Trade Union Congress urges senate to approve ministers who publicly declare assets

NIGERIA'S Trade Union Congress (TUC) has urged the National Assembly not to confirm any ministerial nominee unless he or she publicly declares their assets as part of the ongoing war against corruption.

 

Last week, President Muhammadu Buhari submitted the names of 21 nominees to the senate and next week senators will begin screening them. Among the 21 high profile nominees are former Lagos State governor, Raji Fashola, ex-Rivers State governor, Rotimi Amaechi, the former Ekiti State governor Kayode Fayemi and Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the publicity secretary of the ruling All Progressives Congress,

 

Responding to the nominations, the TUC, in a joint statement by its president Bobboi Kaigama and general secretary, Musa Lawal, said that the nominees should declare their assets in the public interest. It added that the public declaration of assets was necessary following worrisome allegations of fraud against some ex-ministers and officials.

 

Although Nigerian law does not mandate public declaration of asset by public officials, President Buhari and his deputy, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, have both publicly declared their asset as part of the new administration’s policy to entrench transparency and anti-corruption in governance. According to the TUC, the time had come to allow only people with proven integrity to head government ministries and it urged the senate to screen the nominees based on their integrity and past records irrespective of their status.

“It is sad how much shame politicians have brought upon this country. There is rarely any month we do not hear news of Nigerian youths being executed in other parts of the world due to involvement in one crime or the other.

 

“We will not be in this backward situation if the economy is doing well, if we had steady power and adequate infrastructure and if successive governments were interested in creating jobs for the army of unemployed youths,” the TUC said.

 

However, the senate is not expected to heed the call of the workers' union as even senators declined to declare the asset publicly with only one member, Shehu Sani, doing so. According to the TUC, many youth in the country have gotten into crime due to unemployment caused by corrupt leaders in the past.