Transparency International has tasked Code of Conduct Bureau to properly verify assets declared by political office holders before they are exposed to public resources, noting that some Nigerian politicians declare false assets and steal in office to make it up.<\/p>\n
This was just as the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) suggests the use of technology by anti graft agencies in a bid to strengthen verification of declared assets by political office holders.<\/p>\n
TI and ICPC made the call in Kaduna during a Stakeholder Forum on Strengthening Accountability Networks Among Civil Society (SANCUS) Project organised by Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC).<\/p>\n
The Executive Director of CISLAC, Auwal Ibrahim Musa Rafsanjani, who spoke on behalf of Transparency International stressed the need for CCB to properly verify assets declared by public office holders.<\/p>\n
He said the major menace SANCUS project seeks to address is the issue of vote trading and corruption in the electoral system.
\n\u201cOften, politicians make false declarations that they have $10million assets, so that, when they get to office, they begin to steal to acquire such assets,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
According to the CISLAC boss, the Project is coming at the right time ahead of the 2023 general elections.<\/p>\n
\u201cThroughout the world, democracy is adjudged to be the best form of government, but it is constantly assaulted in Nigeria due to the phenomenon of money politics, vote buying and selling. Money seems to have taken the centre stage in the political process of many countries including that of Nigeria, to the extent that the word, \u201cmoney politics\u201d has crept into the country\u2019s political vocabulary.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe problem with this situation is that the electoral process is often compromised resulting in elections not being free and fair. This is a disturbing trend\/practice which has blemished the electoral process in Nigeria and if left unchecked will jeopardize our democratization process and in turn prevent electorates from reaping the dividend of democracy.<\/p>\n
The Project plans to solve this by advocating for the operational independence of anti-corruption agencies; an increased enforcement of existing anti-money laundering provisions and policies; an improved oversight function of the National Assembly; improve capacity of the media and civil society to investigate the presence of dirty money in Nigeria\u2019s political processes and finally, increase citizens demand for accountability in the funding of political processes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Representative of ICPC Chairman, Professor Bolaji Owasanoye at the event, Mr Hassan Salihu of the Kaduna Zonal Office, said, strengthening the declaration of assets through the use of technology and establishment of anti-graft agencies\u2019 intelligence and information sharing platform will drastically reduce use of dirty money in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
According to him, \u201cSANCUS Project Nigeria is with the focus of solving the core problem of \u201cdirty money\u201d in Nigerian politics. The sources of \u201cdirty money\u201d in politics are also through the commission of financial, economic and corruption offences. Same dirty money is viciously utilised to perpetrate corrupt practices in the Nigerian political and electoral processes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Transparency International has tasked Code of Conduct Bureau to properly verify assets declared by political office holders before they are exposed to public resources, noting that some Nigerian politicians declare…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":86902,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n