The House of Representatives Committee on Information and National Orientation has rejected the N1.2 billion Capital component of the budget, describing it as grossly inadequate.This is also as the ministry decried the N8.7 billion budgetary allocation for the Ministry of Information and National Orientation for its 2025 operations during its 2025 budget defence session on Wednesday in Abuja.According to the Chairman of the Committee, Rep. Fatoba Olusola (APC-Ekiti state), the amount allocated to the ministry in 2024 when the national budget was N28.7 trillion, is higher than the N8.2 billion allocated in 2025 when the national budget was N49.7 trillion.
He said: “Itis unacceptable for an agency that bears the responsibility of dissemination information not to get a substantial amount of the 2025 budget.
Speaking also, the Deputy Chairman of the committee, Rep. Felix Nwaeke said that the committee is not happy with the meagre allocation.
He suggested that the committee should reject the budget and make a case before the leadership of the house for an increase.
Rep. Ismail Tijani (APC-Kwara) said that the amount was too small to sustain the ministry in 2025 to achieve its mandate.
“Some of the agencies under the ministry have foreign offices where the image of the country is projected therefore funds cannot meet the demands of the ministry.
Rep. Akin Rotimi (APC-Ekiti state) said that many agencies of government who do not have the expertise were doing the job of the ministry.
He said that a glance at the 2025 budget showed lump sums allocated to information and orientation in the budget downline of other agencies.
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Rotimi suggested that all allocation for information and orientation in the 2025 budget should be domiciled in the ministry where the expertise resides.
Rep. Amobi Ogah criticized the envelop budgeting system practised in the country, saying it is limiting the performance of government agencies.
He called on the National Assembly to do away with the envelop budgeting system to allow agencies of government freedom to work according to their capacity.
In his ruling, the chairman said the committee rejects the capital component of the budget, pledging to work with the leadership of the House, Senate and the Minister of Finance to boost the budget.
Earlier, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mr Muhammed Idris said that the Ministry is saddled with the responsibility of ensuring that information that Nigerians require from the government is made available to them.
According to him, this should be timely, accurate, honest and consistent manner; that is what the ministry and all of its agencies are doing at all times.
Idris explained that the ministry was looking forward to deepening engagements with the citizens by organising town halls on government activities across the country.
He said that the ministry was also looking forward to consolidating the ministerial briefing where ministers will appear to inform Nigerians what they are doing and get feedback from Nigerians.
He said “Over the years, the ministry has witnessed the gradual erosion of trust from the Nigerian public to the government. There is a need for the Ministry of Information and its agencies to deepen this engagement with the Nigerian public so that people will get to know more about the activities and programmes of the government.
“Now there is a portal that we have also strengthened by the way of information coming from these ministries coming in there so that Nigerians can be better from this portal, this site has been reinvigorated.
“We urge all Nigerians to go back there. And all of this, of course, is important so that we can improve on policy awareness, and we can also take feedback from the Nigerian public.
“The President has given us this mandate, that is not enough for the government to be seen to be building roads, it is not enough for the government to be seen to be constructing hospitals.
“It is not enough for the government to be seen to be putting money into education. We need to inculcate the right values in our citizenry, especially the young ones, so that Nigerians can reclaim, once again, the lost glory.
“We know that during the time of our forecast, people, in the first democratic experiment, the Sir Amodu Bello, the Taraba Balewa, the Azikiwe, the Awolowo, all of them when we talk about them, the tendency is that we say our founding fathers have done so well, but what has happened since they left the sea? We are still unable to stop talking about them.
“Now, the idea is to replicate the Azikiwe, replicate the Awolowo, especially among our young people, so that Nigeria can once again, begin to think and talk and act as Nigerians,” he said.
Source :Vanguard
