The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has decried yearly cut on the budget of the ministry, saying it needs adequate funding to be able to fight incidence of fake news, referencing the latest terror alert raised in Nigeria by the United States of America, United Kingdom and others.
The minister stated this on Tuesday at the 2023 budget defence session before the Senate Committee on Information, by his ministry and relevant government agencies.
He also said the recent terror alert raised in Nigeria by the Western countries left significant shock on the economy.
Mohammed, who explained to the lawmakers that his ministry is incapacitated in the war against fake news, disinformation and hate speech rampart in the country, lamented: “If there is any ministry that should be adequately funded and not suffer from yearly budget cuts, it is the Ministry of Information.”
He further highlighted the need for proper information management, noting that: “The terror alert raised by America and some other countries against Nigeria, though debunked, but not properly done in terms of putting things in proper context in preventing wrong perception from becoming reality.
“The ministry is even more incapacitated from discharging its basic functions of getting Nigerians informed at all times as regards the position of the government on burning issues through yearly budgetary cuts.
“Distinguished Senators, I’m extremely sad as far as yearly budgetary cuts are concerned, because it is getting worse and worse by the day.
“A worrisome example of this is that while the Information Ministry was given N2.5billion for capital expenditure in 2022 , one third of it which is N869million is earmarked for similar purpose in 2023 fiscal year.
“This to us in the Ministry is very depressing because it seems as if it is the main agency bearing the burden of the cash crunch being faced by the government “, he said.
But the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Danladi Sankara l, told him that yearly budget cuts are not limited to the Information Ministry but all MDAs generally since the capital vote component of the federal budget itself dropped from N2.5trillion to N 1 trillion.
His lamentations were, however, assuaged by assurances from a committee member, Senator Ibrahim Danbaba, who told him that budgetary votes will be made available for the ministry to enhance advocacy for the 2023 general elections.