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President's Personally Acquired Assets - N317mThe President's Personally Acquired Assets is N317,756,730.66
Madu Onuorah
Deputy Bureau Chief,
Abuja
On Thursday, Mr. Segun Adeniyi, former Editor, Thisday finally 'took' office as Special Adviser (Communications) to the President. This was sequel to the confirmation by the Senate of the list of Special Advisers sent to it by President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua. And to kick-off his formal public role, Adeniyi, whose first choice of dress is native long jumper with slacks, came to work in a gray suit with a shoe to match.
Adeniyi had first arrived the Presidential Villa Abuja on Monday, June 4, 2007 to report to President Yar'Adua on his new job. He then wore a simple native long jumper and slacks, with a pair of sandals to match.
At exactly 1:20pm he stepped to the entrance door at the ground floor of the President's office. By 2.10pm, he left.
At the entrance of the Villa Press Briefing room, he had joked to reporters, photographers and television cameramen he met: "I am like Obasanjo. This is my second coming." Therefore, the former State House Correspondent of the defunct Concord Newspapers during the Gen. Ibrahim Babangida era is back at a familiar terrain.
He started work immediately, travelling with the President for the G-8 Summit in Germany. Until last Thursday, he had been officially addressed as Senior Special Assistant, later, just SA (Communications) to the President. But the title he has used intermittently in these past weeks of working behind the scene is Presidential Spokesman.
And so, Adeniyi stepped out officially with unfamiliar news: to release to the public, "photocopies of his (President Yar'Adua's) duly and honestly completed assets declaration form." And when he finished the job of reading the prepared intro and releasing the declaration forms to the media, he personally gave out the documents. The buzz the documents generated was so much that the State House Press Corps suspended an earlier scheduled short meeting in order to deal with the weighty issue of writing the report. No one saw it coming, not when Nigerians are now so used to double-talk from its leadership.
And because the gesture was the first by any leader in Nigeria's history since 1960, even security officials and other bureaucrats at the Presidential Villa were scampering to have a look at the copy. In the end, consternation was what most people felt. How could someone, in present day Nigeria, where stealing of government funds is the norm, preside over a state with billions of Naira in revenue and federal allocations, and is yet worth less than a billion?
EVEN then, the total figure of his assets does not tell the whole story. Given a total assets base of N856,452,892; if you subtract the total sum of N225, 902,892.43 being remuneration, savings, campaigns, post-campaign contributions and value of the 29 vehicles donated to him for the Presidential campaigns, it means that he would have been worth only N631,550,000.43 if he had not run and won the Presidential elections. And when you minus his liabilities - N88,793,269.77, being the loan facilities at the Imani Estate, Maitama branch of Unity Bank Plc, it means that he would have been worth just N542,756,730.66.
And when you further remove the cost of the Yar'Adua Family Compound, Yar'Adua Quarters in Katsina State, valued at N105 million, which he acquired through inheritance in November 1997, and the duplex at Malali, Kaduna State with a value of N120 million, which was a gift from his late elder brother, Major-General Shehu Musa Yar'Adua, it means that President Yar'Adua, in all his working life as teacher, farmer, director of a bank and a Governor of a State for eight years has a total asset base of N317,756,730.66.
Haba! In this era when access to government funds is the surest way to billions, it means that he really has a very low appetite for everything. No wonder he looks austere. His greed level is too low. By this, the President has shown he can never be "the politician's politician." With this, the political class, or their collaborators in the economy and bureaucracy will never love him. He is a 'show-spoiler.' And lest we forget, Nigerians are waiting for the deluge of public declarations of assets. When will yours come?
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