– The minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed, says the entire yearly budget of the ministry of information and culture is under N15bn
– Mohammed accuses the opposition of inventing fake and malicious stories using bloggers and some online media to malign government officials
– The minister says the intentions of the perpetrators and carriers of the such reports are to distract the government to lose focus
The minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed, says the report that he has $1.2bn (about N400bn) in his bank account is “fake and vicious’’.
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The minister stated this on Thursday, April 27, in Ilorin at the Annual National Conference and General Meeting of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations with the theme; “Communicating Values for Development and Sustainability’’.
The minister said that the report was invented by the opposition and naysayers to malign him and the government, adding that the alleged fund is about the budget of his ministry for 25 years, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.
“How else can you explain that people will believe and circulate a fake report that the Minister of Information and Culture that is yours truly has $1.2bn in his imaginary bank account?
Lai Mohammed has accused the opposition of inventing fake and malicious stories to malign government officials.
“Let’s examine this for a moment. $1.2bn is about N400bn.
“The entire yearly budget of the Ministry of Information and Culture, where I preside, is under N15bn and these include salaries, overhead and capital projects.
“Assuming, without conceding that the Minister somehow manages to transfer the entire budget into his personal account, it will take 25 years for him to amass N400bn.
“Yet, this disinformation was lapped up by the public,” he said.
The minister said that similar imaginary huge sums of money had been credited to other ministers.
He condemned the ugly trend by opposition, who were inventing the fake and malicious stories using bloggers and some online media to malign government officials.
According to him, the intention of the perpetrators and carriers of the reports are to distract the government to lose focus, but it will not fall to their antics.
The minister said that Public Relations gave him the first break in life being the profession he practised after his graduation for over 40 years.
Mohammed, a fellow of the Institute said that the theme of the conference was apt and called on NIPR members to be proactive in the discharge of their duties.
“You must neither be intimidated, cowed nor be overwhelmed by the cynics, you must set your own agenda and daily review such with a view to improving on them.
“You must never lose touch with your traditional constituents. You must understand the tactics of the opposition, which is ambush and irrational,’’ he said.
The minister specifically tasked government information managers to equip themselves with qualities such as integrity, courage, abnormal capacity for hard work, ingenuity resourcefulness and ability to think out of the box.
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The president and chairman governing council of NIPR, Dr Rotimi Oladele said the conference was to deliberate on how the profession could be used to promote communication values for development.
He underscored the need for practitioners to showcase national values and present them to global market.
Oladele commended the minister for the support given to the Institute and for creating time to attend the event.
The minister also inaugurated a new Governing Council for the Institute to run for two years under the leadership of Oladele.
Some of the members of the Council are, former Defence Spokesperson, retired Gen. Chris Olukolade, former Director of Press and Protocol in the Ministry of Information and Culture, Mr Peter Dama and his successor, Mr Timothy Oyedeji.
Others are Mr Wale Adeniyi of Nigeria Customs Service, Alhaji Sule Yau a former Chief Press Secretary to Kano State Government and Alhaja Bola Osifeso.
10 members of NIPR were inducted to Fellowship of the Institute.
Meanwhile, Lai Mohammed, says he “never said that President Muhammadu Buhari is to work from home henceforth”.
ZENITHBLOG.com learnt that in a statement issued in Abuja on Wednesday, the minister said the reporting in a section of the media of his post- Federal Executive Council (FEC) briefing that the President is to work from home henceforth is erroneous.
In the statement signed by his Special Adviser, Segun Adeyemi, the minister said “the President only decided to work from home today, not that he has decided to work from home henceforth”.
He said the headlines in a section of the media, “Buhari to now work from home – Lai Mohammed,” is a misrepresentation of his statement at the briefing.
Did Jonathan lose because he was a bad president? Watch what Nigerians are saying on ZENITHBLOG.com TV.
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