There is an act mandating all employees of banks to declare their assets upon employment — even messengers, cleaners and drivers. Surprised? Well, you are not alone. According to the bank employees’ declaration of assets act, 1986, employees expected to declare their assets include board members, the managing director, general managers, clerks, cashiers, messengers, cleaners, drivers, and any other category of workers — whether part‐time, casual or temporary. The act, which has been in existence since 1986, became a subject of discourse on Tuesday when the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) ordered bank employees to declare their assets. Abdulrasheed Bawa, the EFCC chairman, had explained that the move is aimed at making it difficult to stash illegitimately acquired funds in banks. “Let me just put this, we understood that at the tail end of every financial crime is for the criminal to have access to the funds that he or she has illegitimately gotten and we’re worried about the roles of financial institutions,” he had said. Setting June 1 as the deadline, Bawa said he hopes that all financial institutions will comply. WHAT DOES THE ACT SAY? According to the act, every new employee, “shall within 14 days of assuming duty with the bank make a full disclosure of all his assets at the time of his assuming duty; and for the purpose of this subsection, a transfer or secondment from one bank to another shall be treated as a new employment”. On completion of the declaration of assets form, the employee is expected to submit the form to the chief executive officer of the bank within the time prescribed in section 1 of the act. The chief executive is then expected to submit the forms to the appropriate authority. Employees are mandated to go through this process on an annual basis. 10 YEARS IMPRISONMENT FOR OFFENDERS In section 7 of the act, it is an offence for an employee of a bank to own assets in excess of his/her legitimate, known, and provable income and assets. “Any employee guilty of an offence under subsection (1) of this section shall on conviction be liable to imprisonment for ten years and shall, in addition, forfeit the excess assets or its equivalent in money to the Federal Government,” parts of the section read. In determining the assets of an employee, the act states that “any gift, bequest, donation or fraudulent, fictitious or artificial transaction made by the employee during the relevant period” shall be treated as forming part of his/her assets. “For the purposes of this section, the income and assets of an employee shall include salaries, allowances, returns on investment, gifts, donations and bequests received by him.” The act also prescribes a 10-year jail term for any employee who fails to declare assets or gives false information. ‘NEVER BEEN PROPERLY ENFORCED’ Before now, what is commonly known to many Nigerians is the declaration of assets by public officials — and the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) is vested with the power to oversee the process. But in 2016, citing the rising cases of fraud in the banking sector, the federal government had asked bank workers to declare their assets. A senior bank official who spoke with TheCable said while his organisation had always complied, he does not think “enforcement of the act can work”. “Who even comes to confirm what has been declared?” he asked. Also commenting on the matter, Inibehe Effiong, a Lagos-based lawyer, told TheCable that “this particular act is more or less a dead letter law because it has never been properly enforced”. According to the lawyer, it would have been more appropriate for the directive to have come from the CCB since it is the most relevant legal institution that is empowered to receive assets declaration forms and enforce compliance. “If the EFCC chairman is really serious about fighting corruption, he should pay greater attention to corrupt politicians who are stealing public funds mindlessly. If asset declaration is taken seriously, most public officers in Nigeria, and particularly political office holders, will rot in jail,” he said. The lawyer also expressed doubts about the EFCC’s technical capacity to receive assets declaration forms from all bank employees in Nigeria.

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) says the Kwara government should be held responsible for the hijab crisis rocking the state. In a statement, Joseph Daramola, CAN general secretary, said the swift reopening of the schools is responsible for the resurgence of the religious crisis. He said the state government failed to address the underlining issues before taking the decision, and asked the federal government to intervene into the matter. “We learnt that the State Government has ordered the reopening of the closed schools without resolving the crisis,” CAN said. “Consequently, churches and mission schools are being vandalised with impunity by the hoodlums banking on the state government’s support in the pretext of enforcing the policy. ”Some innocent Christians are being violently abused and attacked under the watch of the Governor who is playing ostrich. Because it was his pronouncement on the issue of hijab wearing in violation of the court directive on the matter to maintain status quo until the matter is finally resolved by the court that led to this trouble. “If any damage is done to any church or anyone is injured on this matter, the Governor of Kwara State will be held responsible. It is disheartening and unfortunate that a government that was installed democratically will become insensitive to the plight and the yearning of the people. ”As if the governor was voted into the office primarily to protect his own religion. This is unfair, ungodly and reprehensible. ”There are public schools and schools that belong to some Islamic organisations where those who wanted to be wearing hijab can be attending without causing the ongoing needless crisis rocking the state.” In the past few weeks, the state has been embroiled in controversy over the use of hijab in public schools, especially those that are referred to as grant-aided missionary schools. On February 19, the state government ordered the closure of 10 schools over a dispute on the use of hijab by Muslim female students. The controversy degenerated into violence on Wednesday in Ilorin, where Christians and Muslims engaged in a confrontation following the decision of the state government to reopen 10 schools earlier closed. The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) had accused CAN of instigating the clash between the two religions in the state. The state later clarified that the use of hijab in public schools is not mandatory, but Muslim schoolgirls who are willing can put on the headgear.

