N’Assembly to meet Tinubu over funding of Information Ministry, agencies

…As minister laments poor 2025 budget performance

The National Assembly on Tuesday, through its Joint Committee on Information and National Orientation, resolved to meet President Bola Tinubu to seek adequate funding for the Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation and its agencies to ensure proper enlightenment and education of Nigerians on policies and programmes of the Federal Government.

The resolution followed the presentation of the ministry’s 2025 budget performance report by Mohammed Idris, the Minister of Information and National Orientation.

In his report, Idris informed the committee that only N205 million was released out of the N2.49 billion capital budget allocated to the ministry in 2025, adding that the amount was not fully cash-backed.

Apparently disturbed by the development, the committee went into a closed-door session and resolved to make a special appeal to President Tinubu through the leadership of the National Assembly for improved funding of the ministry and its agencies, including the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), and Voice of Nigeria (VON).

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Addressing journalists after the executive session, which lasted about an hour, Olushola Fatoba, the Chairman of the House Committee on Information, National Orientation, Ethics and Values, explained that the 2026 budget proposal prompted the committee’s decision to reach out to the President through the National Assembly leadership.

He said, “At the executive session, when we went through the 2026 budget proposal for the Ministry and agencies, we discovered that sums earmarked for personnel and overhead costs for the Ministry in 2025 were the same made for 2026, while 70 per cent of the capital component rollover from 2025 was the only vote for capital budget of the Ministry in 2026.

“As a joint committee, we therefore unanimously agreed that the budget cannot be sufficient enough to run the ministry and agencies.

“We accordingly resolved to meet the leadership of NASS on the meagre budgetary proposal for the Ministry and, of course, plan to reach out to Mr President to ensure that something is urgently done in terms of budgetary provisions for the Ministry and agencies in 2026, being a very critical year.”

Earlier, before the executive session, Idris stated that the ministry had, over the last two years, succeeded in rebuilding broken trust between public office holders and Nigerians.

“When we started in 2023, what we saw was that there was a breakdown in trust between Nigerians and public officials.

“Whether these officials are elected or appointed, there seemed to be some kind of mistrust that Nigerians have about what they do or what they say.”

He added, “Therefore, our duty when we came on board was to ensure that we return that trust that Nigerians should have in public officials through what they say and what they do.

“As Minister of Information and National Orientation, one of the major pillars that I came with is to ensure that we return that trust to public communication so that whatever we say, we say it honestly, truthfully, and in the best interest of Nigerians, which is being tremendously achieved.”