It was agonisingly uncomfortable listening to Information and Culture Minister Lai Mohammed struggle with the truth as he tried vainly last week to dismiss outright the report of the Lagos State panel that investigated the #EndSARS protests, particularly the shootings that occurred on 20 October 2020. During the protests, unarmed demonstrators were shot, killed, and others sustained serious injuries. It is remarkable that Lai Mohammed, who was nowhere near the event location, could stand up now to challenge or dispute vigorously reports that people were killed during shootings by soldiers and the police. Of course, people were killed. Of course, people sustained serious injuries. Of course, the event was recorded on video and mobile phones.
On what evidence therefore did Mohammed fasten his specious and disingenuous contestation? When he held a media conference last week just to deny and rubbish the findings of the panel, I found the whole experience quite theatrical, narcissistic, pretentious, and stage-managed. The minister’s denials were odd, particularly when video evidence of the incidents has circulated widely in mainstream and online media, as well as in the public sphere. The minister must be desperate to demonstrate to the government that he is doing well on the job. How could Mohammed dispute evidence that is currently in the public sphere, including evidence held by multinational media organisations such as the Cable News Network (CNN)?
Mohammed could have told the truth, unvarnished truth, and attracted the respect of citizens. No, he wouldn’t speak the truth perhaps because his hands were tied, perhaps because he was afraid of being sacked by the government he serves. By refusing to speak the truth during his media conference, Mohammed demonstrated lack of professionalism. He failed to engage directly and truthfully with the public.
Ever since the #EndSARS protests last year, Mohammed has struggled to put a positive spin on the event, such as the unbelievable argument that no one died at the Lekki Tollgate, or that nobody sustained serious injuries, and that the protesters manufactured injuries to support their own account of events. In fact, Mohammed had maintained since last year that the idea that many people were killed by soldiers and police on 20 October 2020 was dishonest.
It is incredible to watch a minister, who did not witness the events directly, concoct an unsustainable argument. If he did not witness the events, he should not pretend that he had the facts. Victims of the shootings, those who survived the volley of bullets fired at the protesters, are best placed to narrate authentically how the police and soldiers fired on unarmed protesters at the Lekki Tollgate.
Mohammed showed insensitivity and disrespect for families of victims when he insisted that no one died during the shootings at the Lekki Tollgate. Victims of the execution-style killings were in the line of fire. They witnessed the killings and suffered injuries. Their voices should be heard, not the cracked and unsubstantiated voice of Mohammed who was nowhere near the scene of the shootings.
Mohammed’s shocking position on the killings at the Lekki Tollgate is not surprising. He might be admired in the Presidency because of his persuasive but weird ability to see the colour green and argue it is grey. He wants everyone to believe there were no killings, no shootings, and no injuries sustained by protesters on 20 October 2020 during the peak of the #EndSARS demonstrations. It is difficult to understand Mohammed’s bizarre argument.
I have often wondered why Mohammed, a lawyer by profession, would convey the impression that he is the Federal Government’s merchant of truth while everyone else is licensed to lie. Sometimes, it is fascinating watching the minister struggle with truth or lie while addressing the media. Should we commend Mohammed for engineering eccentric tales which the public finds difficult to consume?
The ability to misrepresent facts that are accessible in the public domain is certainly not a key criterion for appointment as a senior minister in the government. It is not a skill to be admired. Senior ministers who hold positions of responsibility and authority should live up to public expectations of their office.
It is true the job of Information Minister could be challenging in certain situations, especially in a country in which too many people are cynical or distrustful of government officials. This is why it is often extraordinarily difficult to get the public to believe the government’s record of events. In our society, citizens do not trust political leaders. They have no confidence in public office holders. This is perhaps for a very good reason. Politicians lie regularly, most times with their eyes blinking repeatedly.
For clarity, Mohammed shares certain close characteristics and similarities with former Iraqi Information Minister Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf, a man who was widely known as “Comical Ali” and by a melange of other nicknames, particularly his status as director of outrageous exaggeration. He was infamous for his melodramatic performances and statements on television about the disputed state of affairs in Iraq, particularly how Iraqi troops were overwhelming coalition forces who had surrounded Baghdad in the hunt for President Saddam Hussein.
Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf was a great showman but he was also mistrusted and mocked by news media around the world. He advocated the creed that when lies are told continually, they would one day become the flagrant truth. Take, for instance, what he said during a media conference in which he insisted that American forces who surrounded Baghdad were being exterminated by Iraqi forces. He said: “We are bombarding them. We are chasing them. We are pushing them back. We are deciding the situation. Everything is under our control. We will defeat them. We will fight them till we clean our country from their dirts.”
Many Nigerians would sense a connection between al-Sahaf’s performance as Iraq’s Information Minister and Lai Mohammed’s current performance as Nigeria’s Information and Culture Minister. For one, Mohammed has never seen anything bad in the government he serves. Second, he believes the government of Muhammadu Buhari is the best government the country has ever had.
As Nigerians struggle with Mohammed’s tales by moonlight about what happened at the Lekki Tollgate in October 2020, it is important to clarify that some genres of misinformation or distortion disseminated by Mohammed cannot be served to an audience that has grown highly suspicious of the government. Mohammed cannot continue to treat Nigerians as nursery school children. He cannot attempt to force-feed everyone with false information about the crimes that were committed during the #EndSARS protests last year. His account of events, which differed significantly from the official findings of the Lagos panel that investigated the #EndSARS protests in Lagos State, was evidently intended to mislead, misinform, misrepresent, or deceive.
In many parts of the world, the ability to twist or falsify facts liberally is not, and has never been, the key criterion for appointment of a minister. In Nigeria, the reverse is the case. You cannot be appointed a minister if you hold no track record of dressing up truth in the public arena. It is a shame indeed because those who hold ministerial positions in other countries are respected in their cultures.
A number of lessons must be learned from this experience. Mohammed must treat Nigerians with a measure of respect. Citizens are not a cohort of kindergarten kids whom the government can feed inaccurate information clearly intended to mislead. To deny that no one died during the shootings at the Lekki Tollgate, as Mohammed has claimed provocatively, is to deny the truth and turn reason upside down. A culture of secrecy and lying has undermined rather than enhanced the image of the government.