Tanzanian President John Magufuli died Wednesday aged 61 from a heart condition, his vice president said, after more than five years of divisive, authoritarian rule capped by his refusal to take COVID-19 seriously. Magufuli, popularly nicknamed the “Bulldozer”, had been missing from public view for almost three weeks, fuelling wild rumours of his ill health, with opposition leaders claiming he had contracted the virus. “It is with deep regret that I inform you that today on the 17th of March, 2021 at 6:00 pm we lost our brave leader, the President of the Republic of Tanzania, John Pombe Magufuli,” said vice-president Samia Suluhu Hassan. She said Magufuli had died of a “heart condition”, which he has suffered from for a decade, at a hospital in Dar es Salaam. He had first been briefly admitted to the Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute on March 6, but was subsequently discharged, Hassan said. But Magufuli had again felt unwell and was on March 14 rushed to hospital, this time to the Emilio Mzena Memorial Hospital in Dar es Salaam. “Our country shall be in a mourning period of 14 days and the flags shall fly at half-mast,” said Hassan, adding that funeral arrangements were under way. Magufuli last appeared in public on February 27, and the fervent Catholic had missed three Sunday services, where he would often address the congregation, sparking concern. Opposition leader Tundu Lissu cited sources saying that he had caught the virus, as demands grew for information on his whereabouts and rumours took off that Magufuli was seeking treatment outside the country. – Anti-corruption crusader – Magufuli was first elected in 2015 as a corruption-busting man of the people, endearing him to a population weary of graft scandals. However a slide into authoritarianism, which saw a crackdown on the media, civil society and opposition, raised alarm among foreign allies and rights groups. His re-election last October was dismissed by the opposition and some diplomats as a sham, over alleged rigging, the blocking of foreign media and observer teams and an oppressive military presence. Analysts said that Magufuli had dealt a crushing blow to democracy in one of Africa’s most stable nations. Magufuli also expanded free education, rural electrification and invested in infrastructure projects such as railways, a hydropower dam set to double electricity output and the revival of the national airline. His government also passed a raft of laws to increase Tanzania’s stake in its mineral resources and demanded millions of dollars in back taxes from foreign mining companies. But it is his handling of the coronavirus pandemic which cast his leadership style into sharp relief. He championed prayer instead of face masks, before stopping the publication of statistics in April 2020 when the country had recorded a total of 509 cases and 16 deaths. Tanzania became an outlier in a region which quickly implemented lockdowns, nightime curfews and travel restrictions to stem infections. In May last year he revealed he had submitted a variety of fruit and animals to be tested for the virus and that a papaya, quail and goat tested positive, revealing “sabotage” at the national laboratory. – ‘There is no Covid-19’ – The devout Christian, who often took to the pulpit when he attended mass, later claimed prayer had saved the country from Covid-19. “That’s why we are all not wearing face masks here. You think we don’t fear dying? It’s because there is no Covid-19,” he said. However by February, under mounting pressure after the vice president of semi-autonomous Zanzibar was revealed to have died from the coronavirus, Magufuli appeared to concede the virus did in fact exist. Under Tanzania’s constitution, Hassan will become the country’s first female president and will consult the ruling CCM party over the appointing of a new vice president. His death plunges Tanzania into political certainly, said Nic Cheeseman, professor of democracy at the University of Birmingham. “The news of Magufuli’s death will fundamentally reshape Tanzanian politics. Having dominated the political scene since his election, he leaves something of a political vacuum,” Cheeseman said. “This will trigger fresh uncertainty and all eyes will be on internal CCM politics to see what deals have been struck in the ruling party about the balance of power after the transition.”