By Dan Onwukwe
He evokes different images to different people. He’s a talker and a tackler. He lives in denial just like the government he serves. Anybody who has been following his political career carefully and his comments, will understand that this man has an irritating habit of talking too loosely and telling yarn that amounts to nothing other than rough humour. That’s just one of his numerous personality traits. Other traits include peddling half-truths and outright lies. But there’s a darker side of living in denial. It doesn’t give one the ability to look facts, very unpleasant facts – in the face – without deluding oneself with wishful thinking.
*Lai Mohammed
Lai Mohammed, Minister of
Information and Culture possesses these traits in abundance. As any management
consultant will tell you: beware! These traits are the blinding lights of
success. They are also the secrets of failure. But, Lai Mohammed keeps telling
the same tale. Very often, he indulges in outright propaganda to hoodwink the undiscerning . However, the good thing is that half-truths have expiry date, no
matter the short-term political gains. Let’s go a bit back in time. In the
campaign leading to the 2015 elections, and desperate for power, Lai Mohammed
was a forceful presence in the then opposition APC propaganda machine to
demonize the Goodluck Jonathan Presidency and make it unelectable.