Former Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said he was able to serve as the longest Minister of Information in Nigeria’s history because he leveraged strategic communication to project government policies.
Alhaji Mohammed, who spoke in Lagos on Thursday during the book reading and signing of his latest book, Headlines & Soundbites: Media Moments That Defined an Administration, described communication as the most strategic tool of governance.
“Governance is not only about making and implementing decisions. It is about explaining the decisions and convincing the people about their implementation,” the former Minister said.
Alhaji Mohammed, in a statement by Head, Public Relations & Strategic Communications, Nnamdi Atupulazi, listed some of the communication strategies he deployed to include town hall meetings, media tours of government projects, interactions with foreign media and global think tanks, the scorecard series, strategic stakeholder engagements, testimony series and regular briefings with the media.
He disclosed that the scorecard series was launched to counter the narrative ahead of the 2023 general elections that the All Progressives Congress (APC) led Federal Government had nothing to campaign on, and to equip all candidates of the party with documented achievements of the Administration.
“In total, 26 ministers made presentations over a 17-week period,” he recalled, adding that the series, which he described as an unprecedented campaign strategy, concluded just eleven days before the 2023 presidential election and provided a treasure trove of campaign materials for all the party’s candidates.
Alhaji Mohammed said the recognition of the strategic power of communication informed both the title of the book and his decision to spotlight critical media moments that helped telegraph the achievements of the administration.
The minister said the government should always regard the media as a powerful partner rather than an adversary.
“The media, in playing its constitutionally-assigned role as watchdog, may be adversarial, but it is never the opposition; it is the amplifier. While government may sometimes see the media as a difficult partner, it remains the most powerful partner it will ever have,” he said.
Alhaji Mohammed also reacted to the suspension of the microblogging platform Twitter, now known as X, and said he was concerned that suspending Twitter would adversely affect Nigerians who use the platform to advertise their goods and services.
“I was also concerned about the optics regarding the government’s commitment to freedom of expression and the opening up of the democratic space.
“However, none of those considerations outweighed the threat to national security posed by the irresponsible use of the platform,” he said, adding: “In governance, public interest must always take precedence over individual interest,” he said.
Alhaji Mohammed said his most difficult moment in office was the #EndSARS protest, because “it confirmed my worst fears about fake news and disinformation as a clear and present danger to our country.”
He attributed the widespread belief that there was a massacre at the Lekki Toll Gate to the spread of fake news and disinformation, particularly on Twitter and by CNN.
“The government never said nobody died during #EndSARS. Of course, many people died across the country. But we have been consistent in stating that there was no massacre at the Lekki Toll Gate. Five years on, no one has come forward to say their children or wards left for the Lekki Toll Gate protest and never returned,” he said.
