The clash, the other day, between Catholic bishop of Sokoto, Most Rev. Matthew Hassan Kukah, and the Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, over the reluctance of President Buhari to publicly declare his assets and liabilities, is quite unfortunate. Whilst on one hand it reveals the mutating body language of the president from an anti-corruption crusader to a shrewd politician, it also raises the question about the deeper import of public declaration of assets. At a public event in which he was guest lecturer, Bishop Kukah had queried: “People have asked how is it that the president used Justice Onnoghen’s asset declaration form to prove his corruption and proceeded to sack him, yet the president himself has not publicly declared his own assets as he promised during his campaigns? Kukah was a guest lecturer at the launch of a book, “Farida Waziri: One Step Ahead: Life as a Spy, Detective and Anti-Graft Czar.” In reaction to Kukah’s remark, Adesina defended his principal by stating that Buhari never promised to declare his assets publicly, and as such had not broken any law by not doing so.

Source: The Guardian March 02, 2020 03:22 UTC