Presidency Seriously Planning To Extend Whistle-Blowing Policy To Weapon Recovery [Must Read]
The Presidency has expressed delight in the success so far recorded by the Federal Government’s whistle-blowing policy in the war against corruption.
It is, therefore, considering applying the same policy to the issue of illegal weapons in the hand of citizens.
It has also commenced efforts aimed at strengthening the policy.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, disclosed this in a statement made available to journalists on Wednesday.
Shehu said the enthusiastic response of Nigerians to the whistle-blower policy had boosted the tempo of the anti-corruption crusade of the administration.
Consequently, he said the government was considering ways of enhancing the structural capacity of the whistle-blower mechanism.
He said the government was considering empowering the mechanism by either bringing it under the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption or any other body to imbue the process with a strategic national purpose.
“The government thinks that the whistle-blower mechanism is too important to be left without a strategic, national direction,” he said.
Shehu commended the zeal and patriotism of Nigerians in responding positively to the incentives of whistle-blower policy, which was intended to expose hidden looted funds, saying ‘no public policy can succeed or go far enough without public support and participation and when the citizens realise they are victims of corruption, they may feel encouraged to join the efforts to expose looted funds’.
The presidential spokesman explained that the huge amounts of looted funds being recovered by the EFCC and the whistle-blower efforts ‘is a revelation about the mindless, callous and reckless scale on which Nigeria had been robbed by unpatriotic and egregiously selfish public officials’.
He said the election of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 was a divine intervention in response to the desperate cries of Nigerians for urgent change, adding that ‘stealing by officials under a democratic government at the expense of people’s welfare is the worst betrayal of the voters’ mandate’.
The presidential spokesman also indicated that the government was getting suggestions to bring the issue of illegal weapons under the purview of the whistle-blower policy.
“Yes, it is true; the Presidency has received suggestions that call for the whistle-blower policy to be extended to the possession of illegal weapons by powerful individuals in the country.
“The government will look at all that and make a pronouncement.
“Nigerians would be encouraged to expose the presence of illegal weapons in the homes of powerful politicians and other public figures who may use those deadly arms for sinister political agenda,” he said.
Shehu said patriotic Nigerians exposing looted funds deserve all the encouragement and protection to sustain their enthusiasm with a view to encouraging more citizens to participate in this aspect of the anti-corruption crusade.
