Yes, No Law Compels Public Asset Declaration

Yes, No Law Compels Public Asset Declaration

Presidential spokesman, Mr. Femi Adesina, last week said his principal, President Muhammadu Buhari, would not declare his assets publicly, because no law compels him to do so.

Adesina, who spoke during a programme on Channels Television on Monday, in response to the prodding of a group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), which had asked Buhari, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo and all governors to declare their assets publicly with a seven-day ultimatum, maintained that no law mandated the president to do so, adding that declaring assets publicly was voluntary.

There’s no debating the fact that Adesina was right by his submission. It is also true that no law compels the president or anyone at that to do so. But what he failed to realise was that even if the law did not compel him to do so, the burden of integrity demanded so of a man, whose only selling point was integrity, not even capacity.

Adesina cannot ignore the fact that the president carries on his should, a lot of moral burden directly linked to his assumed incorruptibility. But the moment he starts to dodge acts capable of validating or disapproving of his integrity credentials, then, the joke is on him.

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