How a minister undermined me at FEC – Lai Mohammed

Former Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has narrated how one of his cabinet colleagues in the Administration of late President Muhammadu Buhari, unfairly criticised him during the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting.

He gave the account in his recently inaugurated book, “Headlines and Soundbites: Media Moments that Defined an Administration”, which chronicled his experiences as a minister under the Buhari’s administration.

Mohammed said the former minister, whom he did not name but described as being from the South-West region, did run him down by accusing him of incompetence, knowing fully he was not present at the meeting.

“I was in Washington DC for the usual biannual engagements with the international media and think tanks.”

“As I later learnt, a minister from the south-west had complained that, while the administration was doing a great job, the minister of information was not doing enough to showcase its achievements.

“The President, I was told, would have none of it. According to those present, the President immediately interjected and defended me, stating that, I have been doing a great job defending the administration from across the Atlantic.

“He told the Council that he had just been watching some of my engagements in the television, where I was strongly projecting the administration’s achievements.

“There could have been no stronger defence and presidential pat on the back,” he said.

Mohammed noted that, throughout his time as a minister, President Buhari did not just praise him when he did well, but also defended him when necessary.

The former minister narrated another incident in the book, when he was petitioned of wrong doing, but, Buhari defended him before ordering investigations.

“One day when I went to see the President in his office, I noticed that his Aide-de-Camp (ADC) seemed a little uneasy when he saw me.

“After a while, he gathered the courage and said: Oga, I have a confession to make. Somebody wrote a petition against you and I forwarded the petition to the President after much pressure.

“Then, the President looked at the petition and said, “Lai? I don’t believe it!”

“But, he still sent it out for investigation. When the report came back, you were found to be clean,” he narrated in the book.

According to the former minister, throughout his tenure in the cabinet, he could not remember the President ever turning down any request he made.

Mohammed, however, narrated another incident, which came close to the late President rejecting his request.

He wrote: “On January 23, 2018, former President Olusegun Obasanjo wrote a widely publicised open letter, strongly criticising the Buhari administration and urging the president not to seek re-election.

Anticipating backlash, Obasanjo said he expected “praise singers and hired attackers to come after him”.

The former minister said, Buhari, out of respect for Obasanjo as a senior in the military, did not want any of his aides to respond to the letter.

“I had discussed with Femi Adesina, the need for us to respond, but he firmly told me that the president has instructed that no one should respond.

“According to him, Obasanjo is the President’s senior in the military and he would not want anyone to insult him on his behalf”.

Mohammed said, despite Adesina’s cautionary words, he still went to the President to try to convince him of the need to respond.

According to the former minister, Buhari insisted that no one should respond .

“I told him politely but firmly that this was about Nigeria and that we owed it a duty to respond.

“There was almost a heated debate- something that that has never happened between the President and I. After much back and forth, the President reluctantly gave me the go-ahead.

“I went in to issue a lengthy statement, all along remembering his admonition that no one should insult the former president and mindful of the fact that he only gave me approval because he did not want to say no to me.

“Fortunately, I did not disappoint him,” he wrote in the book.

Mohammed recalled that Buhari later commended him on the matured and professional way he wrote the response to Obasanjo’s letter.

He added that a number of people rang the President and said, “Lai Mohammed has done a good job”.

The former minister also recalled another incident when he wanted to take a team of local and international journalists to the territories that the military had retaken from Boko Haram in 2015.

According to him, with everything set, he got a last minute shocker from the then Minister of Defence, who said that the trip could only proceed if he got the President approval.

He said the Defence minister had argued that since men and platforms were to be deployed for the trip, the President must approve of the trip.

“I quickly contacted the Chief of Staff to the President who fortunately was able to reach the President in South Africa where he was attending a meeting.

“The President gave his approval for the trip, even when I had not previously discussed with him,” he wrote.

To further buttress Buhari’s admiration and support for him as minister, Mohammed said the late President always devised ways of funding his projects.

“With paltry budget for the massive ministry I oversee, it was almost impossible to implement our programmes.

“I had to rely on special interventions approved by the President to implement key initiatives,” he wrote.

Mohammed posited that what lingered most about the late Buhari’s presidency was his quiet faith in trust.

He said, when the late President entrusted someone with responsibility, he also granted them the freedom to act, believing that duty carried its own wisdom.(NAN)

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