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The inability of the Muhammadu Buhari presidency to rein in the constant unnecessary pugnaciousness of its Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, remains in its own way a telling statement on the temperament of the regime. No government that sets any meaningful stock on public opinion is likely to allow Lai to continue to drive against the traffic as he seems determined to do. The cost of such tendencies may be delayed but it may yet come.
Minister Lai Mohammed is like the proverbial carpenter, everything before him is seen as a hammer. He simply keeps swinging, not minding where his swings lead him.
Never has it been known that an official appointed to manage information and court goodwill for a government arrived at his station with an understanding of his job to be that of a rabid rabble rouser, determined to make as many enemies as possible for the government he serves. Alarmingly, he seems, from all indications, to be far too gone for a reversal.
It is not as if loquacious propagandists have not served in government in this part before. They have. Actually, Lai Mohammed’s problem is not acute loquaciousness. His problem is internal, a constant personal war with facts and harmony, a disposition to public information management that sees public communication in no other light but as war propaganda. Always. It is clear that Minister Lai Mohammed is a great admirer of Wada Nas, the one-time Minister of Special Duties under the military government of Sani Abacha. The Funtua-born Minister of Special Duties simply defined truth according to what he believed his master wanted to hear. Every other fact had no chance before Wada Nas. If the military government he was serving, at the height of its indiscretion and authoritarianism, assaulted citizens attending a meeting or a rally, Nas simply called the agit-prop machinery of the state to duty and declared without qualms that the victims brought the calamity upon themselves by refusing to be appropriately patriotic. It was that simple, as far as he was concerned.
But the government Wada Nas was serving did not have any pretentions about its very character. It was military dictatorship, through and through. Now, here we are, two decades down the line, and Lai Mohammed reigns in the stead of Wada Nas. But this is supposed to be a democracy.
A press release from Minister Lai Mohammed’s office last week following a reported gruesome murder of three policemen in the South East, once more presented an opportunity for Lai Mohammed, not only to pour fuel on a raging fire, but also to throw gratuitous shadow punches at the many enemies and prospective enemies he works hard to make for the Buhari government in the South East.
According to the minister’s release, “We have credible information that ASP Francis Idoko (AP No.154945); Inspector Emmanuel Akubo (AP No.222336) and Inspector Rufai Adamu (AP No.285009),all serving officers of the Nigeria Police, were abducted by members of the Eastern Security Network (ESN), acting on the instructions of their leader on 27 Nov 2021…”
Then the minister hurled his dart deeper at his target; “the continued attack on security agents as well as agencies of government by ESN/IPOB are diametrically opposed to the call in certain quarters for a political solution to the IPOB issue.” He then wondered “why those making such calls have yet to condemn the appalling murder of serving police officers…”
The release bears every identifiable imprimatur of Lai Mohammed as Minister of Information and Culture. There was a killing of three servicemen, a very condemnable and sad occurrence by every means. Almost on a daily basis, these days, Nigerians are traumatized and wondering how and when their land turned into a killing field. The canvass of death spread across the land. If, therefore, Minister Lai Mohammed was angered and frustrated by the mindless killing of the three policemen, his anger could easily be understood. His would simply be one among millions of traumatized citizens wondering what the purpose of this madness could be. The minister surely did no wrong in expressing anger.
But Lai Mohammed had to be Lai Mohammed. He proceeded right away to inform the country that he had “credible information” about the perpetrators of the heinous act. And who could they be? The usual suspects! That is the first issue of concern. Lai Mohammed’s “credible information” has a way of never becoming that. There was once credible information that IPOB/ESN elements master-minded the brazen sack on the main correctional centre in Owerri over one year ago. What happened thereafter? And by the way, which culprits masterminded the correctional centre breaks in Ibadan, Benin and, just last week, Jos?
Much more disgusting in the minister’s release, however, was the characteristic strike for mischief and blackmail. His target was clear. The South East, an otherwise peaceful and undisputedly the most violence-free zone in the country until recently, found itself losing its innocence in the last one year or thereabouts, turning into a war zone of sorts. As social and economic life got rendered prostrate, the people appeared totally at a loss on where the bullets were flying from. Grisly killings, very much at variance with the culture, values and ways of the people of the area, became common occurrences in the zone, leaving the people totally disoriented. Are these killings and arson totally or partially the handiwork of IPOB and ESN? Who is responsible for which criminality in the zone? Nobody seems to know, not Lai Mohammed, not anybody. But Minister Lai Mohammed will declare that he has “credible information” about who did what in the South East. If only it was true.
You need to understand a people to know what matters most to them. Even as they are entrepreneurs, and their economic losses have been heavy in recent times, nothing is of more importance at the moment to the South Easterners than the restoration of their humanity. There is such a loud yearning by the people to reclaim their values and culture as quickly as possible before the bloodletting and disorientation brought to them with the invasion of the locusts settle into a new way of life. Gradually, already, the people are moving to reclaim their area, albeit with fear, considering that both state and non-state actors still seem capable of unleashing devastation on innocent citizens at the slightly reason. To all practical purposes at the moment, the South East is fair game, a literal hunting ground for all manner of guns. And, lets face it, the people rarely know who is who.
Anyone, however, who claims not to have noticed the salutary impact of the efforts by various South East leaders and leadership cadres who tactfully waded in to gradually detonate the vast landmine that has been laid over the zone at such a short time must be a liar with a sinister agenda. The peaceful conduct of Anambra State governorship election on November 6, 2021, did not happen only because the security agencies dominated the environment. There were other subtle, very effective initiatives that sold the option of sheathing the sword to aggrieved groups. These initiatives can be built upon to enthrone a lasting peace in the South East. The call for political solution to the IPOB matter is but one of the propositions being made to resolve this obvious quagmire.
• Continued next week
