According to The Cable, Lai Mohammed, the former Minister of Information and Culture, disclosed how the spread of false information on social media threatened his 40-year marriage. CONTINUE FULL READING>>>>>
Speaking at a Lagos ceremony honoring Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka’s 90th birthday, Mohammed emphasized the difficulties he had as a minister, especially the widespread dissemination of misinformation.
“Permit me to share publicly with you today for the first time, how social media threatened the foundation of my forty-year-old marriage,” he said.
Addressing the audience, Mohammed recounted a harrowing experience that nearly jeopardized the foundation of his long-standing marriage. He described an incident that occurred in 2018 when he was in Lagos for an official assignment. In the middle of the night, his wife woke him up, expressing urgency in discussing a serious matter.
Initially fearing a security breach, Mohammed was taken aback by his wife’s calm demeanor as she broached the topic. She revealed her concern about a rumor circulating on social media, alleging that government officials, including Mohammed, had substantial sums of money stashed in overseas accounts.
Mohammed recalled his shock at the accusation, feeling bewildered that his wife could entertain such unfounded claims. His wife’s request to be added as a signatory to his alleged overseas account containing $1.3 billion further shook him. Determined to dispel the falsehood, Mohammed spent hours painstakingly explaining the implausibility of the accusation.
He stated that his wife said ‘Daddy, death can come knocking at any moment, please let me also, as your wife, be a signatory to your oversea account in Ali Financial which contains 1.3 billion dollars,” his wife reportedly said.
“I spent the next two hours or so, sweating to convince my wife that there is no iota of truth in the allegation.”
He dissected the federal appropriation acts from previous years, demonstrating that the budget allocations during his tenure did not support the extravagant claims.
He stated, “I had to fetch a calculator and reproduce the federal appropriation act for 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 in the middle of the night and explain to her why it is simply preposterous for me to have 1.3 billion dollars in a foreign account.
“I explained to her that there is no year my capital budget exceeded N5 billion, which then, at about N400 to a dollar, was just 12.5 million dollars.
“I explained that, even if I managed to divert every kobo of it to my personal account, it will take at least, 104 years to save the sum of 1.3 billion dollars being peddled that I stole.
Despite his efforts to debunk the rumor, Mohammed’s wife remained troubled by the widespread belief in the fabricated story. She lamented how her friends had reacted to the allegations, viewing her with suspicion and making unwarranted requests. Mohammed expressed his frustration at the pervasive influence of fake news, which had strained his marital relationship and tarnished his wife’s reputation.
Reflecting on the incident, Mohammed pondered whether his wife was genuinely convinced of his innocence or if doubts lingered in her mind.
“Is my wife truly convinced of my innocence? The answer is in the wind,” he stated. CONTINUE FULL READING>>>>>
