3rd September, 2015
For those in doubt that President Muhammadu Buhari lives a modest and content life, the official declaration of his assets by the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) might convince them.
In a statement titled “Assets Declaration Form Confirms Buhari Austere Lifestyle” the CCB said Buhari had less than N30million prior to being sworn in as president on May 29, 2015.
“Documents submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari to the CCB, shows that the retired General has indeed been living an austere and Spartan lifestyle, contrary to what many might expect of a former Head of State of Nigeria and one who has held a number of top government positions, such as governor, Minister of petroleum and the head of the Petroleum Development Trust Fund (PTDF).”
The documents submitted to the CCB, which officials say are still being vetted and will soon be made public, show that prior to being sworn in on May 29, President Buhari had less than N30 million to his name. He also had only one bank account, with the Union Bank. President Buhari had no foreign account, no factory and no enterprises. He also had no registered company and no oil wells.
According to the CCB, “President Buhari declared however that he had shares in Berger Paints, Union Bank and Skye Bank”.
“This is entirely unlike what one might expect from a former head of state of a country like Nigeria,” a source who was given the document to handle said.
The documents also revealed that President Buhari had a total of five homes, and two mud houses in Daura. He had two homes in Kaduna, one each in Kano, Daura and in Abuja. One of the mud houses in Daura was inherited from his late older sister, another from his late father. He borrowed money from the old Barclays Bank to build two of his homes.
President Buhari also has two undeveloped plots of land, one in Kano and the other in Port Harcourt. He is still trying to trace the location of the Port Harcourt land.
In addition to the homes in Daura, he has farms, an orchard and a ranch. The total number of his holdings in the farm include 270 heads of cattle, 25 sheep, five horses, a variety of birds and a number of economic trees.
The documents also showed that the retired General uses a number of cars, two of which he bought from his savings and the others supplied to him by the federal government in his capacity as former Head of State. The rest were donated to him by well-wishers after his jeep was damaged in a Boko Haram bomb attack on his convoy in July 2014.