Saraki, Dogara, Other NASS Leaders Should Declare Assets Publicly

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, Uncategorized Wednesday, September 9th, 2015

The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) has asserted that it is the turn of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki; Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu; Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara and all public exposed persons, including governors, ministers and those who work directly with the President such as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and the President’s Chief of Staff to declare their assets and make it public to lead by example.

Speaking on behalf of the Coalition, its Executive Chairman, Comrade Debo Adeniran reiterated CACOL’s position that the declaration of assets is the non-prosecutorial way of fighting corruption.

Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker of the House of Representtives Dogara

“There cannot be accountability, transparency and probity if we do not have a baseline with which we can determine how to measure how much each public exposed person accumulated while in office. It is only through this process of assets declaration and verification that we would be able to determine if their hands are clean; otherwise, it could become business as usual as experienced in the past regimes,” he said.

Speaking further, Adeniran stressed that the current anti-corruption drive of the All Progressives Congress-led government would not be complete unless those occupying public offices can prove that they have not illegally enriched themselves.

“Once the leader has taken up the gaunlet, the followers need not be persuaded to do the same if they have not done so. CACOL expect every public exposed person (PEP) to publicly declare his assets, including his spouses and even his children because they naturally are going to be beneficiaries of whatever their principal makes while in public office. This will enable Nigerians to compare and contrast their net-worth at the point of entering with that at the point of exit,” he added.

“According to The News, Shehu Sani was reported to have picked the queue after the President and the VP; an action we believe has thrown a challenge of integrity at the likes of the Governor of Kaduna State, Nasiru El-Rufai, who is currently contending with allegations of corrupt accumulation of assets. He should come out in the open to let us know if he has as much as has been ascribed to him.

“CACOL is also using this opportunity to ask the regime to amend the laws that set up the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) to henceforth make public declaration of assets compelling as applicable. Unless it is made public, information contained in the forms submitted to the CCB may not be easily accessible to every member of the public wishing to verify its authenticity since not everybody has the resources to go to court to challenge the CCB if the latter refuses or fails to oblige.

“He who cannot stand the heat should not go into the kitchen, if you don’t want to get wet, don’t jump into the water”. So once they have decided to serve in public office, they should ensure that everything about them, their spouses, their children, their sibling and other dependants are made totally open to all,” he stated.

According to Adeniran, democracy presupposed that public officers were employees of the people and that their allegiance to their employers was not negotiable.

“It’s therefore incumbent upon them to give account of their stewardship to the same people that employed them and this includes, public declaration of what they had when coming in and what they have when going out,” he said.