Being a spokesperson has two sides, either it builds a name for you positively or it soils your initially built integrity. The latter is most likely in a clan where deceitful, selfish and belly satisfaction politics is well rooted like it is happening in this part of the world, as many who were once loved and respected lost it, the moment they started speaking to defend obvious lies in order to secure some personal favour in the eyes of their employer.
In a normal clan, the ministry of information and other public relations structures in the government are meant to dish out credible information, carry citizens along in the program of the government, as well as enlightening the people with the needed truth. They should be a reliable source for accurate information but many a times misinformation contemporarily called “fake news” are manufactured by the government itself to cover up some underground atrocities at the corridors of power. Then what moral right do you have to fight fake news, when you are also being economical with the truth?
It is abysmal to have propaganda and self-preservation much pronounced today in the discharge of this public relations job. It has now become a norm to sternly look into the camera and feed citizens with falsehood, even when your conscience pricks you; many call it being smart as you slip off the arms of questions likely to put you on the spot.
Is it not worrisome to have the current Minister for Information of Nigeria, Lai Mohammed defend the state of insecurity that has made schools unsafe, by stating that kidnapping of school children happens not only in Nigeria but also in developed countries, citing the United States as having about 3 students kidnapped last year. The question is; if evil is happening in another land, must it happen in your own territory. Can’t you be an exception? Why must you allude to the failure of other states?
Are you trying to give your administration a clap for joining the bandwagon of kidnapping?
Since the United States of America has become a yardstick of success for Nigeria, why have we not copied their true federalism culture fully? Why have we not been allowing people to enjoy their human rights to peaceful protests like in the US? Why don’t we know how much our political office holders earn like the US? Why are some individuals greater than the law in Nigeria? Why are selfish interests superceding the national interests? Why are the politicians imposing themselves on the populace by stealing the people’s electoral powers?
If the November 3rd 2020 election took place in Nigeria, Trump would have continued to reign. If you want to copy the US, copy all they do that is good and giving them respect in the international system.
I believe if this were to have taken place before 2015, when Mr Lai Mohammed was still the APC Spokesman, this would have been a good opportunity to tongue-lash the ruling government and to show us how very safe this same US is, leaving out the case of any kidnap case.
Among many statements credited to the now minister for information, an article in the Washington Post, on May 25th, 2014, titled “Nigeria’s opposition seizing on international uproar over kidnapped schoolgirls” has the following to say about the kidnap of the Chibok girls, about a month after;
“On Thursday, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, a spokesman for the All Progressives Congress, excoriated the president’s party as being “without soul or conscience” and said that on its watch, “12,000 Nigerians have been bombed to smithereens by Boko Haram.” He accused the government of running “shameless” TV campaign ads that compare Jonathan to Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr., “even as Nigerians continue to die daily due to the president’s . . . ineptitude and cluelessness.”
Comparing this position of Mr Lai Mohammed in the past, as the opposition Spokesman and today, as the Minister for Information and Culture, one can’t but ask; what has changed so far?
That the same man is now saying something else, because he is on the table of power. Power can change man, but we all should remember that this same power doesn’t last forever. What lasts forever is the effect you use the power you have to make. History never forgets. Let those in power keep being economical with the truth, they will soon become victims of their lies when they leave office.
Who could say a former Governor in a Nigerian state who was the emperor of the state will become someone that will be arrested by the incumbent?
