Thread by @DrJoeAbah

Good morning. I promised some time ago to explain some of the workings of the Code of Conduct Bureau for the benefit of those that genuinely desire to deepen their knowledge of how the public sector works. It shouldn’t be of any interest to the politically-fanatic. Thread.

I will also deliberately not cover some nuanced and complex issues. After months of being warned that Twitter is not the platform for nuances and complexities, I have come to agree with my friends @Omojuwa @zeal_a and Ezemmuo’s Umummou like @EzeasorIje @ijeoma_miriam and @ziniex.

It is for this reason that I have now accepted the offer to write a fortnightly column for @BusinessDayNg. I expect the audience there to be more discerning. I will also consider more carefully the standing offer from @PremiumTimesng to serialise my public service experience.

Now, here’s what happens when you are appointed into government. If you are in a “juicy” post, your village people, old school association or professional body will put congratulatory adverts in newspapers, hailing you and claiming you. 😊. Your name will be all over the news.

Long-lost relatives will resurface. Some will even plan to resign from their jobs abroad to relocate to Nigeria to “help you.” Some family members will offer that if there is any money you want to hide with them, there are totally trustworthy.😂Some will offer companies & NGOs.

There is a thriving industry for huge congratulatory cards. I mean HUGE cardboard things that are 3ft tall/4ft wide. It will have your picture & the Nigerian Coat of Arms and tell you how much your deserve the appointment. You will have tons and tons of badly-painted portraits.

Then there are the daily stream of visitors, some of whom you MUST see. Abi if your Traditional Ruler PT your Bishop comes, won’t you see them? Then there are people you need to meet to let them know you have started. You need to familiarise yourself with your staff and offices.

Then there are the meetings. Oh the meetings! Everybody wants the new appointee in EVERY meeting! Then you have to do the work o. Some files have been waiting for you to arrive. You need to find out what has happened with the money before you sign and accept the handover notes o.

Many people keep the humongous congratulatory cards for 3 months. While all of that is going on, it is VERY easy to forget that the Constitution requires you to declare your assets IMMEDIATELY after taking office, at the end of every 4 years and when your term of office ends.

Not just your own assets o. You must also declare the assets of your spouse and those of any children you have that are unmarried and under the age of 18 years. Assets are essentially anything of value and would include but not be limited to buildings, shares, furniture, cars...

You would be required to disclose all the money you have in any bank account anywhere in the world, as well as the cash you have at home or in your pocket on the day you were appointed. Even your music system, watches, etc. You would also have to place a value on all these items.

For your spouse & unmarried children under the age of 18, you only need to declare any buildings and land that they have and put a value to it. For many people, it is really hard to remember EVERYTHING you have. If you forget that you had N2,000 in a dormant account nko? Na waa!

The Code of Conduct Bureau know how the euphoria of appointment can make you forget your Constitutional duties. To be fair to them, they will reach out to you to remind you once they read about your appointment in the newspapers. They will even offer to bring the form to you.

When they come, they will guide you. For instance, if you say your house is worth N100 million, they will ask if you have an estate valuer’s valuation. If you don’t, they will advise you to say “N100 million (own estimate). Once they give you the form, they record it officially.

Once you sign that you’ve got it, the clock starts ticking. You must return the completed form within I think a month of collecting it. Now, the Constitution defines a “Public Officer” essentially as anybody who is paid a salary from government coffers in all arms/tiers of govt.

My rough estimate is that there are about 5 million public officers in Nigeria, so if everyone complies with the Constitution, the CCB will have 5 million forms. Given the meager resources it has, it is impossible for the CCB to look into every declaration made by every clerk.

What it does is to select some at random, or select those that sound unusual. For instance, if you declare that you have N10 billion in the bank or you have a £3 million home in Mayfair, London, they MAY well flag it. Is it a crime to be rich? No. So, why would they flag it?

They flag it because a lot of public servants engage in “anticipatory declarations”
(declare it first and then steal the money to eventually acquire it.)😊 If they flag it, they will invite you in. You would be asked to bring ALL bank statements for the last 6 months.

You would also have to bring ALL title documents to buildings and lands, proof of ownership of cars, receipts of purchase of furniture, everything! When you arrive, you will face a formal CCB panel. I don’t remember if they administer an oath to you or not before they start.

The style is interrogatory. They assume you have lied in your form & press you to show that you haven’t.
Q: “Why didn’t you declare your domiciliary account?”
A: “Because I don’t have.”
Q: “What about that your land in your state capital?”
A: “I don’t have. Only in my village”.

They’ll take copies of everything you brought. If they are happy, they will go. If you show proof of ownership of that mansion in London or in your village, they are likely to opt to go & physically verify it. They can also write to the Financial Intelligence Unit with your BVN.

It is when they have gone to London or your village to sight the building to make sure you are not planning to steal to build it later that they can say your assets have been VERIFIED! It is practically impossible to physically verify the assets of 5 million public officers.

In most cases, if you have money or physical assets that you don’t declare, they have no way of knowing. However, if someone writes a petition, they can then ask sister organisations like EFCC, FIU or land registries to confirm whether there is anything out there in your name.

If you failed (or forgot) to declare even N1 in a dormant account, you could be cited for breach of the code. The CCB knows the threshold is so high that ANYBODY is at risk of falling foul of it. If it’s a minor infraction, they are likely to just give you a chance to remedy it.

If it is a major infraction, My Guy you are in trouble. I will deliberately not cover other issues, like the fact that the legislature reserved ONLY for themselves, the right to earn more than one govt salary and pension. Let me be disciplined and stop there today. End! ✌🏽

One of the complex and nuanced issues that I deliberately refused to cover is: What happens if you fail/refuse to even collect and fill the Code of Conduct forms? What happens and why do so many people get away with it? Too complex for Twitter. Sorry o. I’ll explain elsewhere.