We Provide Free Support For Budget, Finance Ministries, Says Onigbinde

The Co-Founder of BudgIT, Mr Seun Onigbinde, speaks on his resignation as a Technical Adviser to the Ministry of Budget.

The Co-Founder of BudgIT, Mr Seun Onigbinde, says despite his resignation as a Technical Adviser to the Ministry of Budget, he still provides free consultancy services to the ministry.

Onigbinde made this revelation during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday.

“We have always provided support for the Budget Office, for the Ministry of Budget and Planning, for Finance, for Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), for the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council (NIPC).

“We provide consultancy support for them at no fee. At time, we get international donors. So we can continue with that framework to support rather than me permanently out in the ministry,” he said.

Reacting to why he quit few days after accepting the offer, Onigbinde noted that his appointment was to advise the Minister of Budget (State), Mr Clement Agba.

He explained that prior to his employment, his organisation has been offerring support to the Federal Government on how to improve on the nation’s budgeting system.

Speaking further he said: “Look at BudgIT, what we have done for the last eight years is to advocate on the issue of budget reform.”

When asked why he decided to officially end his services as technical adviser, Onigbinde insisted that the action wasn’t as a result of the outrage that trailed his appointment.

While slamming critics for misunderstanding his motive, he said “trust within the system, in terms of how this whole news has filtered into the system, I could not guarantee that we had this mutual trust about the work I wanted to do.”

Before resigning three days ago, the Buhari media Organisation (BMO) issued a statement, condemning Onigbinde’s appointment.

The group lamented that Onigbinde lacks honour and integrity for accepting to serve in a government he criticised.