The Senate on Tuesday expressed displeasure at Minister for Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed at the low revenue generated from the culture sector by the Ministry.
During a budget defence session, the senate committee on culture and tourism said that it was unacceptable that the ministry presented only N620,000 as total revenue generated in 2016.
Chairman of the committee, Matthew Urhoghide, said the senate was not happy with the revenue.
“Budget is not just about expenditure. No one is talking about revenue. We need revenue profile. Each time you come, only expenditure is mentioned. How can you say is N620,000.00 that was raised by your ministry from the culture sector?
“We must exhaust all the avenues to generate funds internally. We seriously frown at the low and poor IGR. We query it. You must look inward because this is not acceptable.”
Urhoghide also accused the minister of misdirecting funds budgeted for land acquisition.
He said N60m was budgeted for land acquisition in six states but Mohammed used the money released to acquire lands in only Lagos and Adamawa.
In his defence, Mohammed said “There are several challenges/constraints militating against the smooth implementation of the required programmes/projects. Some of these are inadequate appropriation; delay in the release of funds; cumbersome nature of procurement process; partial release of appropriated amount; late passage of Appropriation Act; placement of culture and tourism on the residual list, which has made it difficult to regulate the sector; lack of political will to develop the sector and absence of convention bureau to attract big-time events to Nigeria as a tourism destination.”
