ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's
secret service detained a former cabinet minister and leading opposition
figure on Saturday over a newspaper column in which he criticised the
high cost of government in Africa's most populous nation.
The State Security Service (SSS) said it detained Nasir El-Rufai,
a senior figure in the opposition Congress for Progressive Change
party, early on Saturday at Abuja airport.
"This became necessary following El-Rufai's recent articles in
the cyber and print media which have been considered by well-meaning
Nigerians to be inciting, inflammatory and grossly misleading," the SSS
said in a statement.
It cited a July 1 column in the This Day newspaper in which
El-Rufai bemoaned the low standard of public services and high cost of
government. The SSS said he had failed to check facts.
"The politician who rigs himself into office then proceeds to
loot the treasury, these are all the people whose standard of living we
are spending nearly 75 percent of the 2011 budget to pay for," El-Rufai
wrote in the This Day column.
The former government minister is a respected opposition figure
in Nigeria and was a vocal critic of the ruling People's Democratic
Party in the run-up to general elections in April.
He is not the only critic of the cost of government.
Central Bank Governor Lamido Sanusi and former Finance Minister
Olusegun Aganga were hauled before parliament last year to explain
comments attributed to them that the National Assembly was eating up too
much of federal budget overheads.
Many economists have also regularly voiced concern that Nigeria
spends more running government than it does on badly needed capital
projects, although President Goodluck Jonathan has pledged to tighten
spending.
Nigeria has a vibrant print media but its journalists are generally
poorly paid and easily intimidated, with sponsored articles common. It
ranked 146 out of 178 in the 2010 Press Freedom Index compiled by
Reporters Without Borders.
Jonathan, who began his first full term in office just over a
month ago, signed a Freedom of Information Bill in May, touted by
officials as sign government was becoming more transparent.
But the SSS used the bill as part of its justification for El-Rufai's detention.
"It is pertinent to note that the Freedom of Information Bill has
been passed into law, yet he refused to cross check his facts before
publishing," its statement said.