The need for statutory protection for whistle-blowers in Nigeria

Abstract

Whistleblowers are sentinels of society and of good governance. They are employees who risk their professions and even their lives in the interests of public safety and community well-being. Most countries, especially the developed societies, have formal legal mechanisms that seek to guarantee protection of whistleblowers and to encourage active participation by citizens in the government’s anti-corruption efforts through the disclosure corruption in both the public and private sectors. However, since independence in 1960, Nigeria has been fighting corruption without a comprehensive and dedicated statute that protects whistleblowers, which sets the country’s anti-corruption drive at odds with international best practices. It is against this backdrop that this paper interrogates Nigeria’s position regarding the enactment of whistleblower protection legislation under the current democratic dispensation.