Asset declaration: Tinubu must tell Nigerians the source of his wealth — Olu Fasan
Since he became president in May 2023, Bola Tinubu has enjoyed nothing more than hiring and firing people. A week hardly passes without Tinubu making one public appointment or another, which shows the enormous patronage power of the Nigerian president. But equally, Tinubu has fired more people on grounds of corruption in less than two years in office than his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, did in his entire eight years in power.
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Tinubu’s rhetoric on fighting corruption is also more razor-sharp. Buhari famously said: “If we don’t kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria.” Yet, he didn’t say how he would “kill” corruption, which festered under his government. But Tinubu has shown a gung-ho anti-graft zeal. He vowed to tackle corruption “head on”, saying “no corrupt Nigerian will be spared.”
Section 15 (5) of the 1999 Constitution states unequivocally: “The State shall abolish all corrupt practices.” So, Tinubu’s rhetoric and stance on Nigeria’s endemic corruption are commendable. However, he faces a huge credibility challenge. Since Nigeria’s independence, no civilian president has come to power with such raging controversies that dogged Tinubu about his wealth. Tinubu is the first plutocrat and multi-billionaire to be president of Nigeria. That, in itself, is not a problem, except that the source of his enormous wealth remains a mystery to most Nigerians, a point that is not lost on the international community.
For instance, in an editorial on Nigeria in July last year, the Financial Times said: “Corruption needs to be tackled,” adding pointedly: “It does not help that Tinubu’s vast wealth is not easy to decipher.” Certainly, it also doesn’t help that, in December last year, the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, OCCRP, a global network of investigative journalists, named Tinubu as the second runner up for the 2024 “Person of the Year in Organised Crime and Corruption”, a story widely reported globally. Now, the insinuations and allegations about Tinubu’s wealth may be false. But the perceptions are damaging. That’s why Tinubu must demonstrate leadership by publicly declaring his assets. In that regard, I totally align myself with the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, a reputable NGO, which urged President Tinubu “to request the Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB, to publish your assets”.
Sadly, precedents are not a good guide. In 2012, when pressured to publish his assets, President Goodluck Jonathan retorted: “I don’t give a damn!” He paid a heavy price in 2015 when he lost his re-election bid because of, among other reasons, widespread perception that his administration was massively corrupt. In 2015, President Buhari reluctantly published his “asset declaration”. But the credibility of that declaration was recently shattered into smithereens when Buhari said that, after eight years in power, he now fed on rent from one of his three houses. The perverse implication is that Buhari left office a poor man. He has deservedly received public ridicule and opprobrium for that hare-brained comment. But what about Tinubu? During his media chat in December 2024, Tinubu reportedly said: “I will consider asking the CCB to release my assets.” Truth is, he mustn’t just “consider” publishing his asset declaration; he must publish it. Why? Well, two reasons!
First, Tinubu is not Jonathan, and he is not Buhari. Unlike those two presidents, who entered office with very modest wealth, Tinubu came into office with inexplicable and unexplained wealth. Nigerians deserve to know the source of his wealth before he became president. Second, Tinubu himself has never shied from bragging about his stupendous wealth. He is a braggard, who is boastful about his wealth and wants the whole world to know that he is extremely rich. What he won’t tell the world, however, is the source of his enormous wealth.
A few years ago, Tinubu famously said he was “richer than Osun State”. In July 2024, Tinubu said he singlehandedly funded his presidential election campaign. Hear him: “I have no cabal. I have no sponsor. The money I spent on the election was my personal fortune.” Tell me, is there any other country in world where a presidential candidate funded his election alone by himself? How rich must that candidate be? The crude implication of Tinubu’s statement is that he is so stinkingly rich that he could buy the Nigerian presidency. What kind of democracy is that? But beyond that, shouldn’t Nigerians know the nature and source of the wealth of a president who funded his election solely and entirely from his personal fortune?
In September last year, Ayodele Olawande, Tinubu’s Minister for Youth Development, said Tinubu was too rich to loot Nigeria’s treasury. His words: “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is an acknowledged epitome of wealth; so, he is not interested in looting the nation’s treasury.” Tinubu himself said: “I did not come to look for money; I came to work.” Given that Tinubu is extraordinarily wealthy, why is he living off the state? Four US presidents, including President Trump, did not take a salary. But Tinubu lives extravagantly, with frequent state-funded foreign trips. Recently, the Foreign Minister, Yusuf Tuggar, said “Nigeria has money to fund Tinubu’s frequent foreign trips”. Really? Why can’t he fund some of them himself? Second, how would Nigerians know that Tinubu, or any other president, won’t loot the treasury when there is no public access to the asset declarations of presidents?
Of course, this problem exists because Nigeria lacks a credible asset declaration system that meets international standards. According to the OECD, asset declaration systems must have three aims: 1) to increase transparency; 2) to prevent conflict of interests; and 3) to monitor wealth variations. Unfortunately, those are not the aims of Nigeria’s asset declaration system. It doesn’t prevent conflict of interests because presidents, governors and ministers can award multi-billion-naira contracts to companies owned by their relatives, including children. It doesn’t monitor wealth variations because there’s no rule against unexplained wealth. And it’s not about transparency because there’s no mandatory public disclosure.
In its 2024 Article IV Consultation report on Nigeria, the IMF called for “public access to the declarations of public servants.” But there’s a strong resistance to public disclosure in Nigeria. Indeed, in March 2024, the Court of Appeal ruled that the CCB could not publish the asset declarations of former Presidents Jonathan and Buhari, which shows that state institutions, including the judiciary, are enablers of corruption in Nigeria. But if Tinubu is serious about tackling corruption “head on”, then he must lead from the front and publicly declare his assets. Without that bold and exemplary leadership, Tinubu is merely playing lip service to fighting corruption.
