Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed on Monday said he never deceived Nigerians when he said President Muhammadu Buhari is hale and hearty while he was on vacation in the United Kingdom (UK).
The Minister, according to the Independent, was responding to claims by some Nigerians who accused him of being economical with the truth on the actual state of health of the president.
Though the Minister had repeatedly said the president was hale and hearty, President Buhari, who arrived the country on Friday morning 49 days after he left the country had said he had never been this sick at a meeting he had with government officials.
“I couldn’t recall being so sick since I was a young man, including in the military with its ups and downs”.
Speaking on Monday, the Minister said as the nation’s number one information officer, he had no cause to deceive Nigerians who are anxious to know the true state of health of their president.
He said the statements he issued on the president’s health was to calm nerves, assure Nigerians that the president is fine and to discount the claims by some rumor peddlers that the president is terminally ill.
“The management of the president’s health and information regarding it is a very delicate issue. On the one hand, we do not want to create panic and most importantly, we want to assure the country that all is well with the president”.
“I said whatever is wrong with Mr. President is neither terminal nor life- threatening. The context in which I said the president is hale and hearty is against the background where some mischief makers said he was dead or that he was suffering from a terminal disease”.
“For a government spokesperson in managing news regarding the president, the most important for him is to calm nerves, reassure the nation and not create panic.”
“It was against that background in reassuring the nation that the statement was made that President Buhari is hale and hearty and there is no cause for alarm as opposed to the wild rumours that the man is dead, he is terminally ill and all kinds of things” he said