Guest Writer
–
| By Dan Agbese |
EVEN before their first formal day in office, President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo submitted their assets declaration forms to the Code of Conduct Bureau. It was a first in our country and makes you want to crow at the dawn of a new era.
Section 11 (1) of Part II to the Fifth Schedule of the 1999 constitution makes it compulsory for all public officers in the country to declare their assets and liabilities within three months of their assumption of office – and on leaving office. The generals, who inserted the clause in the 1979 constitution and in all the other constitutions midwifed by them, saw it as part of the anti-graft war in high places. Its objective is to keep itchy fingers in check. If a man who went into public office wearing a Kano-made pair of slippers and living in a family bungalow that had seen better days comes out of his high public office with boxes full of hand made crocodile and ostrich shoes, bank accounts that bulge with Naira, dollars and sterling and a sprawling mansion, he should have some explanations to offer the Code of Conduct Bureau.
This constitutional requirement, for whatever it is worth as a pre-emptive strike against corruption, has been treated with contempt by most, if not all, our public officers. His contempt for it prompted former President Goodluck Jonathan to make some of the most unfortunate statements in his political career. In his media chat three or four years ago, he told the reporters who wanted to know if he would declare his assets that he would not because “it is not the right thing to do.” Even when the late President Umaru Yar’Adua publicly declared his assets and liabilities, Vice-President Jonathan would not follow his leader. He said: “I didn’t even want to declare my assets as VP” but was forced by Yar’Adua to do so. Unlike Yar’Adua, he never made it public.
Then he put his foot in it. He made everyone cringe in embarrassment when he said: “That is a matter of principle and I am not going to declare. It is not the president declaring his assets that will end Boko Haram.”
Ye gods!
He said anyone could criticise him from head to toe, but “I don’t give a damn.” Indeed.
The framers of the law used the word shall, a word in law, I am told, that compels mandatory obedience with no room for personal choice or discretion. It is now academic to dwell on why a Nigerian president would treat any of the provisions of our constitution, the mother of our laws, with such contempt. A deliberate breach of the constitution by a president is an impeachable offence. I am sure the national assembly did not even notice that the man treated an important constitutional provision like a piece of trash.
Any way, The Guardian newspapers headline of May 31 crowed: “Buhari, Osinbajo set tone, declare their assets.” Now, we have a departure from the Jonathan era. Sunday Punch did not think the men went far enough to meet public expectation here. Its headline was a clear pointer: “Buhari, Osinbajo fail to declare assets publicly.”
Since then, a good number of individuals and groups have demanded that the two men should publicly declare their assets. One group has even applied to the Conduct of Code Bureau through the Freedom of Information Act, to lay its hands on the forms submitted by the two men.
The fact is that Buhari and Osinbajo have fulfilled the requirement of the law as it stands. The law does not require them to publicly declare their assets. Perhaps, they do not want to go beyond the basic requirement of the law. It is always safer to obey the law as it is, not as someone would want it to be.
The president and the vice-president have since publicly declared their assets. I welcome it. The public declaration of their assets is not about the letters of the law. It is, more importantly, about moral leadership. In his 2007 manifesto, Buhari asserted: “Nigeria today, more than ever is in need of a serious and sincere effort at nurturing a culture of transparent governance” (emphasis mine). That, indeed, is the point.
The president’s and the vice-president’s public declaration of their assets is a significant step towards replacing the opaque culture in our governance with a new and transparent culture in governance. It would be a change we could see and a change we could believe in.
When Yar’Adua declared his assets publicly, he certainly wanted to make an important personal and political point: you can expand the frontiers of the law by embracing its spirit. I am sure he gave some serious thoughts to the culture of transparency in governance. The snag was that he cut a path that he alone walked on. His ministers did not publicly declare their assets, if they declared them at all. It was not enough for Yar’Adua to act alone. One honest man cannot make a forest of honest men and women.
The change that swept Buhari and his party into power on March 28 and April 14 was not just change. It was a watershed, a boundary between yesterday and today and even tomorrow. We expect the administration to be the watershed in all that we wish for our country. We expect every action of this administration to breathe that change and spell that change. Anything that suggests, even if inadvertently, that it is still business as usual, robs us of our hope, our fervent hope in a great present and a greater future for us and our country. A public declaration of their assets has now placed the president and the vice-president on a higher moral pedestal.
In some respects, the spirit of the law trumps the letters of the law. Law becomes sterile legalism if it is not invested with the moral authority derived from its spirit. Going the extra mile to invest this law with the respect it deserves should serve notice to our public officers that the eyes of the small people are watching them.
I would expect state governors and our federal and state legislators to follow the example set by the president and the vice-president. It is disappointing that APC governors have said they would not publicly declare their assets and liabilities. It takes something away from their moral leadership and makes their preachments about honest leadership ring hollow.
I would expect Buhari to compel all his ministers and other aides affected by the constitutional provision under reference to publicly declare their assets and liabilities on assumption of office. Let us see the change; let us feel the change.
I admit that the constitutional provision on the declaration of assets as it stands is a piece of constitutional garbage. It is wholly and entirely impotent. It prescribes no penalty for a public officer who refuses to declare his assets. When a law prescribes no consequences for its breach, it begs to be roundly breached. And this one is roundly breached with impunity. It gives rise to moral drift. Buhari can invest this impotent law with the moral authority, even as it stands, to compel obedience by our public officers. It is a challenge he should not ignore. He should treat this as part of his determined assault on corruption. (Note: This column, with some modifications, was first published in Sunday Trust of June 6 under the headline: Should Buhari publicly declare his assets?)
— Oct 5, 2015 @ 01:00 GMT
|
Tags:
