Those Lies Called ‘Asset Declaration’[i]
20.09.2015
Politics! Politics!! Politics!!! Politics is diversionary. Otherwise, why should the concern be on the assets Mr. President failed to declare? Politics has changed. I think every public office holder should be forced to declare his or her liability. It is liability that is causing problems in many states not assets. Some states are indebted to election godfathers and cannot pay their workers.
Politics is also a double-edged sword. It cuts without minding whose horse is gored. Treachery! Betrayal! Confusion! Robbing Peter to pay Paul! Politics has never spared neither its victim nor its beneficiary. If you doubt this, you can ask Ebonyi workers. The workers ate politics; and thereafter, politics started eating them.
Politics robs Peter to Paul. But the consolation is that time comes when there is no more Peter to rob and Paul is forced by the robber to vomit his booty. The robber is not smartest either because he whom gods will destroy they first make mad. The Shakespearean Macbeth and his neurotic Lady Macbeth, unconquerable as they thought, never believed that forests could move nor admitted the possible triumph of a man not born of a woman.
I heard that there is a group under the aegis of the Junior Staff Association of Ebonyi State. I have no problem that the group has become a child of necessity, a vomit of politics. I have no problem that it has dissociated itself from the on-going industrial action embarked upon by the Ebonyi labour force after all foundation once destroyed what will the just do. The fathers ate unripe grapes and their children’s teeth are set on the edge.
My concern is that only fools rush where angels fear to tread. First, it was Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) and the Nigerian Union of Teachers singing with voice significantly discordant with the combined trio of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Joint Negotiation Council, JNC, and Trade Union Congress, TUC. It was not long NULGE and NUT realized that he who laughs last laughs best and they started important agitation too late.
The first team song I learnt in the kindergarten is follow thy leader. While I pray labour reaches a compromise with the government, there is need to keep in mind that collective bargain has in history saved many unions from collapse. The last time I checked my adage book, one read: ‘Unity is power’; and another: ‘Divided we fall’.
Back to business of the week! On Thursday September 3, 2015, barely 13 weeks in office, the Nigerian Muhammadu Buhari and his Vice Yemi Osinbajo openly declared the details of their assets to the Code of Conduct Bureau.
The declaration which was contained in a statement to the Bureau by the Senior Special Adviser to the President on Media, Mr Shehu Garba, showed that the President has about N30m in his only one bank account with Union Bank Plc, while the Vice President has a balance of N94m, $900,000 and 19,000 pounds. The President according to the declaration has shares in Berger Paints, Skye Bank and Union Bank and a total of seven houses, comprising two mud and a standard house in Daura, his hometown; two homes in Kaduna, one in Kano and one in Abuja.
The declaration did not disclose the worth of the landed property and other assets, which both the President and the Vice President had declared. Shehu said the President has two plots of undeveloped land in Kano and Port Harcourt but revealed that the President has not been able to ascertain the location of the Port Harcourt land. Shehu said the President has no oil well and foreign bank accounts nor any company registered in his name.
The President is also said to have declared that he has a number of cars, two of which he is said to have bought from his savings and the others supplied to him by the Federal Government in his capacity as former Head of State. “The rest were donated to him by well-wishers after his jeep was damaged in a Boko Haram bomb attack on his convoy in July, 2014,” The President image builder had added. The president also has an orchard and a ranch in Daura with 270 herds of cattle, 25 sheep, five horses a variety of birds and a number of economic trees in them.
On the side of the Vice President, Shehu said the Senior Advocate of Nigeria declared a four-bedroom residence at Victoria Garden City in Lagos, three-bedroom flat in Ikoyi, Lagos, two-bedroom flat at Redemption Camp, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, two-bedroom mortgaged property in Bedford, England. He is said to operating his SimmonsCooper Law firm, which is based in Lagos in addition to shares he has in MTN Nigeria, Octogenerium Ltd., Windsor Grant Ltd., Tarapolsa, Vistorion Ltd., Aviva Ltd., all of which are based in Lagos. Osinbajo is also said to have one-Infinity 4-Wheel Drive SUV, one Mercedes Benz and a Prado Jeep.
Typical of Nigerians, the declaration has not gone down well as it has continued to elicit reactions from a cross section of Nigerians. There are many surprises. First, the Vice President is far richer than the president. But that is not the only issue. In 2014, Buhari had told the world that he had obtained his expression of interest form to contest presidency under the All Progressives Congress, APC, through a bank loan. He presented himself too poor to buy a nomination form. Today, he had gone through the rigors of money-sapping presidential campaign and has a leftover of N30m. It is either the President lied to the world or he has begun to loot. The President has always been presented to the world for his frugality.
However, if a document obtained by Daily Post is anything to go by, there are more chances that he lied. According to the source document, President Muhammadu Buhari may not have disclosed all his assets and investments in the Asset Declaration document he submitted to the Code of Conducts Bureau, CCB. There are allegations that President Buhari has a huge share in Panalpina World Transport (Nigeria) Limited, a multinational company, which he did not disclose in the list of his assets made public by his media aides.
The opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, had in its reaction to the asset declaration by the president said that there was no truth in the published list of assets, adding that the president was not honest and was deceiving Nigerians. They alleged that a Certified True Copy of a document obtained from the CAC, indicated that the President Buhari bought 90,000 shares in Panalpina World Transport (Nigerian) limited on 1st August 1995 which was not included in his asset declaration document.
“Allotment of shares of 15,000,000 received in response with Rights Issue of 3,000,000 was capitalized and used to pay up in full 15,000,000 Bonus shares.
The subscribers of the share were “(1) Buhari (Major General) Mohammadu – 90,000; address 7 Aliu Garaki Rd Kaduna. (2) Babangida (Gen. rtd) Ibrahim – 15,000; (3) Williams (Prof) Olufemi – 15,000; (4) Gana (The Estate) Baba – 15,000…”The document is alleged to have read.
As legitimate as these concerns are, there are other angles to the whole issue. Sincerity or not, Nigeria is too poor in prosecuting corrupt practices. While standing to be corrected, beside Depriye Alaemiesegha and James Ibori who were nabbed outside the country, one cannot think of any politician who has gone to prison for his looting of state fund. Again, the high level connivance in Nigeria can see business colleagues conniving with a public office holder to hide his interest in a particular company. Many of our leaders have used names of cronies to amass wealth under our nose. It seems then that the whole noise about asset declaration is a mere formality which carries no gain in corruption check in the country.
Rather than waste our time on what Buhari failed to disclose, we should compel him to declare his liability since he was not buoyant enough to buy nomination form. Again, I think that in the face of our current politics where everything is bought with money, citizens should busy themselves with their leaders’ liabilities; that is why, most states cannot pay their workers nor do any meaningful project. Many leaders are using state funds to service debts incurred in executing elections.
[i] Published on September 20, 2015
