Lai Mohammed, APC National Publicity Secretary, is one of President Buhari’s ministerial nominees. When he appeared for screening before the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio made a wry observation. He said: “If I know (Lai Mohammed) very well, he may have one or two propaganda to drop before he leaves here.” His Senate colleagues burst into laughter because they understood what he meant.
Lai Mohammed is a master propagandist. He is well-known to be economical with the truth. During the election season, he cried wolf every other day, claiming to unearth new “fantabulous” PDP plans to rig the election. One of the most outrageous was his allegation that PDP used disappearing ink on the ballot papers of APC supporters in Ekiti. He also alleged PDP imported one Gyora Berger from Israel, with the mandate to jam all the card-readers in the North-West and the North-East.
Our distinguished Senators failed to ask Mohammed about these tall-tales for which he is known and loved. They failed to determine if we are to expect more of the same from him as Honourable Minister, or whether he intends to tamp it down a little.
Anti-corruption APC
The APC is now Nigeria’s self-styled anti-corruption party. Five months after the elections, the only recognised public policy of the new Buhari administration is anti-corruption. The government’s economic policy is anti-corruption. Its social policy is anti-corruption. Its foreign policy is anti-corruption. Buhari plans to revive our ailing economy with anti-corruption. He plans to fix our broken educational system with anti-corruption. He also plans to fix our health and social services with anti-corruption.
Hear him: “The monies we realise from anti-corruption campaign will be adequately used to improve education in the country.” “The money saved will finance jobs, health-care and the provision of social safety net for the needy, weak and vulnerable of our land.” When can we expect these dividends of anti-corruption to start competing with our proceeds from oil?
Fabrication of data
The APC has consistently exploited the gullibility of Nigerians. Recognising the low level of education in the country, the party has gone all out to promote its anti-corruption policy with lies. It went to town with the CBN governor’s bombast, first that $50 billion was missing from the nation’s coffers; and later that $20 billion was missing. Any Nigerian with a modicum understanding of economics knows it is impossible for such huge sums to be missing in an economy the size of Nigeria’s.
Professor Soludo declared that, in the five years of Jonathan’s administration, no less than 30 trillion naira had been stolen. The APC again went to town with this, not minding that the total annual federal budget under Jonathan was a little over 4.5 trillion naira. In short, more money has been allegedly stolen under Goodluck Jonathan than there was money to steal.
This fabrication of data did not stop once APC came to power. The APC claimed it met an empty treasury. However, Dr. Abubakar Sulaiman, Deputy Chairman National Planning Commission debunked this claim by revealing that Jonathan left behind $30 billion. There was also some $2 billion left in the Excess Crude Account and the Sovereign Wealth Fund; amounts that would have been more had the governors not insisted some of it should be shared.
Buhari says: “Jonathan’s ministers stole 150 billion dollars.” How exactly did Mr. President come by this outlandish figure. These figures are just plucked out of thin air. APC chieftains say one million barrels of oil was stolen everyday under Jonathan. That cannot be because it is virtually half of Nigeria’s daily oil-production.
Oshiomhole says a senior official of the Obama administration revealed that a Jonathan minister stole $6 billion dollars. How can one single individual possibly steal that much? This claim has since been denied by the Americans. Oshiomhole also claims a consultancy fee of 140 billion naira was paid for the Second Niger Bridge when the total cost of the bridge is only 108 billion. APC chieftains just keep coming up with outrageous figures, in order to keep burnishing their bogus anti-corruption credentials.