The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders has asserted that it is the turn of the number three citizen in the country, Senate President, Bukola Saraki, Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, Speaker of the House of Reps, Yakubu Dogara and all public exposed persons (PEPs) including governors, ministers and those who work directly with the President such as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and the President’s Chief of Staff should declare their assets and make it public to lead by example.

Speaking on behalf of the Coalition, its Executive Chairman, Comrade Debo Adeniran reiterated the Coalition position that the declaration of assets is the non-prosecutorial way of fighting corruption.

“There cannot be accountability, transparency and probity if we do not have a baseline with which we can determine how to measure how much each public exposed person accumulated while in office. It is only through this process of assets declaration and verification that we would be able to determine if their hands are clean; otherwise, it could become business as usual as experienced in the past regimes.”

Speaking further, Adeniran stressed that the current anti-corruption drive of the All Progressives Congress-led government would not be complete unless those occupying public offices can prove that they have not illegally enriched themselves.

“Once the leader has taken up the gaunlet, the followers need not be persuaded to do the same if they have not done so”. CACOL expect every public exposed person (PEP) to publicly declare his assets including his spouses and even his children because they naturally are going to be beneficiaries of whatever their principal makes while in public office. This will enable Nigerians to compare and contrast their net-worth at the point of entering with that at the point of exit.

According to the news, Shehu Sani was reported to have picked the queue after the President and the VP; an action we believe has thrown a challenge of integrity at the likes of the Governor of Kaduna State, Nasiru El-Rufai, who is currently contending with allegations of corrupt accumulation of assets. He should come out in the open to let us know if he has as much as has been ascribed to him.

CACOL is also using this opportunity to ask the regime to amend the laws that set up the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) to henceforth make public declaration of assets compelling as applicable. Unless it is made public, information contained in the forms submitted to the CCB may not be easily accessible to every member of the public wishing to verify its authenticity since not everybody has the resources to go to court to challenge the CCB if the latter refuses or fails to oblige.

He who cannot stand the heat should not go into the kitchen, if you don’t want to get wet, don’t jump into the water”. So once they have decided to serve in public office, they should ensure that everything about them, their spouses, their children, their sibling and other dependants are made totally open to all.

Democracy presupposes that public officers are employees of the people; their allegiance to their employers is not negotiable. It’s therefore incumbent upon them to give account of their stewardship to the same people that employed them and this includes, public declaration of what they had when coming in and what they have when going out”.

Temitope Macjob

Acting Media Officer, CACOL

temitope@thehumanitycenter.org

cacolc@yahoo.com

08029215000

9^th September, 2015

For more press releases and statements, please visit our website at www.cwatch.thehumanitycentre.org

on September 7, 2015

The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, CACOL, has called on Senate President Bukola Saraki and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara to declare their assets, same way President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo did last week.

CACOL Chairman, Debo Adeniran, told The Punch that the current anti-corruption drive of the All Progressives Congress-led government would not be complete unless those occupying public offices could prove that they had not illegally enriched themselves.

He said, “Specifically, the principal officers of the National Assembly must declare their assets starting from the Senate President. All ministers and those who will work directly with the President such as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and the President’s Chief of Staff must also declare their assets publicly.

“That is how we will know that they have clean hands. Otherwise, they will become conduit pipes through which money will be siphoned from the public purse. Without such declaration, nobody knows how much they might have made after leaving office.”

Adeniran added that the wives and children of public office holders must also be subjected to similar scrutiny.

He added, “It is now the norm that anyone that wants to serve in any position of leadership of the present administration to publicly declare his or her assets because already, we have doubts about how much these individuals have made over the years.

“We want to know how much they are worth and have a benchmark with which we would measure what they would declare at the end of their tenure. Their spouses, children and siblings should also declare their assets since they enjoy whatever must have been received by the public officials.”

Source: Daily Post.

The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders says it is the turn of the number three citizen in the country, Senate President, Bukola Saraki, Deputy Senate President Senator Ekweremadu, the Speaker of the House of Reps, Yakubu Dogara and all public exposed persons (PEPs) including governors, ministers and those who work directly with the President such as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and the President’s Chief of Staff should declare their assets and make it public to lead by example.

