The President is not critically ill, I spoke with him - Lai Mohammed

Lai Mohammed

The current Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, claimed that President Muhammadu Buhari's health status is far from all those negative speculations moving around the country, says there is no cause to panic.

Speaking on Monday, at the second town hall meeting for South East and the launch of national re-orientation campaign, 'Change Begins With Me', held in Umuahia, Abia State, the minister reaffirmed the position of Femi Adesina who also claim that the president is ok and no cause for alarm.

Lai Mohammed, who was asked to tell Nigerians about the President's health status and whether there was need for a regular briefing on his health insisted that there will be no need to brief anybody about such because there is no reason to do that.

Mohammed revealed that the president spoke with him on Saturday in the afternoon and says Nigerians need not to worry. “ I can say here very boldly and confidently that there is absolutely no cause for alarm.

He said: “`Mr president called me at 2.43 p.m. on Saturday and we spoke.

“If Mr president is in the hospital or is critically ill, as minister of information, I will give daily bulletin on his health.

“Mr president is neither critically ill nor in the hospital and there is nothing life threatening about the checks he is going through."

Speaking on the Nation's state of economy, the minister claimed that it was corruption that made the prices of commodities to shoot up.

“If one person was found with almost 10 million dollar in an uncompleted house and another with 136 million dollar in fake account and other with N7 billion how can the economy survives the kind of looting.

“Naturally the price of commodities will go up.

“These are funds meant for development of infrastructure and for provision of services.

“That is why you cannot do anything with the economy without first facing corruption squarely.

“But the good news is that the government is doing both together, as we are fighting corruption, we are also making sure that we are ensuring we are out of recession by investing heavily on infrastructure."

Mohammed also used the opportunity to pacify the participant who lamented the unending attacks on farmers by the herdsmen.

He said, “I want to make the appeal that the strength of Nigeria is in its diversity and unity.

“We have been living together peacefully before and we shall continue to live together peacefully."

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, who also contributed to the matter on farmers security, empathised with the farmers who are passing through the ugly trend to remain calm.

He said, “we in the Ministry of Agriculture are mostly affected in this crisis and frankly we feel deeply disturbed about it.

“Like the two traditional rulers had said, you asked people to go and farm and there is this problem of herdsmen tormenting them and their cattle eating up their crops.

“It is affecting not only the farmers but the food that they are supposed to produce and sell to the society.

“As a farmer, nothing can be more upsetting to wake up and find out that my farm has been destroyed.
They have done it to me and I know how it badly affected me but we will bring the challenge to an end very soon."

Ogbeh said the Federal Government is training about 3000 agro rangers who will protect farmers and their farms in different places.