Lai Mohammed prefers buck-passing, entertaining himself and humouring Buhari
We had once in this space, recalled the stage performance by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, when he appeared for ministerial screening at the Senate chambers in 2019. There is need to revisit the drama for its inherent lessons.
Mohammed had appeared before the Senate following his reappointment by President Muhammadu Buhari. Rather than discuss his strategies at projecting the policies of the government, he took to trivialities, narrating to the lawmakers his encounter with his grandson on why Nigerians call him ‘Lair Mohammed’.
“Please don’t believe what they say on social media. They call me all sorts of names there. I used to ignore it until one day when my 7-year old grandson called me and said grandpa, tell me the truth, why do they call you Liar Mohammed?
“I looked at him. What do you say to a 7-year-old son? How do you explain politics to him? So, I said no, don’t mind them, they are the bad guys”, the Minister said.
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With this theatric, he was asked to take a bow and go. Lai Mohammed may have considered himself a sharp guy in confusing his grandson and the senators. But Nigerians know better. His answer to his grandson may not be as simple as it seemed. It speaks much about his person.
Lai has really been having his way all the while, humouring himself that he has been playing fast on the people with half-truths and outright falsehood. But he is only being clever by half or hiding behind a finger, as the saying goes.
It would not have mattered much if he was on private engagement, making a living from entertainment and perhaps, spicing his trade with occasional injection of lies to retain the attention of his audience. But this is a minister of the federal republic. His portfolio is quite large and the schedule of duties, enormous. He is the mouthpiece of the government and the spokesperson of the country before the international community. What he says on any matter, is taken as the stand of the government and the country. Any person occupying such delicate office, is expected to be measured in choice of expressions and delivery.
But brother Lai has reduced his superintendence of the ministry to a circus show where he makes pronouncements without weighing their impacts on the nation. Watching him claim with glee that all is well in Nigeria, in the face of mounting insecurity and accompanying hemorrhage in many parts of the country, clearly indicates that he is of cold blood or has blocked his senses to happenings around him. He was on that odious track some days ago, when he boasted before Reuters, a foreign news medium, that the Muhammadu Buhari administration was working to leave more secured than it met it, seven years ago.
“We are leaving the country much more secure than we met it,” the minister claimed.
Unfortunately, while he made the weird assertions, he was instantly mocked by events. Just a day after, precisely, on Tuesday, July 5, Kuje Medium Prisons in Abuja, the nation’s capital, came under heavy bombardments by unknown gunmen. 64 Boko Haram commanders and other hardened criminals inside the facility were released by the attackers.
Same Tuesday, gunmen, suspected to be terrorists, in an unusual show of audacity, ambushed and attacked the convoy of the advance team of the President near Dutsinma, Katsina State, his home state. Hours earlier, the Police Area Commander of Dutsinma, Aminu Umar an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), was killed in a gun battle with the terrorists in Zakka forest, Safana Local Government Area of same Katsina State.
For Lai, these were normal occurrences. His concern, rather, was to accuse Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, of being behind the 2020 #EndSARS protests by Nigerian youths.
He was quoted by an online platforms to have stated that since the end of the protests, investigations have been going on to determine the sponsor and that events have shown that those involved in the exercise are the ones campaigning for Obi presidency.
“Over the years, investigation has been going on in order to unveil those behind this wicked act just to tarnish the good image of President Muhammadu Buhari and his good works.
“Mostly all the people and the misguided youths who championed the #EndSARS Protest are all campaigning for Peter Obi for President. All of them, no exception. That will go a long way in telling you that Peter Obi knows much about the #EndSARS Protest and those behind that ugly act must be brought to book to face disciplinary actions”, he said.
This, ordinarily, should not matter to Nigerians who know the minister and his predilection for trivialities. But when officials of the state begin to make such outlandish allegations against an opponent on the eve of a major election, they go beyond the ordinary. As usual, the minister knows that he is lying but needed to appear relevant.
The October 2020, #EndSARS protest was a unique event that saw Nigerian youths across ethnic and religious divides, taking to the streets, to protest police brutality and bad governance.
The exercise was largely peaceful and well organised before the Nigerian government, unfortunately, invited the Army personnel, who according to the Lagos State Judicial Panel Committee shot at the peaceful protesters, killing some and injuring others. So, the minister in dismissing the enormity of issues in the protests and pushing the blame to Obi, is quite uncharitable.
Whether Lai Mohammed wishes to accept the realities on ground or prefers entertaining himself and humouring Buhari, the rage of the youths that was expressed in the #EndSARS protests, is still potent and a fact that the government can only ignore at its peril. These are the youths that statistics say, constitute 60 percent of Nigeria’s estimated 200 million population but have been ignored and left without clear future. These are the youths that some of them in the universities have been out of school in the last five months due to an industrial action occasioned by the face-off between their teachers and the federal government. These are the youths of 50 million out-of-school children, out of which about 60 percent have not been to school at all. They are the hungry and angry young ones in all parts of the country. They deserve proper attention, not the casual dismissal of their legitimate anger by Lai Mohammed in a fit of triviality.
