In what looks like a belated announcement of his appointment as a technical adviser to the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Clem Agba, Seun Onigbinde has publicly stated why he took the offer.
Onigbinde who is a co-founder of BudgIT, a public sector open budgeting advocacy tokd his friend on facebook that: “I have accepted to take up an advisory role underwritten by an international development agency for an initial period of six months . I believe that to guard the reputation of BudgIT, I need to take an operational break and make my new position public.”
Supporters of the Buhari administration has earlier on Friday wondered why a person who had said the government lacked direction and as such he cannot work with them turned around to accept an appointment after subtly campaigning for Buhari’s main challenger. This school of thought has divided Nigeria’s social media space with some insisting that every Nigerian has the right to work for the good of country regardless of partisan affiliation.
Meanwhile, in his reaction, he did not address why he deleted his twitter handle.
Onigbinde further stated that “in a technical advisory role, I shall be supporting the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Agba, along the issues of budget reform, development planning, and revenue growth. It is similar to a task Joseph Agunbiade (my BudgIT co-founder) and I worked on in 2013–14, under the DFID-FEPAR program for the National Assembly Budget and Research Office.
“I see this as an adventure considering an accepted steep curve on public sector structure. I wish to state I remain loyal to my values — of appreciating the right of every citizen to ask the hard questions; that public resources must be accounted for; and that civic spaces and individual rights must be keenly protected.
“I have spoken to our partners, advisory board, and mentors, and I believe this is part of multi-pronged approach towards accelerating the long-term objectives of BudgIT and exploring new experiences. I will constantly review the objectives that I have set for this period and provide updates as I proceed.”
