Dr Chido Onumah, the Coordinator of the African Centre for Media and Information Literacy, has urged President Bola Tinubu to speed up the passage of the whistleblower protection bill and ensure it is signed into law.
Onumah highlighted that the protection of whistleblowers is crucial to the success of whistleblowing policy implementation and the fight against corruption.
He made these statements on Friday in Awka during a one-day review meeting and step-down training on strengthening the capacity of community-based organisations on whistleblowing and whistleblower protection.
The event, themed “Sharing impact by community-based organisations on the promotion of whistleblowing policy in Anambra State,” aimed to interact with critical stakeholders on the framework of the whistleblowing policy and strengthen the capacity of CBOs towards the policy.
Onumah, represented at the event by the Senior Programme Officer of the organisation, Ugwu Nkechi, said the group had made progress by ensuring the approval of the bill by the Federal Executive Council last December, stressing that it was already working with partners to ensure the enactment of the law as quickly as possible.
He said the immediate past administration of President Muhammadu Buhari should have passed the whistleblowing protection draft bill into law before the expiration of the tenure.
He said, “As you all are aware, protection of whistleblowers is crucial to the success of whistleblowing policy implementation. Unfortunately, there is no law yet to back the policy.
“But we are no longer where we were when we came here for the town hall meeting and the step-down training. We have made progress by ensuring the bill was approved by the Federal Executive Council last December.
“We are already working with partners to ensure the enactment of the law as quickly as possible.”
