By Sufuyan Ojeifo
By making public the contents of his asset declaration form submitted at
the Oyo State office of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) in Ibadan on
Monday, July 15, 2019, Governor Seyi Makinde has, on the double,
fulfilled one of his many campaign promises. That action counts for
something in the overall appreciation of the bigger picture of keeping
fidelity to the social contract; and, that perhaps, explains the
accolades that have trailed the act.
The philosophy that roused Makinde’s essential motion in the direction
of keeping faith with what appears to be a simple promise must be
largely humanistic much more than teleological. The celebrated act
epitomizes genuine altruism, not the humdrum jejune play to the gallery
by conventional politicians. Makinde’s genre of politics is peculiar. In
any case, time will supply the necessary validations.
However, I tend to understand the act more in the context of the
overarching zeitgeist that has provoked in many Nigerians derision for
corruption in our body-politic. If Makinde’s action was located in
the context of the ideas and spirit of the time, I can then relate to it
as his contribution to the emergent culture of pragmatic application of
home-grown praxis to addressing some of the ills, especially corruption
and its variants, which plague us as a people.
What the governor has clearly adopted is a self-sacrificing modus
operandi that ordinarily enjoys legal protection. The confidentiality of
his asset declaration is constitutionally-guaranteed. Nevertheless, he
decided, on his own motion, to declassify the details, thus exposing
himself to _pro bono publico_ scrutiny, which many of his colleagues are
not willing to do.
Although, he has yet to get to the intersection of the second instance
wherein he had also hinted that he would be ready to waive his immunity
as governor for any alleged criminal infraction that borders on
corruption or looting of the treasury of Oyo state on his watch, I
believe that with this single-mindedness, the governor will fulfill this
other pledge to boot, having kept faith with the first pledge.
This relatively new attitude to governance – of making promises and
fulfilling the same – has the potential to promote the spirit of
openness and accountability that is imperative to feed the anti-graft
war. To be sure, it will help to stimulate self-restraint on the part of
Makinde and other public officers, who had earlier subscribed to the
idea of making public their assets, whenever they are confronted with
the existential temptation to corruptly enrich themselves through abuse
of office.
I advisedly use the word “relatively” in the paragraph above
because, at the last count, and I stand to be corrected, not more than
six public officers had published their assets before now. Former
President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Vice President Goodluck Jonathan
(who reluctantly followed Yar’Adua’s footsteps in 2007, but refused
to do the same in 2011) published their assets in a pragmatic fashion,
providing specific details. The publications by four others, namely
former Governor Gbenga Daniel (in 2007), President Muhammadu Buhari and
Vice President Osinbajo (who reluctantly followed Buhari’s example in
2015; he has yet to follow suit in 2019) and Governor Nasir El-Rufai, of
their assets were approximate. Specific details of the el-Rufai’s
omnibus N90 billion asset worth, in particular, were not stated.
Indeed, it was the late Yar’Adua that blazed the trail. He had
promised during his electioneering that he would make his assets public.
He did so immediately he stepped in the saddle and the declassification
of the assets was the first assignment that his spokesperson, Segun
Adeniyi, performed a week or two after assumption of duties. The scope
of the asset declaration that incorporated even the assets of his wife,
Turai, did not give room for any doubt -whether reasonable or otherwise.
Yar’Adua had shunned the advice by the CCB that the action would put
other categories of public office holders under pressure to do the same
contrary to their individual conviction to keep details of their assets
confidential as provided for by law. Yar’Adua was driven by the need
to shed the burden of the campaign promise that he made based on the
conviction that the war against corruption could not have meaning until
those at the helms of affairs began to live by example.
It is to Yar’Adua’s eternal credit that he set that critical example
for the like of Buhari and Makinde, et al, to emulate. It was a personal
choice. Makinde has just made that personal choice, without holding
back! His N48 billion asset net worth, earned from his chains of elite
businesses, straddling engineering and technical services, energy, oil
and gas, construction, et al, is staggering and intimidating. This war
chest imposes a duty of care on him to manage the resources of Oyo state
prudently as a going concern. My immediate take-away from the _compte
rendu_ is that the governor is financially capacitated to overcome the
pressure to pillage the commonwealth of Oyo state.
In the circumstance, he should deploy the Midas touch with which he
turned his businesses into huge success stories in stimulating the
sleeping economy of Oyo state and transforming it into one of the most
stable state economies in Nigeria within the next four years; and, if he
performs creditably, a renewal of mandate by Oyo people will be his just
recompense to enable him consolidate on the good work.
This is Makinde’s maiden outing in the public service turf. Therefore,
the publication of his assets represents a challenge to the public to
put him under constant watch and to raise the alarm if accretion to his
assets while in office is traced to abuse of office. He has put himself
under pressure, having come clean as a tabula rasa into government from
the private sector unlike Daniel, Osinbajo and el-Rufai, for examples,
who had been caught up in the intercourse of private and public office
engagements.
Buhari’s case, however, remains peculiar. Although his life and times
have benefited largely from his involvement in public office at
different levels, the details of his assets, as declared and made public
in 2015 and the ones done in 2019, which his spokesperson, Garba Shehu,
said witnessed very minimal or insignificant accretions, would appear to
fit perfectly into his socially-conservative, financially-prudent and
celebrated Spartan lifestyle.
Except for his cattle farm and other farms which commercial or
income-generating values have not been declared, Buhari’s sources of
income would appear writ large and he makes no bones about his assets.
The sincerity he had invested in the asset declaration in 2015 continues
to bind and regulate him. The benefits derivable from this can be
located in the credibility and public trust he has built for himself in
matters of financial integrity and restrained material acquisition.
The culture of making public, asset declaration, is one of anti-graft
war’s veritable enablers. But for Yar’Adua, Buhari and Makinde’s
resolve, the argument that asset declaration is a hollow ritual would
have gained a firm foothold in our body-politic. The waiving of
constitutional confidentiality, together with publication of personal
assets by them, validates the counter-narrative that the exercise is now
beyond a hollow ritual. Besides, ask former Senate President, Bukola
Saraki, and Justice Walter Onnoghen (retd.) and they will concur.
In rounding off, I commend Makinde, in particular, for keeping to his
campaign promise. He has demonstrated that he can be trusted. What he
has also done is throwing down the gauntlet to all in position of
responsibilities to make full disclosures of assets to their people
before taking over the management of public finance. Beyond the
suggestion of anticipatory declaration in some oppositional quarters,
this will enable the relevant bodies to investigate claims, validate and
monitor financial transactions in furtherance of trust.
· OJEIFO, AN ABUJA-BASED JOURNALIST, CONTRIBUTED THIS PIECE VIA
OJWONDERNGR@YAHOO.COM
Sufuyan Ojeifo
Editor- in- Chief
The Congresswatch Magazine
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