Mohammed lamented that the N1.072 billion capital expenditure allocated to his ministry in the 2022 budget was not enough.
Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has lamented the reduction in the 2023 budget proposed for his ministry.
Mohammed said it will affect how the ministry will inform Nigerians and the world about the performance of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
The minister said this when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Information on Tuesday to defend his ministry’s 2023 budget.
Mohammed lamented that the N1.072 billion capital expenditure allocated to his ministry in the 2022 budget was not enough, stressing that the ministry will face more challenges as the 2022 budget has been slashed to N345.64 million in the 2023 budget proposal.
According to the 2023 budget proposal President Buhari presented to the National Assembly, the sum of N4.131 billion was proposed for personnel, while N959,199 was proposed for overhead costs for the information ministry.
“It is really a difficult situation and I do not know how we are going to handle it. In times of challenges like this, we need the information ministry to be fully equipped to properly inform the public,” the minister said.
He stressed that “the people need information and the voice of government should be heard on what we are doing in the areas of security, infrastructure, and other sectors”.
“We also need to tell the world what the government has done in the last seven years and we need funds for all these.
“I also believe that the 30 percent cut in the 2023 budget proposal across the board should not apply to the ministry; rather it should be increased because of the importance of information dissemination now more than ever,” he said.
The minister asked the lawmakers to increase the capital component of his ministry’s budget to enable it to carry out its duties.
But responding to Mohammed, Chairman of the Senate Committee, Danladi Sankara, explained that no ministry got any preferential treatment.
He said all ministries, departments and agencies (MDA) were affected by the budget cuts in the 2023 budget proposal.