Omokri to Lai: You are minister for information, not propaganda

Reno Omokri, former aide of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, has advised Lai Mohammed, minister of information and culture, to stop spreading propaganda.

Omokri said this in reaction to Mohammed’s allegation that people in opposition parties were sponsoring the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

The former presidential aide urged the minister to face his duty by giving occasional briefings to Nigerians, and not propaganda.

In a statement on Tuesday, Omokri said Mohammed should stop blaming Jonathan for the unfulfilled promises of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

He said: “If the government in which Lai Mohammed serves, knows which opposition members are sponsoring IPOB, then they should identify them, arrest them and then prosecute them.

“Ever since Lai Mohammed made his ill advised statement, a principal member of the All Progressive Congress government and the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki, has come out to say that the actions in the Southeast are troubling and some of it are unconstitutional. Is he also sponsoring IPOB too?

“It is our suspicion that Lai Mohammed is talking from history seeing as he criticised the Jonathan government for banning Boko Haram in a statement he released on June 10, 2013, even though the Jonathan government had gone through due process before proscribing that murderous sect.

“Perhaps Lai Mohammed thinks everybody is like him and those he represents. Let me say again to Lai Mohammed, the time for propaganda is gone. The time for blaming Dr. Goodluck Jonathan for all the unfulfilled promises of the APC government is over. Nigerians are no longer buying it.”

Omokri said the Buhari administration has spent the last two years “blaming”, instead of “building”.

“Rome may not have been built in a day, but from day one you could see evidence of builders building up Rome. But what have we seen in the last two and a half years of the Muhammadu Buhari administration? We see a government that from day one has been blaming instead of building,” he said.

“Finally, I seize this opportunity to remind Lai Mohammed that under the Jonathan administration the ministry of information had annual ministerial briefing where the media and civil society groups interrogated cabinet ministers on the activities of their departments.

“100 days briefing was given to Nigerians on the government’s vision and one year briefings was given to the nation on government activities. An elaborate mid-term briefing was also given by that government to the country on the achievements of the administration.

“Lai Mohammed should think about these as information minister and should know that he is minister for information not minister for propaganda.”