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President Muhammadu Buhari has said that in fulfilment of one of his campaign promises, his declared assets and those of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will be released to the public upon the completion of their verification by the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB).
His clarification will quiet critics who complained about his statement early this week that anyone who needs to see it has to request for it via an FOI request to the Code of Conduct Bureau.
The president expressed hope that the verification process by CCB will be completed before the
expiry of the 100-day deadline within which he promised to declare his assets.
The Senior Special Assistant, SSA (Media and Publicity), Mal. Garba Shehu announced this in a statement on behalf of the President on Saturday, 6 June, saying: “the duly completed forms by both the President and the Vice President were submitted to the CCB on March 28th, a clear day ahead of their inauguration.”
He said this statement was warranted by the need to clarify some suggestions that the President and the Vice-President may not, after all, declare their assets publicly.
“While such public display of concern is appreciated and valued, it must be said that it is a little precipitate. As required by law, the declaration and submission of documents to the CCB have been made, but there still remains the aspect of verification which the Bureau will have to conduct to authenticate the submissions made to it.
In the circumstances, it is only after this verification exercise, and not before, that the declaration can be said to have been made and validated; and only after this, will the details be released to the public.
There is no question at all that the President and the Vice President are committed to public declaration of their assets within the 100 days that they pledged during the presidential campaign.
The President and the Vice President wish to thank Nigerians for their show of concern, and for the confidence they have shown in their leaders’ integrity, as evidenced by the high pedestal of uprightness and expectations on which they have placed them.”
In a related development, President Muhammadu Buhari will be leaving Nigeria on Sunday morning, to attend the G7 Summit that is scheduled to take place in Bavaria, Germany, from June 7 to 8, 2015.
In a statement released in Abuja on Saturday, June 6, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said that the invitation was extended to President Buhari by German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, even before he was sworn in on May 29 as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
”The invitation is a clear indication of the international community’s willingness to cooperate with the new government of Nigeria,” he said.
He added that President Buhari would not be participating in the main meetings, since Nigeria is not a member of the G7 group.
”He is in a group of seven other Heads of State who were called in as guests. He will equally be holding key side meetings with some of the seven Heads of State who will be convened at the summit.
”The international community is obviously acknowledging Nigeria’s significant role in global affairs,” Mallam Garba said, ”especially with the recent change in government”.
The attendees at the 41st G7 summit will include the leaders of the seven G7 member states, as well as representatives of the European Union.
The G7 member states are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom and United States.
The President of the European Commission is a permanently welcome participant in all meetings and decision-making since 1981.
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