JUST IN: Tinubu names the new chairman of the CCB

Dr. Abdullahi Bello’s appointment as the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau has been authorized by President Bola Tinubu, subject to Senate approval.

Bello takes over for Prof. Isah Mohammed, who was nominated in November 2018 by the former President Muhammadu Buhari.

In a statement headed “President Tinubu appoints new Chairman of Code of Conduct Bureau,” which was signed on Thursday by Tinubu’s Special Advisor on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, the Presidency confirmed his appointment.

Ngelale described Bello as “A consummate professional with more than 25 years of work experience in consulting, banking, law enforcement, financial services, and academia.”

When the Constitution included a list of codes of conduct for public officials, the CCB was founded in 1979.

But it wasn’t until the Babangida administration in 1989 that it received a formal mandate.

According to the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act, Chapter 58 LFN 1990, the Bureau is required, among other things, to receive asset declarations from public officials, review the declaration, hold onto the declaration, and provide it to any Nigerian citizen upon request and under any guidelines the National Assembly may specify.

Tinubu says he expects the new Chairman, upon confirmation by the Senate, to “lead the Bureau with utmost integrity toward the realisation of its mandate of maintaining high standards of public morality in the conduct of government business.”

The new Chairman must also “ensure that the actions and behaviour of public officers conform to the highest standards of morality and accountability,” the statement read.