The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) has declared that following the public declaration of assets by President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, it is now the turn of the President, Bukola Saraki, Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, Speaker of the House of Reps, Yakubu Dogara and all public exposed persons like governors to follow suit.
The group also said ministers, when appointed, and those who work directly with the President such as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and the President’s Chief of Staff should declare their assets and make the declaration public as a mark of leading by example.
Speaking on behalf of the Coalition on Tuesday, its Executive Chairman, Comrade Debo Adeniran, said the declaration of assets is the non-prosecutorial way of fighting corruption.
"There cannot be accountability, transparency and probity if we do not have a baseline with which we can determine how to measure how much each public exposed person accumulated while in office.
"It is only through this process of assets declaration and verification that we would be able to determine if their hands are clean; otherwise, it could become business as usual as experienced in the past regimes," CACOL said stressing that the current anti-corruption drive of the All Progressives Congress-led government would not be complete unless those occupying public offices can prove that they have not illegally enriched themselves.
"Once the leader has taken up the gaunlet, the followers need not be persuaded to do the same if they have not done so," CACOL said adding that it expects every public office holder to publicly declare his assets including those of his or her spouse and even his children because they naturally are going to be beneficiaries of whatever their principal makes while in public office.
"This will enable Nigerians to compare and contrast their net-worth at the point of entry with that at the point of exit," the group said.
Shehu Sani was recently reported as declaring his own assets and CACOL said this has further thrown a challenge of integrity at the likes of the Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, who is currently contending with allegations of corrupt accumulation of assets.
"He should come out in the open to let us know if he has as much as has been ascribed to him.
"CACOL is also using this opportunity to ask the regime to amend the laws that set up the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) to henceforth make public declaration of assets compelling as applicable.
"Unless it is made public, information contained in the forms submitted to the CCB may not be easily accessible to every member of the public wishing to verify its authenticity since not everybody has the resources to go to court to challenge the CCB if the latter refuses or fails to oblige.
"He who cannot stand the heat should not go into the kitchen. if you don’t want to get wet, don’t jump into the water.
"So once they have decided to serve in public office, they should ensure that everything about them, their spouses, their children, their sibling and other dependants are made totally open to all.
"Democracy presupposes that public officers are employees of the people; their allegiance to their employers is not negotiable.
"It’s therefore incumbent upon them to give account of their stewardship to the same people that employed them and this includes, public declaration of what they had when coming in and what they have when going out," CACOL said.
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