President Muhammadu Buhari and his Vice, Professor Yemi Osinbajo have not fulfilled one of their campaign promises, though they tried and ended up only doing what President Goodluck Jonathan did.
During the heated campaigns, then, General Buhari to draw contrast to President Jonathan who declared his assets with the Code of Conduct Bureau but did not make it public, Buhari declared that he would make his asset declaration public for all Nigerians. The APC railed against Jonathan for 5 years for ‘not declaring his assets’, though it was known that he had done so within the dictates of the law.
Well, today, there is a quite a twist, as according to the head of Buhari’s media team, Garba Shehu, the President and his Vice President made their asset declaration separately (but privately) on Thursday, May 28, 2015 and was acknowledged by the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau, Sam Saba.
Shehu said: “President Muhammadu Buhari has declared his assets to the Code of Conduct Bureau as required by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. If anyone is interested in knowing details of his asset worth, such a person can avail himself or herself of the use of Freedom of Information Act to seek the information from the bureau.”
This, however, cannot be termed to be a fulfillment of the campaign promise made by Buhari as he had pledged to make the declaration public and criticised Jonathan for not making his asset declaration public.
It remains to be seen if the details of the said asset declaration would be made available to the public.
Also, Buhari had said that not just he, but every official serving under his government would be required to make a public declaration of his assets.
