Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and former Vice President of Nigeria, on Friday commended recent report by the United States Department of State highlighting concerns over fiscal transparency in Nigeria, with specific reference to the federal government’s failure to disclose revenues and expenditures.
Stating that it vindicated his position for consistently calling out President Bola for its failure to uphold the basic standards of fiscal transparency, accountability, and disclosure required in a modern democracy. 
The US report, had stated that: “The government made its enacted budget and end-of-year report widely and easily accessible to the public, including online, but did not publish its executive budget proposal within a reasonable period.
“…Budget documents did not provide a substantially complete picture of the government’s revenues and expenditures, or break down expenditures to support executive offices in the budget.”
Atiku, who said the report aligned with his concerns quoted the part, where it said: “Actual revenues and expenditures did not reasonably correspond to those in the enacted budget.”
The report also carpeted the Office of the Auditor-General, for did not meeting international standards of independence and did not publish substantive reports, adding that the Tinubu-led government did not meet the minimum requirements for fiscal transparency during the period under review.
Citing the failure to provide timely, detailed, and publicly accessible information on government revenues and expenditures, as well as the absence of credible audit trails, the former VP, said the observation was on all fours with his position over the years that Nigerians were being kept in the dark about how public resources are generated and spent.
Maintain that without full disclosure of how public funds were earned and spent, Nigeria could not attract investment, fight corruption, or build public trust, Atiku, added: “Transparency is not a slogan. It is the foundation of good governance.
This report confirms what we have been saying that Nigerians deserve to know where every kobo is coming from and where it is being spent. They are our resources and not the resources of President Bola Tinubu and his family and friends.”
While stressing the importance of fiscal transparency as a key benchmark for investors, donor agencies, and credit rating firms, he argued that since the Nigerian economy also relied heavily on foreign investment and multilateral support to fund infrastructure and social programmes, publishing detailed, timely data on revenue from oil, taxes, and borrowing, and on how that money was spent, remained critical to restoring confidence amid rising debt and inflation.
