Pushing for public asset declaration by Buhari’s ministers

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No doubt President Muhammadu Buhari will inaugurate his cabinet any moment from now as the senate has screened and confirmed all the ministers-designate expected to help him push the realisation of his change mantra.

The change preached by the All Progressives Congress before the last general elections was believed to have won the heart of the majority of voters to the party. Buhari, the party’s candidate in the last presidential poll, strengthened the people’s belief in the mantra when he publicly told Nigerians that he would declare his assets and liabilities as well as encourage whoever would work with him to tow the same path.

The idea behind this is to encourage transparency in governance and discourage corrupt practices that have been generally regarded as the major challenge threatening the country’s development.

Though the APC National Publicity Sec­retary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, had said that the transparent manner in which Buhari emerged as the party’s presidential candidate contributed largely to the President’s victory in the last general elections, those who have been following political events in the country differed.

They are of the opinion that beyond Muhammed’s claim and the widespread sup­port for Buhari, the President’s pledge to lead by example and also encourage his appointees to demonstrate honesty in governance worked for the party’s success.

“I will show personal leadership in the war against corruption and also hold all the people who work with me to account,” Buhari had said.

Observers, however, said the ministers-designate should be made to publicly declare their assets before their inauguration.

They are insisting that anything that would promote accountability in Buhari’s government, including declaration of assets by the President’s appointees should be accorded a prime place.

While stressing that building and strengthening public institutions for the promotion of the greatest good of the greatest number of the people is the core responsibility of any President, a commentator, Mr. Dare Adeiya, said that the pledge by Buhari that he would encourage his appointees to declare their worth was tantamount to a debt which the President should endevour to pay.

Adeiya said the fact that Buhari and the Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, had declared their assets and liabilities publicly did not exclude other public officials, especially those whose responsibilities are to assist the President to run the government.

He also canvassed the amendment of the 1999 Constitution to make it compulsory for all public officials, either elected or appointed to publicly declare their assets.

Adeiya said, “Tackling corruption, which Buhari himself has identified as the country’s major headache, requires leading by example and honestly working on possible leads that could help achieve a corrupt-free government. What is the essence of the much celebrated change mantra if the President cannot walk his talk?

“In fact, the fight against corruption should begin from asking whoever will occupy public office to genuinely and compulsorily declare his or her assets publicly. The constitution should be amended for this purpose. Nigeria needs an image of a country where transparency engendered by asset declaration by public officials is promoted.”

He, however, urged the President to ensure that his ministers and other appointees genuinely declare their worth publicly.

Adeiya said, “There are millions of Nigerians who are qualified and ready to serve. It is said that public declaration of assets is a moral responsibility; such a decision by the appointees to accept this moral responsibility should be used as part of the yardsticks to determine their determination to serve.”

Some of the ministers-designate, who Nigerians are expecting to assist Buhari to make success of his administration, have told Saturday PUNCH that they were not under any obligation to declare their assets publicly. They said that the constitution only required them to declare their worth to the Code of Conduct Bureau.

But the President, Nigeria Voters Assembly, Mashood Erubami, disagreed with the ministers-designate. He said that issue of asset declaration is a constitutional matter that could not be varied.

Erubami said it would be unconstitutional for anyone to occupy the office of a minister without declaring his or her assets.

He said, “Once a minister has been appointed by the President in accordance with Section 147(2) in which case such appointment is approved by the senate, having conformed with provisions of Section 14(3) of the constitution, and the President, in his discretion assigns to the minister, responsibility for any business that he wants the minister to handle for the government, such a minister will become a minister-designate.

“A minister so designated can only start to perform the duties of his office when he has declared his or her assets and liabilities as prescribed in the constitution and has subsequently taken and subscribed to the oath of allegiance and the oath for the due execution of his or her office.

“Declaration of assets and liabilities is imperative and sine qua non to be qualified to perform the duties of a minister of government. It is therefore essential and legal that a minister-designate must declare his or her assets and liabilities in these regards, it is imperative for the ministers-designate recently nominated by the president, screened and approved by the Senate to declare their assets and liabilities immediately if they have not done so.”

