Our achievements not based on propaganda and lies, says Lai

Lai Mohammed, minister of information and culture, says the achievements of the current administration are not based on lies and propaganda.

Speaking at a conference which the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) organised for media handlers, Mohammed urged media aides to use “concrete facts” to showcase the achievements of their principals.

The minister said Nigerians are brilliant and discerning people who would not take in “deliberate denigration”.

“Now, going hand in hand with disinformation and fake news is the new strategy of the naysayers to label the achievements of the government of the day as propaganda and lies in order to discredit them,” he said.

“It is for you, at your level, to use concrete facts to showcase the achievements of your principals. Nigerians are brilliant and discerning, and won’t be taken in by such deliberate denigration. But they also need facts and figures.

“For our administration, our achievements are there for all to see. We are delivering in the broad areas that formed the plank of our policies: Security, fight against corruption and the economy, which includes the massive provision of infrastructure, ease of doing business and agriculture, just to mention a few.”

Citing the power sector and economy as areas the current government has recorded successes, Mohammed said as of September, the country was producing 7,001 megawatts of electricity.

“When this administration assumed office on 29 May 2015, available power on the grid totalled 2,690MW, transmission capacity was around 5,000MW and distribution capacity was 4,000MW,” he said.

“As at 4 September 2017, the available power that can be put on the grid was 6,619MW; the transmission capacity was simulated at 6,700 MW (up from 5,000 MW in 2015) but the distribution capacity was 4,600 MW, which was what was put on the grid. On September 12, 2017, production of power reached an all-time level of 7,001MW.

“In the area of the Economy, is it ‘propaganda and lies’ that headline Inflation has now fallen for the eighth consecutive month (February to September 2017); that foreign exchange reserves are up to $32 billion, from $24 billion a year ago: that oil production is at nearly two million barrels per day, a significant improvement from 2016 when it was mostly below a million; that Home-grown School Feeding Programme is now being implemented in 17 States, benefiting more than three million public primary school children and more than 30,000 cooks across 20,000 schools (ask the benefitting school children and they will tell you they have been eating nutritious foods, not propaganda and lies).

“That close to 200,000 youths are now benefiting from the N-Power Programme, which recruits unemployed graduates to work as teachers, agricultural extension workers, and health extension workers; that the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), which provides micro-credit to farmers, traders, and artisans, now has in excess of one million beneficiaries, with women accounting for 56 percent of that number, and that at about 1.8 billion dollars, the capital inflows in the second quarter of 2017 were almost double the $908 million in the first quarter.

“If our achievements are based on ‘propaganda and lies’, as they claim, why is our agricultural revolution achieving so much success: We have commissioned the 120,000 MT per annum WACOT Rice Mill in Argungu, Kebbi state.

“We have commissioned the 60,000 MT per annum Edo state fertiliser company limited. What about the commissioning of OLAM’s 750,000 MT per annum Integrated Poultry Facility in Kaduna state? Do you know that 15 moribund fertiliser blending plants have now been revived and in operation across Nigeria, under the presidential fertiliser Initiative, creating 50,000 direct jobs and 70,000 indirect jobs?”