Jonathan and Assets Declaration: BY Olusegun Adeniyi

Jonathan and Assets Declaration: BY Olusegun Adeniyi........I DON'T HAVE TO DECLARE MY ASSETS........................GEJ

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Upon his swearing in as Governor of Katsina State in 1999, the late Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar'Adua publicly declared his assets and did so again in 2003 when he was re-elected. And in the run-up to the 2007 general elections, Yar'Adua also promised that if elected president, he would publicly declare his assets.

So right from my first day in office on June 2, 2007, I was being bombarded with questions on when the president would make public his assets declaration form. But I noticed that the more I brought up the issue with him, the more he brushed it aside.

When it became clear to me that he was hedging on the issue, I pointedly asked why he was no longer willing to fulfil a pledge he publicly made to Nigerians.

Then he explained that many officials had come to tell him that he would be violating the spirit of the 1999 constitution if he declared his assets publicly. To buttress that position, he showed me a memo from the Code of Conduct Bureau that counselled against it on grounds that whatever a president does has the force of law and that if he declared his assets publicly, other public officials would be compelled to do so.
I considered this a misreading of the Constitution, aside the fact that it would be difficult for me to explain away a pledge the president voluntarily made to Nigerians. For several days I pleaded and he refused but in my daily newspaper cuttings, I made sure I highlighted stories pertaining to his campaign promise on assets declaration. Then one morning he told me that the form was with Alhaji Inuwa Baba, one of the aides who was close to the family, then in Dubai.

He added that whenever Alhaji Inuwa returned, I could collect the form. 
But I was not prepared to wait. With the assistance of the CSO, Mr Yusuf Tilde, I spoke with Alhaji Inuwa on phone on how I could get the form and within an hour, he called back that he had directed his son to where he kept the document which was then brought to me same day. So on June 28, 2007, I made public the president's assets declaration form. But In doing so, I explained: "..the President notified the Code of Conduct Bureau of his intention to make the form available to the public in fulfilment of his campaign pledge, which was borne out of his conviction that the war against corruption cannot have meaning until those at the helms of affairs begin to live by example.

The Bureau, while appreciating the noble intention of the president, counselled against the move on the grounds that such an action from the number one citizen would put pressure on other categories of public officers to do same, even when the Constitution makes the exercise a confidential matter.

The dilemma of the President in the last four weeks has therefore been where to strike a balance between the well-meaning concerns of the Bureau, and following his conviction that his campaign pledge to Nigerians is a solemn commitment. Having weighed the two sides, the President has come to the conclusion that since he will not be breaking any law, he cannot go back on his promise to the nation.

I have given the foregoing background to situate President Jonathan's position against public declaration of assets and the internal pressure he must be facing.

But we must be very clear: He is not breaking any law by not declaring his assets publicly. However, I think he has missed a symbolic opportunity to lead by example. I personally do not think he has done himself any good by the choice he has made on the issue.

All said, I think the real issue here is that Nigerians should begin to demand an amendment to the law. Declaring assets secretly as the 1999 Constitution currently stipulates makes no sense. The moral force of a public declaration of asset has the collateral advantage of changing the tone of public perception and attitude towards transparency.