Advertisement

Returning Ministers: Buhari to Determine Sylva, Ngige, Tallen’s Fate- Lai Mohammed

•Declares FG has no plan to ban Facebook

Advertisement

President Muhammadu Buhari has the final say on the fate of members of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) who decided to renounce their political ambitions and remain in the cabinet, so says Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

Mohammed also disclosed that the federal government had no plan to ban the social networking website, Facebook, in Nigeria over alleged biased reportage of happenings in some parts of the country.

The disclosure came as FEC approved N169.7 billion private sector investments for road infrastructure through the government’s Tax Credit Programme (TCP), during the weekly virtual meeting.

Advertisement

FEC also approved the sum of N3, 491,622,340 for the purchase of a property in Abuja for the Ministry of Aviation.

Mohammed, who briefed newsmen after the FEC meeting yesterday at the State House, Abuja, said he would need to confirm the status of the returning ministers from the president.

He said, “The question about ministers returning or not going, I think you need to give me more time so that I can tell you exactly what the situation is. Right now, I need to crosscheck.

“I need to confirm again from Mr President what the situation is. You see, the final decision on who is going, who’s coming back, who’s not, lies with Mr. President.”

Advertisement

Presidency sources yesterday told THISDAY that the President had since asked the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami and the Governor of the Central Bank, Godwin Emefiele to stay on in their jobs even though they had initially nursed the ambition of contesting the 2023 election. While Malami had purchased forms to vie for  Governor in his home State of Kebbi, a group of rice farmers purchased forms for Emefiele to contest for ticket to vie for the presidential election.

Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige; his Women Affairs counterpart, Dame Pauline Tallen; Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami; and Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timpre Sylva, had rescinded their decisions to contest for elective offices in the 2023 general election.

Malami was physically present at yesterday’s council meeting, while Tallen and Sylva attended the meeting virtually from their offices in Abuja.

Advertisement

Ngige was said to be away on official engagement in South Africa, where he was attending the global conference on child labour in Durban, organised by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

The information and culture minister also shed more light on the recent meeting between the federal government and Facebook’s management over the alleged biased coverage of the country by the blogging platform. He said both parties had a fruitful discussion, adding that the government is not contemplating banning Facebook operations in the country.

Mohammed stated, “We had a very robust discussion with Facebook. Facebook saw our point and they said they’re going to do much more than what they were doing. So if they do that, why would we ban them? We don’t ban for banning sake. We ban or we only suspend operations if, for any reason, lives are threatened and they do not listen.”

He also said the government was able to express its reservation about some of the reports on Facebook.

According to him, “At that meeting, we expressed our displeasure that Facebook was becoming a power of choice for those who stay outside Nigeria, in particular, to incite violence, killings, burning of government properties, killing of soldiers and policemen. And that they do more than what they are doing now in looking at the contents, which are unwholesome, which are being used on their platforms.

“Incidentally, the BBC did a documentary on this particular issue and found out that some of them who call themselves social media warriors in England, in France, and other places, have in recent times been using the Facebook platform to incite violence in Nigeria. And we’ve all seen the real life impact of those war mongering, the young couple who are going to marry, soldiers who were gruesomely murdered.

“Over this weekend in Anambra State, policemen were killed, military barracks were attacked. And we did warn Facebook to, please, do more than what they are doing now. And I must say that their response was quite encouraging. They said they are going to do much more.”

(Thisday)