Ministers under General Buhari to declare assets

General Muhammadu Buhari, the newly elected President of Nigeria is set to hit the ground running by getting all his ministers to declare their assets as they enter office and as they leave. This indeed is a good beginning of the new Nigerian leader who promised to deal with corruption when he wins power. This is a lesson to other African leaders who have failed so far to live up to their vows by refusing to declare their assets let alone force their ministers to follow suit. This has led to many of the African nations like Nigeria being tagged corrupt nations.

In a story posted by Media Rights Agenda and published by The Punch newspaper in Nigeria The President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, says those seeking political appointments in his administration will be forced to declare their assets before taking office and before leaving.

Buhari said this during an interview with Sahara TV on Sunday.

He said this would encourage accountability and reduce corruption.

He said, “All those that were governors, ministers, permanent secretaries, head of foreign staff and all those with political appointments will have to declare their assets on the assumption of their appointment and definitely with the courts. And once they leave they have to re-declare their assets.”

Buhari, who insisted that last-minute defectors would not be given appointments in his government, promised not to interfere with the judiciary in the fight against corruption but would strengthen the nation’s justice system.

He stated that his administration would not “become embroiled in investigation of every ministry, and then the government will not have time to move forward.”

The President-elect slammed the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, for the depletion of the Excess Crude Account.

Okonjo-Iweala had said a significant portion of the billions of dollars drained from ECA over the past two years was distributed to governors instead of being saved for a rainy day

However, Buhari said the finance minister’s excuse was not acceptable.

“I’m afraid the finance minister has no cause to complain because the governors cannot force the central government to act outside the constitution,” he said.

On the contentious issue of oil block ownership and an equitable distribution of the country’s wealth, he suggested that partisan politics in Nigeria was the cause of the uneven distribution in the oil sector.

Buhari said that he wanted to formalize the oil sector in the country.

Source
Executive director
EANFOWORLD FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

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