Senator Says More Than 90% Of Nigerian Politicians Lie In Their Asset Declarations

More than 90 per cent of Nigerian politicians lie in their asset declarations, a former senator, who chaired the 2014 National Conference Convocation Committee, Femi Okunrounmu, has said.

Mr. Okunrounmu stated this while speaking with journalists at the 80th birthday celebration of the leader of O’dua Peoples Congress (OPC), Frederick Fasehun, Lagos.

News Agency of Nigeria reports that he said if anybody had done anything that was against the law or constitution, the person should be called to account.

According to him, it is good and part of the fight against corruption, but that fight should be holistic.

“It should cover all the people who are guilty, not just target a few individuals.

“Ninety per cent of politicians declare assets falsely, so the law should go after all the people that are guilty of such false declaration of assets, try them and bring them to justice.

“They shouldn’t just target one or two people,” he said.

On the National Confab, Okunrounmu said that the All Progressives Congress (APC) had always opposed it.

“May be, the Constitution is favourable to some parts of the North; many northern APC leaders have always opposed a national confab.
“May be, one can understand why they oppose a confab, but those who know how the current Constitution came to being know that it was fashioned by successive military rulers, mostly from the north,” he alleged.

He said the southern wing of the APC, led by Ahmed Tinubu, had always agitated for a national conference, but were opposed to the 2014 confab “for political reasons”.

On the delay in cabinet formation by President Muhammadu Buhari, the former confab convocation committee chairman said there was no provision for the president to administer Nigeria without a cabinet.

“Even though there is no specification on the number of days within which he must send the names of ministers, any governance without ministers is governance as sole administrator which is not provided for in the Constitution,” he said.