Group rejects Buhari’s ‘change starts with me’ campaign

An anti-corruption organisation, BudgIT, has questioned the sincerity of President Muhammadu Buhari’s newly inaugurated campaign which is tagged, ‘Change Begins With Me.’

Buhari had, on Thursday, said before Nigerians demand to see the changes he promised them during the 2015 election, they must first change their own attitude by shunning corruption and other social vices.

However, BudgIT, which advocates transparency in governance, said in a Facebook post that the President could not demand a change from Nigerians when his government had failed to promote change through transparency.

In a post entitled, ‘What is change and where should change start from?’, the group said the governments at all levels had failed to change and then wondered why they should demand a change from Nigerians.

The statement read, “Let change start with National Assembly telling us how N115bn is spent. Let change start with a cogent explanation why Nigerian government needs 11 aircraft in a recession.

“Let change start with the government responding to our FOI (Freedom of Information) responses on how much money has been given to states as bailout.

“Let change start with the government explaining why it released N400bn for capital expenditure, with no project details. How long do we keep running with opacity?

“Let change start with the government telling the people how much funds have been recovered and who returned what.”

It also slammed the Buhari-led administration for the secret recruitments in the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Federal Inland Revenue Service and the Nigeria Prisons Service.

BudgIT added, “Let change start with the reversal of illegal recruitment into government agencies that has got no action from the government. Let us stop making change a meaningless word. Releasing N400bn for capital projects without details is not the way to go.

“Change starts with accountability of public funds and radical transparency. What is the government changing before asking you for change? Are the convoys less. Presidential fleet less?

“The government wants everything, including change from citizens. What is it giving back? What is it sacrificing? Nigerians need to change, but it starts with its leadership showing the right example.”