Information and Culture Minister Lai Mohammed, who visited the Lagos office of Vintage Press Limited, publishers of the The Nation, fielded questions from Editorial Board members on the fight against corruption, the insurgencyin the northeast, the economy and other issues. MUSA ODOSHIMOKHE was there. Excepts:
It has been insinuated that you are playing the role of the Minister of Information, as if you are still an opposition spokesperson. How are you handling the transition?
There are certain insinuations which the Peoples Democratic Party makes that are provocative. These statements are not backed by facts. That is not withstanding, I still check myself. It is a fact that I am the Minister of Information, the spokesperson for government. Having been the spokesperson, one is there to articulate the campaign promises of the party and explain government programme. It is our duty to still expatiate on the manifesto of the party. More often than not, these are the programmes the government wants to implement. But, as a Minister of Information, one is now operating in a wider scope. Being the spokesperson for the party, one responsibility was limited to projecting the image of your party. As party spokesperson one is presenting the party as the best alternative. Today, the demand of my office is by far wider. One is the spokesperson for government which means that one is communicating to Nigerians, about the policies, programmes and actions of government. I am at the same time projecting the image of the country to the world. This is a situation where you have opposition from within and without. And I think the opposition is also busy to make us uncomfortable. I took advantage my position as the party spokesperson to make the government uncomfortable. I remember that I used to say that the role of the opposition is to make the government uncomfortable. Now, I am really uncomfortable.
How do you react to comments about the media owners subverting efforts to fight corruption….
I said those who had stolen our money are very powerful, that they own newspapers, radio, and television or do you want me to mention names? I said corruption is fighting back because they control the media. Some of the people who had been accused of taking money from Sambo Dasuki own newspapers, television stations, radio which is a fact. But, if some people had gone on the internet to list names, I did not mention, they are being mischievous. We were specific when we said this. The truth of the matter is that, corruption if fighting hard. They are richer and hell bent in stopping the fight. They are feeble minded and would do all they can to fight back because they know that we have a tenure. They will use everything to distract us.
The government is fighting corruption and recovering looted funds. What is government doing to better the lives of Nigerians, in terms of a secured future?
The document through which you institute the actions of government is the budget. And no matter what your vision is, if you cannot put it down in a manner that will get the approval of the National Assembly, then, you have no vision. Our vision is very clear in our budget. We said we are going to spend N6.08 trillion. We said we said 30 percent of it will be expended on capital expenditure and infrastructure, unlike in the past, where we have less than 15 per cent in capital expenditure. We intend to move people out of massive poverty, so we are providing N500 billion as intervention fund. The money will be made available to market women, artisans and the unemployed. They can get it through various cooperatives so that they can start their businesses. We are employing 500,000 teachers. The teachers will be trained, anybody with a degree or HND will be trained for between three and four months and we will post them to schools. Those who have OND and school certificates will be trained at vocational centres and post them to classrooms. This year you can hardly see any new project, the intention is that we must finish all uncompleted projects. The Lagos –Ibadan road has been there for long without being completed. It does not make any sense to abandon it and now embark on a new one. So, our vision is very clear. Again, we are very worry and concerned about the fluctuating price of the oil. Government is been able to channel its savings to be able to carry out its projects. Some people may have said we had spent eight months in office, and they have felt the impact, but is that a statement of fact? How many people understand that there is no government that can spend one penny which is not appropriated for? We came to government, in May 29 last year, the 2015 budget was passed April last year, which was about a month before we came in. And government is a continuum, when the National Assembly passed the 2015 budget; they passed it in line with the vision of the other government. How could we have implemented the N5000 to the most vulnerable Nigerians, when it was never included in the budget of 2015. How can we employ half a million teachers when it was never included in the budget? So, what we did between April and now is to follow the 2015 budget the way it was implemented. By the time we came in they have fore-spent the money meant for the 2015 budget. They budgeted on the benchmark of $53 per barrel, when we came in how much was oil selling? So, people must understand and appreciate how government works. There is no way you can say that because you have become president, and because you promised that there will be free education you start doing that immediately. Where is it appropriated? Where is the money coming from? We understand the expectation but by the time the 2016 budget is passed, then we will have no excuse not to implement our programme. That is why the programme are implements in the 2016 budget.
Is there any policy that government has embarked on now which could have been done otherwise? What is the level of freedom you will give to the government media in the performance of their jobs?
