Abuja, Dec.15, 2022 – The Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmad, has called for adequate protection of whistleblowers to foster the culture in Nigeria.
Zainab told journalists in Abuja on Wednesday after presenting the draft of new Whistleblowing Bill to the Federal Executive Council that the current policy had lost its viability and momentum.
She said that there was an outreach to all six geo-political zones and the singular and prevalent outcome from those surveys was that people were concerned about their safety.
The minister said that the current Whistleblowing Act was fraught with anomalies and there was the need to correct these shortcomings.
She said that the rate at which whistleblowing had dropped was alarming and disturbing.
Zainab said the federal government was on course to revive the culture as we approached the general elections.
She said that in a bid to revive it, a Draft Bill had been approved by FEC to further strengthen and protect the policy.
Zainab said the new bill would protect whistleblowers and the encourage the fight against corruption in the country.
“So this bill (Draft Bill) is critical to ensure the effectiveness of the retention of the whistle policy.” She said.
Whistleblowing policy 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.
The Whistleblower Protection Act was enacted in 2010. (GBN)
