Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf was the Minister of Information in
the dying days of Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq. Nicknamed “Comical
Ali” by British tabloids, al-Sahaf made a fool of himself during the
Iraqi war by constantly fabricating victories of the Iraqi army, even as
territory after territory fell to the American-led allied forces.
What
was so ridiculous about him was that his lies were so blatant, only
fools could believe them. Even when American tanks rolled into Baghdad,
Comical Ali declared: “There is no presence of the American columns in
the city of Baghdad at all. We besieged them and we killed most of them.
Today, the tide has turned. We are destroying them. The Americans are
going to surrender or be burned in their tanks.”
Mohammed,
Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, is Nigeria’s home-grown
“Comical Ali.” It would not be unfair to fashion him as “the Minister of
FABU.” Barely two months of assuming office, Mohammed has established
himself as an instrument of cheap propaganda and disinformation. On
internet blogs today, he is now generally referred to by his traducers
as “Liar Mohammed.” Without a doubt, he has earned this sobriquet by his
penchant to be extremely economical with the truth.
Lai
Mohammed’s tall tales have now reached epidemic proportions. It is a
contradiction in terms that a government that claims to be
anti-corruption, and a president that boasts to be a man of integrity,
should have a “Comical Ali” as its face and spokesman. It is doubtful
that Mohammed can stop being himself. However, if President Buhari is
interested in redeeming his now battered image, he needs to admit he
made a big error of judgment in appointing Mohammed as a minister.
Lai
Mohammed must be fired immediately. Barring which, the only honourable
thing left for the Honourable Minister to do is to resign. A Minister of
Information should not be allowed to become a Minister of
Misinformation.
Fictitious Victory
On 23 December, 2015,
Mohammed told a meeting of editorial heads of media houses in Lagos that
the Nigerian military has met President Buhari’s deadline to defeat
Boko Haram before 31 December, 2015.
Said Mohammed: “Today, I can
report that the war against Boko Haram is largely won. Today, I can
report to you that the entire 70 plus kilometres stretch from Maiduguri
to Bama and all the way to Banki which leads to Cameroun and the Central
African Republic are in the hands of our gallant troops. They have so
degraded the capacity of Boko Haram that the terrorists can no longer
hold on to any territory just as they can no longer carry out any
spectacular attack.”
Rather than call his minister to order,
President Buhari backed him up in the bid to white-wash the gaffe of
predicting Boko Haram would be defeated before the end of the year. He
told the BBC: “Boko Haram has reverted to using improvised explosive
devices. They have now been reduced to that. But articulated
conventional attacks on centres of communication and populations.. they
are no longer capable of doing that effectively. So I think technically
we have won the war because people are going back into their
neighbourhoods. Boko Haram as an organised fighting force, I assure you,
that we have dealt with them.”
The president conveniently forgot
he had said at his inaugural address that: “We cannot claim to have
defeated Boko Haram without rescuing the Chibok girls and all other
innocent persons held hostage by insurgents.” We have heard nothing
about the Chibok girls. Nevertheless, the president now says Boko Haram
has been technically defeated. Are we therefore to conclude that the
Chibok girls have also been technically rescued?
Boko Haram response
The
victory declarations of Lai Mohammed and President Buhari turned out
not only to be palpably false, but outrightly dangerous. Just two days
after Mohammed’s declaration, the Boko Haram who he says “can no longer
carry out any spectacular attack” attacked Kimba in Borno State. They
killed 14 hapless people and razed the village to the ground. According
to eye-witness reports, “not a single house was spared in the arson.”
One
day later, a coordinated fighting unit of Boko Haram infantry attacked
Maiduguri. They came in a military convoy, precisely the manner the
president boasted is now impossible. They then dug in for a pitched
battle against the Nigerian army. Thereafter, two female suicide-bombers
detonated explosives in the Jiddari area of Maiduguri, with casualty
figures yet to be determined.
There is no doubt these attacks
were direct responses to APC’s vain propaganda. Boko Haram decided to
give the lie to the bombastic statements that it has been defeated
either technically or in actuality. To drive home the p oint beyond
reasonable doubt, the insurgents chose to attack Maiduguri, the very
command and control epicentre of Nigeria’s military operations in the
North-east.
Clearly, the defeat of Boko Haram only exists as
figments in the imaginations of APC propagandists. Having won the
election by manipulating the press, they now seek to govern by employing
a cacophony of jobless youth whose charge is to post “SAI Buhari”
comments on as many internet blogs as possible. They also have the
mandate to attack anyone who refuses to buy the many-splendored FABUS of
the APC government.
