Obasanjos Letter: Lai Mohammed disobeyed me by replying - Buhari
News & Trends •
the president said that he deliberately refused to replace the governor of central bank of nigeria when his administration took over the mantle of leadership of the country because he wanted to give him the opportunity to salvage the economy from its terrible condition1 president muhammadu buhari has said that the minister of information and culture alhaji lai mohammed disobeyed him by replying the letter by former president olusegun obasanjo against the administration1 the president explained the reasons when members of buhari support organisation visited him at the presidential villa abuja on friday night1 buhari explained further that the second reason why he deemed right not to reply the letter was that he and the former president were from the same military constituency1 he however noted that minister of information and culture lai mohammed who disobeyed him not to reply the letter did a good job1 he observed that the reply by the minister showed nigerians the realities on ground when the present administration assumed office in 2015 and its ongoing efforts to revive the inherited damaged economy1 i really appreciate how you choose this time during ramadan to come from across the country to see and congratulate me for what we were able to do1 we were constraint to explain our position when the former head of state wrote a letter adesina was agitated and wanted to immediately reply i stopped him for two reasons first he was much younger than me and gen. obasanjo1 secondly i am from the same constituent with gen. obasanjo so i wouldnt know howit will affect him if i allow him to go wild or to go public but when lai mohammed came i said he shouldnt and he insisted. he disobeyed me1 he said i must allow him to talk then of course being a professionally information person i listened to him and asked him what are going to say1 he said he was going to remind nigerians where we found ourselves when we came in as a government where we are now what we have done in between with the resources available to us1 and i understand he did a good job because a number of people rang me and said lai mohammed has done a good job because i went public in several times1 i said it is on record and i challenged anybody to check from europe united states and asia that between 1999 and 2014 the 16 years of previous administration there was an average of 2.1 million per day of crude oil at the average cost of 100 dollars per barrel he said1 this is even as he said that he had stopped hisspecial adviser on media and publicity femi adesina from replying the letter because of adesinas age1 buhari who thanked his teachers during his primary school days for their efforts to inculcate good morale to him and his mates stated that his administration would continue to invest heavily in education to correct social ills in the society1 he said further that his administration had resolved to put money in the area of infrastructural development to address infrastructural deficits and subsequently ensure speedy socio-economic transformation of the country1 it is now that we are struggling to put the structure on the ground the roads to revive the rail and do the standard gauge and try to spend objectively on power1 if we put money in infrastructure it will create employment opportunities and then nigerians will mind their own businesses they wouldnt even mind what the government is doing once the infrastructure is there he said1 the president therefore reassured nigerians that his administration would continue to spend more funds to upgrade the nations infrastructure1 he said that the government had also expended more than n1.3 trillion on capital projects across the country1 according to him the government will continue to ensure financial discipline accountability and effective supervision of its spending to have solid infrastructure to enable the youth to achieve their missions and objectives in life1 he thanked the members of the organisation for their support and sacrifices noting that none of them had ever made any specific demand from him1 in his remarks the leader of the organisation sen. abba ali who narrated the achievements of the buhari administration in the last three years said they were on solidarity visit to the president to further reassure him of their support1 he said that the organisation had established offices in all the 36 states and 774 local government areas of the country while efforts were being made to ensure the re-election of the president in 20191 mrs paulina tallen a member of the board of trustees of the organisation who spoke at the event assured the president that women would massively vote for him and other candidates of the all progressives congress in the 2019 general elections1 she nonetheless called on the president to bring more qualified women politicians and professionals in government to address the perceived marginalisation of women by apc-led administration in the country1