Lai Mohammed undertakes post-election visits to U.S., UK, meets Campbell, Pham, Taylor, others

Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on Friday, wrapped up his visits to the United States and the United Kingdom, which he undertook to meet with the international media and Think Tanks in both countries, in the aftermath of the recent 2019 general elections in Nigeria.

During the visits, the Minister was interviewed by the BBC, VOA, SKY TV, Al-Jazeera, Washington Post, Reuters, The Economist, Financial Times and the Africa Report, among others.
He also met with influential Think Tanks like the Atlantic Council, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Centre for Strategic Studies, all in Washington, DC, as well as the international not-for-profit corporation FINCA, also based in the U.S. capital.

In London, the highlight of his visit was his meeting with investors, lawyers, business community and diplomats with ties to Nigeria at a breakfast setting to convince them to invest in Nigeria.
“Not only is our administration positive about our economy’s outlook, but the $5 billion in foreign investment that we have secured after the recent elections signals that you, the international community, share our positive outlook and confidence in the administration’s
policy,” he told the meeting.

A key question that kept coming up throughout the visit is what the Muhammadu Buhari Administration’s priorities will be during its second term, to which the Minister responded that the priorities remained to revamp the economy, fight corruption and tackle insecurity.
The Minister also used the visits to correct the impression that the last-minute postponement of the 2019 presidential and National Assembly elections was at the instance of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and that the Buhari Administration had nothing to do with it.

Some of the dignitaries he met included Ambassador John Campbell of the Council on Foreign Relations, Washington D.C., Dr J. Pham of the Atlantic Council in Washington D.C., Aliyu Mustapha of Voice Of America (VOA), Nigerian High Commissioner to the UK, Ambassador George Oguntade in London, Dr. Scott Taylor of the African Studies Department, Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. and others.

With the minister were Mr. Segun Adeyemi and Mr. Williams Adeleye.