Lai Mohammed is High Priest of Fake News, Says Atiku Campaign Organisation

By Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The Atiku Presidential Campaign Organisation (APCO) has described the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Muhammed, as the “high priest of the All Progressive Congress (APC) cult of liars.”

This may not be unconnected to a recent report allegedly authored by the minister where he stated that the international media had queried the emergence of Atiku over suspicious source of wealth.

In the said report, Mohammed was quoted to have said at a lecture in the Royal Institute for International Affairs (Chatham House) with the topic: ‘Nigeria’s National Unity: Towards Participation and Shared Values’ that  “we do not need to do anything extra because we have delivered on all our promises and Nigerians are quite happy and satisfied with the government.”

 APCO in a statement yesterday said the  true position of things was that ever since the emergence of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the international media has been agog with praise for Atiku and hope for a new dawn in Nigeria.

The statement added: “How anyone would take the word of a confirmed liar, Lai Mohammed, for the gospel truth is beyond us.

“How the minister of information of a government that has turned Nigeria into the world headquarters for extreme poverty can say that is beyond imagination. Is Mohammed claiming that his party promised and delivered poverty and Nigerians are satisfied with this world record poverty?

“If Mohammed can lie openly at Chatham House in front of the international press and diplomatic corps, is it a big thing for him to lie about his accounts with the international media?”

 APCO said Reuters praised Atiku as having long enjoyed support from the business elite in Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos, for his conservative-capitalist ideals.

 It added that not one single international newspaper, magazine, TV station or website has had anything negative to say about Atiku’s emergence, saying: “Such lie only exists in the fallacious imagination of Mohammed.”

 APCO said on the contrary, international media and even reputable global financial institutions had predicted doom for Nigeria should President Muhammadu Buhari be re-elected.

According to one of the world’s largest banks, HSBC, “a second term for Buhari however raises the risk of limited economic progress and further fiscal deterioration, prolonging the stagnation of his first term, particularly if there is no move towards completing reform of the exchange rate system or fiscal adjustments that diversify government revenues away from oil.”

On its own part, The Economist wrote off the Buhari administration as a failure, saying: “The 2019 elections will be a close contest between the ruling APC and the PDP. We expect the PDP presidential candidate to win.”

It said Nigerians can no longer be hoodwinked by the Orwellian propaganda which is the signature of this administration.