The declaration of assets is what we have described as non-prosecutorial way of fighting corruption; it is leading by example. There cannot be accountability, transparency and probity if we do not have a baseline with which we can determine how right or wrong the public officials have performed their duties while in office and how to measure their net-worth at the point of exit. “It is only through this process that we would be able to determine if their hands are clean; otherwise, they could easily become conduit pipes through which money will be siphoned from the public purse.

The current anti-corruption drive of the All Progressives Congress-led government would not be complete unless those occupying public offices can prove that they have not illegally enriched themselves. Once the leader has taken up the gullet, the followers need not be persuaded to do the same if they have not done so.

We expect every public exposed person (PEP) to publicly declare his assets including his spouses and even his children because they naturally are going to be beneficiaries of whatever their principal makes while in public office. This will enable Nigerians to compare and contrast their net-worth at the point of entering with that at the point of exit.

We see that Shehu Sani has taken the queue after the President and the VP; an action we believe has thrown a challenge of integrity at the likes of the Governor of Kaduna State, Nasiru El-Rufai, who is currently contending with allegations of corrupt accumulation of assets. He should come out in the open to let us know if he has as much as has been ascribed to him.

We are also using this opportunity to ask the regime to amend the laws that set up the CCB to henceforth make public declaration of assets compelling as applicable. Unless it is made public, information contained in the forms submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau may not be easily accessible to every member of the public wishing to verify its authenticity since not everybody has the resources to go to court to challenge the CCB if the latter refuses or fails to oblige.

“He who cannot stand the heat should not go into the kitchen, if you don’t want to get wet, don’t jump into the water”. So basically once they have decided to serve in public office, they should ensure that everything about them, their spouses, their children, their sibling and other dependants are made totally open to all so that we have a baseline with which we can measure their accumulations while their period in office lasts”.

Democracy presupposes that public officers are employees of the people; their allegiance to their employers is not negotiable. It’s therefore incumbent upon them to give account of their stewardship to the same people that employed them ad this include, public declaration of what they had when coming in and what they have when going out.

Temitope Macjob

Acting Media Officer, CACOL

temitope@thehumanitycenter.org

cacolc@yahoo.com

08029215000

8^th September, 2015

For more press releases and statements, please visit our website at www.cwatch.thehumanitycentre.org

The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, CACOL has said that the issue of whether or not Buhari’s 100 days in office should be treated as a tradition for performance score-card, in its view, shouldn’t be a subject of contention at all.

This came on the heels of a response to questions about a report on documents titled “One Hundred Things Buhari will do in 100 Days” and “My Covenant with Nigerians” which was contained in statement made available by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Garba Shehu, that President Muhammadu Buhari did not promise Nigerians that he would achieve specific things within his first 100 days in office.

The Executive Chairman of CACOL, Debo Adeniran, speaking on behalf of the coalition stressed that “having read and listened to the spate of contentious positions taken by those we want to describe as pro and anti Buhari’s voices, we would want to ask President Buhari to remember the prevailing political atmosphere under which he was voted in by Nigerians, as the man competent and trusted to confront the country’s enormous, yet multi-faceted problems. Electorates believed that he has the required courage and guts to perform and achieve the desired result, hence he should avoid, in every way possible, being eroded into adopting or formulating policies that could be seeing to be anti-people.”

However, Nigerians voted for change and that simply means that they were dissatisfied with the ways the country was being run then and had yearned for a shift from the status quo. “That President Buhari has been in the saddle for 100 days is a fact; that certain promises were made either directly by him or by his party, the APC, during his electioneering campaign, is also a fact. Justifiably so, Nigerians reserve the moral right to demand that he delivers on those promises.

Speaking further, Adeniran said “It therefore behoves who promised to either begin to deliver on the promises right-away or at least, begin to say something to these same people, about his mode of operation or measures through which he intends to address pressing issues. He could even open up with his blue-print on action plans on certain aspects of his programme. And if he believes that he has, within this relatively little time, put in place certain things, whether conclusively or in process, we do not see anything wrong in coming out to brandish his score-card for all to see”.

