2019: We’re So Confident Our Re-election Will Be Easy – Lai Mohammed

The Minister of Information and Culture, Mr Lai Mohammed, has said he is confident that President Muhammadu Buhari will emerge victorious in the 2019 general elections.

The minister made the comments on Tuesday while inspecting the dualisation of the Ibadan-Ilorin road in Oyo state.

“We are so confident that our re-election would be easy,” he said.

“Whether it is in terms of infrastructure, whether it is in terms of social intervention, every day we are working for the people.”

According to Mohammed, the Buhari administration has kept its promises to the people of Nigeria.

He also believes that the President has not lost his goodwill because of the massive projects he says it is embarking on.

In the area of infrastructure, the minister assured the public that there are enough funds to ensure that the road projects are completed at the appropriate time.

He said in addition to the Presidential Infrastructure Fund, the Federal Government also floated a N100 billion Sukuk Bond, which has been shared to the Six Geo-political Zones for intervention in critical infrastructure.

He further stated that the Federal Government would not relent in its promises despite criticism from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

“Our response to critics is not to exchange banters,” he said.

“There is only one way you can get the electorates to vote for you – by keeping your promises to them and by embarking on projects that touch their lives and this is what we are doing and that is why we are so confident.

The Minister said the road remains very significant because it’s the gateway to the South-Western part of the country from the North and has been under severe strain from heavy-duty vehicles since the collapse of the railways.

On his part, the Federal Controller of Works in Oyo State, Mr Omotayo Awosanya, said the project, which was awarded in 2010, is now 58% completed due to the commitment of the present administration to delivering the project.

“When it was initially awarded, there were no proper funding until this present regime when funding improved. We are lucky this project is benefitting from Sukuk Funds in addition to what the budget can provide,” he said.

Another of such projects which Mr Mohammed pointed out is in the area of social intervention.

He said the Federal Government’s school feeding programme caters to about eight million children across primary schools.

“We are working for the common man in this country. As of today, we feed 8.2 million children in primary schools over Nigeria. In the process, we employ 87,000 cooks.

“This feeding programme in about 24 states covers 62,000 primary schools,” he added.