Former INEC chairman Attahiru Jega has expressed that a lack of legal framework is one of the primary problems impeding the country’s whistleblower policy’s effectiveness.
Jega delivered a speech in Kano on Tuesday at a zonal conference on whistleblower policy in Nigeria for the north-west zone.
The federal ministry of finance, budget, and national planning organized the event.
“Fear and lack of legal protection and legal backing to get the reward are disincentives for people to volunteer information under the policy,” he said.
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He said the policy itself, which is a very “laudable” initiative, needs to be properly contextualised for Nigerians to get the benefits attached to it, adding that because it is a federal policy, implementation at state and local levels are constrained.
He said the fact that it has taken over five years to have a legal framework for the policy shows “our national inertia to fighting corruption”, adding that it will require a lot of effort to get the national assembly to pass the bill.
Aside ensuring the speedy passage of a legal framework, Jega recommended a continuous review, revision, updating and improvement of the policy while drawing appropriate lessons from global best practices.
