Alhaji Lai MuhammedReuters, Aljazeera, the Economists, AP, New African, African Business, African Review Magazines and other international media organizations have queried the emergence of the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar against the background of the war on corruption by the Muhammadu Buhari government.
The international media organizations were said to have raised questions as to why Atiku would emerge as presidential candidate, considering the anti corruption stance of President Buhari’s administration.
“One curious issue that kept occurring was that anytime I spoke about how we have waged war against corruption, the journalists kept asking me a question,” said the minister of information and culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who addressed the media organizations in London.
The minister said: “they asked me: How can you claim to have succeeded in waging war against corruption, when one of the major contestants in the 2019 general elections is actually a man with stupendous wealth but cannot explain the source of his wealth?.
“That baffled me a lot, because it mean that we are still being perceived as a country where corruption thrives.
“It was difficult for me to explain to them that yes, we are fighting corruption but these are the same people who have put this country where we are today and who are also trying to come back to power.”
The minister assured the media organizations that the issue they raised is the same that will define the task of choice of President by Nigerians in 2019 elections.
“The choice for Nigerians today is either they go back to the corrupt past where our commonwealth was shared by a few elites or move forward and continue with this new trajectory where the national resources are used for the benefit of all Nigerians.
“I explained to them that the 2019 elections have been defined, and the choice has been made easy. We are sure that Nigerians will choose rightly.”
NAN reports that the minister, during the visit, also delivered lecture in Chatham House, a UK based Royal Institute of International Affairs on the topic:, “Nigeria’s National Unity: Towards Participation and Shared Values”
Lai Mohammed also engaged with foreign and Commonwealth Office, All Party Parliamentary Group and Royal African Society, a body founded in 1990 to promote relations between the UK and Africa.
Source: NAN.
