The outspoken lawyer known for checking the Buhari’s administration and its policies, said the declaration was contrary to his solemn declaration to Nigerians, considering that it came only few days to his 100 days in office.
In a statement originally obtained by DAILY POST on Friday, Ebun said the president’s action is, ” coming after Nigerians have made this demand upon him several months ago” saying ” it’s rather belated and serves no useful purpose, presently. For the assets declaration to make any meaningful impact, it should have been declared voluntarily and without any prompting upon the President, by Nigerians,” the lawyer affirmed.
Condemning further, the activist alleged that Buhari’s declaration was scanty and failed to capture what was supposed to be in the asset declaration form.
He said, ”having broken that solemn covenant, there was no longer any need, for the President to bother himself, about some dry assets declaration. Furthermore, the information supplied to the public by the President is so scanty, as to totally amount to hoarding vital details of his assets. The law requires him to also declare the assets of all his grown up children and the assets of all his wives.
Read full statement below:
The media is awash with the news of the belated declaration of assets by Maj-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, Retd., almost 100 days after he was sworn into office, and contrary to his solemn declaration to all Nigerians.
This action of the President, coming after Nigerians have made this demand upon him several months ago, is rather belated and serves no useful purpose, presently. For the assets declaration to make any meaningful impact, it should have been declared voluntarily and without any prompting upon the President, by Nigerians. The implication of this is that the President was forced to declare his assets.
Secondly, the assets declaration is coming after Nigerians, through their most diligent efforts, have already uncovered most of the President’s ‘secret assets’, especially the house in Abuja. By now, most of the contents of the President’s assets declaration document, are already in the public domain. So this declaration, serves no useful purpose, except it is meant to gather public sympathy for the president, in the absence of any concrete programme of action.
Furthermore, it was in his ‘Covenant with Nigeria’, that the President made a solemn promise to publicly declare his assets, within the first 100 days of his administration. That document has since been disowned by the President, in a way that has traumatised the psyche of most Nigerians, in that the President would seem to have only used the voters, during his electioneering campaigns, by giving us the impression that he was committed to that document, only to turn around to disown it, after he had won the election. Having broken that solemn covenant, there was no longer any need, for the President to bother himself, about some dry assets declaration. Furthermore, the information supplied to the public by the President is so scanty, as to totally amount to hoarding vital details of his assets. The law requires him to also declare the assets of all his grown up children and the assets of all his wives. This information is glaringly missing.
SELECTIVE GOVERNANCE
In recent times, the Buhari administration has bombarded Nigerians with the campaign of war against corruption. It has thus labelled almost every project of the past administration, as ladened with corruption. To this end, such projects are either cancelled outrightly, or suspended temporarily. This is the case with the second Niger Bridge, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway construction and indeed the Ore-Shagamu expressway construction. One would have thought that this would be the trend all over the land. But alas, the President was comfortable to retain and indeed commend the Abuja Centenary Project, of the same Jonathan administration, which has now been singled out of the corrupt projects. The President has endorsed it for completion.
The implication of this is very worrisome. It would seem that the message that the President is currently sending to the people of Nigeria, is that the issue of corruption is determined by the geographical location of a project. So that if a project, of the Jonathan administration, is located in Abuja or some other northern part of Nigeria, then it is safe to continue and indeed complete it, but if the same project is located in Lagos or some other southern part of Nigeria, then it has to be cancelled and abandoned, as it must be marred in corruption.
Against the backdrop of the recent outcry against the lopsided nature of the appointments so far made by the President, it has become necessary for the president to direct the immediate resumption and completion of all ongoing projects of the Jonathan administration, that are located in the southern parts of Nigeria, for equity and fairness.
CLOSURE OF ASO VILLA CHAPEL
The news media is agog with the news of the sudden closure of the Christian worship center in the Presidential Villa, otherwise known as the Aso Villa Chapel, by the President. No reason has so far been given for this action. Section 10 of the Nigerian Constitution maintains that the State (all governments) shall maintain strict secularity, when it comes to religion. What this means is that religion is purely a personal affair for every citizen. In particular, section 38 of the Constitution grants to every citizen, the right to freedom of thoughts, conscience and religion.
Section 42 of the same Constitution also prohibits any form of discrimination, on the ground of religion. Once it is possible for the President and all our muslim brothers and sisters working in the Villa, to be able to gather to pray, the same opportunity should be extended to people of other faith, especially as the Vice-President is known to be a practising Christian and a pastor. Indeed, one of the reasons why the Vice-President was picked as Buhari’s running-mate, was his pastoral calling, since many Nigerians were already wary of the President’s intolerant behaviours and utterances, in relation to religion, in the past.
From all the foregoing, it is necessary for the President to urgently apologise to Nigerians over the scandal of the denial of his Covenant with Nigerians, direct the immediate resumption of construction work on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway and Ore-Shagamu expressway, and open the Aso Rock Villa, for Christian worship.
God bless Nigeria.
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