Buhari running a regime of secrecy – Abati

Former presidential spokesman, Reuben Abati has expressed that President Muhammadu Buhari is running a government of secrecy.

Abati said this at the launch of a report by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), titled “Something to Hide?: Media Freedom Under Siege in Nigeria.”

Speaking at the event, Abati compared the President Buhari-led administration to the military era.

He expressed concern over what he described as the restriction of freedom happening under the Buhari government noting how the government has made it difficult for journalists to hold public officials accountable.

“People are embarrassed, because despite the fact that the democratic dispensation is supposed to expand the civic space and the scope of freedom — since we have in office persons who have sworn an oath to defend and protect the Constitution — it is the same persons that are violating the constitution and restricting the scope of human freedom,” he said.

“We are running a regime of secrecy, and if you’ve been in government like I had, the mindset there is that there is something they call ‘the need to know’. So, government officials determine what they think you should know. That itself defeats the objective of an open society, of an open government.

“So, we are not running an open government; we’re running a closed government.”