Investigations have revealed that the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) may have been serving as anti-protection wall for elected and appointed government officials at the federal, state and local government levels against public scrutiny of Nigerian politicians’ true financial worth.
The CCB, supposedly the nation’s pioneer anti-corruption agency set up by the Federal Government in 1979 during the Second Republic, has as its primary responsibility to check corrupt practices in the Nigerian public service, but has so far carried out its mandate in secrecy; with many Nigerians including senior citizens complaining that the declaration of assets and liabilities forms submitted to it by politicians has become classified information.
It was also leant that successive government before the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari deliberately underfunded the CCB in order to reduce its ability to rigorously investigate assets declaration and liabilities made by politicians.
Adeleye Adewole, chairman, Centre For Organisational and Professional Ethics (COPEAFRICA), said Nigerians must start raising questions about what state governors and other officials who have so far refused to declare their assets publicly are hiding with the CCB.
He said: “The governors’ refusal to publicly declare their assets and liability by hiding under the CCB is a clear sign that they are afraid of accountability and transparency. The governors have no option now that the President has been able to establish a standard. The discovery of $105 million in Akwa Ibom government lodge is clear evidence that corruption at the state level is fiercer. Even local government officials are not free because they lack the facility to track how monies are moved”.
CCB has become like NNPC
According to him, the activities of the CCB has become like that of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) under previous governments that must be unlocked for Nigerians to see how it has over the years shielded information at its disposal at the detriment of transparency and accountability.
“Information with the CCB should be mandatorily accessible to Nigerians. President Buhari can push for the amendment of the CCB Act so that concerned officials will no longer need to declare their assets secretly; enough of too much secret surrounding our leaders. Why should our leaders’ assets be kept secret? It is even better for them not to declare at all than to keep us in the dark. The CCB should be empowered to give Nigerians access to whatever our leaders declared; or mandatorily, within a particular period of time, the information should be released to the public,” he said.
CCB is underfunded
Auwal Ibrahim Musa, acting general secretary, West African Civil Society Forum (WACSOF), & executive director, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) told BD SUNDAY in a telephone interview from Dakar, the Senegalese capital, that the failure of Nigerian governors to emulate the leadership style of President Buhari raises questions of their integrity and commitment to transparency and accountability in the act of governance.
“It is very clear that some of the governors and some people in government do not share the same spirit with President Buhari in trying to address the issue of cost of governance in Nigeria as the President has demonstrated. It is a struggle that we must continue to demand that representatives as well as senators and governors and other public office holders must reasoned along this line.
“But one thing that is clear is that the action of the President has demonstrated that the usual looting and steeling and misappropriation of public funds can no longer be tolerated. The President has been able to block some of the leakages in the system. For example, the issue of the Single Treasure Account (STA) has put people who use to divert public funds into trouble. They can no longer access money without government knowing. They are not happy with that kind of reform. Secondly, anything that happens in the ministry, the permanent secretaries are directly responsible.
Thirdly, the President has said that public office holders must respond to query within 24 hours. These are some of the reforms that have happened at the federal level. Unfortunately Nigeria is operating a federal constitution where Mr. President cannot impose all these noble ideas on state governments. It is not about the governors but Nigerians who appear satisfied with excuses of the governors. Nigerians should demand that governors in the country trail the path of Mr. President since is the right thing to do. The civil society, the media and community leaders must present a common front on the issues of accountability and reduction of the cost of governance. Government at both state and local levels must key into the President agenda in order to ensure that the cost of governance is fairly minimised,” he said.
He maintained that political office holders under the law are suppose to declare assets on resumption of office but because of the impunity that has engulfed the country for years they (governors) are not interested in doing so.
“Now that we have a President that is willing to do that, first and foremost, we need to amend the CCB in order to empower it to sanction any public office holder who fails to comply with the law. The CCB need to be revived; as I speak to you, the CCB has only 20 investigators who are suppose to investigate claims by politicians. The CCB is completely underfunded. The previous regimes were not interested in funding it because if they do that the agency would be able to detect problems clearly. As it is now, the President is just doing what he thinks is the best thing to do but the governors are not bordered; lawmakers at the states and national levels are also not interested. As far as they are concern, government is an avenue of making money,” he said.
Politicians over-declare their assets
He alleged that sometimes, politicians also declare above their true worth to the CCB in order to mislead the public that they were already super rich before assuming public service and that by the time they leave office, they can then justify whatever they might have stolen from public coffers.
“Usually, when people over-declare their assets, the CCB should have been able to detect it through rigorous investigation but because the agency is underfunded it cannot carry out such investigation. So, it is important that the CCB is adequately funded so that it can carry out investigation on the claims of public office holders. Some of them actually do not have anything when they came into public office; but they over declare in anticipation that by the time they leave office they would have stolen much,” he alleges.
Buhari walks alone
BD SUNDAY also gathered that President Buhari’s affirmation while on a one-day working visit to Ghana last week that it is a constitutional requirement for all heads of state, governors, ministers, and permanent secretaries to have their assets declare was not welcome by some state governors who hold opposing views.
It will be recalled that when the President informed the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) that he would only take 50percent of the annual salary of his predecessor Goodluck Jonathan, it was greeted with mixed feelings with some governors who retorted that the President’s decision was not binding on them.
As at the time of filing in this report, only two governors have taken what appeared a commendable step in that direction. Nasir El-Rufai, Kaduna State governor, on assumption of office announced his intention to slash his salary by 50percent until the state’s balance sheet shows an improvement. Okezie Ikpeazu, Abia State governor, also announced the slashing of his salary and travel allowances by 50percent. But none of the governors has publicly declared personal assets and liabilities.
Debo Adeniran, executive chairman, Coalition against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL), argued that apart from the RMAFC that regulates the salaries of president and state governors and other principle officers, if there is no law that such persons are violating by the none declaration of their assets and taking a pay cut due to the current financial mess of the states, there is nothing anybody can do to compel the governors to take after the President.
“We are only appealing to their morale instinct by saying they should cut their salaries. Their salaries are actually small when it comes to overall cost of governance and what they needed to do is to be creative in the way they apply the revenue of the various states and they should cut down unnecessary expenses like doing parties and sponsoring of people to Mecca and Jerusalem. The kind of money they spend on these journeys, if they invest it on their businesses they would do better. They should also stop some of these white elephant projects that they embark upon. The Federal Government has to bail them out because it is the whole economy that would be affected if workers are not satisfied in any of the states,” Adeniran told BD SUNDAY in an interview.
He explained that while President Buhari’s example cannot be automatic directive to states governors to also take pay cut and declare their assets publicly, but that civil society are appealing to the governors to follow the President’s example since it is the right thing to do at moment.
He said: “They should follow the strategy adopted by the President in this regard. Nigeria may now need to introduce a disciplinary measure to that affect because you know that in a federation, the federating units are semi-independent. What we are also operating in Nigeria is not true federalism; and as long as we are not operating true federalism states would not be able to exploit natural resources in their own state. They can only do with their human resources. The inability of states to exploit natural resources made it expedient for the FG to come to their aid”.
Nelson Ekujumi, executive director, Centre for Rights and Grassroots Initiative (CRGI), told BD SUNDAY that of a truth, some state governors are not comfortable with President Buhari’s leadership style and the heat is getting to people in public office including the governors, emphasizing that it is only a matter of time before they are overwhelmed with present reality.
“What we should do is to enquire from the CCB if all the state governors have declared their assets since they do not want to go public like Buhari. If they have not done so, we should make an issue out of it,” he said.
NATHANIEL AKHIGBE