The group further said, “Proactive effort is one thing, result is another; but whichever way it comes, would certainly be better than a disturbing silence that could only open the door for unnecessary bickering, presumptions and insinuations among contending interest groups.

Granted that Buhari never hinged his pre-election promises on a specified time-frame, as the APC is trying to remind the people, the fact still remains that promises such as:

1. Public declaration of assets;
2. A free meal per day for school pupils;

• N5, 000 monthly allowance for the unemployed; and so on, were made.

“The party, APC was alive and active when those speaking for the party were making pronouncement on the now contentious issue of 100 days during electioneering campaigns, and neither was any disclaimer issued nor any counter-statement made by the party then, so, why now? APC cannot claim ignorance of the age-long tradition of 100-days-in-office assessment of performance of top political office holders; it’s been with us for quite a while now.

The Coalition has been consistent in its position on some of these promises that President Buhari or the APC does not necessarily need to make it a political issue before acting on them. For instance; issues like that of public declaration of assets, could have just been done by Buhari and his vice without much ado as it would only translate into a clear evidence of seriousness and sincerity on their part, in their quest to fighting and eradicating corruption from our land.

Whilst the group appreciates the recent public declaration of assets by the President and his vice, it should be acknowledged as a right step in the right direction as this will go a long way in strengthening the confidence that the Nigerian public has in them and further underscore the exemplary posture of the duo. This singular gesture which we wish would constitute a benchmark for successive regimes, we want to believe, would implicitly serve as a window-opener to series of ‘change’ that are to trail the life of this administration. However, we want to further call on President Buhari and his party not to relent at ensuring that every other aspect of their promises is fulfilled without much ado.

The Coalition further advised that, “rather than making unnecessary issue out of the credibility of the source that spoke on behalf of the party, APC or Buhari should just go ahead to tell Nigerians what he’s been able to do so far. Well, for whatever it is worth, “we want to believe that for the past 100 days in office, President Buhari couldn’t have been idle, he certainly must have been doing some things; let him tell his people now”, Debo Adeniran inferred.

Temtiope Macjob

Acting Media Officer, CACOL

temitope@thehumanitycenter.org

cacolc@yahoo.com

08029215000

4^th September, 2015

For more press releases and statements, please visit our website at www.cwatch.thehumanitycentre.org

The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, CACOL has called on the President and Vice-president to continually lead by example if they truly desire to succeed in the anti-corruption war they espouse.

The Anti-corruption Coalition said this in its assessment of 90days of President Buhari in office especially in the areas of war against corruption and insurgency.

The Executive Chairman of CACOL, Debo Adeniran, speaking un-behalf of the coalition asserted, “Looking at the activities of the Present President in the last 90 days we can say that the present president, Muhammadu Buhari has started well, when compared with those who had come before him especially from 1999, who didn’t do as much as it’s happening now.

Though the President has not really done anything on his own; it is his body language and the pronouncements he made with assurances that he was going to fight corrupt public officials hands down that has been working for him.

However, it is expected that the present regime would have achieved more within the past 90days, we still believe a lot can still happen within the next ten days that will make his first 100days in office, during which his covenant could be reviewed. We believed that he is going to make good, parts of the covenants he voluntarily entered with Nigerian people during his electioneering and shortly after before he was sworn-in”.

Talking about presidential assets declaration, the group said “we also believe that he is going to make declaration of his assets public because it is one of the non-prosecutorial ways of declaring preventive war against corruption and it is a way an anti-corruption leader should set the necessary example”.

“His promise was that he is going to make his assets declaration public and cause everybody that wanted to work with him to do the same. Up till now we are not sure that his assets declaration form is yet a public affair”.

According to the statement, the Coalition affirmed that, “we also know that the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) doesn’t have the power to make asset declaration details public; it only the declarant that has the power to make it public; except when one requires and applies for it under the law that established the Code of Conduct Bureau. We therefore suggest that the law should be amended to make it possible for the Bureau to make assets declaration of public servants public. So if Buhari has not done that, he has done a little wrong thing”.

