Whistleblowing Measures and Its Implications in the Nigerian Extractive Industry

Nigeria’s oil and gas industry has been impacted negatively by the activities of multinational corporations (MNCs) predominately located in the Niger Delta region and worsened by the lack of political will of the Nigerian government to effectively regulate the extractive industry. The extractive industry is also beset by other problems not limited to lack of accountability and transparency, human rights violations and environmental degradation, amongst others.

This chapter argues that reliance on whistleblowing regulatory frameworks can be utilised in promoting disclosures of wrongdoing in the Nigerian extractive industry. The role whistleblowing plays today in different sectors in many parts of the world cannot be overlooked. Whistleblowers play a critical role in exposing wrongdoing by virtue of their proximity and access to information. Whistleblowers are a key element of accountability and transparency measures within and outside the workplace, as they are most likely to witness incidences of fraud, corruption and unlawful conduct first-hand and possess sufficient information to report the incident. Regulation of whistleblowing and the protection of whistleblowers has an impact on corporate transparency, accountability and culture. In disclosing wrongdoing in the Nigerian extractive industry, whistleblowers may be uncertain of how to properly raise their concerns using the right disclosure channels. The presence of a regulatory framework by way of a whistleblower protection framework plays an important role in solving this dilemma. This is because an effective whistleblower protection framework paves the way for good corporate governance by providing the modes and channels of making disclosures including protection from retaliatory measures.

This chapter suggests that whistleblowing laws can be used as one of the strategies to improve accountability and transparency in the extractive industry in Nigeria. This chapter also suggests that a standalone whistleblowing protection law or policy should be enacted in the extractive sector in this regard.