Afenifere asks Buhari to make his assets declaration form public

The pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to publicly declare his assets.

This was contained in a statement issued on Tuesday by the Afenifere leader Chief, R.F. Fasoranti,

According to the group, the call on Buhari to declare his assets publicly is on the background of the suspension of Walter Onnoghen as the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN).

Onnoghen is standing trial before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) over allegations of false declaration of assets.

He was suspended by the President on a directive by the CCT, and Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad was sworn in as the acting CJN.

However, in its response on the suspension, the statement by Afenifere read: “The constitutional crisis created over the illegal suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria of Nigeria, Mr Walter Onoghen, over allegations of not fully declaring his assets has compelled Afenifere to remind President Buhari to make his assets declaration public.

“Then General Buhari in 2014 in a document titled, ‘I Pledge to Nigeria’, also said all his political appointees would only earn salaries and allowances as prescribed by the Revenue and Mobilisation and Fiscal Allocation Commission.”

The statement quoted the president as saying: “I pledge to publicly declare my assets and liabilities, encourage all my appointees to publicity declare their assets and liabilities as a pre-condition for appointment”.

Fasoranti continued: “It’s now 4 months to the end of the four-year tenure of Mr President and this pledge has not been fulfilled. Instead of doing what he pledged, presidential aides have been giving all manners of untenable excuses in the last 3 and half years.

“This is a  moral burden, as it is said that he who comes to equity must come with clean hands and that examples are better than precepts. A leader must not set for others standards that are very difficult for him to meet in the order of ‘do as I say and not as I do’. The jeopardy of President Buhari anti-corruption war has really been one set of rules for the goose and another set for the gander.

“Afenifere therefore asks the President to immediately make his assets declaration form public so Nigerians can hold him as a man of his words. Such a power of example sets greater tone for good conduct in society than a thousand arbitrariness in the name of fighting corruption. The true meaning of leadership is being able to lead by higher standards.”