Days have turned into weeks since May 29, 2015, when Muhammadu Buhari assumed office as the President of Nigeria. But the much promised change is nowhere in sight and seems to have died with the election campaigns. The President’s most ardent supporters and loyalists are already running out of excuses for the apparent inaction that has characterised his government, unless you are counting foreign trips, which are becoming the hallmark of his Presidency.
To be clear, no one expected a transformation of the country in a few weeks after years of rot. But no one can see the baby steps that would indicate that change is in the offing. We are seeing the same unprincipled horse-trading in the sharing of political offices, with scant regard for competence and track record. Even the promised public declaration of assets, which was supposed to signal a new style of leadership, has not happened. What is supposed to be a simple proactive release to the public of the asset declaration form submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau has become a complicated, long-winded explanation clouded in sophistry.
We are now being told that the declaration of assets made by the President and the Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, and submitted to the Bureau will be and can only be disclosed to the public after the Bureau has verified them. A critical question here is: Why? There appears to be no logical answer to this question.
What Candidate Buhari promised to disclose to Nigerians was not assets verified by the Bureau. What he is supposed to disclose to Nigerians is what he has declared to the Bureau. A major reason why a public declaration of assets is critically important is so that citizens can be part of the verification process. If a public officer has assets that he or she has not declared, there is no way the Bureau can know this on its own, unless citizens are aware of what the public officer has declared and can come forward with information on assets that have not been declared or any aspect of the declaration that is false, inaccurate or incomplete.
At this time, there is no legal or constitutional impediment preventing the President from making public the declaration of assets form he has submitted to the Bureau. The only impediment right now appears to be the fact that the President has developed cold feet. Unless, of course, he never meant to disclose his assets publicly, to begin with.
The failure of President Buhari to immediately fulfil his promise, voluntarily made in order to win the trust and confidence of Nigerians, and therefore secure their votes, will have grave implications for his credibility and consequently, the credibility of his government. For his own sake and for the sake of Nigeria, we have to urge him to make good on this promise.
Since the President also promised to encourage all his appointees to declare their assets publicly as part of his pledge to run a clean government, it is obvious that if he has not made a public declaration of his own assets, he would have no moral authority to encourage anyone else to do so. He would also be sending a wrong signal to his appointees that he does not always mean what he says publicly. This would be disastrous for governance.
Such a situation will also be sad for another reason; namely the knowledge that they will be required to declare their assets publicly is one thing that could perhaps have discouraged some political jobbers intent only on lining their pockets from taking up political offices.
Another issue which has implications for governance is the mode of appointment of government officials, particularly ministers. Already, the signs are that the sharing of political offices remains that same nasty and messy business of “survival of the fittest” that it has always been in Nigeria. There is no debate about who is best qualified to run what. The considerations appear to remain who comes from where and who is loyal to whom. That is not change.
--PUNCH
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