by Emeka Nwankwo
In an interview granted to Premuim Times, the Honorable Minister of Information and culture and Former APC spokesman, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, spoke on his former job, the regular criticism directed at him and the Federal Government’s Boko Haram war.
From the revealing interview, we grasped 10 things.
(All statements in quote were made by the Honorable Minister during the interview)
- Lai Mohammed feels justified on all the comments he made while serving as the spokesperson of the All Progress Congress (APC).
Lai Mohammed said: “I’ve gone back; we criticised based on information available to us. Even today I often revisit some of my positions. As at the time those issues were addressed, even with my position in government today, if the opposition today should raise the same issues, I wouldn’t fault them. Unless you can be specific and tell me that look ‘during Boko Haram you said this, today are you not saying a different thing?’ And you find out that there’s nothing I said all through my years on the position of Boko Haram that cannot be defended given circumstances on ground then.”
- When asked why his Party is yet to find a replacement to occupy the position he occupied as Spokesperson of the APC, Lai, in his answer, taught us that politicking, in Nigeria, is not based on merit, qualification or competence, instead it is based on where you are from and other political factors.
“However, the fact of the matter is that positions in political parties are not usually on ‘merit.’ Or put this way, are not usually entirely on merit. There are other factors. They are not usually based on qualifications and, at times, it might be based on expediency or balancing. So it might be a bit difficult if you are now sourcing for your replacement. By the time you juggle the various political factors and all these things, you might not be able to find the right person.
“Let me give you a practical example, and I want to look at it from this perspective. We have an 18 member National Working Committee, there are three from each geo-political zone. So if one resigns from one geo-political zone, because he has been a minister or a commissioner or he takes another political office, he must be replaced by somebody from that same geopolitical zone. You can see where the problem lies.
“Yes, my deputy can act for me only until the next national convention of the party. But at that national convention of the party, my zone north-central, which is now left with only two members, will expect that the next replacement must come from that zone. So that creates problems a bit.”
- Alhaji Lai Mohammad has developed a tough skin over the years and has learnt how “to absorb a lot of irritation.” While teaching us the importance of not allowing media and public opinion weigh us down and distract us, he also dispelled rumors that he is a master of propaganda
“I think the democratization of the media space has brought a lot of changes, a lot of developments. Today you must have the capacity to absorb a lot of irritation. You must have the largeness of heart to tolerate a lot of insults. But the important thing is for you to remain focused. Most people react to you based on emotions. Because I’ve always challenged those who called me a propagandist to come out with just one of the thousands of press interventions I have made and say ‘this is propaganda,’ ‘this is not true.’ I’ve always challenged them.”
- The Minister also confirmed that subsidy is an issue of the past and that our refineries will work again. He also confirmed that fuel will sell for N85 as long as fuel remains under $40 per barrel.
“That with the present price of crude today, the issue of subsidy does not even arise. Because the cost of crude is the major component in arriving at the cost of PMS, and as of today if the price of crude remains at under 40 ($40 per barrel), then you can sell petrol at N85, without any element of subsidy. Of course we are not praying that the price of crude will remain as low forever, but while that is happening, there are two things we need to do. First is to revamp our refineries, make them to work. If our refineries are working, no matter the cost of crude we will be able to sell at a much more competitive price because everyday 445,000 barrels of crude are allocated for domestic consumption. That’s about 60 percent of our total consumption, even if you use 40 million litre as the benchmark for daily consumption.
“So we are going to do three things throughout this period. One, is to really get a realistic and accurate data of supply and distribution. Right now we are not comfortable with the 40 million litres that we were supposed to be consuming everyday. Two, within that period, ensure that our refineries are working optimally. Thirdly, clean up all the rent-seeking components in the template that is being used by the PPPRA at arriving at the landing cost of fuel. So that irrespective of whether the price of crude goes up or down, we’ll be… But I think the key really is, one, making sure that our refineries work. Two, all our pipelines are firmly secured. And thirdly, make sure that PPPRA, DPR, and other regulatory agencies also live up to their responsibilities.”
- We also learnt that the Minister of Information doesn’t always know everything about government despite his early claim that as the government spokesperson, he should know everything about government policies and the intricacies of governances. He said this when he was asked if government will consider using groups like OPC to protect pipelines.
“Well, I do not know. But what I can say is that when we were faced with these challenges, we turned to the Nigerian Corps of Army Engineers and I think we were quite satisfied with their performance.
“Two, the Minister of State for Petroleum had also assured the nation that we are also going to look into more of high tech surveillance, rather than manual surveillance. 5,120 kilometres of pipeline is quite complex and long for you to manually monitor. But I think he also even spoke of drones being used to monitor these pipelines. But I think we’ll probably go the way most countries are going to, that is leveraging on technology to monitor pipelines.”
