Saturday, 30 January 2016

Open Letter To Information Minister And President Buhari (1)

“The rate of change in our time is so swift that an individual of ordinary length of life will be called on to face novel situations which have no parallel in the past. The fixed person for the fixed duties, who in the old society, was such a “God-send”, will in the future be a public danger.”
Alfred North Whitehead, 1861-1947.
Once Buhari was declared the winner of the presidential election in 2015, everybody’s thought turned to the persons who would be appointed ministers and the portfolio they would be given. In every forum in which the discussions took place, and despite the long delay in announcing his appointees, I declared that one name would be on the list and the portfolio he would be saddled with. The man is Lai Mohammed – the Minister of Information and Culture. Let me quickly add that I also felt it would be a mistake to offer him that portfolio. The reasons were very simple and let me set them out now.
In April 2014, writing under the title “M&M: The Two Most dangerous men in Nigeria”, the point was made that Mohammed of the APC and Methu of the PDP, National Publicity Secretaries for their parties, were driving the nation close to the brink of political madness. In fact one thing and one thing only saved Nigeria from the apocalyptic outcome of the frenzy whipped up by these two men – Jonathan’s concession of the election
. Had Jonathan merely said “I don’t accept the result”, it is certain that Nigeria would not be the same today. To me, the two of them were seemingly irresponsible and a little unpatriotic. Undoubtedly followers of Niccolo Machiavelli, 1469-1527, who taught the world the unethical doctrine that the end justifies the means, M&M made statements which were admixtures of half-truths, deliberate lies, unsubstantiated rumours elevated to the level of sacred truths – while all the time barely avoiding being sued for defamation. Hitler’s chief of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, 1897-1945, would have been extremely fortunate to have both of them on his staff.

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