Rights Advocacy Group urges Buhari and Osinbajo to Make Public Declaration of Assets
The rights advocacy group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo to make public declarations of their assets in alignment with their campaign promises.
The Executive Director of the group, Adetokunbo Mumuni, released a statement on Sunday in Lagos, after the newly sworn-in president and his vice declared their assets to the Code of Conduct Bureau as required by the Constitution.
He said, “we welcome the official declaration of assets by the president and the vice-president. This clearly complies with the requirements of the Nigerian Constitution as contained in Chapter 6 Section 140. However, the declaration before the Code of Conduct alone falls far short of the commitment to publicly declare their assets.
“SERAP recalls that the president 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 fulfill 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.”
The group believes that the public disclosure of assets will grant the new government credibility and will cement their campaign on anti-corruption stand.
The statement continued: “We believe that public disclosure of assets is crucial in ensuring that public officials’ personal interests including those of the president and vice-president, as the leaders of the nation, do not conflict with their duties and responsibilities.
“Public disclosure also helps to provide a baseline and means for comparison to identify assets that may have been corruptly acquired, so that a public official may legitimately be asked to account for.”
