Publish your assets now, SERAP tells President Muhammadu Buhari, Osinbajo

LEADERSHIP 

Ahead of May 29 handover to a new administration in the country,  the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to demonstrate his leadership position and role as the African Union Anti-Corruption Champion by widely publishing his asset declaration form.

SERAP, which made the demand in an open letter it sent to President Buhari, also asked him to encourage Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo; Senate President Ahmad Lawan; Speaker of House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila and other high-ranking officials of the outgoing administration to do the same.

The rights group, in a letter dated April 15, 2023 and signed by SERAP’s deputy director, Kolawole Oluwadare, insisted that if the assets were published, it would enable Nigerians to scrutinise them and know the worth of public officials before they take office and at the end of their term of office

It pointed out that the Code of Conduct for Public Officers, in Part I of the Fifth Schedule to the 1999 Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended], stipulates that all public officers are to declare their assets immediately after taking office, at the end of every four years, and the end of their term of office.

SERAP also asserted that those who voluntarily seek or occupy public office and are catered for by the public have certain fiduciary duties to be open, transparent, and accountable to Nigerians regarding the details of their asset declaration forms…