From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed has said he does not know what to do with the N345 million allocated to the ministry as capital budget in the 2023 Appropriation Bill.
Mohammed, who stated this, when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Information and Orientation, on Wednesday, for the defence of his ministry’s 2023 budget estimates, appealed to the lawmakers for their intervention.
He stated that the ministry was doing much to publicise government programmes as well as tackle fake news, adding that it needed more funds for the capital budget in 2023, especially as the country would be having the general elections and population census next year.
“I want to draw the House’s attention to the fact that the ministry of information has been dealt a very heavy card in this year’s budgetary allocation. In 2022 the National Assembly approved N2.5 billion for this ministry, as capital. Of which N1 billion belong to information, this year the capital provision for the entire ministry of information and culture is N869 million, of which only N345 million is for information.
“I fully understand the current challenges the country is facing, but I don’t agree that the ministry of information and culture at this critical time should have less, it actually should have more. This is because it’s during challenges like this that you need your information ministry, not only to chronicle what you have achieved but to combat fake news, disinformation, and hate speech, which today has taken quite a height that’s threatening our very existence as a country,” Mohammed stated.
“Please, this House should do whatever they can, this N345 million capital expenditure I don’t know where to start. Because if you expect so much from us the least you can do for us is to provide the tools,” he said.