Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed,
says the report that he has 1.2 billion dollars (about N400 billion) in his
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.
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.
(NAN)
