African press review 1 June 2015

President Buhari under pressure to declare his assets as he still waits to move into 'Aso Rock' and Jacob Zuma's Nkandla saga inspires a hot-selling hit by a South African popstar. 

“Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown”, goes an old saying. Despite bringing his experience as a former military junta leader to the job, Nigeria’s new President Muhammadu Buhari is already overwhelmed by challenges just three days into office.

Punch says civil society groups and anti-graft activists faulted Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo for failing to declare their assets as they promised during the election campaign. But according to the paper, the head of Buhari’s media team dismissed the charges saying that the President and his deputy submitted their asset declaration forms to the code of conduct bureau on Thursday, on the eve of their inauguration. Punch says the content was however not disclosed.

Vanguard quotes a Buhari aide as saying that the President promised to declare his assets within the first one hundred days of his assumption of office not beforehand as alleged by the activists adding that he still has 97 days to do so.

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, issued in a statement on Saturday reiterating that they expected a powerful message from the President that it is not going to be business as usual with this government.

The Guardian on its part calls on the new President to act quickly and transform the Freedom of Information act into a major pillar of his anti-corruption crusade. A pressure group known as the Media Rights Agenda could become the most effective instrument for enabling ordinary citizens to join the fight against corruption.

According to the Guardian this will reduce the burden on public institutions to process numerous individual requests for information from members of the public.
The newspaper is urging the President to instruct public institutions to comply with and take advantage of this important mechanism in the law to make information available to the public as this will also enhance citizens’ trust in them and in the government as a whole.

The poor man hasn’t even moved into the Aso Rock Villa, the official residence of the President in Abuja still undergoing renovation and he hasn’t even picked his cabinet.
The Nigerian Tribune breaks news about a massive security shakeup underway at the Aso Rock residence. According to the paper, body guards of the VIP Protection Unit of the Department of State Services and the Nigerian Intelligence Agency who served under President Goodluck Jonathan were being redeployed out of the Villa, to create room for new personnel.

The Nigerian Tribune says it's learnt from credible sources in Abuja that an upgrade of security installations is also underway in the building, which will probably be delayed by the President’s moving to the State House.

In South Africa, the controversy over the government's use of 20 million dollars of public funds to renovate President Jacob Zuma’s private residence in his hometown of Nkandla, has flared up again. According to the Sowetan, a video projection of the Nkandla renovation in parliament has sparked further outrage. The newspaper mulls the possible reaction.  "We could get angry or laugh over it, not cry; or listen to Sizwe Mpofu Walsh’s 2014 track, Mr President."

Mpofu-Walsh, is the son of Dali Mpofu who contested the post of Gauteng Premier for the Economic Freedom Fighters party. In the song, he calls on South Africans to stand up against President Jacob Zuma. The Sowetan says its readers have been enjoying the song since last week’s “farce” in parliament and strongly recommends Zuma to do the same. “You wanna see a chicken run? I will drown you in your fire pool” sings the young South African popstar.