In the wake of a comment by retired Justice Musa Muhammed Datijjo of the Supreme Court, about the level of corruption in the Nigerian judiciary. Senator Ali Ndume has called on President Bola Tinubu to sign an executive order on unexplained wealth.
Ndume, a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress believes there is a need for laws that will compel any individual with no verifiable source of wealth to explain themselves to the authorities.
He noted that similar laws are operating in the United Kingdom and other parts of the world to tackle such issues.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics on Sunday, October 29, 2023, Ndume said he had tried several times to introduce a similar piece of legislation in Nigeria, but there were always excuses.
He, therefore, proposed that the executive should lead the effort to make such laws while urging Tinubu to sign an executive order regarding that in the interim.
“I think the best way to get this across is when the bill comes from the executive or in the interim, the current president should sign an executive bill on unexplained wealth,” he said.
Ndume stressed that the level of unexplained wealth in the country, especially among politicians and civil servants, remains alarming, and some laws are needed to combat that.
“I know of civil servants that live in houses that not only their income, their salaries, or their life pension – assuming they would live in this world for 90 years or 100 years – cannot buy.
“The same thing with some of our politicians especially the politically exposed persons like ministers, you find as you rightly said, some of them come to the National Assembly, and suddenly there is so much money,” he noted.
The lawmaker called on Nigerians to demand better accountability from public officials while reiterating that politiciansare public servants.