APC’s bogus propaganda is partly responsible
for the deaths and destruction in Kimba, Aladuwari and Maiduguri, the
full extent of which are yet to be determined. The false victory
procession of APC chieftains provoked the Boko Haram to contradict them
at the cost of Nigerian lives. It is way too early to call for the
impeachment of Mr. President. But it is high time to call for the
retirement of Lai Mohammed. We must not allow this local “Comical Ali”
to continue to use Nigerian lives to score cheap political points.
While
the APC was busy celebrating the fictitious death of Boko Haram, the
New York-based Institute for Economics and Peace declared in its latest
Global Terrorism Index that Boko Haram “has become the most deadly
terrorist group in the world.” The day before Mohammed’s bombast, UNICEF
declared that Boko Haram has succeeded in keeping over one million
children out of school, warning that this is likely to add fuel to the
insurgency by radicalizing the youth in the North-east.
Campaign recantations
It
was Lai Mohammed who told Nigerians the promises of the APC during the
election were actually not from the APC. The APC denied its key
presidential campaign documents: “My Covenant with Nigerians” and “One
Hundred Things Buhari Will Do in 100 Days.” Buhari himself presents one
of the documents in the first person, saying: “The covenant is derived
from the manifesto of my party, the All Progressives Congress. It
however represents my pledge to you all when I become your president.”
But
once he became president, Mohammed denied them. He swore that: “Buhari
never promised to do anything in 100 days, that’s the honest truth.”
However, when APC Senators were forced to vote against their own
campaign promise to provide N5,000 monthly to 25 million unemployed
Nigerians, Mohammed declared that the government already has 1.4
trillion naira recovered from banks through the TSA ready to fulfil the
promise. He said we should expect it in the 2016 budget.
These
are his words: “The non-implementation of the payment policy so far is
due to the fact that it was not included in the 2015 budget. The
Muhammadu Buhari administration has been busy putting in place measures
that will make it possible to start the implementation of this project.”
This
has turned out as usual to be another tissue of lies. The 2016 budget
has now been announced, and there is nothing about the N5000 stipend for
the 25 million unemployed.
Presidential doublespeak
The government of President Buhari is replete with contradictions and doublespeak.
At
the APC South-East rally in Owerri, Buhari declared he would make the
naira equal to the dollar if voted into office. He continued: “It is sad
that the value of the naira has dropped to more than 230 to one dollar.
This does not speak well for the nation’s economy.” How does it speak
for the economy now that the value of the naira has dropped under Buhari
to 280 to the dollar?
Buhari said: “Boko Haram is a typical
example of small fires causing large fires. An eccentric and unorthodox
preacher with a tiny following was given posthumous fame and following
by his extra-judicial murder at the hands of the police.” What then are
we to say about the extra-judicial massacre of over 300 Shiite Muslims
in Zaria at the hands of the Nigerian army under this Buhari
administration?
Buhari said during the campaign: “You are all my
people; I will tre eat you all as mine. I will work for those who voted
for me, voted against me and those who didn’t vote at all.” Then he said
after the campaign: “The constituents (that) gave me 97% cannot in all
honesty be treated on some issues with constituencies that gave me 5%.”
On
his election, the president said: “Our long night is over and a new
dawn has come… Democracy and rule of law will be put in place.” “I
pledge myself and the government to the rule of law, in which none shall
be so above the law that they are not subject to its dictates, and none
shall be so below it that they are not availed of its protection.” But
under his administration, democracy and the rule of law has continued to
be violated. The DSS ignores court verdicts with impunity, as happened
in the case of Dasuki and Kanu.
Justice Muazu Pindigi was
summarily replaced by Justice Ambrosa as chairman of the Rivers state
governorship petitions tribunal and PDP’s victory was quickly annulled.
Pindigi said: “The Supreme Court has said that for an election to be
annulled, the petitioner has to prove that elections didn’t hold at the
polling units where the winner was returned elected. I’m not sure that
the Ambrosa’s judgment arrived through that route.”
During the
election, Buhari declared the maintenance of the presidential fleet of
aircrafts a colossal waste of money. He said: “For me, when we come into
office, all these waste will be blocked and properly channeled into our
economy.” However, since he became president, not a single plane has
been sold. Billions of naira continue to be spent as the president has
gone on one international junket after the other.
