The Senate Committee on Information has expressed concern over what it described as poor allocation for the Ministry of Information and National Orientation in the 2024 budget.
Senator Kenneth Eze, Chairman of the Committee, expresed concern over the development when the Minister of Information, Mohammed Idris, appeared for the 2024 budget defence on Tuesday in Abuja.
‘’This is not a budget that can be viable if we are telling our story as a country, there is no way we can go far, you have a great initiative on how you are going to transform the country in the area of information.
“I wonder how you are going to do that with these little resources.
“Information Ministry is a very sensitive Ministry that should be taken seriously and funded and if we are talking about the Renewed Hope Agenda that we want as a country, the Information Ministry should be at the forefront.
‘’It should be the image maker to sensitise the people, there is a widening gap between the government and there must be enough information to bridge the gap,’’ he said.
The minister assured senators that a national values and attitudes re-orientation campaign will be launched in 2024 under the auspices of the National Values Charter (NVC).
He stated that the N1 billion allocated for the Ministry as capital expenditure in 2024 was insufficient.
