Nigeria: Strengthen, Don't Just "Open" the Assets Declaration Process in Nigeria

By Nengak Daniel Gondyi

 I am not a lawyer, so I am sure you will forgive possible errors in my reading of the law regarding assets declaration by public officials in Nigeria. A lot has been said about the "declaration" made by President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB). These declarations fell short of the expectations of Nigerians who rightly wanted to see copies of these documents in the public domain; but do they fall short of the law? Reading Section 140 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) we learn that:
A person elected to the office of President shall not begin to perform the functions of that office until he has declared his assets and liabilities as prescribed in this Constitution and he has taken and subscribed the Oath of Allegiance and the Oath of office prescribed in the Seventh Schedule to this Constitution.
Sections 142:2; 185; 187:2 further prescribe the same requirement to declare assets to the Vice President, Governors and Deputy Governors accordingly. Legislators at federal and state levels, ministers, members of boards of parastatals and commissions are also expected to declare their assets and liabilities in line with the provisions of the constitution. In all, I estimate that there are over a thousand public officials in Nigeria who are obliged by law to declare their assets and liabilities. Clearly, the President and his Vice are under pronounced public scrutiny on this score, but they ought not to be the only ones.
Now let us reflect on what it means to "declare"; according to my friend Mbasekei Martin Obono writing on the same subject in Premium Times, "[t]he word 'declaration' means exactly what it is. If you must declare something, it must be to the hearing of the people because they ought to stand as witnesses to what was declared". I beg to disagree that "declare" is synonymous to "publish"; however, if for the sake of analysis we agree that the framers of the 1999 Constitution expected public officials to state to the public the record of their assets and liabilities, then how many public officials have we ever really had do so in Nigeria? The list is short - I recall only late President Yar Adua, Governor Fayemi and Chair of the National Human Right Commission, Professor Odinkalu as the public officials who shared with the public what their assets and liabilities were at the beginning of their tenures.

An alternative reading of the law is possible, that public officials are expected by law to file their assets and liabilities at the CCB. If this reading of the law is correct, then we could assume that every public official who has his/her assets declaration filed at the CCB has complied with the minimum requirement of the law. Former President, Goodluck Jonathan did not make many friends when he stated that he did not "give a damn" about the public having access to his declaration of assets - but we know that he did declare to the CCB at the start of his tenure. Perhaps what GEJ really meant was that having declared his assets to the CCB, is it still his job to further declare these to the public or Nigerians should go get a copy from the CCB? It makes sense to question why public officials are expected to declare twice - to the CCB and to the public, while no demand is made on the CCB to place same in the public domain, either through proactive disclosure or in compliance with FOI requests.
That President Buhari declared his assets to the CCB in my opinion satisfies the requirements of our law; but it fails, sadly, to satisfy my own yearning as a citizens for transparency, accountability and discipline in public service. It also does not set the required example for other public officials who would be coming into office at the federal and the state levels in the coming weeks. Some analysts also contend that Buhari's "quiet" declaration to the CCB also contravenes explicit campaign promises and falls short of the cardinal "change" promise upon which he was elected into office.
There is another dimension to the discussion of assets declaration that is often ignored. I refer to the one that is expected to happen at the end of tenure or time in office for each public official. The constitution, in the Fifth Schedule, Section 11:1 (a-b) provides that:

Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, every public officer shall within three months after the coming into force of this Code of Conduct or immediately after taking office and thereafter - (a.) at the end of every four years; and (b.) at the end of his term of office, submit to the Code of Conduct Bureau a written declaration of all his properties, assets, and liabilities and those of his unmarried children under the age of eighteen years.
Beyond the requirement to declare assets at the start of their tenure, public office holders are required to declare their assets and liabilities upon exiting office or at the end of four years (assuming they are re-elected or if they have tenures longer than four years). Not only are they to declare their own assets and liabilities but also those of their unmarried children below 18 years of age. I am tempted to ask if the Constitution envisages that there can be "married" children below 18 years of age - but that is a question to ask tomorrow. You may have noticed though that there is no requirement to declare the assets of spouses, either at the start or the end of the tenure; I think this is a loss. Really, the point of the whole declaration lies in being able to know the financial standing of officials as they exit office in order to determine whether or not they might be in possession of assets (or even liabilities) which did not accrue to them legally.
In civil society parlance, this is pure "M&E". What is declared at the start is the "baseline" and it is useful largely only for the purpose of examining the exit reports. True, we can tell what sort of person our leaders are from what they declare upfront; say, for example, if the resume of a public officer details a "meritorious career" but we find that such a person is in debt, then we would have good reasons to be concerned about public resources that would pass through such person's hands. Yet, even more important is the need for auditing what is declared at the start and end of public service. Even so, the declaration and auditing of same are not ends in themselves and they become pointless if nothing is done with the findings they put on the table.
I think the seeming reluctance of President Buhari and Vice President Osinbajo to let the public know what they declared to the CCB gives us an important opportunity to question and strengthen the process of assets declaration upon entry and exit of public office in Nigeria. Also, we need to be clear in our minds as to what we would do with the declarations of public officials if we eventually have access to them and who to hold accountable if we don't. When public officials submit the prescribed assets declaration forms to the Code of Conduct Bureau, have they satisfied the requirements of the law or is it incumbent upon them to place same in the public domain? I think assets declaration is far too important an issue to be left to the discretion of the public office holder - there has to be a public agency to enforce compliance and punish deviations, and it would appear the CCB was created to do just that. Even so, this information is too crucial for the CCB to keep solely to itself! The CCB, in a recent report in the Vanguard, argued that:

While the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999) and the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act give the bureau powers to receive assets declarations, verify, examine, keep in custody and enforce compliance when there is a breach, the responsibility of determining how and on what terms asset declarations will be made accessible to the public was left to the National Assembly.
Could the incoming National Assembly respond to this? Some Nigerians have promised to go to court to demand for copies of assets declared by the President and his Vice. While others have done this in the past, we ought to expand the frame of our demand to include all governors and their deputies and subsequently to ministers, commissioners and other public officials, so that they declare their assets publicly as they arrive. But we also need to look for the exit declarations of those who have vacated office. I suspect there is very little that the general public could do with the exit declaration of assets - we never knew what public officials earned in office so we could not tell what is legally earned or otherwise; we don't even know how many children they have not to mention what each child owns. Seeing Buhari's asset declaration is a priority, but only a step in the four-year vigil we are to keep on his administration.