BY SEGUN ADEBAYO, ABUJA – The Federal Government says it will not be distracted by ‘frivolous allegations’ aimed at diminishing the laudable achievements of President Muhammadu Buhari’s Presidency.
Reacting to claims by former President Olusegun Obasanjo that the Buhari’s administration is plotting his arrest and indefinite detention on bogus charges, Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said the government is fully aware of the antics by some self-serving and attention-seeking individuals to shore up support for their waning and egotistical cause.
He said the current baseless allegation is also meant to divert public attention from the widely-acclaimed presidential proclamation of June 12 as Nigeria’s Democracy Day and the posthumous national honours for MKO Abiola, the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 elections.
Alhaji Mohammed said the Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC) Administration refuses to be distracted by “frivolous allegations from any quarter, especially those cleverly choreographed to divert attention from a widely-acclaimed presidential proclamation and to shore up support for a waning and egotistical cause”.
The Minister, who spoke through a statement in Lagos on Friday, said the administration is “too busy trying to clear the mess of 16 years and build on its unprecedented achievements over the past three years to waste its energy and time on framing up anyone or dwelling on issues that are not grounded in fact”.
According to him, while “those who have skeletons in their wardrobes should be afraid, even of their own shadows, innocent persons need not worry about any investigation, whether real or imagined”
He said; “This administration will never engage in a frame-up of innocent citizens. That is neither in the character of President Muhammadu Buhari nor in that of his administration. Only the guilty should be worried. To paraphrase an African proverb, a man who has no wife cannot lose an inlaw to the cold hands of death.
“The administration is also strongly committed to the tenets of democracy, including freedom of speech and the right to dissent. But we understand that those who, in their time, were untethered to those principles would find it hard to believe.
“We are curious that the frame-up and witch-hunt allegations came a day after a major presidential proclamation reversing some past acts of injustice was made, to the relief and acclamation of a long-expectant nation.”
Lai Mohammed maintained that the “impact of the proclamation was too much to bear by those who, through acts of omission or commission, helped to deepen the wounds inflicted by the blow of injustice that followed an election that was widely acclaimed to be free, fair and credible, hence they felt the need for a red herring that will distract the nation.”
He further stated that; ”Added to that is the frustration brought about by the fact that the contraption they have so much hyped as a freeway to power has failed to gain traction. Faced with this double tragedy, even the strongest of men may begin to succumb to a figment of their imagination. They may start crying wolf where there is none.”
“Unprecedented achievements of the Buhari Administration are also enough to cause sleepless nights, with the attendant symptoms that include phantasm, for those who had better opportunities to make the country great but floundered on the altar of narcissism,” the statement said
