The Coalition of Civil Society Organizations for Good Governance has called on the Governor of Zamfara State, Gov. Dauda Lawal, to make public his source of wealth and to also openly declare his assets.
In a press statement, the organization stated that it is expedient for the governor to disclose his source of wealth owing to the fact “that when Mr. Lawal was sworn in, the news was everywhere that he was worth $5 billion and N1 billion in nine banks”.
They put emphasis on the fact that despite “the availability of gold and other mineral resources in large quantities, the people of Zamfara have not been able to benefit substantially from these God-given resources”. Therefore, the group seeks to know why “security issues and underdevelopment have put the state in a state of comatose. Why is it that terrorism has remained unabated in Zamfara?” Also, they seek to know, “Who are the beneficiaries of this mindless bloodletting?”
The organization therefore called for this to be investigated so that the beneficiaries of the “bloodletting” in Zamfara could be identified.
Furthermore, the organization called on Lawal to lead by example by telling “the world how he made his money and details of his asset declaration before the Code of Conduct Bureau”.
The press release reads:
“BEING TEXT OF PRESS BRIEFING BY THE COALITION OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS FOR GOOD GOVERNANCE ON HOW ZAMFARA GOVERNOR, DAUDA LAWAL, MADE HIS TRILLIONS AND A CALL FOR OPEN ASSET DECLARATION.
“Gentlemen of the press. You are welcome to this briefing, another series of our interventions to berth an egalitarian society. In the last 24 years that we started this journey to the fourth Republic, thethe longest so far in our history. But despite this, we seem not to have really enjoyed the so-called dividend of democracy.
“Even tokenism has paled into insignificance because of the serious security issues that have engulfed the country. Now, our appraisal of the system is that there are no proper checks and balances to detect at the early stage, and nip in the bud any attempt by public officials to dip their hands in the public coffers. We have had bogus asset declarations by some of our governors, ostensibly to cover for the Graft that will follow their activities as the state helmsman.
“Today, we are zeroed in on Zamfara for obvious reasons. Why Zamfara? This is because, despite the availability of gold and other mineral resources, in large quantities, the people of Zamfara have not been able to benefit substantially from these God-given resources. The security issues and underdevelopment have put the state in a state of comatose. Why is it that terrorism has remained unabated in Zamfara?
“Who are the beneficiaries of this mindless bloodletting? These posers we need to interrogate further. Now enter Mr. Dauda Lawal. It’s an open secret that when Mr Lawal was sworn in, the news was everywhere that he was worth $5bn and N1bn in nine banks. $5bn?
“This emboldens the conviction in us that the news that he, Gov. Dauda Lawal declared assets worth N9trn is true which he only denied when the uproar and public scrutiny were huge and resounding.
“The African richest man, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, is worth $15bn with his assets, and Lawal is worth $5bn without any known companies or major breakthroughs in new inventions or technology. How did he make his money? From the information we gathered, Mr. Lawal had declared such a humongous amount to the code of conduct bureau as part of the enabling laws to take over as state governor.
“Now, our challenge now is that it is incumbent on Mr. Lawal to lead by example. What we are now asking, is for Mr. Lawal to tell the world how he made his money and details of his asset declaration, before the Code of Conduct Bureau. We don’t want to hear the usual refrain after his exit when he’s been called to account that he didn’t enter a government a pauper. The era of humongous wealth without enterprise is gone forever. We want to know how he made his trillions so that other governors who are super-rich will also follow suit.
“We are doing this because Nigeria is now in a precarious situation more than ever. The debt issues and economic crises we are in now require that we do our best. We want to appreciate our media friends in this campaign for doing a yeoman job. We want you to do more because we owe it as a collective duty to the incoming generation in view of the economic crisis that our leaders had plunged us into due to their indiscretion, it will not be business as usual anymore.
“You also know how difficult it is to obtain information despite the passage of FIA. Most of the time, we had to depend on inside sources to get information. It is an open secret that politicians over time have monetized the political system and unless we do a proper check, we may wake up one day to see Kidnappers, Bandits, Yahoo Yahoo Boys and Boko Haram leaders occupying our government houses, since it’s all about money and nothing else.
“The level of bloodletting and killings in Zamfara is mind-boggling, and there’s a need to put an end to this dastardly act. We also want to urge the international community to beam its searchlight on Mr. Lawal to know how the houses declared in France, the USA, and the UK were acquired.
“The Western world should help in tackling money laundering and other associated vices because most of this money ended up being used to finance terrorism.
“We will also like to call on the Code of Conduct Bureau and relevant agencies of government to look into these claims and make their findings public so Nigerians truly know the characters in our governance space.
“On our part, it’s a collective fight; so, when we see something, let’s say something so that collectively, we can rid Nigeria of pilferers whose ball pen has robbed the kids of the nation of its fair share of the national cake. We thank you for your attention”.