President Bola Tinubu has approved the appointment of Dr. Abdullahi Bello as the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau, pending confirmation by the Senate.
Bello succeeds Prof Isah Mohammed, whom former President Muhammadu Buhari appointed in November 2018.
The Presidency announced his appointment in a statement signed Thursday, by Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, titled ‘President Tinubu appoints new Chairman of Code of Conduct Bureau.’
Ngelale described Bello as “A consummate professional with more than 25 years of work experience in consulting, banking, law enforcement, financial services, and academia.”
The CCB was established in 1979 when the Constitution provided a list of Codes of Conduct for public officers.
However, it only got its legal mandate in 1989 under the Babangida regime.
The Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act, Chapter 58 LFN 1990 mandates the Bureau to among other things, receive asset declarations by public officers, examine the declaration, retain custody of such declarations and make them available for inspection by any citizen of Nigeria on such terms and conditions as the National Assembly may prescribe.
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.