Despite an economy in recession the federal government plans to spend over one billion Naira on public relations and media lobby in 2017, a review of proposed allocations to the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture has revealed.<\/p>\n
According to the proposals submitted last month to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari, the ministry wants to spend one billion, three hundred and fifty two million, one hundred thousand and twenty three thousand, nine hundred and eight Naira (N1,352,123,908) on schemes to influence citizens\u2019 opinion, lobby local and foreign media and other public relations targets.<\/p>\n
The ministry is headed by Lai Mohammed, a former spokesperson of the ruling All Progressives Congress.\u00a0The ministry\u2019s total budget proposal of N49,464,302,080 for 2017 is higher than the N45,162,776,886 it got last year.<\/p>\n
It appears the funds budgeted for PR and other media targets, as well as some expenditures like \u201cgovernance and institutional reforms\u201d proposed to gulp N1.9 billion, are principally responsible for the increase.<\/p>\n
In the 2017 budget proposal,\u00a0Mr. Mohammed\u2019s ministry proposes to spend N100 million on \u201cforeign media PR\/ lobby consultancy\u201d and another N100 million to \u201cinteract with stakeholders\u201d which, according to the ministry, include the Nigerian Guild of Editors, Nigerian Union of Journalists, bloggers, online publishers and Newspapers Publishers Association of Nigeria.<\/p>\n
While the government wants to use\u00a0N100 million to organize \u201cquarterly opinion polls\u201d, it also budgets N270 million for town hall meetings.<\/p>\n
The government also proposes to commit a sum N409, 240,600 on \u201cgrassroots public enlightenment campaign on government policies and programmes (including cost of production of materials and IEC on government achievements).\u201d<\/p>\n
Also, in 2017, Nigerians could see a lot of Mr. Mohammed or his paid nominees moving from one newspaper house to another and appearing on radio as well as television programmes hosted by \u201cinfluencers and analysts.\u201d<\/p>\n
For this plan, the government wants N180 million to be spent by the Ministry of Information and Culture on \u201cministerial media appearances with influencers and analysts on TV, radio, social and print media.\u201d<\/p>\n
And there is another N192,883,308 budgeted for \u201cpublicity and advertisements\u201d.
\nIt is not clear what the government plans to do with hundreds of millions budgeted to \u201clobby\u201d foreign media, interact with journalists or facilitate the minister\u2019s media appearances with analysts and influencers.<\/p>\n
Pressed to comment on the proposals, Mr. Mohammed\u2019s special assistant, Segun Adeyemi, declined, asking our correspondent to contact the minister instead. But Mr. Mohammed could not be reached on phone.<\/p>\n
An official in the ministry, however, pledged that the funds would not to be diverted. The official said the government had a responsibility to ensure citizens understand the policies of the government and appreciate its achievement so that the government would not be cast in bad light by the opposition.<\/p>\n
The official insisted \u201cit is barely possible for any official to corruptly enrich himself or herself in the present government.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Muhammadu Buhari administration came to power on the back of promises to tackle corruption and wastes that constitute barriers to utilisation of funds for developmental objectives.
\nA further review of the ministry\u2019s breakdown however revealed there are at least two instances of budgeting for one item twice.<\/p>\n
The ministry proposes N44,181,840 for \u201cpurchase of office furniture and fittings\u201d in line 23010112; and in another place, line FMOI&32443591, the ministry plans to spend another N83,500,000 on \u2018purchase of office furniture and equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then, in line 23010105, the ministry makes provision for \u201cpurchase of motor vehicles\u201d with the sum of N97,200,000. But the same item \u2013 \u201cpurchase of motor vehicles\u201d \u2013 also comes in line FM01&04520205 and gets N97,100,000 vote.<\/p>\n
These repetitions and other curious budgetary proposals are some of the issues Nigerians would expect the National Assembly to review in the proposed budget.<\/p>\n
PremiumTimes..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Despite an economy in recession the federal government plans to spend over one billion Naira on public relations and media lobby in 2017, a review of proposed allocations to the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51639,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n