President Buhari’s Assets Declaration, What You Don’t Know.

Jeff Okoroafor

There’s a picture that isn’t too clear to many. Surprisingly, even to those who have been in government for several years. Either they are not paying enough attention to follow the pattern of discussion, or they are simply ignorant of the Constitution. The political party PDP have already started playing the opposition but as expected, they are going about it the wrong way. President Buhari’s assets declaration call, why the rush?

According to the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, Buhari doesn’t have the ‘right’ to publicly declare his assets unless and until the Code of Conduct Bureau have gazetted it. The process is simple, Buhari will pick an Assets Declaration Form from the Bureau (which his has already done), complete this form and return it back to the Bureau (a part he has also completed), the Bureau will now go ahead to verify the declarations as given in the form (this is where we are right now), after which they will communicate back to him, with an approval or disapproval note, before Buhari can go ahead, depending on the STATUS, to make such declaration public.

We must also remember that no one forced Buhari to state or rather promise the Nigerian people that he was going to declare his assets, it was a personal decision as a mark of Transparency and Accountability, a display of Integrity in Service. So the opposition should not begin now to hinge on irrelevant debates to earn political points in order to derail the nation.

We’ve already seen how much Buhari and his deputy, Prof. Yemi Osibajo will be earning as President and Vice annually, a sum that doesn’t equal the monthly salary of most oil company Executives. That is selflessness in service, and until we begin to make public offices look less lucrative, we will be getting glutonic criminals portraying themselves as Leaders.

If the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, wants to play the card of OPPOSITION, then they should be a healthy opposition, play intelligent cards and not act like spoilt kids in Candy shop, because as far as the eyes can see, Buhari have started living out his promises, putting them to practice and that’s a good sign of better things to come.

I was expecting or better still, hoping for a very robust opposition, one that can keep the “governing party” on their toes, compel them to meet up with their numerous promises, but from what I’ve so far seen, PDP is nowhere near this. They are petty, jaundiced, and shallow.

Whether you like Buhari or not, he’s already the President and will sit in that seat for the next four years. If we don’t support his visions and assist him with them, we will be doing Nigeria a great harm.