Frankly speaking, I don’t see anything we have done that should have been done differently. Is it the Treasury Single Account policy? Is it the fight against corruption? Is it the fight against terrorism? I think we have largely succeeded in the area of fighting terrorism, in the area of fighting corruption and in the area of rebuilding the economy. What i understand is that between 2013 and 2015, 70 per cent of Borno State was in the hands of Boko Haram. Twenty out of 27 local governments were still under the control of Boko Haram, six local governments in Yobe State and four in Adamawa State. Today, no local government is control by Boko Haram. They may be operating from one or two, but it has largely been degraded. In the area of corruption, this is one government that is committed to fight it. It has the political will to do so. We will continue to fight corruption and in trying to bring back the economy, if it were any other government, i would have been different. If you were eraning N100,000 a month and now the reduced it to N30,000 how do you cope? Yet you have not retrenched.
As the Minister of Information and culture, the first I told NTA, FRCN, VON and NAN was that I had been in the opposition and know what it was to be denied a platform to expression. I said under my watch, that will not happen and that the opposition should be given their dues. These outfits are run by tax payers money and we should all have access to it. That was a time we wanted to pay for our programme to be aired, they rejected our money. I wont tolerate it.
Government gave a deadline to the war against Boko Haram to be concluded, but after the deadline, there are still pocket of terrorism…
We did not make a mistake in giving a deadline to Boko Haram. If we even give a deadline to Boko Haram and I want you to clearly take any of my statement and those of Mr. President to vivid accounts. We were very clear, we said this is not a conventional war and that we have sufficiently decimated the capacity of Boko Haram and they can no longer launch any spectacular attack. However, this does not mean the end of suicide bombers to attack on soft targets. We quoted examples of Columbia where the war ended 25 years ago, yet attack on soft targets is still going on. We gave examples of France, where there was even no war, terrorist attack soft targets. Now, cannot see, where we have gone wrong. This is not a war where you will sit down and sign armistice and say no gun should bum. That is why we took time to educate the civilian about how the people operate and let them know that it is not the war for the military alone. There is not part of the world, where we have this kind of terrorism that will leave instantly. It will phase out gradually. We must talk about the long term effect of insurgency, you must psychologically prepare people mind to be resettled back to their communities. I have been to Bama, Kandiga, Kaure, I saw the level of destruction that went there, I must say the military has done a lot. Before now, nobody could go to those places. In Bama, the caliphate was deposing and removing emirs. When they were leaving there were 6000 buildings in Bama, not one is standing today. You go to Bama today, all sign boards are in Arabic. I could not believe my eyes and for the army to have been able to push them out of there. I think we should commend them.
Talking about working with those we inherited, you see, you don’t get to an office and overnight you sack everybody. I don’t see my mandate as a Minister is to get there and sack everybody. My mandate is to understand, understudy and make my ministry better. For the Minister to understudy and make recommendation takes quite a while and I will appeal to our supporters that better days are coming.
What are you doing to position the Nigerian culture and tourism to generate funds for the government?
Most times people address me as if I only man the Information Ministry. They often talk about the Ministry of Information without bothering about the culture office. Sometimes, I tried to remind them about the culture office too. I have devoted more energy in working in the Ministry of Cultural than information. But this does not grab the headline like information. I have been to National Theatre three times within the months I assumed office. The first time I went there, we learnt that some hoodlums constitute problems in the premises. I went there with the all the heads managing the place to see how we sanitize the whole place for proper cultural growth. There are plans to develop the fallow land around the National Theatre into what we call the entertainment garden and the money made from such venture would be used to add value to the National Theatre. It is very important that the National Theatre remains the hub the cultural development of the country. Nigerian culture and festival are being rolled into a compendium to allow foreigners or tourists have insight of what they will meet on ground at anytime they come into the country. Tourism is driven by culture, it also labour intensive and employs more people than any Ministry. However, I have also been able to examine and identify what the tourism should entail. We are so endowed in the country; we have the longest beach that can be boasted about. If you had every travelled by boat from Epe to Badagry, you need to see our beaches, but this have not been well utilised. So, the first thing we need to do, is to reclaim them for use. Most of our heritages, we have left them to the whims and caprices of nature. We have also failed to integrate the local people into the tourism industry. For instance, the Aro Chukwu belongs to some people, but you want to make money over them without taking them along. You must go along with them and create an economy for them. The people must be employed and trained as local guides and translators. This is what we have failed to do in the past. That is why I am seeking for capacity building from organisations all over the world.
