Whistleblower Protection and Public Law: A Professional Assessment of the Whistleblower Protection Bill and Current Legal Gaps in Nigeria

Whistleblower protection is a critical public law mechanism for detecting corruption, regulatory violations, and abuse of public office, and its inadequacy in Nigeria has been identified as a significant obstacle to anti-corruption enforcement. While a dedicated Whistleblower Protection Bill has been proposed and debated in the National Assembly since 2017, Nigeria currently lacks a comprehensive statutory whistleblower protection framework, relying instead on fragmented provisions in the EFCC Act, the Public Interest Disclosure Act proposal, and sector-specific regulations. This study professionally assesses the existing legal framework for whistleblower protection in Nigeria, identifying key gaps, evaluating the proposed Whistleblower Protection Bill, and benchmarking the Nigerian framework against international best practices from the United States and South Africa. A doctrinal methodology is applied, reviewing the proposed Whistleblower Protection Bill, the EFCC Act, the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit Act, the whistleblower policy circulars of the Federal Ministry of Finance, and comparative statutes from the United States Dodd-Frank Act and South Africa's Protected Disclosures Act 2000. The study evaluates the adequacy of protections against retaliation, the scope of protected disclosures, and the evidentiary burden on whistleblowers. Available anti-corruption law literature identifies retaliation vulnerability, inadequate financial incentives, and anonymous disclosure mechanisms as the three most critical gaps in the current framework. The Good Governance Theory and the OECD Whistleblower Protection Framework provide the normative reference. Recommendations address priority enactment of the Whistleblower Protection Bill with strong retaliation remedies. Keywords: whistleblower protection, anti-corruption law, public interest disclosure, governance, Nigeria.