The Senate President
Bukola Saraki is standing trial before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT). When
asked how much he is worth in an interview, yesterday, by Naziru Mikaliu of the
BBC, Saraki simply said he doesn’t know. He, however, explains how he came
about his fortune. Excerpts:
What
is contained in the Petroleum Industry Bill?
What
we’re trying to do is to work out an environment in the petroleum sector that
will ensure transparency, good governance, reduce duplication, and ensure
efficiency. We spent months, I think five months, working on that and it’s good
to see that, finally, we’ve got to the stage of passing the second reading
which wasn’t achieved before now.
Do
you believe Nigeria is a corrupt country?
My
take is that I must market my country. So, I’m not going to be able to label
the country as such. My focus is that yes, there’re issues that we must
address. But I’m not going to hammer on that so much because I’m also marketing
my country so that I get private sector inflow. I must create the enabling
environment that will encourage that, because without that, as government
alone, it’ll be difficult to see the kind of growth we’ve been talking about.
Have
you seen corruption taking place?
Of
course, there are issues, and that’s why we’ve oversight function. I mean, just
as many other countries, we also have these kind of challenges but I believe
we’ve moved a long way.
Many
Nigerians see a lot of politicians, including you, as wealthy individuals. How
much are you worth?
I
don’t know.
You
don’t know how much is your worth?
I
don’t know.
How
much did you declare?
I
can’t remember those figures as I sit here.
That
means it’s a huge figure?
I
don’t know if it’s a crime, anywhere, for you to either work hard or be
blessed. But what I think is important is your commitment to serve.
How
did you amass all this wealth?
I
come from a blessed family. I come from a family where my parents were
opportuned and after that I worked hard in the private sector before this
(politics). I think I worked for everything that I’ve got. And when I look at
my assets, I know I got 95 per cent of that before I joined government.
You
talk about generating more revenue and collecting more taxes, but a member of
your family was implicated in the Panama Papers (cuts)
The
issue was that they found out that the company has been set up, it was a
holding company, which had nothing to do with taxes, nothing at all.
Why
was it set up?
It
was based on legal advice. The company was set up because they were acquiring
an asset and it was advised at that time that I had to set it up. It was not a
company set up by ourselves, but by a legal firm, and to the best of our
knowledge, no law was broken.
You’re
standing trial before a court for alledged false declaration of your asset,
right?
Yeah,
that case is ongoing.
So,
did you declare anything that was not yours?
As
I have said many times on this case, I will prove my innocence. These were
forms that were declared over 13 years ago and it only emerged in August after
I became Senate president. If there were infractions in those forms, the Code
of Conduct could have raised that issue a long time ago, they didn’t. So, I
said I am confident that I will clear my name and I don’t believe that I have
done anything wrong.
Source:BBC
Tags
Politics