The Chairman of the Code of
Conduct Bureau, Mohammed Isah, has explained why the outfit will not release
the asset details of President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi
Osinbajo, despite public requests.
He said this is because “the
National Assembly has not set the guidelines for the Bureau to do so.”
Speaking at a News Agency of
Nigeria forum in Abuja, Mr Isah cited the stipulations of the constitution as
well as the FOI Act as the Bureau’s guiding principle which empowers the Bureau to retain in
its custody details of assets declared by a public office holder and make them
available for inspection upon request by any citizen of Nigeria, on the terms
and conditions prescribed by the National Assembly.
“So, if anybody as a private
person or private organisation wants to access asset declaration or information
contained in asset declaration of any public officer, those conditions laid
down by FOI Act must be fulfilled,” Mr Isah said.
The official did not say why the
CCB has not asked the National Assembly to prescribe the conditions. He also
did not state if the CCB plans to ask the National Assembly to do so.
The establishes the right of anyone to request
information in the custody of any public official, agency or institution, with
the exception of security files which are not of public concern.
Requests
In 2015, a coalition of groups
requested the Bureau to make public the asset declaration forms filed by Messrs
Buhari and Osinbajo.
However, the CCB declined their
requests, citing “personal privacy” as its reason.
Many questioned the lack of
consistency by the Bureau, especially when the details of assets filed by the
former chief justice of the federation, Walter Onnoghen, was accessed by Dennis
Aghanya, a former aide to the president.
On the heel of the suspension of
Mr Onnoghen, after he was accused of withholding the full declaration of his
assets, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) again
requested “details of asset declarations by successive presidents and state
governors between 1999 and 2019, including details of declarations made
immediately after taking offices and thereafter”.
The Bureau again turned down the
request.
It said it “would offend the
right to privacy of presidents and state governors”.
The group has since sued the CCB.
Unwilling president
Before his first election as
president, Mr Buhari had promised to make public a comprehensive list of his
declaration at the CCB. Although he denied ever making such promise, PREMIUM
TIMES found his denial to be untrue.
He did submit his declaration
particulars to the CCB, and the Bureau followed this with its verification but
the president reneged on his promise to make public the content of his
declaration.
After a public backlash, the
president, through a statement from his spokesperson, Garba Shehu, in September
2015, reeled out only sketchy details of assets and liabilities filed by
President Buhari.
Mr Buhari, according to the
statement, was said to have N30 million in his bank account before taking
office on May 29, 2015.
This is alongside five houses in
Kaduna, Daura, Kano and Abuja; two undeveloped plots of land, one in Kano and
the other in Port Harcourt.
Also, Mr Buhari was said to have
farms, an orchard, ranch, livestock including 270 cattle, 25 sheep, five
horses, a variety of birds and a number of economic trees, and a “number of
cars”.
Osinbajo
Vice President Osinbajo in his
declaration said he had N94 million and $900,000 in his bank account.
He also owned a 4-bedroom
residence at Victoria Garden City, Lagos; a 3-bedroom flat at 2 Mosley Road,
Ikoyi; a 2-bedroom flat along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway; and a 2-bedroom
mortgaged property in Bedford, England.
Also, together with his law firm,
known as SimmonsCooper, Mr Osinbajo was said to be a shareholder in six
Lagos-based firms: Octogenerium Ltd., Windsor Grant Ltd., Tarapolsa, Vistorion
Ltd., Aviva Ltd. and MTN Nigeria.
Other details like the addresses
and value of the listed houses and assets and their liabilities were withheld
in the release.
Also, the assets of their spouses
and unmarried children under 18, as the law demands, were not contained
therein.
Again in 2019, after Mr Buhari’s
reelection, the presidential spokesperson, Mr Shehu, said: “the (declaration)
forms, as signed by the President and sworn to before a Judge of Abuja High
Court, showed no significant changes in assets as declared in 2015 by him.”
“There are no new houses, no new
bank accounts at home and abroad and there are no new shares acquired,” Mr
Shehu added, without further details.
Many public officers not
complying
Ironically, the Chairman of the
CCB also berated the level of compliance by public officers.
“Our main predicament is the
issue of enlightenment. People have little or no knowledge about their
obligations or relations to compliance with the Code of Conduct for public
officers. So, the level of compliance is not encouraging at all,” Mr Isah said.
Part 2, Schedule 5 of the
constitution highlights public officers as: the President, vice-president, all
members and staff of the national and state legislative houses, governors and
deputy governors, all judicial officers and staff of courts of law, all state
and federal political appointees, ambassadors, high commissioners and other
officers of Nigeria missions abroad, and DGs and chairmen of all parastatals
and agencies of federal and state governments, military, police, immigration,
customs, prisons, political office holders and all federal, state and local
government civil servants.
These public officers are
mandated by the provisions of Paragraph 11 of Part 1 to the Fifth Schedule of
the constitution to declare their asset and those of their unmarried children
under 18 years to the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), before and after their
tenures.
Meanwhile, the official admitted
that the agency has been “a bit toothless in biting corrupt officials” in the
public sector.
He said the agency will “up its
game”.
“The bureau was neglected because
of its non-performance, and we are not here to fail. We are here to achieve and
make the bureau better than we met it. So, in the next few days, the turnout in
terms of the success of our cases in court will be very impressive,’’ Mr Isah
said.
The CCB, established in 1979, has
the core mandate to check corrupt practices in the Nigerian public service by
ensuring public officers declare their assets to the Bureau.
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