IN THE ARENA
Last week, Minister of Information and Culture, Mr. Lai Mohammed dismissed the leaked 309-page report of the Lagos State Judicial Commission of Enquiry on Lekki toll gate infamy as “tales by moonlight.” Does this presage a federal government response to the impending White Paper? Louis Achi asks
Consistency is a respected attribute in the human personality, especially when engaging variables in the fluid environment of governance and human relations. But to stand the verdict of history, this vital trait needs to be undergirded by a bold, enduring philosophy. Significantly, one of the most consistent presidential appointees of the current administration is the Minister of Information and Culture, Mr. Lai Mohammed.
Human rights activist,Mr. Femi Falana (SAN) has provided some insight into this quirky consistency. “In December 2015, the Nigerian Army massacred hundreds of Shiites in Zaria and hurriedly buried their bodies in a mass grave at Mango in Kaduna State on the orders of the then Chief of Army Staff.
“Even though Mr. Mohammed said that the report of the genocidal attack was a hoax, the Justice Garba Judicial Commission of Enquiry instituted by the Kaduna State Government confirmed a casualty figure of 348 Shiites. Six years thereafter, the authorities have ignored the recommendation of the Judicial Commission that the culprits be prosecuted.”
As it were, another opportunity for Mohammed to project his famed regime loyalty dressed up as consistency presented itself last week. Not one to miss opportunities, he grabbed it, describing the 309-page report of the Lagos State Judicial Commission of Enquiry, constituted under the Tribunal of Enquiry Law, as “fake.”
Mohammed who spoke at a press conference in Abuja, last Tuesday, described the leaked report as one laced with discrepancies and inconsistencies, tagging it unverified fake news. He insisted that nobody was killed at the Lekki toll plaza on October 20,2020. The minister argued that the panel only wasted taxpayers’ money by coming up with such a “nonsensical report” and likened it to ‘Tales by Moonlight’, a 1990s television programme where children were told fictitious stories.
According to Mohammed, “Never in the history of any judicial panel in this country has its report been riddled with so many errors, inconsistencies, discrepancies, speculations, innuendos, omissions and conclusions that are not supported by evidence. What is circulating in the public space is simply a rehash of the unverified fake news that has been playing on social media since the incident of October 20, 2020.” But Mohammed’s position essentially contradicts President Buhari’s and hints at some curious in-house dissonance.
It could be recalled that on November 18, 2021, President Buhari met with US Secretary of State, Mr. Anthony Blinken, in Abuja where he clarified that state governments in the country would have to take steps on the EndSARs reports of their panels, before the federal government acts on the recommendations.
More specifically, in the President’s words: “We at the federal have to wait for the steps taken by the states, and we have to allow the system to work. We can’t impose ideas on them. Federal government has to wait for the reaction of the states.”
But by openly expressing his controversial position, apparently on behalf of the federal government, Mohammed has seemingly overruled the President by rejecting the report of the Lagos Panel. The emerging consensus is that the minister should have waited for the White Paper to be made available to the Lagos State government that set up the probe panel before making the federal government’s views known.
Clearly, the report of the panel is not akin to a judgment of the court. However, because the panel was established by the Lagos State government, it is believed that the state government has confidence in the panel in the first place.
According to a miffed Falana, “as a lawyer of many years’ standing the minister ought to have known that it is the height of arrogant contempt to describe the report of a Judicial Commission of Enquiry constituted under the Tribunal of Enquiry Law as “fake”. It is regrettable to note that the minister has failed to realise that the Lagos State Government is not an extension of the federal government but a sovereign entity under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
For the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA)’s Publicity Secretary, Dr. Rapulu Nduka, the Information Minister has always given the impression that nothing happened at the toll gate. “Condemning the report even before the issuance of the White Paper shows that the government is not open-minded and does not want to know the truth about what happened at the toll gate,” he said.
“The response of the federal government is premature and prejudicial. If a panel was set up, the law expects that a white paper be issued. It is premature to condemn a report before a white paper has been issued,” he further noted.
According to Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), the minister is a ‘propagandist’.
“He speaks for a government without integrity, honour and dignity. They denied eyewitness accounts by Amnesty International, CNN, BBC, VOA, all TV stations across Nigeria, and now, the report of a whole Judicial Commission of Inquiry.”
Clearly, the position of topmost information manager in any administration should be appreciated because it carries considerable weight, especially in charting the course of informed engagement with the critical elements in a democratic mix. Perhaps pleading that his hands are tied may definitely cut little ice with an angry populace.
That the inherent power of that office, its responsibility and authority have apparently been watered down and often caged by forces out of sync with transformative politics doesn’t mean the occupant must jettison plucky, principled and disciplined conduct. Regime loyalty is certainly not a substitute for a philosophy-anchored consistency, a feature which has aided the genuine elevation of human societies – previously and currently.
