Buhari’s Ministers Must Declare Assets Publicly –kukah
The Bishop, Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Matthew Kukah, says there is a
need for President Muhammadu Buhari’s ministers to publicly declare
their assets just as Buhari did last month.
Kukah, who is also a
member of the National Peace Committee, said this at an annual programme
titled, “The Platform,” which was organised by the Covenant Christian
Centre in Lagos, on Thursday.
He said, “Buhari has an opportunity
now. I don’t think many of you have been to Buhari’s house in Kaduna
but I have been there and I know what it looks like. You heard about his
declaration of assets. He must, therefore, make minimum demands of
moral conduct and probity from his ministers. As Nigerians, we must ask
ourselves what drives corruption.
“Corrupt people are not
necessarily bad people. A lot of them are not bad people because they do
a lot of good things. But we live in a country where too many good
people are doing too many bad things.”
The cleric said Buhari must set standards for his ministers on the kind of lifestyles they and their families must live.
He said for instance, it would be good if the President demands that all the children of his ministers must school in Nigeria.
Kukah
added, “For me, if you are a minister of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria, your children must have their education in Nigeria. That will
be good.”
While delivering his lecture titled, “Hysteria,
euphoria and amnesia: Nigeria’s long walk to freedom,” Kukah said
Nigeria had failed to develop because the country had continued to make
the same mistakes.
Defending his stance that ruling Nigeria
should not be only about jailing corrupt people, Kukah said all coups
including the first one of 1966 were perpetrated under the pretext of
fighting corruption.
He, therefore, argued that restructuring the system and plugging all loopholes remains the best way to fight corruption.
He
said, “If you take the worst Nigerian President and Americans are
patient enough to vote for him and he rules America for 20 years, he
will not be able to steal up to $50,000 no matter how long he rules
because of the kind of system that operates there.
“But if you
take a British Prime Minister or American President and make him the
President of Nigeria, the moment he wants to set up an anti-corruption
agency, he will have to bribe the National Assembly.”
Kukah said
the proliferation of churches or mosques in a country did not necessary
imply that the nation would have a high moral standard or development.
He said unlike Nigerian leaders, former South African President, Nelson
Mandela, was never seen in a church.
While comparing former
President Olusegun Obasanjo with Mandela, Kukah said the circumstances
in the nation prevented Obasanjo from being like Mandela.
He
said, “Both of them went to prison and became Presidents when they were
released but we know that if Mandela had gone to a Nigerian prison, he
would have died there.
“When Mandela came out of prison, there
was a structure in place. His party had been in existence since 1912. It
had a doctrine, discipline. When Mandela came out of prison on February
11, 1990 and when he was approached, he said he would have to consult
with Oliver Thambo. Mandela was already a party man.
“Compare
this with President Obasanjo who came into power through the PDP. Look
at the circumstances of the formation of the party. Mandela was also
fortunate to inherit an economic and bureaucratic system that had been
in place for long. Obasanjo inherited a system that was severely
weakened.”
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