By Fatima Saka
Plateforme de Protection des Lanceurs d’Alerte en Afrique (PPLAAF) and African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL) on three days Seminar has trained journalists in Nigeria on Investigating Corruption and Financial Crime.
The training aims to expose all corrupt practices in Nigeria and Africa as a whole, and in accordance with the protection of the whistleblowers.
The 3-days training were held on 26th to 28th February, engaging journalists on different approaches to investigate corrupt practices, while working with the whistleblowers.
The Director of PPLAAF, John Dell’ Osso, said corrupt practices are a global phenomenon, that the purpose of the training is to equip Nigerian investigative journalists, and help them to work.
Mr. John said the reason why they are here to transfer the knowledge of the experience they have at PPLAAF and with other expert in investigative journalists Christian LOCKA a member of GIJN to transfer some of the skills developed in doing cross-border financial crime and corruption investigations, helping people hone their skills, develop their skills.
“And our distinct hope is that we can offer some of our own experience and that can help investigative journalists in Nigeria really properly go after the twin problems of corruption and financial crime.”
Speaking on the expectations from the journalists, the Director of PPLAAF said no doubt, “I won’t frame it as expectations, but I have no doubt that you all will continue to do your work with honor and do it ethically.
And it’s my hope that the training has given you a different way of looking at corruption and financial crime. And it’s again, my distinct hope that that helps you in your work.”
The Wes Africa and Francophone Director, PPLAAF, Mr Jimmy Kande said journalists in Nigeria have a key role to play in fighting against corruption and financial crime.
He expressed that the very important for them at PPLAAF is to share knowledge and opportunity to be in contact with other experts like John who is very good on investigation, working on investigation for a long time. “He published a lot of reports that had an impact on the world. So we also want Africans to be able to be part of this circle.”
“You don’t have a lot of investigators from Africa being part of this kind of consortium, so that’s why sometimes it’s also very hard for international media when they are trying to do some investigation to find a good investigator in Africa because most of the media in Africa, they don’t put specific accents in Africa.
“So for us, we think that if something that we can do is to share this opportunity for African journalists to have some training that they can help them to improve their work and if we can have an investigator in Africa that they can work, we know that with the blur, with their story, they’re going to have more impact in their country and the change that we need is going to come in the next few years.
“So that’s why we want to be in contact with other experts and we want to be in contact with African journalists everywhere in Africa.”
The Wes Africa and Francophone Director, PPLAAF, further urged journalists in Nigeria to work on investigation, investigate corruption, investigate financial crime. “And to know that they have also opportunity that they can work with PLAF when they want to make some new collaboration with international NGO that PLAF can facilitate also.”
Also, the Coordinator of African Centre for Media and Information Literacy, Chido Onumah, PH.D said Africmil is a civil society organization working around whistleblowing and the protection of whistleblowers.
He stressed that whistleblowing is one of the most important and creative ways to tackle corruption.
The coordinator of Africmil said that in 2017, the federal government of Nigeria launched the whistleblowing policy in 2016, in 2017, “our organization started engaging with the process. So we’ve worked with the presidential initiative on continuous audit, PICA, the Ministry of Finance, which is the government department that is responsible for managing the whistleblowing policy.
“Since 2017, we’ve been working with PICA to ensure the integrity of the whistleblowing process, to ensure that the implementation is carried out properly, but more importantly also to ensure that we engage civil society, we engage media people to work in terms of protection of whistleblowers.”
Speaking on the angles the media usually reports whistleblowers, the coordinator explained that “the way you, as media people, the way we report whistleblowers, we need to learn a number of things, how we report them.
“We need to learn how to protect them, but also if they are going through any form of retaliation, how to profile their cases in the newspapers and the media so that civil society organizations can then take that up and then make a case for them.
“In terms of this particular conference, we have these partners. PPLAAF, the Platform for the Protection of Whistleblowers in Africa, that’s also interested in the work we’re doing in Nigeria.
“They put together this training for journalists and media people, but also for civil society workers to see, to expand their knowledge around whistleblowing, what it means, whistleblowing at the international level.
“To understand the nitty-gritties of corruption, money laundering, and so on, but also how to do investigative journalism and so on.”
One of the facilitators, Former Director of Independent Corrupt Practices and Others Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Olayinka Ayegbayo said that the essence of this training is for journalists to have a much more clearer and actionable and applicable understanding of whistleblowing.
He added that in this way journalists could promote whistleblowing to direct attention at a lot of social ills and malices that are plaguing the society.
The former ICPC director reiterated that the essence of the whistleblowing training is actually targeted at corruption and financial crime. “So basically what this means is that this training is going to empower participants to as themselves serve as whistleblowers or facilitate whistleblowers to bring hope to the country.
‘Reports, complaints or disclosures about corruption and financial crime in our society, thereby making it possible to nip the occurrence of corruption and financial crime in the boat or to bring it to the barest minimum.”
