‘The name Lai makes it very easy for people to say I lie’

Lai Mohammed, minister of information, says the fact that he is named ‘Lai’ makes it convenient for people to tag his utterances as ‘lies’.

The minister said being the image maker of the APC when it was the opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will find it hard to forgive him for “what happened to them”.

“I have two burdens. The first is that I happened to be the face of the opposition and PDP has not forgiven me and they will never forgive me. I think they look at the magnitude of what has happened to them and they hold me solely responsible; which is not fair. But, I did my bit,” he told Vanguard in an interview.

“Now, becoming the face of government again, it is automatic that whatever comes from Lai Mohammed, we must shoot it down as fake news and a lie.

“Unfortunately, my father gave me the name Lai also. So, it makes it very easy for them. But what I challenge them every time is please, give me one thing I said that is not true. Emotionally, you may not agree with me but in terms of facts and figures, I have never said anything which they can dispute. You don’t have to like it but you can’t deny that they are facts.”

PDP’s return will be like going back to Egypt

PDP, Nigeria’s main opposition party, has time and again said it is ready to wrestle power from the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration.

But Mohammed says the party’s bid to return to lead Nigeria is akin to the country returning to Egypt.

“It will be a tragedy for Nigeria to fall back into the hands of PDP. They dropped us in hell and we are taking people out of hell. How can Nigeria now go back to Egypt?”

Mohammed, who also oversees the ministry of culture, however, said the APC administration is not afraid of the PDP staging a comeback.

He said: “You want those people (PDP) to preside over the affairs of Nigeria again, with the kind of revelation that is coming out, the kind of rot?

“What will happen to the investigations that were carried out if the PDP should win elections again? It will be swept under the carpet.

“This is the first time in the history of this country that we are making real recoveries. Nigeria should never ever pray for PDP to come back.”