It is not only strange, but totally unacceptable that barely two months after the Federal Government announced the approval of a policy to offer generous financial rewards for whistleblowers who assist in  recovery of stolen public funds, the first person to officially take up the challenge is relieved of his job. At least  the news has not been denied by the Ministry involved.

Whistle-blowers

One Mr Ntia Thompson, a staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was recently sacked after exposing an alleged fraud to the tune of $229,000. This is further evidence that corruption has eaten so deeply into the fabric of our public institutions that a person who exposed allegations of it lost his job instead of getting a pat on the back.

We find it astounding for this to happen in a government that makes war on corruption a priority of its agenda and wonder why government establishments so brazenly foot-drag rather than proactively key into it.

Unless Mr Thompson is quickly recalled and a full searchlight beamed into circumstances behind his apparent witch-hunting, public confidence will desert the intended efforts of the President Muhammadu Buhari regime to use the whistleblower tool to curb corruption, even while still in its incubation stages.

We are on the same page with the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), an advocacy group which has waded into the matter with a letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, to ensure Thompson is quickly recalled or face legal actions. Unless this is done, this alleged fraud could be swept under the carpet and its perpetrators allowed to go free.

If it turns out that Thompson raised a false alarm or levelled a false allegation against anyone, his case should be treated in accordance with civil service rules, and the public must be duly informed to put it beyond doubt that he is not being victimised for doing his patriotic duty.

The Federal Government should quickly go beyond merely announcing policy incentives to make whistleblowing a strong component of the anti-graft war. It should publish a comprehensive policy on it and get the National Assembly to enact a legal framework that will make it work as well as provide cast-iron protection for those who take the risk of becoming whistleblowers.

Happily enough, we will not be re-inventing the wheel in packaging a legal document on whistleblowing, especially in the workplace. We can borrow from the experiences of other countries, such as the United States, which has evolved a basketful of rules and legislations that leverage on whistleblowers to curb corruption and protect those who expose it.

We should not only depend on military style of approach to our anti-graft war. The use of technology and smart strategies like the whistleblower should also be deployed at full steam to produce more results.