Ubani also called for the unbundling of the CCB towards effective fight against corruption in Nigeria. Ubani, who said the CCB, as currently constituted, was neither independent nor strong enough to handle its mandate, recommended the establishment of two agencies to deal with asset declaration of public officials in the country. He spoke at a lecture‎ and award ceremony organised by the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Paramount FM Chapel, Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital Delivering a paper titled, “Assets declaration: Panacea for corruption among public officers?”, Ubani stated that‎ though President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo did well by publicly declaring their assets, their action still fell short of an acceptable standard. “For instance, the values of the real estate held by them is not disclosed. In addition, declarations could be falsified through deliberate transfer of assets to adult children of those making the declaration. There are many other ingenious means of falsifying asset declaration,” he said. Ubani said that the CCB, as an official watchdog of the nation, had failed to discourage corruption and maintain a high standard of morality in the conduct of government business. He said the legal frameworks and institutional capacity to confront corruption in governance needed to be strengthened, noting that Nigeria’s system was one of the weakest in the world, in terms of asset declaration by public officers. According to him, the country should have two independent institutions with one to deal with asset declaration data and the other to handle verification as done in Ghana. Ubani added that annual or biennial asset declaration would also make it easier to monitor the growth of assets declared and check waste of time and resources that could have been deployed to more purposeful uses. While acknowledging the enactment of Freedom of Information Act to eliminate the culture of secrecy in government, Ubani observed that certain constitutional provisions were antithetical to the efficiency of CCB. He said, “What are our leaders afraid of, if they claim not to be corrupt? The inference that can be drawn from their refusal to publicly declare their assets is that they have something to hide. Public officials are public property; if they do not want to disclose their assets they have the option to quit. “Submitting government officials to public scrutiny of their assets‎ will not only boost the confidence of the electorate in their leaders, but it will, also, reduce the incidence of corruption.” The state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Chief Adedayo Adeneye, commended the Buhari-led federal government for trying to instill the virtue of transparency and accountability in governance. Adeneye, who was chairman of the occasion, ‎urged media professionals not to compromise on objectivity in the discharge of their duties. “Let objectivity be your watchword, because your message must increase the understanding of the people and decrease uncertainty. By doing so, you would become key players in the change mission of Ogun State and Federal Government,” he said.]]>