2023 Budget: I Need More Funds To Fight Fake News – Lai Mohammed Tells Senate
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed lamented on Tuesday that his ministry is incapacitated in the war against fake news, misinformation and hate speech ravaging Nigeria now .
Lai Mohammed made this lamentation during the 2023 budget defence session which his Ministry and relevant agencies had with the Senate Committee on Information, said the recent terror alert raised in Nigeria by the United States of America , United Kingdom and others, gave the Nation’s economy a devastating blow.
He emphasized to the Senate that his Ministry needs more funds as a matter of urgency to tackle the scourge of fake news, hate speech and propagate the achievements of government in the last 7 and a half years.
Mohammed while lamenting the paucity of funds and its impact on the activities of the Ministry described the situation as “very sad”.
He cried to the Committee that his ministry requires adequate funding to fight fake news, misinformation and hate speech. He used the latest terror alert raised in Nigeria by the United States of America , United Kingdom etc to cite an example .
“If there is any Ministry that should be adequately funded and not suffer from yearly budget cuts, it is the Information Ministry .
“The terror alert raised by America and some other countries against Nigeria is an example, though debunked, but not properly done in terms of putting things in proper context so as to prevent 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 position of government on burning issues due to yearly budgetary cuts .
“Distinguished Senators , I am 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 a similar purpose in the 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 a cash crunch being faced by the government “, he said .
But the Chairman of the Committee , Senator Danladi Sankara , 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 N1trillion.
However, a member of the Committee , Senator Ibrahim Abdullahi Danbaba , assured him that budgetary votes will be made available for the Ministry on advocacy for the 2023 general elections .
Responding, the Information Minister acknowledged that the paucity of funds was not peculiar to his Ministry.
He, however, appealed to the Senate Committee and the Federal Government to increase the purse of the Ministry by granting it special considerations at a time when government is faced with serious challenges.
He said, “If there is any ministry that should adequately funded and not suffer from yearly budget cut is the Information Ministry. “We’re going to have a very difficult year and I don’t know how we are going to do it.
“Yes, while it is true that paucity of funds has affected all government ministries and agencies it is important for government to at a time it is going through challenges rely on its media to put the people’s mind at rest and ask them not to panic and at a time the government is now swimming of fake news misinformation”.
The Minister noted that the latest of such misinformation that needs urgent repair is the US Security Alert on Abuja which he said has affected the image and economy of the country.
He said, “Even if the govt stops working, it should continue to publicise what it has done.”
