TSA saga: Lai Mohammed, Fayose’s aide in verbal war

From Wole Balogun, Ado Ekiti
THE Special Assistant to Ekiti State Governor on
Public Communications and New Media, Lere
Olayinka, has said the Minister of Information,
Alhaji Lai Mohammed is unfit to speak for any
government.
Olayinka, who was reacting to a statement by the
minister that Governor Ayodele Fayose and
others kicking against President Muhammadu
Buhari’s Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy
should return to elementary school, said it was
shameful that Alhaji Mohammed left the main
issue and chose to attack personalities.
This is even as the minister insisted yesterday
that the funds in the TSA remain intact while
reacting to Olayinka’s report.
He said; “Now that Daddy Lai Mohammed has
been elevated to the position of the spokesperson
of the Federal Government of Nigeria, he needs
to be purged of the All Progressives Congress
(APC) basket mouth syndrome that made him to
speak like a tout.”
He said the Federal Government must tell
Nigerians why and how it mortgaged their
existence to a single company that has made
what no manufacturing companies with
thousands of employees can make in one month.
Ekiti State under Governor Fayose is managing
its finances perfectly well without the Treasury
Single Account, which is obviously aimed at
enriching a few individuals at the expense of
Nigerians,” he noted.
He advised President Buhari to urgently de-brief
Mohammed so that he will operate as a
spokesperson of the government and not APC
propagandist.
Olayinka said; “At 63, Mohammed should know
that speaking for the government is different
from speaking for the APC.
“He should know that opposition is a major
ingredient of democracy and any democratic
government devoid of opposition must be ready
to embrace anarchy.
“It is therefore, the duty of Nigerians, especially
the National Assembly to ask questions on the
administration of the resources being held in
trust for them by those in power and it is the
responsibility of government at all levels to
explain,” Olayinka said.
Meanwhile, Alhaji Mohammed insisted that the
funds that have accrued to the TSA remain intact,
challenging anyone who has any fact and figure
to the contrary to make such information public.
In a statement issued yesterday in Abuja, the
minister reiterated the fact that less than 2 trillion
Naira has accured to the TSA, hence, the one per
cent charges on the amount could not have been
25 billion Naira.
He said that apart from the resort to personal
insults in the most undignifying statement ever
credited to any state governor, nowhere in the
statement did Governor Fayose controvert the
facts that we stated concerning the TSA.
“For the sake of Nigerians at home and in the
Diaspora, who have been following the TSA
debate, we hereby restate the facts:
•The TSA deal was initiated by the immediate
past administration, but only enjoyed a new
lease of life under the Administration of President
Muhammadu Buhari because of his sterling
leadership qualities of accountability,
transparency, uprightness and respect for the
Rule of Law.
• Any agreement on the TSA charges was
reached long before the present administration
assumed office;
• Even if the agreement on the charges is one per
cent, it could not have amounted to 25 billion
Naira because the total amount of money that
has accrued to the TSA is less than 2 trillion
Naira;
• Even if one per cent was agreed as charges,
whatever accrues therefrom was meant to be
shared among the CBN, Systemspecs (the owner
of the Remita software) and the commercial
banks, hence no single company could have
collected 25 billion Naira as charges;
• As at the time the controversy over the TSA
broke, the total amount of money in the TSA was
less than 800 billion Naira;
• The TSA has neither been enveloped in any
fraud nor has any money from the account been
diverted;
• The Senate’s investigation of the TSA issue is
within its oversight responsibilities and is never a
confirmation that the TSA funds have been
diverted or that indeed one single company has
made 25 billion Naira as charges; and
“These are the issues and we stand by them,
irrespective of a rabble-rousing and demeaning
statement from any quarter,’’ the minister said.