Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, on
Friday, said he has many libel cases filed against him by Nigerians.
He spoke on Friday while featuring on TVC’s ‘This Morning’
show.
Mohammed also said the Federal Government has not relented
in its prosecution of politicians and former government officials charged with
various corrupt allegations.
When asked about the status of the government’s fight
against corruption, the minister said, “We are on course; we are very much on
course. The programmes of activities that the various anti-corruption agencies
of government such as the ICPC (Independent Corrupt Practices Commission), Code
of Conduct Bureau have been embarked upon.
“But more importantly is that when people talk about
corruption, a lot of corruption comes when the system is opaque, not
transparent. That is why we were able to identify that 40% of the scoring
methodology is around the ease of doing business and unless you address that,
you will also be scoring low. That is why we embarked on Ports Reforms. Ports
Reforms are very important, it will be slow but it will help the narratives.
“In addition to these preventive measures in the system, we
have not halted the prosecution of high-profile Nigerians who are involved in
fraud, we’ve not stopped. Of course, some of these things are not what you can
say on air because as I speak today, I have various libel cases against me but
I know that we have not stopped but we should not focus our attention on the
high-profile cases.
“Corruption is something that is a bit systemic and that is
why we are taking that approach from the very beginning.”
Many Nigerians on social media had in the past accused the
minister of reeling out fallacious propaganda under the guise of defending the
slips of the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).
Mohammed was also said to have defended the Buhari regime by
saying no death was recorded when soldiers shot at the Lekki Toll Gate on
October 20, 2020, during the #EndSARS protests despite claims by families of
the victims.
Recall that the minister petitioned
a foreign media outlet, CNN, over its report on the Lekki Toll Plaza which he
described as a ‘massacre without bodies’.
He had said some “unscrupulous persons” including
celebrities circulated fake news on social media that aggravated the violence
that trailed the two-week demonstration.
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