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Public Declaration of Assets and Liabilities: Nigerians Wait for Buhari

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By Remi Oyeyemi (29-06-15)

“Promise is a debt.” - Common Aphorism
“One who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived .” –   Niccolo Machiavelli
The conventional latter day wisdom is that Alhaji Mohammadu Buhari is not corrupt. It is generally believed that he is a man of integrity. It is believed that he is a straight forward man that would help cleanse the Augean stable of corruption in Nigeria. He is supposed to be the harbinger of CHANGE. Change from financial recklessness to financial prudence. Change from mismanagement to efficiency. Change from prodigality to frugality. Most importantly, change from corruption to accountability.
 
Some of us believed that this is a false image of Alhaji Buhari. It is an image largely built through media propaganda because it did not and still does not allign with the facts of History as we lived and witnessed it. This is not the History we read in school. It is the History of Alhaji Buhari that we lived through and witnessed as it unfolded from August 1975 to March 1976 as the Governor of Northeastern state;  from March 1976 to June 1978 as the Federal Commissioner of Petroleum and Natural Resources and from December 31, 1983 to August 27, 1985 as Military Dictator. This is because it was under the tutelage of Alhaji Buhari as the Federal Commissioner of Petroleum and Natural Resources that the country’s petroleum money first got lost.
 
Yes, the $2.8 billion saga. Up till today, no one has been able to say exactly what happened to that money. We are still wondering how such a huge amount of money disappeared without trace from the surface of the Earth. Alhaji Buhari has never been able to offer any satisfactory explanation to this effect. One thing is however clear, Alhaji Buhari may not be the one who stole the money, but he was incompetent enough to allow such a huge amount of money to be stolen without trace!
 
The propaganda about the incorruptibility and competence of Alhaji Buhari was massive. It was comprehensive and extensive. It was all encompassing and encapsulating.  It was panoptic, pervading and permeating. It was like a furious whirlwind sweeping off everything along its path, twisting, twitching and turning everything maliciously out of place.  The propaganda was ruthless, relentless and remorseless.  It was fierce, feral and ferocious. It had no respect or regard for facts of History.
 
 
History, in many cases, was revised to suit the inanities of the propaganda of the campaign to make over Alhaji Buhari in a new image of incorruptibility. He was dressed in borrowed robes of integrity.  The propaganda was effective and efficiently deployed. It persuaded a lot of impressionable young men and women who are frightened by the fangs of frustration; confused about reality and unable to differentiate between facts, fiction and faction. The propaganda filled the hole of misery dug in our youth by the miasma of a comatose country with what appeared to be real hope for change. Those impressionable young men and women, untutored by and in History, desperate for salvation and a savior, poisoned by parous propaganda, bought hook, line and sinker all the deodorized version of Buhari’s chapters in the inglorious story book of Nigeria.
 
In trying to live up to this false image of “an incorruptible man”  during the campaign, Alhaji Buhari himself in February this year promised Nigerians that if elected as the President of Nigeria, he would publicly declare his assets. Some of the doubting Thomases even decided to give Alhaji Buhari a benefit of the doubt. They assumed that as a man of integrity, his words would be his bound. Well, they had no choice because the alternative to Alhaji Buhari was even worse. His fans and supporters were very excited by this promise. They flaunted it all over the place as further evidence that Alhaji Buhari is not corrupt; that he is above board and would not only fight corruption, he would do so via an exemplary personal example. They used that promise to compare him with a clueless and hapless President Goodluck Jonathan who did not know the difference between “stealing” and “corruption.”
 
In the February, 2015 document that Alhaji Buhari made available, he had pinpointed public declaration of his assets as one of the things he would do as soon as he was sworn in as President. He also promised that he would encourage anyone who would serve with him to do the same. The time for the fulfillment of the promise is here. Nigerians expectations have not been met four weeks into the new administration led by the so-called incorruptible man, called Alhaji Buhari.  He has not been able to fulfill his campaign promise that he would do so publicly. Nigerians are already scratching their heads and are asking themselves “Why so soon?”
 
