Tinubu approves N20bn for CCB to boost anti-corruption drive

File: President Bola Tinubu

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President Bola Tinubu has approved a massive increase in the Code of Conduct Bureau’s budget from about ₦3 billion to nearly ₦20 billion.

The Chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau, Abubakar Bello, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Sunday in Abuja.

Bello said the increase was aimed at overhauling the nation’s outdated asset declaration system, strengthening verification and enforcement, and making the bureau more effective.

He said the budget increase was necessary to fund technological upgrades, improve the bureau’s working environment, strengthen verification processes and enhance enforcement capacity.

The CCB chairman recalled that when he assumed office, he discovered that asset declaration was still largely manual, relying on paper forms that were scarce, expensive to print and difficult to store, analyse and verify.

He noted that public servants across ministries, departments and agencies constantly requested tens of thousands of forms that the bureau could not provide.

According to him, the situation was worsened by the fact that the 2025 budget made provision of only about ₦70 million for printing forms.

He said the amount could only produce about 50,000 to 60,000 forms for more than 4.5 million public servants nationwide.

To address the challenge, Bello said the bureau adopted a temporary model inspired by Kenya, uploading asset declaration forms on its website for public servants to download.

However, he said the approach only solved the problem of availability and not the deeper challenge of a largely manual system.

Bello revealed that the bureau is now at an advanced stage of developing a fully online asset declaration platform, following extensive consultations with stakeholders.

He said the system, expected to be ready by the first quarter of 2026, would allow public servants to declare assets from anywhere in the world.

The CCB chairman said the digital platform would be a “game changer” because it would be linked directly to key databases.

According to him, the platform would be linked to the Corporate Affairs Commission, Federal Inland Revenue Service, Bank Verification Number system, land registries and other government records to enable instant verification.

He added that artificial intelligence would also be deployed to analyse asset declarations and compare net worth at the beginning and end of a public servant’s tenure.

The AI platform, according to him, would flag unexplained wealth or possible breaches of the Code of Conduct for further review.

As part of the reforms, Bello said the bureau had begun inviting ministers, permanent secretaries and other senior officials for asset verification, stressing that “verification is not investigation.”

He disclosed that the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, personally appeared to verify his assets, sending what he described as a strong signal of leadership by example.

The CCB chairman said verification had already led to interim forfeiture orders in cases where public servants failed to declare assets or could not explain their sources, including properties within and outside Nigeria.

According to him, some recovered funds had already been transferred to the Central Bank of Nigeria.

He warned public servants that failure to declare assets or refusal to honour verification invitations could trigger investigations and possible prosecution before the Code of Conduct Tribunal.

Bello urged compliance with the bureau’s guiding principle,”Declare or Forfeit.”

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