Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed has been criticised by the pan‑Yoruba socio‑political organisation Afenifere for his recent comments in the United States about the just‑concluded general election. The rebuke came in a statement issued on Wednesday in Akure, the capital of Ondo State, by Afenifere’s Secretary‑General, Chief Sola Ebiseni. Titled “Lai Mohammed on the 2023 elections and the burden of democracy,” the statement challenges the minister’s claim that the election was free and fair.
Ebiseni expressed disappointment that Nigeria, the most populous Black nation, is plagued by members of the current Buhari administration whose actions continue to tarnish the country’s image. He condemned the decision to air these remarks abroad, describing it as a “macabre dance” on foreign soil. According to the statement, Minister Lai Mohammed joins a “unenviable class” by giving interviews in the United States that, in Afenifere’s view, distort the facts surrounding the 2023 presidential election.
The statement notes that the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in a globally televised address, acknowledged failures in the statutory components of the electoral process. Yet Lai Mohammed allegedly declared that the recent general elections were “the fairest, most transparent and authentic in the history of Nigeria,” a claim the organisation says contradicts the reality expressed in numerous editorials.
Ebiseni further disputes the minister’s assertion that “under our laws today, management of election results is manual.” He points out that a court ruling granting INEC exclusive authority over the mode of election, collation, and transmission merely requires the commission to follow its electoral guidelines. The minister is also accused of lying when he claimed the President ensured that security agencies did not rig the election and provided a level playing field.
According to the statement, security agencies in many states actually worked for the ruling party, while armed thugs threatened citizens with impunity, creating a “state of nature.” Rather than celebrating the loss of some party leaders’ home states to the opposition as evidence of a fair election, Ebiseni argues that Lai Mohammed should have credited the vigilance of the people and recognised the violence they endured at the hands of organised, armed hired thugs.
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