Anti-corruption activists want Nigerians to finally see the assets of President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and 36 state governors and their deputies, and have filed a lawsuit at a federal high court to force them to come clean.
The lawsuit, last Friday, came only a day after Transparency International released a damning report on Nigeria, asserting that corruption was back in full force under the leadership of President Buhari who claimed he was elected in 2015 to kill corruption before it kills Nigeria.
TI scored the Buhari administration fight against corruption the catastrophic score of 26 over 100, and ranked the once pride of Africa 146th out of 180 countries surveyed.
The lawsuit also came only two days after U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed on Wednesday that he would be slamming a travel ban on Nigeria or some Nigerians to keep America safe from terrorism, a controversial indictment that Mr. Buhari’s fight against terrorism was also headed in the wrong direction and someone had to caution him.
While most Nigerians are seen as very good people, and they truly are, the deadly Boko Haram Islamist militants in the northeast of the country have continued to kill, rape and kidnap civilians and soldiers alike.
Nigeria’s Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) said in a statement to TODAY NEWS AFRICA in Washington DC that it filed a lawsuit asking the Federal High Court, Abuja to order President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice-President Professor Yemi Osinbajo, 36 state governors and their deputies to “make public details of their assets, specifically property and income, contained in their asset declaration forms submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) since assuming office.”
In the suit, SERAP said it was seeking “an order for leave to apply for judicial review and an order of mandamus to direct and/or compel President Buhari, Vice-President Osinbajo, 36 state governors and their deputies to make public their summary of assets; disclose whether they have had any reason to review and update their asset declarations submitted to the CCB, and if the declarations have been made as constitutionally and statutorily required.”
SERAP is also seeking “an order to compel President Buhari, Vice-President Osinbajo, 36 state governors and their deputies to disclose whether they have received any confirmation of the verification of their asset declarations by the CCB and to disclose whether they have taken any steps to encourage members of their cabinet to also submit their asset declarations to the CCB, and to make such declarations public.”
The suit followed SERAP’s Freedom of Information (FoI) requests dated 3 January 2020, expressing concern that “the non-public disclosure by public officials of their summary of assets undermines the effectiveness and integrity of the constitutional and statutory obligations to submit asset declarations, especially given that declarations are designed to curb grand corruption, and weakens the public trust in the asset declaration regimes.”
According to SERAP, only two states—Lagos state and Niger state—have responded to its FoI requests. But both states declined the requests to make public the assets of their governors and deputies, on the ground that “the FoI Act is inapplicable to state governments, their agencies and officials, and that only houses of assembly of states are constitutionally empowered to make laws on public records of states.”
Also, while reacting to SERAP FoI request to President Buhari, Mr Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, had said: “SERAP asking the president to declare publicly, on the basis of what law? The president will do what the law requires of him and what the law requires is that he should declare his asset which he has done. Declaring publicly is not in our laws; it can only be a voluntary thing.”
SERAP said it was also seeking “a declaration that the failure of President Buhari, Vice-President Osinbajo, 36 state governors and their deputies to provide SERAP with the requested information on their assets constitutes a breach of SERAP’s right under the FoI Act, 2011, and such further order(s) the Honourable Court may deem fit to make in the circumstances.”
The suit filed on behalf of SERAP by its counsel Kolawole Oluwadare, read in part: “The advantages that the general public would gain from being informed about the summary of assets declarations submitted to the CCB outweigh any perceived privacy or inconvenience if the court orders the details to be made public as sought by SERAP.”
“By a combined reading of the Constitution of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), the FoI Act, and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, President Buhari, Vice-President Osinbajo, 36 state governors and their deputies ought to be directed and compelled to make public their asset declarations as submitted to the CCB.”
“The reliefs sought are constitutionally and statutorily grounded and based on Nigeria’s international transparency obligations. The reliefs sought do not clash with the rights to privacy and data protection. Both rights are not absolute and can be restricted provided there is a basis in law and a legitimate public interest justifies the restriction. Prevention of grand corruption and exposing unexplained wealth of officials are serious and legitimate public interests.”
“SERAP and indeed the general public have a legitimate interest in ascertaining and scrutinizing the veracity, exactitude and honesty of information contained in asset declarations submitted by public officials to the CCB. Without public disclosure of summary of assets, this would have no practical importance.”
“Public disclosure of summary of assets submitted to the CCB would help uncover any irregularities and trigger formal verification of declarations by the CCB and other anti-corruption agencies, be entirely consistent with government’s expressed commitment to prevent and combat corruption, provide a safeguard against abuse, and serve as an incentive to public officials to provide exact information when filing and submitting their asset declarations.”
“Any perceived claim of interference with the right to privacy are sufficiently foreseeable for the purposes of the legal requirements for asset declarations by public officials, given that public-disclosure of summary of assets would undoubtedly contribute to the legitimate aim of asset declaration regimes to prevent corruption, as it would ensure transparency regarding the details of those assets.”
No date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit.
Simon Ateba is Chief White House Correspondent for Today News Africa. Simon covers President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, the U.S. government, the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other financial and international institutions in Washington D.C. and New York City.