Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has accused the opposition of deliberately ignoring the indexes which he said are proof that the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration has laid a solid foundation for the development of the country. He spoke with Politics Editors. Tobi Soniyi was there and presents the excerpts:
Has your party fulfilled its electoral promises to the people?
We were very categorical that we were going to address three areas of governance: to fight corruption, insecurity; and to revamp the economy.
‎I can say with all sense of modesty that we can beat our chest that we have delivered in all those areas.
On the economy, a former CBN Deputy Governor, Prof. Moghalu disagreed with your government’s claim that we have exited recession?
I would rather work on the figure of the National Bureau of Statistics because their indexes and parameters ‎for the country show that we are out of recession. Clearly even as recently as last week, the NBS came out that for the 11th month we have been able to hold down inflation, that inflation today is 15.37 per cent. This has been happening since January 2017. All indication shows that not only have we exited recession, but that we are making a lot of gains in all the parameters either in the area of foreign reserves or foreign investment or in the area of inflation or job creation. Whatever Moghalu has said would run against the current of figures that had been produced by the NBS which is the best body today that can tell us whether we are out of recession or not. It is the same body that told us we were in recession, it is the same body that said we are out of recession. So far, they are yet to tell us we have slipped back to recession.
You have done so much in the fight against Boko Haram. However, it appears that the insurgents have regrouped‎ while Fulani herdsmen-farmers clashes are also threatening the security of the nation.
Security is an issue that every nation at one point in time will have to contend with. I am happy you have acknowledged that we are making progress fighting ‎insecurity in the country. The herdsmen-farmers clash was not invented by this government. It actually predates this government. If you go back to history, it dates back to independence. But am assuring you that this government is determined to resolve the issue. This government is determined to take specific steps to find a definite end to this issue. It is about containment, it is about accommodation and it is about understanding. There must be farmers, there must be herdsmen. They must live together. We are determined as a government that shedding of the blood of just one person is too much. It is not about number, it is about the fact that we put a price to human’s life. Am glad that already things are being put in place, such as the committee headed by the vice president to find long time solution to herdsmen-farmers’ clashes.
There is the claim that the attacks were not perpetuated by herdsmen but by foreign Fulani bandits. Are the security agencies so weak that they can not fish out these bandits and stop them from entering this country?
Without going into the details, it is a very complex issue‎. You talked about bandits, what about the militias that were funded and sponsored by the late Ghadafi around the same area? As a government, we have resolved to find a lasting solution to it. Whether they are bandits or marauders or militias sponsored by the late Ghadafi, what is important for us as a government is to ensure that the shedding of blood whether of the farmers or herdsmen is brought to an end.
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One of the ardent supporters of this administration, Pastor Tunde Bakare ‎did a state of the nation address and said that the government had failed in the three areas you mentioned earlier. How do you counter that?
We are very confidence. We don’t have any apologies for our success. Our success is out there. At the beginning of this conversation, I said there were many indexes with which you can measure whether a country is improving economically or not. Am glad to say that we have been able to grow our foreign reserves from $23billion to $40 billion despite the fact that for the larger part of the time oil sold for $30pb. This is the highest since 2014. This clearly does not indicate failure on the part of the government. Again, NBS said headline inflation has fallen for 11 consecutive months. It is now at 15.37 per cent as at December 2017. The target we set for our selves by the ERGP for inflation has been met and surpassed. You can’t talk about failure. Then the TSA has stopped hemorrhaging aging, since we came in, from the treasury. We were even able to eliminate ghost workers and that has saved us over N120 billion. We have been able to save about N108 billion from the removal of maintenance fees payable to banks pre-TSA because we pay directly. We have saved N24.7 billion monthly through determined implementation of TSA.
You talked about jobs. What jobs are we talking about? In agriculture, we have created an extra 6.2 million jobs. From 6 million jobs two and a half years ago, today we have about 12.‎2 million jobs in agricultural sector alone. How can anyone claim that we have not succeeded in creating jobs?
Our strategy in the area of encouraging local production of rice has worked. From 64,000 metric tonnes two and half a years ago, today we import less than 20,000 metric tonnes. You can imagine the kinds of saving that would bring to government. In the area of infrastructure, we also have good news. Power today is at an all high of 7000 megawatts and we are also able to transmit 7000 megawatts. In the area of distribution, we distribute over 5000 megawatts today and the extra 2000 megawatts which we can not distribute we are trying to get willing buyers for these megawatts. Still on infrastructure, the Lagos-Kano modern gauge is on course. We are very optimistic that by 2019 Lagos-Ibadan axis of it will be commissioned while the Kano-Kaduna modern gauge will also be ready by 2019. The coastal rail which will link 15 cities is also being worked upon and we are hoping that by the year 2021 the entire, mostly the coastal rail and the modern gauge will be completed. On roads, contracts had been awarded for 25 major highways at the cost of N100 billion. Every geo-political zone of the country is included in this transformation of road infrastructure. These are things that the opposition does not want to hear. These facts are out there for anybody to go and verify.
