Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, has stated that there was no law compelling the President to declare his asset following his re-election in February 2019.
Adesina spoke when he appeared on Channels Television Politics Today on Monday.
He however confirmed that Buhari had already declared his assets to the Code of Conduct Bureau.
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) had on January 3, sent a Freedom of Information requests to the President, the Vice President, the 36 Governors and their deputies giving them seven days to publicly declare their assets.
The SERAP request signed by its Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, in part stated that “The Constitution of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), the FoI Act, and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which is part of our laws, read together, impose transparency obligations on all public officials to publicly disclose information concerning their asset declarations submitted to the CCB, and to clarify any updated review of such assets.”
Speaking on Channels Television, however, Adesina said: “I can say for a fact that he has done because I am privy to it, and SERAP asking the president to declare publicly, on the basis of what law? The president will do what the law requires of him and what the law requires is that he should declare his asset which he has done. Declaring publicly is not in our laws; it can only be a voluntary thing.
“If the FoI act is invoked, it will be left with the Code of Conduct Bureau to release because the FoI act will not be for the president, the president has declared and it’s already deposited with the code of conduct, so it’s for them to respond if it is invoked.
“In 2015, they elected to make it public, if they want to make it public this time, they will do. Has the asset been declared? Yes, it has. If the president says they should release, it will be released, but there is no law that compels him to do it and we should obey the law.”
