Former President Goodluck Jonathan has said he didn’t
declare his asset publicly, because it was not the right thing to do as
President.
Jonathan made this claim in a book titled ‘Against The Run
Of Play’ written by Olusegun Adeniyi.
He argued that declaring his assets publicly, could not
reduce corruption in the country.
“It is not the President declaring his assets that will end
Boko Haram and whether I am criticised from head to toe I will not declare my
assets publicly; it is not right; I did not even want to declare my assets as
VP but was forced by the then President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
“The law is clear. A public officer should declare his
asset, and if there are issues, then the relevant agencies would have a basis
to assess whether you have amassed wealth or not,” Jonathan said.
Jonathan who was under pressure to make public his assets in
the spirit of the anti-corruption war, was quoted as saying, “I don’t give a
damn about it. The law is clear about it and so, making it public is not issue
and I will not play into the hands of people. I have nothing to hide.
“I declared under Yar Ádua because he did it, but it is not
proper; it is not the president declaring assets that will change the country,”
he insisted.
The book noted: “By refusing to make public his assets
declaration, Jonathan easily played into the hands of the opposition that had
started to define him as a corrupt leader.
“That characterisation hounded him throughout his tenure and
would become a major campaign point in 2015.
“But if there was any corruption scandal that did
incalculable damage to the credibility of his government, it was the
mismanagement of the fuel subsidy funds,” the book noted.
It went further: “And with that, critical stakeholders,
including organised labour unions and civil society groups-responded with anger
and condemnation, vowing to challenge the Federal Government by calling for a
nationwide strike.”
By Ifreke Inyang