Acting Executive Secretary, Anti-Corruption Network, Ebenezer Oyetakin, asked appointees who are not ready to publicly declare their worth in terms of cash and other properties to decline the appointments and return to their private businesses.

Wondering why the appointees, especially the ministers-designate have yet to publicly declare their assets and liabilities by now, Oyetakin reminded Buhari that every promise made during the electioneering and after the period deserved to be fulfilled.

He said, “Readiness to declare their assets and liabilities should be the first yardstick that the senators, who are also supposed to publicly declare their assets, use to screen everybody sent to them for screening by the President.

“I agree that the ministers and indeed all public office holders should publicly declare their assets. This period should be an era in Nigeria in which people should stop seeking public offices for the purpose of amassing wealth. If any of those seeking to work with Buhari is not ready to declare his or her assets, the person should be asked to face his or her private business, after all Buhari and Osinbajo have declared their worth and heaven did not fall.”

Oyetakin also challenged the National Assembly to support Buhari’s anti-corruption war by enacting a law that would spell out strict punishment for corrupt officials.

Apart from boosting the President’s anti-corruption campaign, a United States-based rights activist, Mr. Smart Ajaja, sees public declaration of assets by government officials, either elected or appointed as a means to maximise resources.

He felt that money spent on the prosecution of suspected corrupt officials would be diverted to something more profitable if the suspects had been initially discouraged from engaging in corrupt practices by making them to declare their assets and liabilities before they assumed public offices.

Ajaja said, “The calls by Nigerian for the ministers-designate and other public office holders to declare their assets are calls in good faith especially to determine baseline assets data needed for establishing transparency and accountability, measuring, monitoring and curbing corruptibility and in effect, maximise production with special reference to service delivery in line with democratic principles as opposed to the country’s recent past when ministers mostly did nothing but loaded their pockets at the expense of Nigerians.

“President Buhari should make them declare their assets before they are assigned their portfolios so that they will operate without flaws and unanswered questions about their pasts.

“I have no doubts that the President will compel them to declare their assets especially after he and his vice declared their assets without holding back.

“The failure of the senate to use the asset declaration as an index for determining eligibility or otherwise for confirmation is hinged on a simple logic: who among the senators is so clean to cast the first stone when one of their major principal officers is currently being prosecuted for fraud surrounding his alleged fraudulent misrepresentation in his own asset declaration?

“Nigeria at the moment has dangerous cocktail of all manners of corrupt people in the Senate and House of Representatives with the exception of a few who are easily shouted down by the arrogantly corrupt and vocally irate mobs whose only interest is in what they get for themselves at the expense of the Nigerian people.

“Whenever I read about the activities of some of the corrupt senators who ran and were elected on the back of human rights activism and anti-corruption, I laugh myself hoarse about how cheap it is to market, promote and advertise ignorance and folly in Nigeria and how Nigerians buy them wholesale without questions.”

Like Erubami, lawyer and right activist, Carol Ajie, said Buhari should not inaugurate any minister-designate that refused to publicly declare his or her assets and liabilities.

Stressing that declaration of assets is a constitutional matter, Ajie said, “Section 149 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, says a minister of the government of the Federation shall not enter upon the duties of his or her office, unless he or she has declared his or her assets and liabilities as prescribed in the constitution and has subsequently taken and subscribed the Oath of Allegiance and the Oath for the due execution of the duties of his or her office prescribed in the seventh schedule of the constitution.

“Therefore, it is mandatory and not a mere directory that our ministers must declare their assets and liabilities to be eligible for the next inauguration. Otherwise should the President proceed to inaugurate them without declaring their assets and liabilities at the Code of Conduct Bureau as required by law, Mr. President should be held wholly and totally liable for collusion and conspiracy with the ministers to violate the constitution for reasons that must be ulterior, bearing in mind that he ought not to proceed in the circumstances of failure of the ministers-designate to comply with Section 149 thereof.

“Should the ministers- designate make public their declarations or quietly? The President is the political leader and if his appointees are not prepared to toe the path, then it means we are stuck with the old methods of business as the change mantra becomes a mockery.”

Source: Punch