by Garvey Ufot
Suddenly, all the ignorant, amnesiac, tribalistic and godless supporters of a monumentally corrupt, tribalistic, despotic, and educationally deficient President Muhammadu Buhari, who had crawled into their hiding places in shame as a result of the numerous gaffes, denials of campaign promises, as well as incompetent and tribalistic appointments by their principal in the past one month, are now shamelessly crawling out of their holes to hail and defend Buhari’s continuing campaign of hypocrisy, deceit and debauchery in the name of assets declaration.
As I have said over and over again on my Facebook page, the only persons whose IQ is lower than that of President Buhari are his supporters. All the supporters of Buhari are so brazenly lazy, sloppy, unintelligent, dishonest, and incapable of logical reasoning that we must credit Muhammadu Buhari for his ability to swiftly convert so many of his fellow citizens to unthinking morons in such a short time.
Consider this. Whenever there is an attempt by decent Nigerians to hold President Buhari to account concerning his plethora of botched campaign promises, dithering and denials, all that a typically tribalistic All Progressives Congress (APC) sympathiser does is to swiftly attempt to change the subject by converting the discourse to one about former President Jonathan.
In the matter of Buhari’s ‘declaration of assets’, the issues are simple and straightforward, contrary to the obfuscation of the APC online bandits.
First, the Constitution does NOT mandate any public officer to PUBLICLY declare his assets. The Constitution enjoins him to do so at the Code of Conduct Bureau(CCB). Public declaration of assets is a personal choice.
Dr. Goodluck Jonathan did not at any time promise to PUBLICLY declare his assets. Only Umar Musa Yar’ Adua and, hypocritically, as it has now turned out, Muhammadu Buhari promised to do so publicly too.
Whereas Yar’ Adua did so genuinely, honestly and satisfactorily, Buhari has persisted in his well known hypocritical posturing of lies, corruption and denials, utterly humiliating his tribalistic supporters who are predominantly the Tinubu loyalists in the South West and those with a religious fundamentalist outlook in the North.
Now, although Dr. Jonathan never at anytime promised to make his assets declaration public, he nevertheless, as a result of pressure from Nigerians after Yar’Adua’s own honest and genuine declaration in 2007, did indeed make public his own honest and genuine assets declaration.
As Vice President, Goodluck Jonathan bowed to public pressure and declared his assets PUBLICLY.
The assets which were made public by the senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Public Affairs, Ima Niboro, indicated that the value of the Vice President’s total assets and cash in banks stood at N295,304,420.
This is about N561,148,472 less than the assets declared by President Umaru Yar’Adua, who declared his total assets to be at the value of N856,452,892.
In the assets declaration made public, it indicated that Jonathan submitted his assets declaration before Justice Muktar Dodo of the Abuja High Court on the 30th of May 2007, a day after the oath of office and oath of allegiance was administered on him.
A breakdown of Jonathan’s assets indicated that he had four buildings located in Yenegoa, Abuja, and his home town in Bayelsa.
Dr. Jonathan said he owns a five bedroom duplex in Gwarimpa II, Abuja which was acquired in 2003 through loan and is valued at N24,990,000 while another seven bedroom duplex, which he described as village personal home is located at Otuoke in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa state. It was valued at the cost of N18,000,000 and was acquired through savings and gifts in kind.
The last of the Jonathan’s residential buildings are the four bedroom duplex acquired in 2003 through savings and gift in kind in the Kpansia area of Yenegoa. The value of the building, he said was N15,000,000. The last building is the extended family house in Yenegoa which he said is a four flat storey building acquired between 2003 and 2007 through savings. The value of the property is put at N10,000,000.
Under vacant and undeveloped plots, Jonathan stated as follows: 1032.50 square meter of land located at Onopa Yenegoa and valued at N3,098,000.00. Plot 2C, 374 low density area, Yenegoa, allocated by the Bayelsa State Government and valued at N150,000. 2760.00 square meter plot at Cadastral Zone BO2, Durumi, Abuja allocated by the Federal Capital Development Authority and valued at N5,578,540.
One parcel of farm land at Otuoke, Ogbia acquired through inheritance and estimated at the value of N50,000,000.
A plot at the Medium Density Area in Yenegoa allocated by the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, the value of which he said is N1,550,000.00. Plot 29, low density Area Plot in Yenegoa allocated by the Bayelsa State Government the value of which is put at N4,908,000. While the last undeveloped plot owned by the vice president is plot 2246 Cadastral Zone A06, Abuja the value of which he put at N4,800,000. It was allocated by the Federal Capital Development Authority, FCDA.
Jonathan’s investment in stocks which was being managed by City Code Investment Company are as follows:
S/No Name of Stock Number Of Shares Value As At 5/25/07
1. CADBURY PLC 8,666 N264,313
2. FLOUR MILLS PLC 8,466 N635,119.32
3. GUINESS NIG. PLC 6,395 N796,177.50
4. UNILEVER 18,750 N337,500
5. UNION BANK OF NIG. PLC 23,466 N727,446
6. FIDELITY BANK PLC 33,333 N296,663.70
7. UBA PLC 180,000 N6,838,200
8. ACCESS BANK PLC 84,656 N1,635,553.92
9. CADBURY PLC 2,500 N76,250
10. UNION BANK PLC 716,109 N22,199,379
11. FIRST BANK PLC 20,000 N808,000
12. FLOUR MILLS PLC 13,333 N1,000,241.66
13. NIGERIAN BREWERIES PLC 10,000 N363,000
14. BANK PHB PLC 866,666 N24,959,980.80
15. OANDO 15,125 N1,134,375
TOTAL= 2,007,465 N62,072,200
Other investments include 4 nos passenger boats for hiring which was valued at N5,260,000. While the total cash in Nigerian banks being personal saving of salaries/allowances and income from his investments stood at N58,984,123.
Jonathan’s household utensils including generators, a BMW car valued at N15,800,000, which he said was a gift; air conditioners, furniture, electronics and kitchen utensils are valued at N41,800,000.
Now, everyone, except the godlessly, tribalistic, and moronic supporters of Buhari, can see that this assets declaration is as detailed, as honest and as genuine as they come.
This is not a manipulated list of some of the belongings of a tribalistic and hypocritical former military despotic ruler, who publicly claimed to have only million Naira in his account as at last January but now has N30 million.
It is not the assets declaration of a former petroleum minister who owns houses in Kaduna, Daura, Kano, Abuja and, wait for it, Port Harcourt, but claims that they are all worth only N30 million, when even a child knows that a house of that calibre in Kaduna alone is worth three times that.
Buhari’s attempts to hoodwink Nigerians with this non-asset declaration indicates that he has something to hide. There is something about his wealth he doesn’t want Nigerians to know. It could very well indicate that he is corrupt and has no moral standing to prosecute a genuine anti-corruption war in Nigeria.
Buhari needs to ‘free us’ – he should pull the curtains and end this loathsome show.
Garvey Ufot, Ph.D., teaches at the Department of English, University of Uyo. He is currently on sabbatical leave at the Federal University, Oye Ekiti. He is a conscientious academic and conscious Rastafarian who seeks only the truth at all times. His mission is to educate Nigerians and expose fraud and deception in all levels of government. Connect with him on Facebook.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
