The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji
Lai Mohammed says the report that he has 1.2
billion dollars (about N400 billion) in his
imaginary bank account is “fake and vicious’’.
The minister stated this on Thursday in Ilorin
at the Annual National Conference and General
Meeting of the Nigerian Institute of Public
Relations (NIPR) with the theme;
“Communicating Values for Development and
Sustainability’’.
The minister said that the report was invented
by opposition and naysayers to malign him and
the government, adding that the alleged fund
is about the budget of his ministry for 25
years.
“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 1.2 billion dollars in his
imaginary bank account?
“Let’s examine this for a moment. 1.2 billion
dollars is about N400 billion.
“The entire yearly budget of the Ministry of
Information and Culture, where I preside, is
under 15 billion Naira 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 N400 billion.
“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 practiced 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.
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.
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