Amid Attacks On Journalists, Nigerian Press Council Budgets Over N1b For Provision Of Boreholes, Streetlights, Others

The Nigerian Press Council has budgeted over N1 billion to execute projects outside its constitutional mandate, such as the provision of boreholes, streetlights, and classrooms.

The NPC is an agency in the Ministry of Information and National Orientation with a mission to uphold professional Journalism standards and address complaints from the Nigerian press.

Its functions include ensuring the protection of the rights and privileges of journalists in the lawful performance of their duties.

However, the same agency will be executing capital projects outside its scope, such as the provision of boreholes, streetlights, and classroom buildings, among others, according to the 2024 Appropriation Act.

West Africa Weekly dug into the 2024 budget approved by the National Assembly and assented by the President. We found numerous projects worth billions of naira to be executed by agencies and ministries that should have no business with such projects.

The Ministry of Information budget contained a lot of such projects—precisely, those approved to be executed by the Nigerian Press Council.

For instance, the NPC is expected to construct a “Drainage/Curvet perimeter fence at Tpumpy estate phase 4A cadastral zone, Lugbe, Abuja” for the sum of N113.3 million; and supply solar streetlight parts Niger State for the sum of N250 million.

Another project outside the agency’s scope and mandate is the construction and “rehabilitation of roads in Enugu East”, which was allocated N400 million.

Below are screenshots of the 2024 Appropriation Act containing irrelevant projects allocated to the NPC for execution:

Meanwhile, this irregularity is against the backdrop of press repression by the Nigerian federal government. President Bola Tinubu’s administration, barely one-year-old, has seen a level of attacks on journalists reminiscent of the era of Military Dictator Sanni Abacha.

Nigerian journalists and critics now operate under a climate of fear, with some, like David Hundeyin, who has been declared wanted by the police, being forced into exile. Scores of Journalists have been arrested, assaulted, or harassed under President Tinubu.

According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), an international non-profit promoting freedom of expression, Nigeria is one of West Africa’s most dangerous and challenging countries for journalists due to the government’s intolerance for dissenting voices.

Despite public outcry over state actors’ severe repression of the press, the National Press Council (NPC) has remained silent on the issue, focusing instead on unrelated activities such as drilling boreholes and installing streetlights.

Read More:

• Nigeria’s Ministry of Science and Technology Allocates 71.9% Of ₦32.7bn Budget For Projects Outside Its Mandate
• The More You Want Everything Free, It Will Become More Expensive — Tinubu to Nigerians After Fuel Price Hike

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Oluwatobi Odeyinka

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