Senator Shehu Sani, representing Kaduna Central, has challenged northern governors as well as all the governors under the umbrella of All Progressives Congress (APC) to declare their assets publicly.
In a sallah message yesterday, Sani stated this has become necessary in view of the fact that President Muhammadu Buhari, who these governors believed in his prudent character and leadership style, had since declared his own assets publicly.
The Senator-cum-human rights activist stated there is no justification for the northern governors and other APC governors to hide their assets from the public if the leader they so much believe in, did not hide his own assets.
“If Buhari cries or laughs, these governors follow suit, so I wonder why they are not emulating and following him to declare their own assets immediately Mr. President and his Vice declared their assets. There is no moral justification here; I want to believe that they are governors without human face”, Sani stated.
He also stated that he was using the sallah period to appeal to the Boko Haram insurgents to lay down the arms, even as he called on the Federal Government to adopt the option of dialogue as a way of bringing to an end the insurgency.
He added that Buhari needs the support of every Nigerian to win the war against Boko Haram.
Senator Sani equally tongue-lashed some of the northern governors for their inability to pay workers salary, particularly when most of the workers were victims of flood disasters in most part of the region as well as losing their beloved ones in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
He said: “It is hypocritical for governors who will sound praises of President Muhammadu Buhari, and clap for him each time he laughs or cries, and even dance for him each time he cracks any jokes, whether it is funny or not. It is necessary for these governors and even our own colleagues in the parliament at the federal and state levels not only to claim to be followers of President Muhammadu Buhari, but to emulate him. People should not be ashamed of disclosing what they have publicly.
“There is the need, taking precedent of what is going on, for the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) to use the power granted to it by the freedom of information act to disclose publicly all declarations made by public office holders from 1999 to date.
“It will avail the public the opportunity to know how righteous or how rich their leaders are, for the public to know how much is accrued to the accounts of their leaders, and from which source that money was derived from.
“Declaring your assets in the CCB, and not doing it publicly shows that the people have skeletons in their cupboards to hide.
“Nigerians must insist that their leaders must disclose what they have, and Nigerians must form vigilante group to help Code of Conduct Bureau verify the claims of their leaders.
“The way President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Osinbajo declared their assets publicly, and no governor or public office holder is not ready to declare asset, it shows that they are the President and his Vice are alone in running the country.
“It is an irony that this is a country where people want to parade the first class they made in the university, the first class they made in their second degree, how they attended universities in Harvard and Cambridge, how they want you to know how brilliant they were in the university classroom, but they don’t want you to know how much they kept in the accounts when they assumed public office.
“I call on all the governors, particularly Kaduna State to make things work in the states with human face because the way things are going; there is no human face to them."