Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has refuted a media
report alleging that Nigerian Governors are planning to send a
delegation to confirm the health status of President Buhari in London,
saying there is no need for such emissary since the President is in good
shape.
He made the rebuttal in Abuja today when he received members of the
Presidential Committee on the Northeast Initiative’s Sub Committee on
Economic Development.
“I think it is very much in order to use this opportunity to debunk the
report in a section of the press today (Thursday) that Governors are
meeting in Abuja and they will at the end of the meeting send an
emissary to London to see President Buhari. I want to say categorically
and emphatically that there is no iota of truth in this. Governors are
not meeting here in Abuja because there is no need for it and there is
no plan to send any emissary to London to see the President. Again I
want to say that the President is hale and hearty in London where he is
observing his 10-day vacation,” he said
While speaking on the humanitarian crisis in the Northeast, Lai Mohammed
said he fully appreciated the enormity of the challenge, having visited
parts of Borno State, including the IDPs camps, upon his assumption of
office in 2015. He said the development had prompted him to launch a
massive public sensitization campaign for Nigerians to take ownership of
the war, thus complementing the efforts of the military, which has
succeeded in
decimating Boko Haram.
“We believe that until Nigerians take possession of the war, the full
rehabilitation, reconstruction and resettlement will not take place. We
are also aware that there is a bigger war to be won, and that is healing
the psychological wounds that have been created by the insurgency,” he
said.
He promised to partner with the Committee in efforts to to de-radicalize
the youths, whose orientation has been affected by the warped ideology
of Boko Haram, and equally change the narrative on the North