Tag: SERAP/TINUBU

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged President Bola Tinubu to “use the anniversary of your first year in office as an opportunity to demonstrate your oft-expressed commitment to democracy, accountability, and openness in government by immediately publishing your asset declaration form.”

SERAP urged him to encourage Vice-President Kashim Shettima, ministers, and state governors to also widely publish their asset declaration forms.

The rights group also urged the President to urgently propose a constitutional amendment to include provisions on the creation of asset declaration database to publish government officials’ asset declaration forms before, during, and after serving in public office.

In the open letter dated 25 May 2024 and signed by SERAP’s deputy director, Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation said: “Widely publishing your asset declaration form and encouraging your Vice-President, ministers, and state governors to also widely publish their assets would serve legitimate public interests.” END QUOTE.

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP has revealed that it has obtained the leave of the court to apply for an order of mandamus to compel the President Bola Tinubu-led government to probe the alleged missing and unaccounted $2.1 billion and N3.1 trillion oil revenue under former President, Muhammadu Buhari.

Earlier this year, in June SERAP filed a lawsuit asking President Tinubu to set up a presidential panel of enquiry to promptly probe the grim allegations that US$2.1 billion and N3.1 trillion public funds of oil revenues and budgeted as fuel subsidy payments are missing and unaccounted for between 2016 and 2019, as documented by the Auditor-General of the Federation.

The organisation had urged the President to “name and shame anyone suspected to be responsible for the alleged widespread and systemic corruption in the use of oil revenues and the management of public funds budgeted as fuel subsidy and to ensure their effective prosecution as well as the full recovery of any proceeds of crime.”

It also urged him “to promptly, thoroughly, independently, transparently and effectively probe all fuel subsidy paid by successive governments since the return of democracy in 1999, and to use any recovered proceeds of crime as palliatives to address the impact of any subsidy removal on poor Nigerians.”

However, in an update on its move on the matter, SERAP in a post on its X handle (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday night said, the group has obtained the leave of the court to apply for an order of mandamus to compel the Tinubu administration to probe the allegations of missing and unaccounted for oil revenues between 2016 and 2019.

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP has urged President Bola Tinubu to “publicly instruct the former governors who are now serving as ministers in his administration to stop collecting life pensions, exotic cars and other allowances from their states while they serve as ministers.

SERAP urged him to “instruct the former governors to immediately return any pension and allowances that they may have collected since leaving office to the public treasury.”

In the letter dated August 19, 2023 and signed by SERAP deputy director Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation said, “The appointment of former governors who collect life pensions while serving as ministers is implicitly forbidden by the Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended] and the country’s international legal obligations.”

SERAP disclosed that  the president would be acting in the public interest by stopping former governors now serving as ministers  from collecting life pensions, especially given the current grave economic realities in the country.”

SERAP further stated that  Nigerians will judge the presidency in part by the conduct, integrity and honesty of the ministers he appoints to work in his government.

Meanwhile SERAP recalled   the president’s inaugural speech, where  promises were made stipulating that his administration will be guided by ‘the principle of the rule of law, a shared sense of fairness and equity, and that ‘Nigeria will be impartially governed according to the constitution.’”

SERAP reiterates however that former governors collecting life pensions while serving as ministers would amount to taking advantage of entrusted public positions.”