By Onyewuchi Ojinnaka
The assets declaration by public officers has been infested with grand corruption and to stop undue influence, loyalty, and ensure absolute performance of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) without fear or favour, the appointment of chairman of Code of Conduct Bureau should be striped from the executive.
Rather the judiciary, which is the third and supposedly independent arm of government under the leadership of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), should take charge and appoint a judge with good and unbiased records to head the CCB.
Such responsibility should be given to a judge without blemish, who would not be responsible to the executive and determined to fight corruption in Nigeria.
Furthermore, judges should be encouraged to lend their weight in the fight against corruption.
Besides, it has become imperative to separate the office of the Attorney general from the Minister of Justice.
While the Minister of Justice is a political appointment, the Attorney general should come from legal profession on the recommendation of the professional body.
He will be fully incharge of prosecuting all cases, particularly corruption cases.
These views were expressed by Prof Yemi Akinseye-George (SAN) during the presentation of a report by a Lagos-based human rights and advocacy group, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) to the public at a virtual media presentation and interactive conference held last Saturday.
SERAP’S latest report titled “No escape for the corrupt: Lifting the lid on asset declarations in Nigeria was done in collaboration with the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA).
The report which researched basically on the workings of CCB on assets declaration, clearly suggested the need for the judiciary to rule against unduly withheld access to asset declaration forms.
In the report, SERAP argued that the Code of Conduct Bureau’s obstruction of Nigerians who seek access to the forms was one of the reasons that hamper the system from achieving its goals.
While presenting the report through a professor of law, and president of the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Prof Yemi Akinseye-George (SAN), the human rights group identified reasons which made the asset declaration system to be uneffective to include “non-compliance by most public officials, lack of transparent follow-up on verification of declared assets and the persistent reluctance of the custodian of the CCB to publish the records for public scrutiny.”
SERAP states in the report: “Through proactive interpretation, the courts should pronounce against unduly withheld access and progressively entrench the culture of transparency and accountability in governance.
“The judiciary should also change the often-antagonistic attitude of many judges towards lawyers and litigants in anti-corruption matters and assets declaration cases.
“The CCB should study the assets declaration systems in Argentina, Britain, the Philippines and Thailand.
“The AGF as the Chief Law Officer should focus on the verifiability of declared assets, public disclosure and clarification of gifts by inserting guideline provisions as to what is reasonably attributable to gift.”
SERAP enjoined the CCB to regard Civil Society Organisations, NGO’s, and journalists as partners in enthroning transparency and accountability in Nigeria, rather than antagonize their efforts.
The public presentation which was anchored by the Deputy Director of SERAP, Kolawole Oluwadare, and Modupe Ogun-Yusuf, was attended by stakeholders in the media, civil society organizations, ministries, agencies and departments (MDAs) and anti-corruption agencies.
The objective of the report was to provide a sound framework for citizens and civil society to engage governments and institutions to ensure transparency and accountability in asset declarations by public officers, and to promote this initiative as an important element of the fight against grand corruption in the country.
It will also serve as a tool to encourage the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), public officials and governments at all levels; federal, state and local governments, to promote and ensure transparency and accountability in asset declarations of public officers in Nigeria.
SERAP aims to use the report as an advocacy tool to engage and mobilize the citizens and civil society to ensure transparency and accountability in the asset declarations regime and to reduce corruption and impunity of perpetrators.
Furthermore, according to SERAP, the report is based on its experiences, and findings from its engagement with government institutions, citizens, civil society organizations, and the media who are at the forefront of promoting transparency and accountability in asset declarations in Nigeria.