How death threats, job losses, and lack of protection affect whistleblowers in West Africa
Insights on whistleblowing and whistleblower protection in West Africa
Originally published on Global Voices
Delegates at the sub-regional conference on whistleblowing and whistleblower protection in West Africa. Photo by me. Used with permission.
On November 26 and 27, the first-ever conference on whistleblowing and whistleblower protection in West Africa was held in Abuja, Nigeria, under the theme “Reducing corruption in West Africa: The importance of whistleblowing and whistleblower legislation.” The conference, which was organized by the African Center for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL), brought together delegates from the Network of Anti-Corruption Institutions in West Africa (NACIWA), key civil society actors, media, security, law enforcement, and anti-corruption organizations, government agencies, and various international development organizations.
Across Africa, corruption remains a critical barrier to development, undermining democratic institutions, slowing economic growth, contributing to governmental instability, and fueling organized crime and general insecurity. The 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) reveals most African nations are struggling to make progress against corruption.
The agenda tackled pressing issues in the fight to protect whistleblowers, including a keynote address on the effect of corruption on economic growth and democratic processes in West Africa, a presentation on regional experience in whistleblowing and witness protection, and panel discussions on whistleblower protections.
Role of whistleblowing in combating corruption
In 2001, during the session of the Authority of Heads of State and Government held in Dakar, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) adopted the Protocol on the Fight against Corruption — a set of strategies to prevent, suppress, and eradicate corruption in the region. West African activists are continuing this fight and hoping to bolster whistleblower protections.
Speaking at the conference, Kole Shettima, Africa Director of the MacArthur Foundation, said:
Whistleblowing is one of the major instruments that can be used to improve accountability mechanisms in our region. The fight against corruption requires different tools and whistleblowing is certainly one of the tools. It is the responsibility of citizens to report crime and we have seen so many people coming out to report on so many corrupt practices that have happened.
Of course, whistleblower policy, as we know, has its challenges, and I think that the major challenge we have seen over the number of years is the question of protection. We know there are a number of people who have been victimized because they have come to report or have reported certain people who have done some bad things within their ministry, within their institutions and that issue of protection is certainly a critical factor.
In August 2024, Wale Edun, Nigeria's finance minister, said the government launched sting operations which recovered USD 609 million, NGN 83 billion (USD 52.5 million), and EUR 5 million (USD 5.3 million), respectively, with the help of its whistleblowing policy.
The plight of whistleblowers
Joseph Ameh, an architect who worked as the head of the physical planning division at the Federal College of Education in Delta State, Nigeria, explained the ordeal he experienced after calling out corruption. He told Global Voices that:
Due process was never followed in the engagement of workers. Quacks were engaged to carry out projects. At a point, there was a building collapse. My entire fight was to safeguard the public from danger and the secondary fight has to do with the economic effect of the corrupt practices. In the sense that, when a project is awarded, it is usually overinflated. Before the project even commences, they take out about half the contract sum [for] themselves. In October 2019, I wrote to the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC). They sent a letter to the institution where I worked and shortly after, my ordeal began. I was threatened, sacked, and trailed in vehicles. I have even been offered checks in millions which I rejected.
Another whistleblower who suffered a similar fate was Ntia Thompson, who was fired for exposing alleged fraud at the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2016 but was later reinstated through sustained advocacy by civic groups.
AFRICMIL coordinator Chido Onumah, whose organization has been advocating for whistleblowers through its corruption anonymous project, emphasized the need to protect them from retaliation in an interview with Global Voices.
Whistleblowers have been facing all kinds of retaliation ranging from stigmatization and discrimination, dismissal from a place of work, criminal sanctions, and death in extreme cases for daring to take what is obviously a delicate conscious action. This makes whistleblowers endangered species, so to speak. And we totally agree with the ECOWAS Commission that one of the best ways of giving them cover is for member states to provide a comprehensive legal framework through the whistleblowing legislation for disclosure of information and protection against any retaliation as a result of making disclosures.
The need for whistleblower protection
In July 2016, the ECOWAS commission met in Cotonou, Benin, and fortified its regional anti-corruption efforts by unveiling the ECOWAS whistleblower protection strategy and plan of action. The key focus of the whistleblower protection strategy is to encourage member states to enact a law to protect public interest whistleblowers as a way of reducing corruption and enhancing transparency and accountability in West Africa.
Professor Etannibi E. Alemika, a criminologist and expert in security and criminal justice sector governance, in his keynote address called for the adoption of stronger whistleblower protection legislation across West Africa to combat corruption. He said:
What we need is comprehensive legislation that ensures anonymity, protection from victimization, and, where necessary, relocation of whistleblowers and their families.
Chido Onumah, AFRICMIL Coordinator, noted that “Of the 15 countries that make up ECOWAS, only Ghana has a whistleblower protection law. This is not a good advertisement for ECOWAS, whose region is consistently rated poorly on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) and the majority of whose member countries are still considered as the most corrupt countries in the world.”