Barely 24 hours after affirming President Muhammadu Buhari’s intention not to favour or work against any presidential candidate in February presidential election, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has clarified that the president is campaigning for the All Progressives Congress (APC) standard-bearer, Bola Tinubu.
Speaking at the 22nd session of the President Muhammadu Buhari Scorecard Series in Abuja, he said his Wednesday’s remarks on the claim made by Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State suggesting that elements in the Presidential Villa are working against Tinubu’s victory at the February 25 poll, had been misrepresented in some quarters.
Mohammed said the President is in support of the ruling party candidate and had been campaigning for him.
He stated: “Yesterday, while reacting to a question at the post-FEC briefing at the State House, I said, inter alia, that Mr. President is committed to a free, fair and credible elections, and that he is doing everything possible to ensure a level playing field for all contestants.
“This comment has been misinterpreted in some circles, especially with regards to Mr. President’s support for the presidential candidate of our party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“Well, I want to say, unequivocally, that Mr. President is in total support of our party’s flagbearer, and that is attested to by his continuing campaign with the candidate across the country.
“It is preposterous to even suggest that Mr. President, who is the leader of our party, is equivocating on his support for our presidential candidate.
“I hope this clears any ambiguity that may have arisen from my statement yesterday.”
The minster, had told correspondents after Wednesday’s meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) at the Presidential Villa that Buhari would not deviate from his commitment to ensure the conduct of free, fair and credible general elections.
Mohammed, who had been asked to respond to the governor’s claim, maintained that President Buhari, being the main occupant of the villa, had stressed times without number that he wants his administration to deliver a credible exercise.
He stated that if there are elements within the seat of power who are working against the victory of the ruling party, it has not been brought officially to his notice.
The government spokesman had said: “On a more serious note, one thing I can assure you is that no matter what, this administration is focused, determined to ensure free and fair elections.
“But I think with this administration the most important person is Mr. President, and I think he has shown by words and by deeds that he is committed to free, fair and credible election. And fair, free, credible elections actually means not favouring anybody or disadvantaging anybody.
“And everywhere he goes, he makes that very clear even as recently last Friday when he was in Daura, he said the same thing.
“If there’s anybody working against a candidate we don’t know officially.”
The Kaduna State governor had made the allegation on Channels Television breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily, on Wednesday, citing petroleum subsidy issue and the naira redesign policy targeted at the APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, who himself, had made a similar allegation.
el-Rufai said: “I believe there are elements in the Villa that want us to lose the election because they didn’t get their way; they had their candidate. Their candidate did not win the primaries.
“They are trying to get us to lose the election, and they are hiding behind the President’s desire to do what he thinks is right. I will give two examples: this petroleum subsidy, which is costing the country trillions of Naira, was something that we all agreed would be removed.
“In fact, I discussed with the President and showed him why it had to go. Because how can you have a capital budget of N200 billion for federal roads and then spend N2 trillion on petroleum subsidy? This was a conversation I had with the President in 2021 when the subsidy thing started rising. He was convinced. We left. It changed. Everyone in the government agreed, and it changed.
“The second example I will give is this currency redesign. You have to understand the President. People are blaming the Governor of the Central Bank for the currency redesign, but No. You have to go back and look at the first outing of Buhari as President.
“He did this; the Buhari, Idiagbon regime changed our currency and did it in secrecy with a view to catching those that are stashing away illicit funds. It is a very good intention. The President has his right. But doing it at this time within the allotted time does not make any political or economic sense.”
The Information Minister also took Transparency International to task over its latest report, which saw Nigeria dropping five places in the 2021 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) ranking.
He explained: “We are not fighting corruption because we want to impression Transparency International or any organization whatsoever.
“We’re fighting corruption because we believe if we do not fight corruption, there’ll be no growth either in terms of the economy or even political. Therefore, what we do and what we’re putting in place to fight corruption is not because we want to be rated by anybody.
“If, for instance, what we’re doing catches the attention of transparency international and they improve and give us better marks, so we’ll and go. However, I can assure you that we do not know what template TI is using.
“Whatever template they’re using is clearly oblivious of what this administration is doing, to fight corruption.
“Corruption fighting is not just by how many people have you arrested? How many people have you tried? How many people have you convicted? Of course, even in that respect, we have a very impressive record. Is it the EFCC or is it the ICPC?
You see, if you look at what we’re doing even to make corrupt practices,
almost impossible or difficult…I’ll just give you two examples. For instance, this administration, when funds were returned from the Abacha loot and other funds were recovered from the USD, the UK and Europe, what this administration did, was that rather than pay these funds into the treasury and face the possibility of it being stolen or being relooted, the administration decided that we will put this money into a separate account and ask the National Sovereign Investment Fund to manage these funds, and we used this money for specific projects.
“And some of our legacy projects today actually are being financed from our money that have been stolen, which were returned and which we have kept. To me, this is one example of how to fight corruption. An example of how to ensure that people do not steal what has been recovered again.
“I make bold to say that we have been more proactive in fighting corruption and people are not willing to see what we have put in place in fighting corruption. And that’s why I gave that example of putting aside money aside and how those funds are being used.
“Again, the courage of this administration even to expose high ranking officials of administration who have ran foul of the law, is evidence of our determination and courage to fight corruption.
“So, we are not really worried or bothered about rating of the TI, because we know that everything we do is to ensure that we fight corruption the best way we know how to do.
“Like I said, if TI are not seeing this, then again, I think they have to change their template. But again, we’re not fighting corruption to impress them.”
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