Lai Mohammed protests the budget cut to the ministry of information

Lai Mohammed, the minister of information and culture, while speaking on the 2023 budget criticized the reduction in funding for his department as it appears in the Appropriations Bill on Wednesday.

Mohammed argued that the ministry should have received more funding for the following year while testifying before the House of Representatives Committee on Information to defend the budgetary proposal.

Lai Mohammed said, “I want to draw your attention and that of the members to the fact that the Ministry of Information, as usual, has been dealt a very heavy card in this year’s budgetary allocation.

“In 2022, the National Assembly approved N2.5bn for this ministry as capital (budget); that is, for both information and culture, of which N1bn belongs to information. This year, the capital provision for the entire Ministry of Information and Culture is N869m, of which only N345m is for the information arm.

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“I fully understand the economic challenges the country is facing but I don’t agree that the Ministry of Information and Culture, at this critical time, should have less. Actually, it should have more and this is because it is in times of challenges, hardships, and the days like this that we need the Ministry of Information, in particular, not only to chronicle what we have achieved despite lack of funds but to also combat fake news, disinformation and hate speech, which today has attained quite a height threatening our very existence as a country.”

He added, “While I agree that our sources of revenue dwindled, there is no better time to have more money for the Ministry of Information and Culture. I did argue this even at the level of the Executive that even if we stop any capital project today; if the Ministry of Information and Culture is given enough money, we can be chronicling and telling the world every day what we have achieved in the last eight years.

“This N345m capital expenditure, I don’t know what to do with it; I don’t know where to start. This is a ministry that is used to setting flagship programs like town hall meetings, visits to federal government projects, series, and documentaries. The allocation to the Ministry of Information and Culture is less than what some states receive.”

Segun Odebunmi, the committee’s chairman, and the other members agreed with Lai Mohammed’s assertion.