Buki Ponle: Lai Mohammed, bone in PDP’s neck

If there is any Nigerian the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) dreads and palpably hates, it is Lai Mohammed who, through his well-grilled, scientifically-driven information machinery as the National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Party (APC), helped to get the PDP sacked from power with ignominy.
If the PDP would forgive all Nigerians for its woes during the last general elections, Lai Mohammed would be an exception.
Which glutton will forgive a man who successfully end his (glutton’s) escapade of feeding fat on the collective commonwealth of the people for almost two decades; a glutton who ate with all his 10 fingers with impunity, not minding if the vast majority of Nigerians perished rather than survive?
If the minister sneezes, it is propaganda in PDP parlance. Whatever, wherever and however, the minister’s demeanour is twisted as propaganda.
The true meaning of propaganda seems to have been lost in PDP’s circle and sane Nigerians wonder if it is same meaning in the white man’s vocabulary.
It could have offered the greatest relief to the party if Lai Mohammed had not emerged as Information Minister. Alas, his towering success has now become the headache of the PDP which, in spite of its antics, has been sinking deeper in attempts to gather any momentum, following its crash.
Such is the reality and as the PDP continues to lick its festering wounds, Lai would not be left alone, even after becoming minister.
Smart Nigerians, however, read in-between the lines who the real propagandist is between the group which the PDP has hurriedly assembled under its spokesman, Olisah Metuh, and the minister.
On assumption of office, Lai Mohammed has been familiarising himself with his colleagues in the mass media industry. He has met with journalists in various cadres for mutually-rewarding working relationships in the overall interest of the nation but, expectedly, that does not impress the PDP.
Recently, the minister took some 33 local and international journalists to the epicentre of the insurgency in the North-East, specifically to Maiduguri, Konduga, Kaure and Bama, a first for any Information Minister since the Boko Haram crisis broke out in 2009. Of course, the PDP was not impressed.
Just four months earlier, Bama was the headquarters of the self-declared Caliphate of Boko Haram.
It was the war’s Ground Zero, from where the terrorists rolled out orders and carried out jungle justice, including illegal tax collection. The palace of the Emir of Bama, whom they sacked, was their operational headquarters.
Also, Konduga was attacked several times by the insurgents who wanted to use it as a staging post to attack Maiduguri.

Owing to the blitz of the Nigerian soldiers marching on with pinpointed accuracy, the entire more than 70km stretch from Maiduguri to Bama and all the way to Banki which leads all the way to Cameroon are in the hands of our troops whose presence, according to those who accompanied the minister on the trip, can be felt every few metre on the road that skirts the Sambisa Forest.

For more than three years, Boko Haram insurgents controlled, at least, 20 out of the 27 LGAs of Borno where they were absolute, and even beyond that state. They handed out threats and carried them out unchallenged. Attacks at places of worship, especially in churches on Sundays, were a surety. The only guess was where the next attacks would be.
Following each attack, the then government had a prepared speech condemning such attacks and assuring the citizens of protection of their lives and property as the perpetrators would ”soon be brought to book”. But that was usually the end of the story!
No official then dared going near the camps of Internally Displaced Persons, not to talk of going to the hotbed of insurgency, simply because it would be suicidal. Only lip service was being adopted in fighting the war.
Today, the Vice President and the Minister of Information have both visited Maiduguri, with the minister even venturing to the former headquarters of Boko Haram in Bama.
This simply because our gallant soldiers have substantially degraded the insurgents. Today, attacks at worship centres have drastically diminished if not totally eliminated through the effort of the present administration. Suicide bombers are reducing and arrests are scaling up because there are no more hiding places for the insurgents.
Lai Mohammed was present at the centre of action and could say without mincing words that the war has largely been won, a statement corroborated by President Muhammadu Buhari. The statements and the actions are verifiable. If PDP holds a contrary view, it should organise its own visit, and then tell Nigerians what it has seen.
It also logically follows that if Boko Haram is consistently being degraded, there will be a breather to the economy which has adversely been affected by the diversion of human, material and financial resources in fighting the war.
These are signs that the country is winning the war within six months’ ascendancy into power by the present administration. Arms are actually being purchased and supplied to the soldiers to fight, not given to the enemy camp. Funds meant for arms purchase are no more shamelessly shared among PDP stalwarts while the country bled.
The expose that has unearthed the arms’ purchase saga should even be enough to silence PDP forever. How can a government, which lay claims to people’s welfare, be so unfair, uncanny, devilish, brutal and brazenly callous to its people? Yet, no remorse is being shown even after it is evident that such money was stolen and outrageously misapplied. The episode could have turned into comedy of absurdity, characteristic of the PDP, but for the firm handling by the judiciary.
In all these, former President Goodluck Jonathan’s name will feature occasionally. Why did the PDP celebrate when he was appointed as the leader of the election observer team in Tanzania but complained when his name and his administration were associated with the lingering fuel crisis due to his maladministration and profligacy? The deeds during his tenure cannot be wished away as the present administration continues to proffer solutions.
Comments from the opposition and their cohorts are sometimes turning to huge jokes, characteristic of PDP’s pastime. Asking the minister to relocate to Sambisa Forest because of a declaration of the North-East as a relatively safe haven is one of such irresponsible jokes lacking in logic and emanating from a chief comedian of the opposition party.
It will be in the interest of political jobbers who post unwarranted, senseless and illogical comments on the social media and those who write just to voice PDP’s rantings, to toe the path of reason, objectivity, common sense and patriotism by helping to build a true Nigerian nation, instead of aligning with the wrong side of history.
Boko Haram terror act cannot go away suddenly. Insurgencies don’t end that way. Episodic attacks will still happen through siege to soft spots such as motor parks, schools, entertainment centres, religious centres, as well as pouncing on innocent people, mostly women and children.
However, this war is not Buhari’s or the military’s, but our own war.
It is time we owned it.

*Ponle, a public affairs analyst, is based in Osogbo, Osun State.