The Nigerian Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, is blessed with the gift of a sharp tongue but he often spews gibberish in order to be seen by his principal to be doing something, to be hard-working in line with his role as the chief propagandist of an underwhelming APC-led federal government. Minister Mohammed has a credibility deficit in the public opinion ratings because he paints white as black in defense of the indefensible. He has derogatively been described by critics as a ‘liar’, or better still, ‘Lie’ in place of Lai!
The voluble Minister was recently in the United States of America where he went officially to “counter the false narratives from home about the outcome of the presidential poll”. During his official engagement with some international media organisations he had lambasted the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, accusing him of ‘insurrection’ and ‘treason’!
He pointed out that Obi and his running mate, Baba Datti-Ahmed, were overheating the polity with their inciting incendiary rhetoric. For the Minister Obi was not a democrat as he claimed and he was acting like a ‘desperate person’!
According to the Minister the 2023 presidential election was free and fair and transparent and both Obi and Atiku failed to meet the constitutional requirements to be declared as President. He claimed wildly that “only the President-elect met the criteria by scoring 8.79 million votes and having one-quarter of all the votes cast in 29 states of the federation”.
Minister ‘Lie’ must have failed in his desperate mission across the Atlantic if his American trip was aimed at convincing the Americans to see from his narrow partisan prism. The Americans are wiser and they certainly know better. Spinning them to see Tinubu as the legitimate President-elect is akin to selling an expired product on whose label was written boldly the expiry date!
Alhaji Lai should rather concentrate his efforts on convincing Nigerians that Asiwaju Tinubu of his misruling party won the poll fairly and freely in a transparent credible process. Evidently this is not the case!
Days prior to Mohammed’s intervention from the States the Department of State Services had issued a statement claiming that some desperate politicians were planning to truncate democracy by installing an Interim National Government.
The statement signed by the agency’s Spokesman, Peter Afunanya, had declared that the agency had uncovered a plot by key political actors to install an interim government in the country. No names were disclosed.
The DSS is out to blackmail the opposition. By insinuating that some unidentified elements in the society were plotting to scuttle the Tinubu inauguration it appears the DSS hierarchy are positioning themselves for the Tinubu presidency and the goodies it would bring to them.
We hold that the DSS is politicised and politicians are united in their belief that the secret police are primarily there to protect their interests. Unlike similar agencies around the world (the American CIA, the French DGSI, Russia’s FSB, the UK’s Scotland Yard etc.) the DSS works very hard to ensure stability of the system no matter how inept or corrupt.
However, the opposition to the Tinubu inauguration at the end of May would definitely continue until electoral justice is done to the Atiku/Obi litigations. No amount of intimidation and/or blackmail, therefore, would deter Nigerians from seeking full disclosure as to what actually transpired during and after the February 25th presidential poll.
The electoral heist must not be allowed to stand lest a dangerous precedent was set for future elections.
Peter Obi and his running mate cannot be accused of insurrection or treason because they have filed their complaints to the relevant judicial authorities for adjudication. They would not have done so if they had elected to commit insurrection or treason by urging their supporters to defend their stolen mandate by troopping to the streets.
No one is fooled by the DSS or Minister Mohammed’s intimidation and damage control measures. The misruling APC must assume the consequences of the electoral heist it commandeered.
The ruling party and their agents, in and out of government, are throwing everything they have into the battle for validation or vindication. They have recently leaked Obi’s private telephonic conversation with the Winners Chapel’s presiding Bishop, David Oyedepo. They have sent the attack dogs, Minister Mohammed, Bayo Onanuga, Femi Fani-Kayode etc to unleash a campaign of calumny aimed at demarketing Obi.
And now the DSS have suddenly become ‘professionals’ by blackmailing the opposition. But in all these counter-attacks the truth remains the only avenue of satisfaction for all parties in the crisis.
From the look of things it appears that the federal government wants to criminalize opposition in the country. They want everyone in the opposition to Asiwaju Tinubu’s rigged presidential victory to toe the line and hail the same unopposed! But hell no!
Discerning Nigerians know that the APC’s Jagaban never won the presidential election of last February. The truth of the matter is that opposition to tyranny of any kind, we are told, is obedience to God! We shall, therefore, continue our crusade for justice until one is done.
The Asiwaju presidency (in the unlikely event that he gets sworn-in come May 29) is in serious doubt as the majority of our people do not still see his emergence as just and credible.
Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu must not be sworn-in until all pending litigations are dispassionately dealt with. If the courts declare his victory as incontrovertible so be it. If otherwise then the needful ought to be done prior to the May 29 swearing-in.
Peter Obi remains a gentleman for whom democracy means nothing but a popular participation of the people in the governance of their collective affairs. He is a democrat, a better one than Asiwaju Tinubu and Minister Lai Mohammed who has never won any election in his entire life!
Obi’s resolve and determination to obtain justice at the Tribunal or Supreme Court must not be vilified but encouraged. He is not acting out of fear or weakness but in deference to the constitutional exigency.
Together we can reunite Nigeria and make her become that great country on the African continent where justice flows down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream. Yes, we can do it!
SOC Okenwa
soco_abj_2006_rci@hotmail.fr
