCC was established in 2003, partially in response to pre ...

(EFCC),

Ibrahim Magu Ibrahim Magu (born 5 May 1962), is a Nigerian police officer who served as acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC from 9 November 2015, until his suspension on 7 July 2020. He was replaced by Muhammed Umar as the a ...

said that N527,643,500; $53,222.747; GBP21,222,890 and Euro 547,730 was recovered since the policy was launched.

Ikoyi Whistle-blower

In 2017, a whistler-blower helped the Nigeria government to recover $43.5million, GBP27,800 and N23.2million at No. 16 Osborne Road, Ikoyi,

Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the List of cities in Africa by population, second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national ca ...

, Nigeria. It was also reported that Federal Ministry of Finance paid the whistler-blower the sum of N421million.

Whistle-blower Protection

To protect whistle-blowers, civil society organizations have been engaged in a number of advocacy to ensure that people who blow whistle are protected.

MacArthur Foundation The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private foundation that makes grants and impact investments to support non-profit organizations in approximately 50 countries around the world. It has an endowment of $7.0 billion and p ...

is currently funding African Centre for Media & Information Literacy (AFRICMIL) to launch a whistle-blower campaign known as Corruption Anonymous.

Criticism

Health advocates have urged Nigeria government to use the recovered funds to fund immunization and other health issues in Nigeria.{{cite news, last1=Umeha, first1=Chioma, title=Nigerian Youths Call For Sustainable Immunisation Financing Plan, url=https://independent.ng/nigerian-youths-call-for-sustainable-immunisation-financing-plan/, accessdate=19 April 2018, publisher=Independent, date=July 10, 2017

References

Whistleblower protection legislation Anti-corruption measures Corruption in Nigeria