- He still insists that Boko Haram has been “technically defeated,” –even though the phrase is yet to be defined or explained. And even though the extremist groups have been defeated and the December deadline met, Lai Mohammad, however, believes that Boko Haram might still strike again.
“I have no iota of doubt in my mind that government met the deadline. You see, at times, I’m worried and quite shaky by the sheer amount of deliberate distortion, mischief at times, at times even ignorance, by many commentators.
“Number one, what did the government mean by meeting the deadline? What the government meant by meeting the deadline was that by December 31st, the Boko Haram insurgents would have been so decimated, they would have been so dispersed and so weakened that they would not be in control of any territory in Nigeria.”
“Now cast your mind back to a year ago – where at least 30 local governments, 20 in Borno State, four in Adamawa, six in Yobe, and they were operating from Bauchi, Gombe on the side also – to today where they cannot say this local government is in the control of Boko Haram. They might be operating from one or two in Bornu, but it’s not the same as six months ago when they had their headquarters in Bama, and from Bama they were installing and removing Emirs, collecting taxes, dispensing justice in those areas where they are in control, to today. So when you look at that, you will understand what we mean by the army having met the deadline.”
“Two, I said clearly that meeting the deadline does not mean the end of Boko Haram attacks, not the end of suicide bombings, not the end of attacks on soft targets. Because these are not things you can stop overnight. But, Boko Haram today has lost the capacity to stage cavalry attacks like they used to do before. Before they marched into Abuja and blew up the United Nations building. Before, they went to the headquarters of the police, our barracks, and our garrisons. They’ve lost that capability and that capacity.”
- The honorable Minister reassured us that our internet security and privacy will not be tampered with and, also, why he roundly criticised the previous administration for attempting to invade people’s privacy
“You see, I want people to be specific. What we criticised was their engagement of an Israeli firm that will pry into my email and your email. We said no. And we don’t intend to do that now. We criticised specific attempts…”
The minister further stated that: “My privacy must be respected. And I’m saying we still stand by the same thing today and I’m not aware that this government is thinking of tampering with anybody’s privacy.”
- It is heartwarming to learn that the Minister doesn’t believe in censoring the opposition and denying them the platform(s) to air their views on national issues.
“I think I have said it several times. When I addressed the DGs of government owned media, that is NTA, Voice of Nigeria, FRCN, NAN, I told them very clearly that the opposition must be given equal access as the government in any of their medium. I told them very clearly that a situation where government owned media companies will see themselves as just giving bulletin about government would not work. And that many of them have lost credibility because of the way they carried about and that many of them are not viable today simply because they don’t have credibility. I told them that in this business content is key, content is king. That people will rush to where they can get credible information.”
“So it’s left for the opposition to take the gauntlet. Nobody today, either at the FRCN or NTA will have any reason not to allow the voice of the opposition to be heard. So let the opposition approach them, on programmes like Good Morning Nigeria. I was in opposition I went to NTA, on two or three occasions at least I was allowed to have my own say too there. So I think the ball is in the court of the opposition. But for me as minister, under my watch, by the grace of God, I will not allow the opposition to be shut out. And even in terms of survival of all these government-owned, that they must be credible, and they must become the first station of choice by everybody, including the opposition.”
- We learnt that Lai Mohammed can dance around a question if he chooses to, especially if the answer might sound hypocritical. When asked why the government is planning to spend more on the State house than the previous administration did, the honorable minister failed to answer the question asked but instead went on to answer an unasked question.
“You see, when you take issues out of context, it’s very misleading and very confusing. I heard the president, when they asked him about the cars he wanted to buy, the president made it clear that when he was given… the State House asked him to approve N400 million budget to replace his cars, that he told them that the vehicles he is using, they are the vehicles he has inherited from his predecessors were good enough. And he turned it down. He did not only save Nigeria N400 million, but I can tell you today that there is no minister who has been able to purchase new vehicles either. We all inherited the vehicles that our predecessors were using.”
- We learnt that court order can be broken once you have a personal justification for not obeying the court order. When asked about the Dasuki and Nnamdi Kanu court case and the president’s response during the media chat, the honorable minister had this to say:
“My reading is that people are also not reading the real import of the president’s response. In the case of Dasuki, he was talking about human rights. Which one is more important? Is it the human right of one individual or the human of right of hundreds of thousands, millions of Nigerians. That’s the import. And I think that’s the conclusion many of you fail to arrive at.”
“He said somebody gives approval to give another person N40 billion. That fellow is now before a court of law, and the lawyer says we want to know how you spent that N40 billion. This N40 billion was meant for purchase of arms, we found out that you had given the money for other things. In the process, many people, soldiers could not be provided for, many lost their lives in the process, many deserted in the process, we lost territories in the process.”
“And you are now saying that that man should be given a bail, and if that guy is given a bail and he doesn’t come back, my case collapses. Now is that person’s human rights, is it bigger than the human rights of hundreds of thousands of people that have suffered. That’s what the president was saying.”
