The Senate on Wednesday, refused attend to the budget proposal for the Federal Ministry of Information, owing to a lack of provision for media propaganda in the North East.
During the ministry’s budget defence, the Senate Committee on Information maintained that the ministry must rework its budget and re-present it with provisions for effective media propaganda in the troubled North East region.
Headed by Senator Enyinaya Abaribe, PDP, Abia South, the committee directed the ministry should bring a budget that will cater for the needs of its media agencies.
The observation of a lack of media propaganda for the North East was first highlighted by Senator Ben Bruce, who said it was essential for it to be included in the budget, in the wake of the Boko Haram insurgency.
Bruce said the media was used to propagate relevant information during the Nigerian Civil War, while urging the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA, Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, FRCN, News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, and Voice of Nigeria, VON, to go and add the required component.
He said: “It would have made more sense for the information budget of the Army to be given to the Ministry of Information to equip these stations to be used by the military as a source of communication. “For instance, if there is going to be an air raid in a particular area, we can warn the citizens to stay off that particular area.”
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