Speaking further, Adeniran said “that a number of public exposed persons who are now being prosecuted is not yet directly the President’s making; it is the suspended cases from the previous regime that are being brought to the fore-front and because there is a new criminal procedure for prosecution that makes it expedient for every lawyer to be weary of what applications he makes that will not be deemed to be frivolous or bid to waste the time of the court, that have made the court to expedite actions in adjudicating into matters that had to do with corruption”.

Also, the group further said, “that Buhari has said and make pronouncements that all former ministers and everybody that worked with the past regime will be subject of a holistic probe, is also a step in the right direction that has sent all the agencies that has to do with it on their toes to start doing preliminary activities that will lead to the eventual probe of those who participated in past regimes. A number of revelations coming to the fore are also part and parcel of the body language and pronouncements of the present President.

The Coalition also asserted that anti-corruption agencies believe that if the trend continues, it will go a long way in ensuring that corruption criminals don’t go scot free “saying, the body language of the present President alone have made most of those who perpetrate corruption to take heed; they don’t want to perpetrate corruption with impunity and “that is why a lot of people can now say public power supply is now relatively stable more stable, generators are now silent and not being over-used as before, refineries have started running one way or the other which means that there will be increase in supply of refined product for domestic use; a lot of work is also going on in other areas like exploration of solid minerals and activities of Federal Inland Revenue services; all the revenue agencies and corporations are now remitting what they make in quantum that is more than what it used to be.

“Basically, the personality of the president and the comportment of the vice president have shown that this regime is out for anti-corruption business and nobody is feeling as free as before to commit corruption crime.

The Coalition affirmed that they are still asking the government and the leadership of the government not to allow corrupt elements within their own political class to overwhelm them with corruptive tendencies because they would want to convince them that certain areas should be left un-touched and that should not be allowed. “The President, Vice-President and other members of their cabinet should demonstrate the change they preach”. Adeniran advised on behalf of CACOL.

“Government should ensure that members of the National Assembly are not allowed to get away with any criminal activities; whether they committed it before they get to the office or the commit it when they are in office.

On the possible frustration of government effort by the National Assembly, the group said, “Everybody that has corruption charges against them should be made to face the law earlier than other persons that are not in government.

Those who have been charged should go and answer to the charges of corruption against them, for those that are being investigated, due diligent and speedy investigation should be carried out before they are allowed to continue to make law for us otherwise, they will use powers within their ambit to frustrate the effort to get corrupt element in the society prosecuted. It is therefore imperative on government to use its power to ensure that the bad eggs within who had found their way into the National Assembly are wiped out”.

The group further advised Buhari’s government that “Everybody that want to work with the government should go to court to swear to affidavit for not have been an agent of corrupt element or for not have been accused of corruption crimes before; the same thing should apply to corporate organizations that want to take contracts from government, they should swear to affidavit that they have not encouraged corruption, money laundering, and allied crimes like financing of terrorism; they should give evidence that they haven’t engaged in shady deals earlier and anyone of them that is found wanting should be black-listed. There are several other integrity-conscious corporate bodies and firms to be engaged in execution of such programs and projects; this is the only way we can extrude corruption in our climes”. The statement concluded.

Temitope Macjob

Acting Media officer, CACOL

temitope@thehumanitycentre.org

cacolc@yahoo.com

08029215000

1^st September, 2015

For more press releases and statements, please visit our website at www.cwatch.thehumanitycentre.org

Against the backdrop of some analysts and Nigerians who had reacted that governance goes beyond the ongoing probe of corrupt public officials by the Buhari’s administration, the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders has asserted that the probe is in order.

The group emphasized that Nation should be serious about making a difference, it advised that we must understand that we cannot accomplish anything significant on our own because meeting the great challenges of our time requires cooperative efforts.

CACOL had initially agreed with the President when he said, “At home we face enormous challenges. Insecurity, pervasive corruption, the hitherto unending and seemingly impossible fuel and power shortages are the immediate concerns. We are going to tackle them head on. Nigerians will not regret that they have entrusted national responsibility to us. We must not succumb to hopelessness and defeatism. We can fix our problems.”

