Lai Mohammed has said his ministry needs more funds to aid the fight against fake news

Nigeria’s Information and Culture Minister, Lai Mohammed, has said his ministry needs more funds to aid the fight against fake news, disinformation and hate speech.

The minister also lamented the budget cuts for his ministry saying it frustrates their work and the goals they aim to achieve as it is currently incapacitated in the war against fake news.

Mr Mohammed stated these the on Tuesday when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Information for the 2023 budget defence session.

The minister was reacting to the recent security alert raised by the US, UK and other foreign missions in Nigeria – which he said gave “the nation’s economy a devastating blow.”

Mr Mohammed said though the terror alert was debunked, it was not “properly done in terms of putting things in proper context in preventing wrong perception from becoming reality.”

He said, “If there is any Ministry that should be adequately funded and not suffer from yearly budget cuts, it is the Information Ministry.

“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 through yearly budgetary cuts,” he said.

The minister said the yearly budgetary cuts saddens him because it gets worse by the day.

“A worrisome example of this is that while the information ministry was given N2.5 billion for Capital Expenditure in 2022, one-third of it, which is N869 million, is earmarked for similar purposes in 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 the cash crunch being faced by the government.”