Seun Onigbinde resigns after backlash

The co-founder of BudgIT Seun Onigbinde has resigned his appointment as the technical adviser to the minister of state for budget national planning.

Onigbinde announced his appointment on September 6 in Medium post. He said the appoint was at the behest of an international development agency.

He faced an intense social media backlash over the appointment, mostly because of his past caustic criticism of President Muhammadu Buhari and his government.

“It is clear that recent media reports about my appointment have created a complex narrative, which I believe would engender an atmosphere of mistrust, as I planned to proceed,” Onigbinde said in another post on his Medium page.

“Upon further reflections on the furore that has been generated by my new role as the Technical Adviser to the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, I humbly resign the appointment.”

He will return to his position as the director of BudgIT, a critical fiscal transparency group.

Before Nigeria’s last general election, Onigbinde, in his personal capacity, campaigned against the reelection of Buhari, describing the Nigerian leader as a mediocre and labelling his supporters “ethnic jingoist”.

Such comments, a pro-Buhari group said, showed Onigbinde was not deserving of his appointment.

“We cannot but wonder that this same man accepted an appointment to serve in this same administration he has described in the most odious terms,” Buhari Media Office said in a statement at the weekend.

But Onigbinde said he accepted the appointment because of his loyalty to Nigeria and that his recent experience “has more than strengthened it.”

“I also want to wish the Nigerian Government, led by President Muhammadu Buhari, well,” he said.

I will always be of help to the federal government in my capacity as the Director of BudgIT, a critical fiscal transparency group, as I have been to several agencies.”