Adeleke’s budgetary transparency shows accountability – Spokesperson

Mallam Olawale Rasheed, spokesperson to Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State, has said that the public posting of the state’s budgetary performance is a clear demonstration of transparency and accountability in governance.

Rasheed described opposition criticism of the reports as “laziness and lack of initiative,” stressing that any government openly publishing its revenue and expenditure profile is showing honesty, openness, and responsibility to the people.

“For instance, when Governor Adeleke said that security expenditures follow due process, the details were published in the budgetary performance report with proper categorization. This confirms that all security-related expenses are officially documented and accounted for,” he stated.

He further clarified that Osun does not operate “security votes” in the conventional Nigerian sense of an unaccountable slush fund. “Every security-related expenditure is subjected to public finance regulations. The scale of such expenses is determined by inflation, operational needs of security agencies, exchange rate fluctuations, communal clashes, expansion of Amotekun, and other security initiatives. What is important is that government publishes these spending patterns to demonstrate accountability,” Rasheed explained.

According to him, anyone interested in further details can obtain them through the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act. “It is mischief or ignorance to use freely published budgetary reports to spin false narratives. A government that has something to hide will not make its expenditure profile public or sign up for the World Bank–monitored open budget initiative,” he added.

Rasheed maintained that Governor Adeleke has set a standard for financial discipline. “In Nigeria today, Adeleke is one of the few governors managing security-related spending strictly within the ambit of public finance laws. No misinformation campaign from Osun APC can erase that fact,” he concluded.