The Coalition of anti-corruption organisations considered that Buhari’s speeches and powerful agenda have reflected seriousness and passion for the responsibilities of his new office but had yet to spell out practical blueprint that would make the nation’s economy one of the fastest growing emerging ones in the world for the purpose of engaging youths for productive activities, which they described as one of the pillars of his campaign promises. Nigerians believed the economy, infrastructure, youth employment and other critical sectors should also be given equal attention by the President.

The group asserted that its hope was rekindled because President Buhari had maintained that he would not waste his administration’s precious time on probing every past administration before his as doing so would only amount to sheer distraction which, at the end of the day, would have left the very core of governance unattended to. This implies that he is not ready to stop at anything until he has been able to achieve his promises within the limit of what is achievable during his tenor.

In his reaction, Debo Adeniran, the Executive Chairman of CACOL said that the only mission or agenda under which Nigerians voted Gen. Muhammadu Buhari into power was to explore the possibility of putting to an end an era that cannot sustain Nigeria and replace it with an era of new hope and new initiatives. For the first time we have a President we can fully describe as being progressive despite all the political shortcomings.

“Even if probe is going to take the four years of Buhari’s tenure, he needs to clear the mess. Even at that, Buhari has been working because there are areas of improvement in the power sector, the oil sector is been re-engineered, Nigerian’s integrity has been restored in many countries, foreign relations has been strengthened, prosecuting in the war against corruption and war against insurgency, etc.The probing is worth it because the nation has been soiled for so long and the dust table needs to be cleared. President Muhammadu Buhari didn’t stop at anything.” Adeniran said.

Debo Adeniran concluded by imploring President Buhari not allow himself to be distracted in any way, in his quest to fight corruption nor get carried away in his probe crusade. Nigerians want to operate in an economy that will reward their effort, not the one that will further frustrate them so, as he concentrate on pursuing his anti-corruption crusade he should also ensure that other sectors of the economy get the same attention he gave insecurity and corruption

SOURCE: CACOL

Reacting to the amazing long list of chronic debtors as recently published in some national newspapers, the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) has come out to laud the development which it describes as a bold and proactive on the part of the affected banks.

Commenting, the coalition’s executive chairman, Debo Adeniran, believes that such step would no doubt be opening a new chapter in the core role of the banking industry in the economic base of this country. He opined that the relationship between the banks and their patrons especially in regard to advancing credit facilities to project financing remains averitable tool for promoting the overall industrial strength of any state and which on a broader scale contributes prominently to determining its overall GDP (Gross Domestic Product).

Debo Adeniran posited that those chronic debtors and their collaborating bankers should be seen, not only as corrupt elements but also as saboteurs of the nation’s economy. “What do I mean? The ‘big men’ especially politician-businessmen,use their state connections and influences to intimidate the banks into granting loans for projects that are neither thoroughly scrutinized to predetermine their credibility or viability as the case might be, as demanded by the practice nor obtain commensurate collaterals so as to ensure that such loans are adequately secured. And what about the Central Bank too that is constitutionally saddled with the responsibility of oversight and supervision of the activities of these banks? Where were they while these unethical practices went on unabated? I dare say, that whatever action is to be taken to deter this dishonest, irresponsible acts should not be restricted to just embarrassing the chronic debtors by publishing their names, steps should be further taken to expose and query their collaborators in the affected commercial banks as well as the Central Bank” he declared.

He decried the common practice whereby the banks openly discriminate against the less privileged loan applicants, regardless of the viability potentials of their projects. He wondered why banks would disregard a favourable feasibility report on a potentially viable project from a fresher in business, say, a brilliant young entrepreneur or a fresh graduate with a brilliant business idea, insisting on him providing a commensurate collateral, even before looking at his papers, while the ‘big men and women’ with unauthenticated projects and with low business acumen, are expressly considered; just because they are whom they are. He affirmed that any act of compromise in generally accepted norm and practice is indeed an act of corruption and should be so treated. According to him, a country’s GDP and economy could only be said to be growing through the empowerment of the yet-to-be established industrialists and not adding to the already established. That amounts to choking up the economic base, narrows its spread and ultimately preventing possible growth in other sectors and human materials.