Again on security, we know we are winning the war‎ because when you are able to decimate an insurgency like Boko Haram, that a few years ago would match to Abuja, attacked the police headquarters, attacked United Nations headquarters, went to Nyanya in our own federal capital and you are able to restrict them to one corner of one state, I think you have scored a major success.
The number of people captured by Boko Haram that were rescued are in hundreds of thousand as we speak today. Life is opening up in most part of the northeast. Yes, there will be occasional bombing, but it is just a desperate drive of a defeated army. For you to judge us on security, look at what is happening globally, then you begin to appreciate what we are doing in the area of security.
Is the release of INEC’s schedules of election distracting government from governance?
I think those who are charged with that responsibility of governance will face governance and in any event once the contracts have been awarded and the contractors have been mobilized. From my understanding, there will be no slow down.
People don’t seem to see the effect of the fight against corruption because most people still see the police collect bribes along the roads. The people are still being exploited and this government doesn’t seem to have an answer for that?
This government did not invent corruption. On corruption, this government is one of the most serious government
But you promised to come and stop it.
I said this government did not invent corruption, one of the most committed government to eradicating corruption and citing corruption, it is not just government’s business alone, I think citizens also have a big role to play. Citizens also should stop aiding and abetting corruption
What choice do they have?
Everybody has a choice in everything. You can refuse to give that N20-
And get shot?
No, this is defeatist attitude. Everywhere in the world, where a person cannot stand for his or her rights, of course he would always be cheated. We have seen other parts of the world where the government has been brought down because of citizens’ action. I think it is not fair to expect that the president or the IGP would come down and stop corruption at the checkpoint. I think the citizens also have a duty. Now you imagine for instance if citizens are asked to pay N20 at the checkpoint and 10 citizens stopped by the police said no, this is wrong. I can assure you the policce will move away from that spot. But when we also acquiesce or we also give, I am not saying that it is right for the police to demand, but I think also the citizens have the right to say no. More often than not, why do citizens also cave in is because they have also violated the law. But that is not an excuse I agree with you, but I think if they know they are doing the right thing, they should be able to resist this kind of thing.
The government has been accused of double standard in the handling of IPOB, which was declared a terrorist organization, and the response to killers herdsmen. One had expected the same government to move very fast and do same to killer herdsmen.
I think we should not compare both issues because they are two different issues. .IPOB came out to challenge the territorial integrity of this country. IPOB came out to say they are independent people of Biafra and they wanted a government of their own. I think it is different from, yes of course many of their activities could become terrorist activities later, but the fundamental things is that IPOB came out to challenge the monopoly, sovereignty of the government of Nigeria.
But they did not kill anybody?
No, I think that is irrelevant, if you come today to say I am the president of Nigeria or I am the leader of the Republic of Biafra, you are challenging the sovereignty of this country. Allegiance should no longer be to the federal government and should be to your own government. I think it is not correct to say that we are treating terrorism differently from the way we treated IPOB. IPOB is like people that challenge the sovereign authority of this government and that is not allowed to stand.
Do you think Nigerians should trust your government enough to give you another mandate next year? In addition to that, the PDP that you sent away said it is determined to also send you packing in 2019. Do you see that happening?
I think it will be tragedy for this country for PDP to come back because they have not even apologised to the nation for destroying our economy, destroying our infrastructure, destroying our quality, and so far from their campaign they have not said that this is how we will do it better when we get there. Apart from that, I think that our achievements will speak volume for us. I have just told you, we can come out and beat our chests that with we revived an economy that was collapsing. We have things to tell the world that we have done. As time goes on and some of these projects are being completed, you will begin to see a lot of different.
During the campaign, your party promised to stop fuel importation, you promised that you are going to revive our refineries and even recently after forming government, you even talked about establishing modular refineries, all these things have not come on board. Why?
You see all these things are not things that you just pick on the shelf. They are things that require planning, require procedures, but I can assure you that everything we promised, everything is being undertaken at one level or the other of implementation.
