President Buhari Must Publicly Declare His Assets -By Remi Oyeyemi

Remi Oyeyemi

“Promise is a debt.” – Common Aphorism

“One who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived.” – Niccolo Machiavelli

The conventional latter day wisdom is that President Muhammadu Buhari is not corrupt. It is generally believed that he is a man of integrity. It is believed that he is a straight forward man who would help cleanse the Augean stable of corruption in Nigeria. He is supposed to be the harbinger of CHANGE. Change from financial recklessness to financial prudence. Change from mismanagement to efficiency. Change from prodigality to frugality. Most importantly, change from corruption to accountability.

Some of us believe that this is a false image of President Buhari. It is an image largely built through media propaganda which does not align with the facts of history as we have lived through and witnessed. This is not the history we studied in school. It is not the history of General Buhari we lived through and witnessed as it unfolded from August 1975 to March 1976 as the governor of Northeastern state, from March 1976 to June 1978 as the federal commissioner of petroleum and natural resources and from December 31, 1983 to August 27, 1985 as a military dictator. This is because it was under General Buhari as the federal commissioner of petroleum and natural resources that the country’s petroleum money first got lost.

Yes, the $2.8 billion saga. Up till today, no one has been able to say exactly what happened to that money. We are still wondering how such a huge amount of money disappeared without trace from the surface of the earth. Buhari has never been able to offer any satisfactory explanation to this effect. One thing is however clear, President Buhari may not be the one who stole the money, but he was incompetent enough to allow such a huge amount of money to be stolen under him without a trace!

The propaganda about the incorruptibility and competence of General Buhari has been massive. It is comprehensive and extensive, without respect or regard for the facts of history. In many cases, history has been revised to suit the campaign to make over General Buhari in a new image of incorruptibility. He’s been dressed in borrowed robes of integrity, and its persuaded a lot of impressionable young men and women who are unable to differentiate between facts, fiction and faction. The propaganda filled the hole of misery of our youth with what appeared to be real hope for change. Those impressionable young men and women, untutored by and in history, desperate for salvation and a saviour bought hook, line and sinker all the deodorised version of Buhari’s chapters in the inglorious story book of Nigeria.

In trying to live up to this false image of “an incorruptible man” during the campaign, Buhari, in February this year, promised Nigerians that if elected as the president of Nigeria, he would publicly declare his assets. Some of the doubting Thomases even decided to give Buhari the benefit of doubt. They assumed that as a man of integrity, his words would be his bond. Well, they had no choice because the alternative to Buhari was even worse. His fans and supporters were excited by the promise that he is above board and would not only fight corruption, but would do so via an exemplary personal example. They used that promise to compare him with a clueless and hapless President Goodluck Jonathan who did not know the difference between “stealing” and “corruption.”

In the February 2015 document that Buhari made available, he had emphasised the public declaration of his assets as one of the things he would do as soon as he was sworn in as president. He also promised that he would encourage anyone who would serve with him to do the same. The time for the fulfillment of the promise is here. The expectations of Nigerians have not been met four weeks into the new administration, and they are already scratching their heads and asking themselves “Why so soon?”

Thank goodness, this is a democracy. It is not a military dictatorship. This is not 1984 when Buhari was closing down media houses. This is not 1984 when he was jailing journalists. This is not 1984 when he made it clear that whether we wrote the truth or not, if he did not like it, we were all heading to jail. This is a different era. We are at liberty to ask questions. It is part of our freedom under the 1999 Constitution. And ask, we must.

So, we are not accusing General Buhari of lying to us during the campaign. No, not yet. But we are asking him why he has not publicly declared his assets as promised us. Did he deceive us during the campaign? Is there any reason why he would not tell us his true intentions, as far as the public declaration of his assets are concerned? Is it possible that Buhari is hiding something or anything? Is there something in his assets that Nigerians must not know about? Is “Mr. Incorruptible” really “incorruptible”? Why the change of gear? Does “Mr. Incorruptible” have skeletons in his wardrobe? Or is the chicken coming home to roost on this image of “incorruptibility?”

Or is General Buhari trying to deploy the tactics of Olusegun Obasanjo-Onyejekwe’s fight against corruption? Is he going to chase around some small, dispensable corrupt elements selectively why he secretly enriches himself? Obasanjo-Onyejekwe chased all the illicitly accumulated wealth of General Sani Abacha to all the nooks and crannies of the world, while he stole us blind to become a billionaire many times over. Obasanjo-Onyejekwe was rich enough to build a private university by and for himself, unlike Reverend David Oyedepo who had to depend on the weekly generosity of his sheep (yes, they call them “sheep” for a reason), despite being named by the US based Forbes Magazine as being the richest pastor in Nigeria.

If this is not the case, then Buhari has to come out now and declare his assets and liabilities. Nigerians would like to know if he declared the 25 million naira loan he took to obtain the forms for his candidacy as the APC’s flag bearer. Nigerians would like to know what he used as collateral. Is that the only liability that Buhari has? If not, what are the other liabilities? What are his assets? We will like to know how many landed properties he truly possess. How much he is worth in liquid cash. What is the interest on the 25 million naira loan he took for the candidacy forms of APC, for example? How has he been paying it?

Is President Buhari really a true agent of CHANGE or a pretentious one? Is this era going to be “business as usual” or things would be different? Is he going to lead by personal example or are we going to live in George Orwell’s Animal Farm once again? Are we going to have real change or just cosmetics? Will criminals continue to have a field day or they would be checkmated? With the way and manner baptised criminals are taking the reins of power under his nose, what are we to expect going forward? Are we going to continue to have excuses or allow corruption and its apostles fester?

Before too much damage is done to the little good remaining of the Buhari brand, he has to publicly declare his assets and liabilities. It was a promise he made to Nigerians. It was a promise to be different. It was a promise of change. It was a promise of a new dawn. It was a promise that gave hope to millions of Nigerians. It was a promise that Nigeria, in spite of all the socio-economic cum religio-political vicissitudes, would yet make it. The earlier he declares his assets publicly the better.

President Muhammadu Buhari has an obligation to prove people like me wrong that he is truly “Mr. Incorruptible.” He has an obligation to prove that he could be trusted; that he is worthy of our confidence; that his words are his bond; that he is a man of honour; that our faith in him is not misplaced; that he is not a hypocrite; that he is not a fake dealer in hope and that he is not a fake messiah of CHANGE. We are eagerly waiting for the fulfillment of Buhari’s PROMISE to publicly declare his assets and liabilities.

Twitter: @OyeyemiRemi