CACOL is therefore calling on the federal government to engage the main actors in our banking sector as a way of finding a means of overhauling and re-engineering the sector, so as to ensure that the economy is broad-based through its project financing policies. Banks owes it a social responsibility to make its services available in all forms to both the haves and the have-nots in the society. Prerequisites for qualifying for credit facilities should be relaxed be made more elastic in such a way that every innovative and developmental minds would cultivate a general sense of belonging in the economic arrangement of this country.

Finally, Mr. Adeniran would want those collaborators too exposed and punished.

TemitopeMacjob (Mrs)

Acting Media Officer, CACOL

5^thAugust, 2015.

The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders CACOL has commended President’s Muhammadu Buhari’s move towards tackling administrative and bureaucratic corruption in government.This came on the heels of an order that was contained in a statement made available to journalists by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, that President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered that all audit queries be answered within 24 hours.

The President also directed the Auditor General of the Federation to resolve all outstanding audit queries within the next 30 days; an order that followed the President’s displeasure over the practice in which audit queries remained unanswered for long periods, sometimes running into years, under previous administrations.

The Executive Chairman of CACOL, Comrade Debo Adeniran, commended Buhari for living to his billing and for being proactive on his administration’s war against corruption at all levels of government.

“The President has proven to be a man that can be decisive when the occasion demands for it; it’s beginning to show that his promise to confront corruption headlong is not just a mere political gimmick”. Adeniran said.

Since it has been discovered that the very bulk of corrupt tendencies and execution start from the civil service and more often than not, corrupt politicians have been known to have received informal training or tutelage from top civil servants who have perfected the act of corruption. As technocrats, these top civil servants are well versed in the administration and management of accounting records, an advantage many use to perfect the art of doctoring and altering of records. They know not only how to perpetrate corrupt act but are also experts in concealing it.

So by tradition, they train elected and appointed political office holders on how to perpetrate corruption and cover their tracks. That is why when you hear of massive looting taking place in a particular section of governance by a minister or Head of a parastatal, one begins to wonder how such massive looting could have been made possible without the active connivance of these elements in the civil service because they are the ones responsible for the day-to-day operations and record-keeping.

We have also discovered that in most cases appointments to the ministries or parastatals come as a way of patronage to party faithfuls and not essentially on merit.So, in most cases, ministers appointed are strangers to the terrain; as such,many of them are being exposed to avenues that facilitate corrupt practices. It is these career civil servants that provide the in-house trainings; not only trainings to administer but also trainings to steal. They remain the engine-room of official corruption in government.

Basically, President Buhari’s directive is quite in order. Audit queries are not supposed to be kept in archives or in suspense but are to be responded to immediately. Even in a situation where by relevant documents and files to support or back up the reply are not immediately available, it should be so stated there in. Response is supposed to be spontaneous to audit queries; so as not give room for possible compromise.

“There is no justifiable reason for delays in answering queries because if anything is found amiss, it is the person in-charge that should provide the explanation”.

For those criticizing Buhari for restricting the probe exercise to Jonathan’s administration; they are certainly acting in ignorance; they do not know what is involved in probing. One major thing they fail to realize is that the first thing a fraudster does when carrying out his unwholesome act is to cover his track so as to make future discovery impossible. Beside doctoring and altering, perpetratro seven go as far as destroying relevant documents that could lead to discovering their acts. Given this scenario and the complexity inherent in the exercise of probing, therefore, Nigerians should not be surprised if probing Jonathan’s administration alone covers the entire 4-year tenure of Buhari’s administration.

President Buhari should remain undaunted and should not allow himself to be distracted in any way, in his quest to save Nigerian from being killed by corruption. He should confront, chase, nail, shame and possibly demolish corruption by whichever means possible. Nigerians expect no less.

Buhari should be more confident that Nigerians remains solidly behind him on any step taken by him to rid the society of the scourge called “corruption”.

Temitope Macjob (Mrs)

Acting Media Officer, CACOL

3^rd August, 2015.