“The issue of asset declaration is a matter of principle. I don’t give a damn about it, if you want to criticise me from heaven. The issue of public declaration I think is playing to the gallery. You don’t need to publicly declare any assets. If I am somebody who wants to hide it is what I tell you that you will even believe,” President Goodluck Jonathan said.
However, investigations has exposed that the refusal of President Goodluck Jonathan to openly declare his assets is against the Programme and Policy Trust of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party.
The PDP states in its Manifesto, Programme and Policy Trust for 2011-2015, that it will work to ensure that its elected officials openly declare their assets.
Under its Anti-Corruption Policy Thrust, the party promises that the primary objective of a “PDP-led government is to substantially reduce corruption in Nigeria and to develop and promote the mechanisms and institutions for preventing, detecting, and bringing offenders to justice.”
It says that one of the road maps aimed at achieving this is for “officials to make public their assets declaration records and support a legal backing for compulsory open declaration of assets.”
The recently sacked Minister of Defence, Dr. Haliru Bello, who was a former Acting National Chairman of the party when the document was produced, even wrote the foreword to the booklet. “This manifesto and Policy Thrust will continue to guide the party and PDP government at all levels to build on the successes of the party and procure a safe, stable and prosperous future for Nigeria,” Bello writes in the foreword.
A member of the National Working Committee of the party, who spoke on the issue on condition of anonymity, however frowned at the refusal of Jonathan to openly declare his assets “as a good example for others.”
The PDP chieftain wondered how the leaders who failed to obey party guidelines would be able to impress it on others to also toe the path of openness by openly declare their assets.
It would be recalled that President Jonathan had, during his Sunday’s media chat broadcast on television, said he did not declare his assets publicly and that he only did so as Vice President because his late boss, Umaru Yar’Adua, compelled him.
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