Legal Practitioners Call Out Buhari Over Lack Of Transparency In Asset Declaration

• Legal practitioners have accused President Buhari of insincerity in his asset declaration despite pressure from Nigerians to make his assets public after promising to do so.

• The Code of Conduct Bureau has revealed that it is not mandatory for public officials to publicly declare their assets upon leaving office, which has raised questions about the government’s anti-corruption agenda.

• The failure of Buhari to publicly declare his assets ab initio may have had a negative impact on his credibility and transparency as a leader.

EKO HOT BLOG reports that Some legal practitioners have knocked President Muhammadu Buhari over what they called his insincerity in declaring assets.

According to them, if the president is a sincere person, Nigerians would not have to pressure him to fulfill the promise he made to declare his assets publicly.

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The development follows the disclosure by the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) that Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, and other public officials are not mandated to declare their assets before leaving office on May 29.

The CCB Act does not mandate them and other public officials to publicly declare their assets because it is a voluntary act and not mandatory.

It would however be recalled that hitherto to the 2015 general election, Buhari promised he would publicly declare his assets and liabilities if voted into power.

In a document titled, ‘I pledge to Nigeria’, Buhari highlighted what he would do in his first 100 days if he assumed power on May 29, 2015. He said he would encourage political appointees in his administration to also declare their assets publicly.

The president was quoted to have said “I pledge to publicly declare my assets and liabilities and encourage all my appointees to publicly declare their assets and liabilities as a pre-condition for appointment. All political appointees will only earn the salaries and allowances determined by the RMFAC.”

But after the president came to power, it took many criticisms from Nigerians to persuade the Presidency to eventually publish Buhari and Osinbajo’s assets.

Details of Buhari’s declared assets were made public in a statement by his spokesman, Garba Shehu, showing that the assets were valued at less than N30 million at the time of his inauguration on May 29.

Shehu added that the President’s money was held in a single local bank account. Buhari was said to have homes in Daura in addition to an orchard with a number of economic trees and a ranch with 270 heads of cattle, 25 sheep, and five horses, as well as shares in Berger Paints, Union Bank, and Skye Bank (now Polaris Bank).

Osinbajo, on his part, declared N94 million and $900,000 held in his bank accounts. He also declared a four-bedroom residence in Lagos, a three-bedroom flat in Ikoyi, and another two-bedroom apartment at the Redemption Camp along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

The Vice-President also listed a mortgaged property with two bedrooms in Bedford, England.

Shehu added, “Apart from his law firm, known as SimmonsCooper Partners, the Vice-President also declared shareholding in six private companies based in Lagos, including Octogenerium Limited, Windsor Grant Limited, Tarapolsa, Vistorion Limited, Aviva Limited, and MTN Nigeria.”

Similarly in May 2019, before his inauguration for a second term, Buhari submitted a second set of assets declaration forms to the CCB, which was not much different from the first one.

The president said, “There are no new houses, no new bank accounts at home and abroad, and there are no new shares acquired.”

However, Human rights activist, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), said the President’s failure to declare his assets publicly, ab initio, had a negative impact on his anti-corruption agenda.

Ozekhome told The Punch that Buhari had led an anti-corruption campaign in 2015 before he came into power, where he promised Nigerians that he would publicly declare his assets when sworn in, but that he did not do so immediately as promised.

He submitted that “Nigerians should have known from that first singular act that Buhari’s government will not be truthful and sincere to Nigerians. This was a man who said if he was declared the president of Nigeria, he would declare his assets openly and publicly. But when he got into office, he declared his assets, but refused to make them public until Nigerians pressurized him, went on television, and wrote that he should make them public so as to show a good example, leadership by example not by precept.”

The SAN said the public declaration of his assets would have symbolised transparency on the President’s part, serving as a yardstick to weigh the quantum by which the assets had appreciated or depreciated in the past eight years.

On his part the Chairman of the Transition Monitoring Group, Auwal Rafsanjani, emphasised on the importance of making assets declaration forms public if the administration was keen on its anti-corruption campaign.

Rafsanjani said, “Any government that says it wants to fight corruption must look for a way to ensure a standard approach to assets declaration. Assets declaration is very important to minimise the level of corruption in society because if public officials don’t declare their assets, there is a likelihood that they can accumulate as much as they can while in office at the expense of the public. So, it is important that public officials, including the President, Vice-President, Senate President, and others must declare their assets and it should be done publicly.

“It is worrisome that this government promised to fight corruption, but it has not been effective in the fight against corruption and asset declaration was not prioritised.”

Another human rights lawyer, Jiti Ogunye said, “My view remains that if assets are declared and the forms are kept in a file, far away from public scrutiny, how will members of the public be able to volunteer information that someone in a public office has had more assets than we know? How will whistleblowers be able to function?

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“Law enforcement agencies demand information from the citizens. They say they act on the information acquired and cooperation of the citizens, even the military in the war against insurgents solicits information from the people.”

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