Fulfil your promise,Declare your assets publicly, civil groups to Buhari

Firstclass newsline has gathered that the Civil society groups and
activists on Sunday faulted the failure by President Muhammadu Buhari
and Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo to publicly declare their assets as
promised by them during their electioneering.
They have therefore demanded that the assets be made public in the
best interest of transparency and accountability.
The groups and the activists are the Socio-Economic Rights and
Accountability Project, the Civil Societies Legislative and Advocacy
Centre, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa and Smart Ajaja.
A statement by the head of Buhari's media team, Garba Shehu, on
Saturday had indicated that the President and the Vice-President had
submitted their assets declaration forms separately to the Code of
Conduct Bureau on Thursday. The contents of the forms were however
not disclosed.
Shehu's statement immediately sparked controversy over the willingness
of the President and the Vice-President to make their assets known to
the public. The statement had indicated that by the submission of
their forms to the CCB, they had fulfilled their electoral promise.
According to the statement, the CCB, through its Chairman, Sam Saba,
had on Friday acknowledged the receipt of the forms.
Buhari's declaration identity number was given as "President: 000001/2015."
The statement had read in part, "By declaring their assets, President
Buhari and Vice President Osinbajo may have not only fulfilled the
requirements of the Nigerian Constitution, but also fulfilled the
first of their many campaign promises.
"While seeking election into the highest office in the land, the
President had promised Nigerians that he would publicly declare his
assets as soon as he took over government."
But SERAP, in a statement by its Executive Director, Adetokunbo
Mumuni, argued that the "declaration before the CCB alone fell
short of the commitment to publicly declare their assets."
It said, "SERAP recalls that the President had said before the
election that he would publicly declare his assets and liabilities,
and encourage all his appointees to publicly declare their assets and
liabilities as a pre-condition for appointment.
"We now expect the President to fulfil this promise to the Nigerian
people. We trust that the President and Vice President will move
swiftly to publicly declare their assets and to publish widely the
information on a dedicated website.
"Public disclosure of assets will give the general public a true
picture of the assets of the President and Vice President and will
send a powerful message that it is not going to be business as usual
with this government.
"This will also follow the best practice by former President Umaru
Yar'Adua, boost this government's fight against corruption and
impunity of perpetrators.''
The group maintained that the public disclosure of assets was crucial
for ensuring that public officials' personal interests, including that
of the President and Vice President did not conflict with their duties
and responsibilities.
It stated that public disclosure provided a baseline and means for
comparison to identify assets that might have been corruptly acquired
and that a public official might legitimately be asked to account for.
SERAP also "urged the President to urgently take measures to seek
amendment to the law relating to declaration of assets to include the
requirement of public disclosure so as to bring it in line with
international standards and best practices such as the United Nations
Convention Against Corruption."
Also, CISLAC said Nigerians were requesting that President and the
Vice President make public their asset declarations to increase
transparency.
Its Executive Director , Awual Musa, said even though the two top
government functionaries had fulfilled the constitutional requirement
of submitting their asset declaration forms, they needed to take it
a step further by making it public.
Musa added, "Nigerians appreciate the fact that they have complied
with the constitutional requirement of asset declaration.
'What Nigerians are saying now is that making it public will take it a
step further because when they make their declaration public, other
public officers will have no excuse not to follow suit.
"It will go a long way to mark a departure from the past by improving
citizens participation because the CCB does not have the manpower and
resources to investigate the over 10,000 public officers we have.
Citizens can assist."
Ajaja, a United States -based activist, in an interview with one of
our correspondents, said, " This act must be made public for all
Nigerians to see, in order that they may be taken seriously, going by
what they stand for and their campaign promises.
"Public service is a moral and spiritual call to duty only designed
for those with the hunger to serve and make names for their people and
themselves, and certainly not for those who are driven by the
inordinate ambitions to loot the people's commonwealth to amass ill
gotten wealth at their expense and at the detriment of the state and
its future."
Another human rights activist, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, said that it
was unfortunate that the assets were not made public.
"Government is run on trust and integrity; and this was one of the
selling points for Buhari during his campaign, when he made a solemn
covenant with Nigerians. There is no reason to turn away from that
path of honour which he has promised Nigerians," he added.
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Norrison Quakers and Lagos-based
lawyer, Mr. Fred Agbaje , said the President and his vice had done all
that the constitution required by submitting their asset declaration
forms to the CCB.
They added that any citizen, with sufficient locus standi could apply
for them under the Freedom of Information Act.
Agbaje said, "It is a no issue, and as far as I am concerned they have
complied with the constitution. But the problem is if Buhari had made
it a campaign promise that he is going to publicly declare his assets,
he must keep to his words because we all respect him as a man of
honour. So, it is too early in the day to act contrary to his campaign
promises.
"But any citizen of this country who has sufficient locus standi can
go to court and compel that that information be made public, but I
must warn that the court does not write the constitution, all that the
court does is to interprete the constitution. So if you go to court
under the FOI Act, can you ask the court to compel him to declare his
assets publicly? There is no such provision in the constitution and
the court cannot under the guise of interpretation expand the law. The
court can only expound on the law."
Quakers said, "The most important thing is that the asset has been
declared, even though he had said earlier that his assets would be
declared publicly. Now public declaration simply means that the
information made available to the CCB can also be made available to
the public.
"Whether he declared it publicly or not is not relevant. The most
relevant thing to me is that the information is now in the custody of
a public institution and this can be obtained by any individual who is
interested.
"Any Nigerian who is interested in the assets that have been declared
by the President can request for it from the Code of Conduct Bureau
under the Freedom of Information Act; you can request for it, it is a
public document."
Firstclass newsline however gathered in Abuja that Buhari and
Osinbajo had not foreclosed public declaration of their assets.
A source close to the new administration said in Abuja that the two
leaders might declare their assets publicly within the first 100
days as they promised during their electioneering.
The source said, "Don't forget they promised to declare their assets
publicly within 100 days. What they have done so far is to comply with
the provisions of the law and within three days they told that to the
public.
"They promised to publicly declare the assets within 100 days and I
can assure you that they will do so."
Buhari had during his campaign released a document in which he
outlined what he would do at the start of his administration.
The document titled, "My 100 Days Covenant With Nigerians" read, "I
pledge to publicly declare my assets and liabilities.
"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 Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Allocation Commission."
Buhari, who also pledged to inaugurate the National Council on
Procurement as stipulated in the Procurement Act, said he would
review and implement audit recommendations by Nigeria Extractive
Industries Transparency Initiative, including those on remittances and
remediation.
Firstclassnewsline.net