By Ishaya Ibrahim
Associate Professor of Journalism and Emerging Media at Kennesaw State University, Farooq Kperogi, has alleged that President Muhammadu Buhari’s asset declaration form is no longer in the custody of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB).
The CCB is the body statutorily recognised to keep such document in Nigeria.
In a Twitter thread, he did, on February 11, the professor alleged that the document was removed from the CCB so as not to get leaked.
Kperogi said he got spooked by the president’s close ally that the form contained staggering declarations that would embarrass the President’s supporters whose major reason for admiring him was his spartan lifestyle.
“First, it was Buhari who voluntarily said he would publicly declare his assets. The Punch of February 20, 2015, reported him to have said: ‘I pledge to PUBLICLY declare my assets and liabilities, encourage all my appointees to publicly declare their assets and liabilities as a pre-condition for an appointment.’ However, several months after getting into power, he refused to declare his assets publicly.
“In the early days of the regime, I frantically reached out to many people in the president’s inner circle with whom I have a personal relationship and begged them to prevail upon the president to make good his campaign promise. When they weren’t forthcoming, I wrote a column on June 13, 2015, titled ‘Mishandling of Asset Declaration May Doom Buhari’s Presidency.’
“After the column was published a second time, one close aide of the president told me in confidence that Buhari would NEVER publicly declare his assets because it would demystify him. I asked why and he said it’s because the man is very wealthy and that his base in the North and his supporters down South would feel betrayed if they knew how much he’s actually worth.
“He said Buhari declared close to a billion naira in his asset declaration form and has choice property all over the country,” Kperogi alleged.
It would be recalled that on September 3, 2015, the President’s special adviser on media, Garba Shehu declared the asset of the president which he said included cash of less than N30 million, seven houses, one of which was in Abuja, and 270 herds of cattle.
But Kperogi said unlike late President Musa Yar’Adua who made public his asset declaration form, Buhari has refused to do so.
When Shehu was asked about the declaration form of the President, he said it would be made public after the CCB must have finished its verification.
Four years of the administration is almost ending, Nigerians have yet to see it.
Two text messages sent to presidency spokesmen, Shehu and Femi Adesina, were not replied as at the time of filing this report.
