Chido Onumah, Coordinator of the African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL), was elected as a Trustee of the Scotland-based Whistleblowing International Network (WIN) at its first ever global digital Annual General Meeting held on Thursday, October 14, 2021.mķ.
WIN is an international centre of excellence connecting and strengthening civil society organisations that defend and support whistleblowers. Its mission is to protect the public interest by protecting whistleblowers worldwide.
Onumah, the new Trustee, is a journalist, media trainer and human rights activist. He has worked in Nigeria, Ghana, Canada, the US, India, the Caribbean and Spain. He has spent over 30 years training journalists and promoting media and information literacy in Africa. His organization, AFRICMIL, is a pan-African centre dedicated to a new vision of media and information literacy as a key component in the education of young people in Africa.
AFRICMIL also works on the promotion of whistleblowing and whistleblower protection in Nigeria through its accountability and good governance project, Corruption Anonymous (CORA).
Onumah is the author of We Are All Biafrans, and has edited several books the latest of which is Remaking Nigeria: Sixty Years, Sixty Voices
In welcoming Onumah as a Trustee, WIN’s Executive Director, Anna Myers said:
“We are delighted to have Chido Onumah join us as Trustee of WIN. Perspectives from Europe and North America are well-represented on our Board and we are keen to hear more from our whistleblowing communities based elsewhere, including Africa. Chido is so well-respected and brings such a wealth of experience. We are truly honoured to have greater access to him as a WIN Trustee.”
On his part, Onumah thanked the Board and the WIN membership for appointing him as a Trustee, saying, “I look forward to working with you all and I appreciate your confidence in me.”
WIN’s AGM also saw the appointment of Vladimir Radomirovic, editor-in-chief of Pistaljka, an online investigative journalism outlet in Serbia, as the Chair of Trustees, succeeding John Devitt who remains on the Board as a Trustee. Former CEO of Protect, Cathy James, continues as the Vice Chair of the Board.
Other members of the Board of Trustees include Tom Devine, Legal Director for the Government Accountability Project; David Hutton, Senior Fellow of the Centre for Free Expression Whistleblowing Initiatives, Canada; Georgio Franschini, Legal Director of Transparency International Italy; Annergret Falter, Chair of German organization Whistleblowers – Netzwerk; and John Devitt, CEO of Transparency International Ireland.