Buhari wants PCC to handle whistle-blowing policy

President Muhammadu Buhari has described the Public Complaints Commission (PCC) as the best suited agency to domicile the whistle-blowing policy of the Federal Government.

The President made his position known while reacting on Friday to requests by the Chief Commissioner of the Commission, Honourable Abimbola Ayo-Yusuf, and members of the management team during a courtesy visit to the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He also thanked the commission for conferring him the award of the Grand Ombudsman of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, pledging to continue to do his best in expanding the frontiers of anti-corruption, rule of law and good governance in Nigeria.

On the requests by the commission, the President said: “I want to assure you that the commission would be considered as the agency where the policy will be domiciled given your widespread network of offices and the fact that your mandate on referral of complaints with criminal contents to appropriate law enforcement agencies make your commission the best suited agency for domiciling whistle-blowing policy of the Federal Government.”

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The President, in a statement issued by his media aide, Malam Garba Shehu, also promised speedy consideration of the commission’s application to own a radio station to facilitate dissemination of its activities to the citizenry and to enhance its public enlightenment programmes.

On the 2023 elections and the need to protect the will of Nigerians, President Buhari urged the commission to use their privileged position and network of numerous offices in all the states of the federation and presence in many local government areas to protect the interest of the downtrodden and sensitize the citizenry on their rights and obligations.

He underscored the role of the commission in ensuring free, fair and credible elections and a smooth democratic transition and transfer of power in 2023.

On the honorary award presented to the President, Hon, Ayo-Yusuf praised President Buhari for releasing all outstanding pension liabilities, from 2014, to retirees of the Federal Government, especially those of the treasury-funded Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs), under the contributory pension scheme.

He added that the President also approved the payment of backlog of death benefits due to beneficiaries of deceased employees of MDAs.

Ayo-Yusuf also highlighted the President’s approval for payment of the 13 percent derivation deductions, for the nine oil producing states of the Federation, which has been outstanding since 1999.

He also told the President that between July 1, 2021 when he assumed office with his colleagues and November 2022, a total of 125,064 out of 173,500 complaints have been resolved.

The Chief Commissioner, while making the case to become the hub of the whistle-blowing policy and provide confidentiality for whistleblowers, said the commission had over the years served as Chair of the Inter-agency Task Team on Anti-Corruption.

“We are able to secretly receive, investigate, process and refer cases from whistleblowers to relevant agencies for further investigation and prosecution while protecting the whistleblower,” he said.