Live By Example: Publish your assets first, CACOL tells National Assembly leaders

Senate President, Bukola Saraki and
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara

Following the decision by the Senate to screen only ministerial nominees who have declared their assets, an anti-corruption group, the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, has urged the principal officers in the National Assembly to live by example by declaring their assets publicly first.

The Senate, on Thursday, released the criteria for screening President Muhammadu Buhari’s intended cabinet members, which is scheduled to commence on Tuesday.

According to the Chairman, Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Media and Publicity, Senator Dino Melaye, the senators decided that each nominee must submit proof of their assets declaration, must have their nomination approved by two senators from their states, and must have a clean bill of health from its public petitions committee, among other conditions.

The Chairman of CACOL, Mr. Debo Adeniran, in an interview with SUNDAY PUNCH, expressed approval of the decision of the Senate.

He, however, said it would be self-contradictory for the National Assembly leadership to compel the ministerial nominees form demanding for the nominees to declare their assets without doing the same.

Adeniran said, 

“We are fully in support of it. As a matter of fact, we were the ones who first suggested it to Mr. President that any aspiring minister should be made to approach the CCB, fill their form, submit same and make it public.

“However, the National Assembly should also cause its principal officers to make their assets declaration public. It is at that time that they will have moral authority and grounds to demand assets declaration from aspiring ministers.

“Nobody should be asked to bow and go. We are therefore fully in support of the demand for assets declaration; that is a place to start to assess their administration.”