House of Representatives says ministry of information, National orientation, ethics and values, is entitled to share the same budgetory allocation with security agencies.
Chairman house committee on information, National orientation, ethics and values Mr Olusegun Odebunmi, made the observation during the review of the 2022 budget performance and 2023 budget defense session of the ministry at the National Assembly.
Mr Olusegun Odebunmi, who described the 2023 budgetary allocation of the Ministry of information as grossly inadequate considering the critical role information dissemination is playing in the development of democracy and the fight against insecurity something urgent must be done to review the situation.
The committee Chairman maintained that provision of adequate budgetary allocation to the ministry would greatly assist the sector to achieve more in combating fake news, disinformation, hate speech currently threatening the nation’s unity and peaceful co-existence.
In his presentation, Minister of Information and Culture Alh Lai Muhammad, said Nigeria is at a critical stage, where efficient and effective information dissemination is needed to combat the challenges facing the country.
He said though the ministry has been battling with dwindling revenue, emphasized that this is right time to have more funds to enable the ministry discharge its constitutional responsibilities of educating the masses especially on government policies and programmes.
Defending the 2023 budget proposal of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria FRCN, The Director General Dr Mansur Liman, said the corporation has budgeted about N11 billion naira for the fiscal year.
Dr Mansur Liman explained that of the amount appropriated over 10 billion was allocated for personnel, about 220 million naira for overhead cost while N181.618 naira for capital expenditures.
The Director General noted that the corporation is projecting an internally generated revenue of over N1.62 billion naira for the 2023 fiscal year stressing that necessary arrangement have been put in place to meet the target.
Dr Mansur Liman, revealed that the corporation is currently in contact with the ministry of Finance, Budget and National planning on the issue recruitment to address the challenges of inadequate staff affecting that strength of FRCN over the years.
Our National Assembly correspondent reports that other agencies that appeared before the committee included the Voice of Nigeria, NTA, NOA and NAN amongst others.
Cov/ Salihu Tsibiri