The Minister of Information and
Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed , says
President Muhammadu Buhari is
neither critically ill nor in life
threatening situation and there is no
cause for alarm.
The minister reiterated this position
on Monday in Umuahia at the second
town hall meeting for the South East
and the launch of national
reorientation campaign, “ Change
Begins With Me’’ in Abia.
The minister , who was asked to tell the
country about the health condition of
the president and whether there was a
need for a regular briefing on his
health stressed that there was no
reason for such briefings.
Mohammed disclosed that the
president spoke with him on Saturday
in the afternoon and there was no
reason for Nigerians to be worried.
He said , “ I can say here very boldly
and confidently that there is
absolutely no cause for alarm .
“ Mr president called me at 2 . 43 p. m .
on Saturday and we spoke .
“ If Mr president is in the hospital or is
critically ill , as minister of
information, I will give daily bulletin
on his health .
“ Mr president is neither critically ill
nor in the hospital and there is
nothing life threatening about the
checks he is going through .”
Speaking on the state of the economy ,
the minister said that it was
corruption that made the prices of
commodities to go up .
He noted that no economy in the world
could survive the blind and reckless
looting perpetrated by the previous
administration .
He said , “ If one person was found with
almost $ 10 m in an uncompleted house
and another with $ 136 m in fake
account and other with N7 bn how can
the economy survives the kind of
looting.
“ Naturally the price of commodities
will go up.
“ These are funds meant for
development of infrastructure and for
the provision of services .
“ That is why you cannot do anything
with the economy without first facing
corruption squarely .
“ But the good news is that the
government is doing both together , as
we are fighting corruption, we are also
making sure that we are ensuring we
are out of recession by investing
heavily on infrastructure. ”
Mohammed also pacified the audience
who lamented the spate of attacks on
farmers by the herdsmen .
He said contrary to the position of
some elements who want to destroy
the unity of the country , the
government was not supporting any
section of the country against the
other .
He said it was purely security issue
and it was being handled from both
the federal and the state levels .
“ I want to make the appeal that the
strength of Nigeria is in its diversity
and unity .
“ We have been living together
peacefully before and we shall
continue to live together peacefully, ’’
he said .
Speaking in the same vein, the
Minister of Agriculture and Rural
Development , Chief Audu Ogbeh ,
apologised on behalf of the Federal
Government to the farmers who had
suffered from the ugly trend .
“ We in the Ministry of Agriculture are
mostly affected in this crisis and
frankly we feel deeply disturbed about
it.
“ Like the two traditional rulers had
said , you asked people to go and farm
and there is this problem of herdsmen
tormenting them and their cattle
eating up their crops.
“ It is affecting not only the farmers
but the food that they are supposed to
produce and sell to the society.
“ As a farmer , nothing can be more
upsetting to wake up and find out that
my farm has been destroyed.
They have done it to me and I know
how it badly affected me but we will
bring the challenge to an end very
soon,’’ he said .
Ogbeh said the Federal Government is
training 3000 agro rangers who will
protect farms in different places.
0 Comments