Onnoghen: Make your assets declaration public, Afenifere reminds Buhari

Pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, on Tuesday reminded President Buhari to make his assets declaration public, saying that the ongoing constitutional crisis created over the ‘illegal’ suspension of Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Mr Walter Onoghen, called for such.

Afenifere Leader, Chief Reuben F. Fasoranti, made this call in statement made available to the Tribune Online in Lagos, even as he also reminded the president of the pledge he made to the country that all his political appointees would only earn salaries and allowances as prescribed by the Revenue and Mobilisation and Fiscal Allocation Commission (RMFAC).

“The constitutional crisis created over the illegal suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria of Nigeria, Mr Walter Onoghen, over allegations of not fully declaring his assets has compelled Afenifere to remind President Buhari to make his assets declaration public.

“Then General Buhari in 2014 in a document titled, ‘I pledge to Nigeria’ also said that all his political appointees would only earn salaries and allowances as prescribed by the Revenue and Mobilisation and Fiscal Allocation Commission.

“He 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,” Chief Fasoranti said.

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However, the Afenifere Leader noted that it was now four months to the end of the four-year tenure of President Buhari and this pledge had not been fulfilled, saying instead of doing what he pledged, even his aides had been giving all manners of untenable excuses in the last three and half years.

“It’s now 4 months to the end of the four-year tenure of Mr President and this pledge has not been fulfilled.

“Instead of doing what he pledged, Presidential aides have been giving all manners of untenable excuses in the last 3 and half years,” the Afenifere leader said.

According to him: “This is a moral burden as it is said that he who comes to equity must come with clean hands and that examples are better than precepts.

“A leader must not set for others standards that are very difficult for him to meet in the order of “do as I say and not as I do’.”

Fasoranti said the “jeopardy” of President Buhari anti-corruption war had really been one set of rules for the goose and another set for the gander, declaring that Afenifere, therefore, demanded that he “make his assets declaration form public so that Nigerians can hold him as a man of his words.”

“Such power of example sets the greater tone for good conduct in society than a thousand arbitrariness in the name of fighting corruption,” Fasoranti said, adding: “The true meaning of leadership is being able to lead by higher standards.”