Whistleblowing has become a central topic of discussion with the recent publication of the Federal Government's whistleblowing policy.
A research article published last year by sociologists at Covenant University has identified the need for Nigerian institutions to encourage whistleblowing among their staff as a deterrence to unethical practices.
Here is the abstract
Whistleblowing provides a self-correcting mechanism for an organization to prevent unethical practices. Lessons from collapsed businesses around the world show that organisations do not just collapse, but rather it is a gradual process resulting from a series of inappropriate acts left unaddressed. This paper is based on a conceptual perspective. Past studies on whistleblowing were reviewed, gaps and weaknesses identified to develop a conceptual framework on whistleblowing reporting attitude of bank employees in Nigeria. The conceptual framework is anchored on the Resource Dependence (RD) and Planned Behaviour (PB) theories. The paper provides important lessons for promoting ethical practices in organisations and the society at large. Based on the gaps in literature, this paper recommends among others a performance review system that is tied to rewarding whistleblowing; ways to protect whistleblowers and the need to strengthen organizational support structures for whistleblowing.
The paper can be downloaded for free here.
Many organisations in Nigeria already have whistle-blowing policies in place. For example, First Bank of Nigeria has a whistleblowing policy which is available online. I'm sure that many Nigrian organisation are in the process of developing whistle-blowing policies. Scholarly works such as this would be a valuable resource.