SERAP urges governors to emulate Oyo Governor ‘Makinde’s open asset declaration’

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged the 35 governors in Nigeria to emulate their Oyo State counterpart, Seyi Makinde, by openly declaring their assets like him.

SERAP urges governors to emulate Oyo Governor ‘Makinde’s open asset declaration’ The group stressed that the publication of asset declaration would improve transparency, accountability and good governance. It would also assure the public that neither fraud nor illicit enrichment has been concealed, it said.

The asset declaration form submitted to the CCB and made public this month, Makinde’s worth is put at about N50 billion: his firms are worth up to N48.1 billion, while shares, cash and portfolios make up the rest.

SERAP said: “Public officials cannot lay claim to absolute privacy in matters of asset declarations. There is an overriding public interest in the disclosure of information on the assets of public officials, including governors, who are trustees of Nigeria’s wealth and resources. There is nothing inherently private in the affairs of governors, and we will consider appropriate legal action, if governors continue to fail or refuse to publish their asset declarations.

“Continuing failure or reluctance by many governors to publish their asset declarations submitted to the CCB may lead to public perception that the governors are attempting to hide something from the citizens regarding those declarations, especially given the fact that many of the public officials being tried for or convicted of corruption are found to have made a false declaration of their assets.”

It urged the Chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) and Ekiti State governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, to “use his leadership position and good offices to encourage all the members of NGF, who have not yet done so, to declare their assets and to publish their declarations submitted to the CCB without delay”.

SERAP said that, “The NGF can play a positive role in encouraging greater transparency in asset declarations by governors. “As fiduciaries and trustees of the public weal, governors are under an inescapable obligation to serve the public with highest fidelity and openness. 

In discharging the duties of their office, they are required to display good faith, honesty and integrity. They must be impervious to corrupting influences and they must transact their business frankly and openly in the light of public scrutiny so that the public may know and be able to judge them and their work fairly.

“Transparency in asset declarations is needed to check corruption and to hold the governors accountable to the governed. Publishing the asset declarations by governors would help address the high level of public distrust and dissatisfaction with spending of security votes by governors, enable closer relations between governors and the public, and secure the confidence of the citizens in their governments.

“The prevailing distrust of bureaucracy and government officials has given Nigerians the desire to keep a tight rein on public officials. Openness is a necessary condition of popular democratic power, a predicate for effective representative government, and an indispensable part of the everyday life of the free individual.

“Under Article 10 of the UN Convention Against Corruption, to which Nigeria is a state party, governments should take necessary measures to increase transparency in public administrations and to publish information periodically”