COURT ORDERS OKONJO-IWEALA TO DISCLOSE BUDGET DETAILS OF NASS, INEC, OTHERS

THE Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to immediately make public, details of all appropriations and statutory transfers in the 2014 budget, in the public interest.

The order was issued by Justice Abubakar Abdu-Kafarati in his judgment on February 25, in the legal application No. FHC/ABJ/CS/301/3013 filed by the Centre for Social Justice against the minister.

Mr Kafarati asked the minister to release to the group and the general public, details of releases in the budget to some key government agencies, specifically, the National Assembly, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), National Judicial Council (NJC), Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Universal Basic Education (UBE) and National Human Rights Commission, NHRC.

Under the amended Nigerian constitution, the listed offices were considered statutory bodies, whose funding were drawn directly from government treasury, to foster their independence.

Their budget details have also not been made public since 2011.

Executive Director of Centre for Social Justice, Eze Onyekwere, said the group approached the court to compel the minister to respect the law and release the information, pursuant under the Freedom of Information and the Fiscal Responsibility Act.

Mr Onyekwere said details of such allocations must be made public, as, under democracy, the people are the owners of the budget.
Spokesperson to the Minister, Paul Nwabuikwu, who did not comment on the court order on his boss, chided critics of the budget for always seeing only the flaws.

“Government is a human construct, as such can never be perfect. It can only improve. And since a budget is put together by human beings, it cannot be perfect. Let’s stop this culture of negativity and look at the big picture of the budget,” he said.

He said criticisms that do not include the achievements of the administration in the areas of railway rehabilitation, roads construction, privatisation in the power sector and job creations were totally incomplete.