During his
October 1 national broadcast, President Muhammadu Buhari once again highlighted
the Whistle-Blower Policy as one of the administration’s new institutional
reforms to eradicate corruption in Nigeria.
I, therefore,
commend the African Centre for Media & Information Literacy for taking
interest in this important aspect of the war against corruption. I want to also
express gratitude to MacArthur Foundation for supporting the initiative.
This project and
the whistle-blower policy underscore my repeated admonition to Nigerians to
come together in dealing with the cankerworm of corruption. As I always say,
the EFCC, and indeed all government institutions responsible for tackling
corruption, cannot do it alone.
We at EFCC
believe that we do not have a monopoly of knowledge. We cannot fight corruption
alone. We need every Nigerian to come on board because the negative effect of
corruption does not discriminate against ethnicity, religion or political
affiliation. We need citizens to actively participate in the fight against
corruption through volunteering information. Our singsong should be: “See
something; say something.” We have no choice because as the president once
reminded us, corruption is Nigeria’s number one enemy and if we don’t kill it,
it will kill us.
I am glad to
report that Nigerians have so far been very responsive. Despite the unholy
alliances of the corrupt who are fighting back seriously, Nigerians from all
walks of life have seen reasons why this war must be fought collectively and
why corruption must be brought to its knees and those who feast in its temple
are stopped and punished. This goodwill and the support and prayers of
Nigerians continue to give us the strength needed to push this war.
At the EFCC, we
have created an environment where those who have information about corrupt
practices can approach the Commission to provide information, confident that
the information they give us will be put into effective use. Moreover, since
the commencement of the whistle-blower policy, we have received hundreds of
actionable tips that led to the following cash recoveries: N527,643,500;
$53,222,747; GBP 21,222,890 and Euro 547,730.
Through this
window, we have seen many Nigerians whose motivation was not just to benefit
from the recoveries, as promised by the federal government, but the
satisfaction of having to see that what was ill-gotten has been recovered for
the good of all. Those in this category were motivated by their sense of
justice and overriding national interest, not the financial reward. We urge
more Nigerians to borrow a leaf from these patriotic individuals.
On our part, we
have always treated every tip referred to us with strict a sense of
responsibility, bearing in mind that such undertaking on the part of the
whistle-blower is usually a matter of trust and even risk.
At the same time,
we have been careful not to be used by mischief makers who would want to abuse
this process. Let me reiterate that just as there is consequence for
corruption, there will be consequence for those who want to take advantage of
this noble initiative in the fight against corruption to create mischief. We
have responded to this possibility by developing a water-tight mechanism of
both reporting and crosschecking information.
We at EFCC
welcome this initiative as we value working with the civil society as a vehicle
to reach the rest of the citizens. It is our hope that through interventions
like this we are going to speak with one voice against corruption and the
corrupt, and jointly work to defeat the evil of corruption in Nigeria.
Ibrahim Magu is acting
chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
This is the text of a speech
made at the Unveiling of Corruption Anonymous, the Civil Society Whistleblower
Support Initiative of the African Centre for Media & Information Literacy
(AFRICMIL), Abuja, Thursday, October 12, 2017.
Source: premiumtimesng
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