The policy of whistleblowing should be extended to cover voting and other electioneering processes, to curb vote buying and other electoral malpractice, Dr. Garba Abari, Director-General, National Orientation Agency (NOA), has said.
Abari spoke at the official launch of Corruption Anonymous (CORA), a whistleblowing platform, a good governance initiative of the African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL) in conjunction with the Yar’Adua Foundation at the Shehu Musa Yar’ Adua Centre in Abuja.
The platform which is supported by the MacArthur Foundation, promises to secure the identity of whistleblowers.
Abari, who was represented by the Director of Press, Mr. Paul Odenyi, advised AFRICMIL and Yar’Adua Foundation to extend the whistleblowing platform to election matters.
He stressed that it would go a long way to curb vote buying, so-called buying of Permanent Voters Card (PVC), and sorting of the electorate at voting centres.
The Corruption Anonymous Whistleblowing platform is expected to provide opportunities to report corruption and rekindle interests in the Federal Government’s Whistleblower Policy.
Speaking at the unveiling of the initiative, the Director of AFRIMIL, Chido Onumah, said that the CORA whistleblowers initiative was a vital tool that would address the gaps hampering whistleblowing by citizens.
The platform, he said, would provide reporting options for the people, which will eventually enrich the government’s tip-sharing system run by the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA).
”CORA whistleblowing platform, the civil- society-driven public reporting option that we are launching today, serves as an invaluable tool that would fill the gap in the disclosure channels which have made fighting corruption through whistleblowing a challenging exercise for citizens.
”The CORA platform will complement the government’s whistleblowing platform managed by PICA and make it much easier for citizens to submit tips anonymously, without fear of being exposed and confident that the tips will be treated.
”Our goal for this project is to have a citizenry that is sensitive to its role in fighting corruption. As Nigerians, we must be aware that the fight against corruption is not one to be left to the government alone. Legally and morally, we all have roles to play, and this is what the whistleblowing policy seeks to ensure.”