Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said, it is unfortunate that people who talk about the level of insecurity in Nigeria don’t remember to comment about the country’s security problems in 2015 and how it has improved currently.
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| Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed. Photo: Reuters/Afolabi Sotunde via TheGuardian |
The Minister said “the worst is over in the area of insecurity and the government has gotten the handle on security issues” in the country.
Lai Mohammed made these comments at a joint press conference in Calabar with Prof. Ben Ayade, the Governor of Cross River State, during a ceremony to mark the 2022 World Tourism Day.
He said, “I am bold to say here that in the last three months, even our worst critics will agree that the government has gotten the handle on security issues. In the area of insecurity, I want to assure you that the worst is over.”
The Minister also believes the current security situation in the country is way improved than what it was in 2015.
He described the whole North East as “a no-go area” and that he went the extra mile of visiting the region by himself with the company of both foreign and local journalists to see things firsthand and evaluate the extent of damage done to the region by insurgency.
“It’s unfortunate that people who comment on insecurity fail to start from where we were in 2015 and where we are today.
“In 2015, the entire North East of the country was a no-go area. When I was appointed Minister in 2015, one of the first tasks I embarked upon was to go with a team of foreign and local journalists to the North East, in particular to Maiduguri, Kaure, Konduga and Bama, to see firsthand the effect of Boko Haram insurgency.
“That’s on 5th December 2015 and I needed air force jets to escort me from Maiduguri to Bama, which is about 68 kilometers. Apart from our convoy, we didn’t see any other vehicular traffic on the road. All the houses in Bama were destroyed by Boko Haram. There were no schools in the North East and no hospitals. Telecom services were destroyed.”
The Minister said, presently, the North East is now accessible and functional because of efforts of the government.
He concluded by saying that the partnership between government and private security companies have helped in reducing the activities of vandals in the Niger Delta region, which have been causing the government to lose hundreds of thousands of barrels on a daily basis.
The activities of these vandals have caused so much loss to the government in revenue and foreign exchange, he said.