Thank goodness, this is a democracy. It is not a military dictatorship. This is not 1984 when Alhaji Buhari was closing our media houses. This is not 1984 when he was jailing journalists. This is not 1984 when he made it clear that whether we wrote the truth or not, if he did not like it, we were all heading to jail.  This is a different era. We are at liberty to ask questions. It is part of our freedom under this General Abubakar Abdusalaam’s  Constitution.  And ask, we must.
 
So, we are not accusing Alhaji Buhari of lying to us during the campaign. No, not yet. This is because he still has the right to do the right thing.  But we are asking Alhaji Buhari why he has not publicly declare his assets as he promised us? Did he deceive us during the campaign? Is there any reason he not tell us his true intentions as far as declaring his assets publicly was concerned? Is it possible that Alhaji Buhari is hiding something or anything? Is there something in his assets that Nigerians must not know about? Is “Mr. Incorruptible” really “incorruptible”? Why the change of gear? Does “Mr. Incorruptible” have skeletons in his wardrobe? Or is the chicken coming home to roost on this image of “incorruptibility?”
 
Or is Alhaji Buhari trying to employ the tactics and strategies of Olusegun Obasanjo-Onyejekwe’s fight against corruption? Is he going to chase around some small, dispensable corrupt elements selectively why he secretly enriches himself? Obasanjo – Onyejekwe chased all the illicitly accumulated wealth of General Sani Abacha to all the nooks and crannies of the world why he stole us blind to become a billionaire many times over. Obasanjo - Onyejekwe was rich enough to build a private university by and for himself unlike Reverend David Oyedepo who had to depend on the weekly generousity of his sheep (yes, they call them “sheep” for a reason) despite being named by the US based Forbes Magazine as being the richest Pastor in Nigeria.  
 
If this is not the case, then Alhaji Buhari has to come out now and declare his assets and liabilities. Nigerians would like to know if he declared the 25 million naira loan he took to obtain the forms for his candidacy as the APC’s flag bearer. Nigerians would like to know what he used as collateral. Is that the only liability that Alhaji Buhari is carrying? If not, what are the other liabilities? What are the assets of Alhaji Buhari? We will like to know how many landed properties he does truly possess? How much is he worth in liquid cash? What is the interest on the 25 million naira loan for example? How has he been paying it?
 
Is Alhaji Buhari really a true agent of CHANGE or a pretentious one? Is this era going to be “business as usual” or things would be different? Is he going to lead by personal example or we are going to live in George Orwell’s Animal Farm once again? Are we going to have real change or just cosmetics? Will criminals continue to have a field day or they would be checkmated? With the way and manners baptized criminals are taking the reins of power from under his nose, what are we to expect going forward? Are we going to continue to have excuses for allow corruption and its apostles fester?
 
Before too much damage would be done to the little good remaining of Alhaji Buhari’s brand, he has to publicly declare his assets and liabilities. It was a promise he made to Nigerians. It was a promise to be different. It was a promise of change. It was a promise of a new dawn. It was a promise of a new era. It was a promise that gave hope to millions of Nigerians. It was a promise that made Nigerians believe that all is not lost. It was a promise that Nigeria, in spite of all the socio-economic cum religio – political vicissitudes, may as yet make it. The earlier he declares his assets publicly the better.
 
 
Alhaji Buhari has an obligation to prove people like me wrong that he is truly “Mr. Incorruptible.” He has an obligation to prove that he could be trusted; that he is worthy of our confidence; that his words are his bound; that he is a man of honour; that he is a reliable man; that we can all depend on him; that our faith in him is not misplaced; that he is not a hypocrite; that he is not a fake dealer of hope and that he is not a fake messiah of CHANGE. We are eagerly waiting for the fulfillment of Alhaji Mohammadu Buhari’s PROMISE to publicly declare his assets and liabilities.
 
“In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility – I welcome it.”
John F. Kennedy, in his Inaugural Address January 20, 1961
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