The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, says the achievements of the current administration were there for all to see and not laced with lies and propaganda.
Mohammed said this in Abuja at the Nigeria Governors’ Forum Conference organised for Media Handlers of States’ Chief Executives on Monday.
The minister was responding to allegation of non-performance of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Government leveled by former President Goodluck Jonathan.
It would be recalled that former president Jonathan last week took a swipe at the APC Government, alleging that the Federal Government under President Buhari was “characterised by lies and propaganda’’.
Mohammed said the new strategy for naysayers was to label the achievements of the Muhammadu Buhari administration as as ‘propaganda and lies’ in a bid to discredit them.
“Now, going hand in hand with disinformation and fake news is the new strategy of the naysayers to label the achievements of the government of the day as propaganda and lies in order to discredit them,” he said.
“It is for you, at your level, to use concrete facts to showcase the achievements of your principals. Nigerians are brilliant and discerning, and won’t be taken in by such deliberate denigration. But they also need facts and figures.
“For our administration, our achievements are there for all to see. We are delivering in the broad areas that formed the plank of our policies: Security, fight against corruption and the economy, which includes the massive provision of infrastructure, ease of doing business and agriculture, just to mention a few.”
In the power sector, the minister said when the APC administration assumed office on May 29, 2015, available power on the grid totaled 2,690MW, transmission capacity was around 5,000MW and distribution capacity was 4,000MW.
Comparatively, he said that as at September 4, the available power that could be put on the grid was 6,619MW; the transmission capacity was simulated at 6,700 MW (up from 5,000 MW in 2015), but the distribution capacity was 4,600 MW, which was what was put on the grid.
“When this administration assumed office on 29 May 2015, available power on the grid totalled 2,690MW, transmission capacity was around 5,000MW and distribution capacity was 4,000MW,” he said.
“As at 4 September 2017, the available power that can be put on the grid was 6,619MW; the transmission capacity was simulated at 6,700 MW (up from 5,000 MW in 2015) but the distribution capacity was 4,600 MW, which was what was put on the grid. On September 12, 2017, production of power reached an all-time level of 7,001MW.
“In the area of the Economy, is it ‘propaganda and lies’ that headline Inflation has now fallen for the eighth consecutive month (February to September 2017); that foreign exchange reserves are up to $32 billion, from $24 billion a year ago: that oil production is at nearly two million barrels per day, a significant improvement from 2016 when it was mostly below a million; that Home-grown School Feeding Programme is now being implemented in 17 States, benefiting more than three million public primary school children and more than 30,000 cooks across 20,000 schools (ask the benefitting school children and they will tell you they have been eating nutritious foods, not propaganda and lies).
“That close to 200,000 youths are now benefiting from the N-Power Programme, which recruits unemployed graduates to work as teachers, agricultural extension workers, and health extension workers; that the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), which provides micro-credit to farmers, traders, and artisans, now has in excess of one million beneficiaries, with women accounting for 56 percent of that number, and that at about 1.8 billion dollars, the capital inflows in the second quarter of 2017 were almost double the $908 million in the first quarter.
“If our achievements are based on ‘propaganda and lies’, as they claim, why is our agricultural revolution achieving so much success: We have commissioned the 120,000 MT per annum WACOT Rice Mill in Argungu, Kebbi state.
“We have commissioned the 60,000 MT per annum Edo state fertiliser company limited. What about the commissioning of OLAM’s 750,000 MT per annum Integrated Poultry Facility in Kaduna state? Do you know that 15 moribund fertiliser blending plants have now been revived and in operation across Nigeria, under the presidential fertiliser Initiative, creating 50,000 direct jobs and 70,000 indirect jobs?”
Using concrete facts and figures to justify his position, Mohmmed said the Jonathan administration paid between N800 billion and N1.3 trillion as ‘subsidy’ yearly in its time, without making the products available even at regulated prices.
He said on the other hand, the Buhari administration “is not paying any subsidy, yet all products are presently available at competitive prices and fuel queues are now history’’.
“In their time, they paid subsidy of N3.7 billion daily in 2011, N2.2 billion in 2012 and 2013, and N2.5 billion daily in 2014, all for products that were never available,’’ he added.
