Nigerians Have Right to Know How Public Funds Are Disbursed

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The Advanced Congress of Democrats (ACD) has reiterated that it is the constitutional right of every Nigerian to know how public funds are being spent by the government. Commenting on the purchase of a new presidential jet, the party said in a decent society, government has a duty to explain all its expenditure profiles.

"The controversial presidential jet was purchased with public funds and if therefore within two weeks of taking delivery of the Aircraft it developed technical hitches, the public certainly has the right to ask whether or not Nigerians are getting value for their money", it added in a statement issued by its media and publicity chairman, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in Lagos yesterday.

It is the view of ACD that rather than hauling journalists and their employers to court on charges of sedition, the Federal Government should give Nigerians its own side of the story and if the government felt so bad it could have sued the journalists for libel.

It is when a Government is run like a secret society as is the case with the PDP controlled government that speculations become rife and rumours become the order of the day. If the entire process leading to the purchase of the presidential aircraft had been more open and transparent, speculations about the state of the Aircraft would not have arisen in the first instance.

The Federal Government with the arrest and arraignment of Messrs Aruleba and Durojaiye of the African Independent Television and the Daily Independent newspapers respectively has only once again demonstrated its political intolerance, the same that led to the sack of Bukhari Bello as the Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission whose only crime was his consistent criticism of the government's poor human rights record.

The arrest and arraignment of Messrs Aruleba and Durojaiye has once again brought to the fore the penchant of this government to choose which court orders to obey and which not to. A Court of Appeal decision which is yet to be appended has already ruled that the law of sedition is inconsistent with our constitution and as such is null and void, yet the Federal Government went ahead to charge these journalists under a law which had been already voided. It is clear to all now that while the Federal Government continues to pay lip service to transparency and the rule of law, it is really much more at home with impunity. According to ACD, the Federal Government by this ill - advised step has lost further credibility.

This Day