Ewolewoo!!

Still on Buhari’s asset declaration..

There is something powerful a lot of people have either decided to ignore due to unrelenting hate or just the mindset that corruption is the way to go. How people could trivialise the fact that a President of Nigeria could declare an “austere asset” is still a mystery to me.  How people could not understand the powerful intent in the fact that a sitting President of Nigeria declared a 30million bank account balance is quite shocking to me. What President buhari did was to effectively cage himself(in money grabbing) which no one in executive authority in Nigeria would be willing to do.

There is a reason in late Yaradua(RIP) declaring over  110million naira as his account balance in 2007. There was a reason for Jonathan, after so much pressure from people and Yaradua, to declare over 500 million naira as his account balance in 2007. Jonathan understood the reason perfectly in 2011 when he bluntly refused to declare his assets in 2011. He told anyone who cared to listen that “he didn’t give a damn”about the criticism arising from his non-public declaration of asset. He knew that if he declared his assets in 2011, it would be compared to his 2007 “forced” asset declaration. He didn’t want that. He didn’t want to be caged. So how would he now defend himself against corruption allegations? How?

When people become Governors or Presidents in Nigeria, the most common thing is to declare “bogus” assets that they know they would get at the end of their tenure. They know they are going to be controlling billions and even trillions. So the best thing is to have “anticipatory” assets where they can funnel the stolen money into. This has been the Practice. They all see government money as their money. They see government assets as their assets. They see government infrastructures as theirs. All these would be ‘Coalesced’ in bogus headings as part of their assets. They would surely get the stuffs I tell you. Of course with this kind of mindset, no one would agree to public asset declaration.

Let us assume that what Buhari declared was not correct for argument sake. Do you know what? The advantage is still ours. It doesn’t favour him or his family because what he has done is to let us know that anything outside what has been publicly declared must be properly accounted for. There is no powerful anti-corruption intent than that in a nation where everyone believes in government “chop-chop”. He has set out a “groundnorm” which everyone is expected to follow including himself. He has set up a system that has made himself “caged”. This is a rare character from a Nigerian leader that must be hailed.

I know a lot are not used  to a Nigerian President declaring 30 million naira as account balance. I know a lot are just finding it unbelievable that that happened. However, it has happened and this should be the starting point.  When Government positions start becoming “unprofitable”, a lot of things would fall into place.

Nigeria’s Problem is “money-Whakis” by government people and their cronies. Stop this and everyone would understand the meaning of “dignity in labour”. I respected Buhari before. However, with this singular action of his, my respect of him has shot to the roof. We need people in Nigeria that would show us that money grabbing doesn’t define development. This is powerful from him.

I hope he can pull this through…..Ewolewoo!!