Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammmed, has said that it will be a tragedy for Nigeria to fall back into the hands of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as its reign from 1999-2007 could be described as that of dropping the country into the pit of hell.
Mohammed, in an exclusive interview with New Telegraph mentioned that although the PDP has done its part in dropping the country in a “hell” situation, the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration is saddled with the responsibility of uplifting people out of hell.
According to him, the All Progressive Congress (APC), led administration is not contemplating the return of PDP to regain the presidential seat as the country can never again return to the land of Egypt.
His words: “They dropped us in hell and we are taking people out of hell. How can Nigeria now go back to Egypt? It is not about APC or President Buhari . With the kind of revelation that is coming out, the kind of rot, you want those people to come back and preside over the affairs of Nigeria again? What will happen to the investigations that were carried out if the PDP should win elections again? It will be swept under the carpet.
“This is the first time in the history of this country that we are making real recoveries. Just recently, we signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Swiss government to return $321 million that was stolen from the country. This is the first time this country is actually looking at our problems from a realistic and pragmatic viewpoint.
“We are not talking of what we are going to achieve in two years or three years. We are talking about laying a solid foundation for a Nigeria that our children will be able to thrive. Unfortunately, the reform agenda is always longer than the political agenda. In many parts of the world, they plan for 10, 15, 20 years. Nobody plans for four years.
“When you look at our Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), we are talking about 2020, even though we know that there may be a change of administration depending on the outcome of the presidential election. But, you do not think in the short term. Nigerians should never pray for PDP to come back.
“When we negotiated with the Swiss government to return late General Sani Abacha’s loot, they gave us some conditions; one of which is that we must identify what programme we want to use the money for and that the World Bank will supervise what we are using the money for.”
