Lai Mohammed was born into the family of Alh. Mohammed Adekeye in 1952. He earned a bachelor’s degree in French from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife in 1975 and Law degrees from the University of Lagos and the Nigerian Law School in 1986 and Alhaji Lai Mohammed as a Lawyer co-founded the legal firm of Edu & Mohammed as a Senior Partner in 1989.

Lai Mohammed

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Alhaji Lai Mohammed is a Lawyer and Co-founded the thriving legal firm of Edu & Mohammed as a Senior Partner in 1989. Alhaji Lai Mohammed is an Astute Businessman and an active politician and is the National Secretary of Actions Congress Nigeria (ACN).

In October 2002, Alhaji Lai Mohammed was a candidate for governor in the April 2003 Kwara State elections on the Alliance for Democracy platform. He was assaulted and five vehicles in his convoy were smashed in front of Senator Suleiman Ajadi’s campaign office at Oke-Onigbin during a festivity.

Alhaji Mohammed served as the Chairman of Optmedia Limited, a subsidiary of Afromedia Plc since December 18, 2008. He served as a Director of Afromedia PLC since May 2011. Alhaji Mohammed is also a fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) and worked as Public Relations Officer for almost 10 years with the Nigerian Airport Authority, now Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).

Alhaji Lai Mohammed is an active politician and is the National Publicity Secretary of All Progressive Congress (APC) in Nigeria. Alhaji Mohammed served as the Chairman of Optmedia Limited, a subsidiary of Afromedia Plc since December 18, 2008.

He served as Chief of Staff to the former governor of Lagos State, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, he was the National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

In October 2002, Alhaji Lai Mohammed was a candidate for governor in the April 2003 Kwara State elections on the Alliance for Democracy platform. He was assaulted and five vehicles in his convoy were smashed in front of Senator Suleiman Ajadi’s campaign office at Oke-Onigbin during a festivity.

In 2015 he was appointed to be the minister of information by president Buhari. This is because most of the names that featured on the list are prominent politicians who have been associated with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for a long time, making people believe that they are professional politicians.

Some likely achievements that earned him second term

The reappointment of former minister of Information and Culture, Alh. Lai Mohammed came to many as a surprise, considering the controversial approach of the minister to his job.

Though, as the mouthpiece of the Federal Government, the minister is generally believed to have dished out more propaganda than news items. For instance, few months after assumption of office, Lai Mohammed called a world press conference claiming that they have about 53 corrupt persons who looted the country dry and when confronted he released only a few names mainly from the main opposition party, PDP.

In December 2015, the minister boasted that the government had technically defeated Boko Haram and that they could no longer hold any territory. This was not only believed by many but the nation became worried when the insurgence renewed the fight and took it to the doorsteps of the military killing so many of them and carting away weapons. The insurgence went further to sustain the fight, killing many people and still abducting others.

But Lai Mohammed remained unperturbed and kept insisting that Boko Haram was defeated remaining a total clearance of the region, North East.

Even though the fight is still on, the minister was able to penetrate the media and also ensure that activities of Boko Haram in the North East was underreported, giving the impression that the war had been won by the military. He equally succeeded in making people believe that Boko haram was not holding any territory in Nigeria, even when they were holding sway.

He tried to take journalists on a controlled and supervised trip to the hotbed of Boko Haram just to report the giant strides of the military. He held town hall meetings across the country to press home the message that the administration was on top of the situation and also informed the people on the various projects going on in every part of the country.

He succeeded in painting the main opposition party, PDP black and convinced many Nigerians that the party was responsible for even the failures of his own party’s. There is no doubt that the former minister was a good marketer who deployed everything in his arsenal to sell President Buhari’s first four years better than that of his predecessors.

While the herdsmen and farmers clash raged across the country, especially in the Middle belt, Lai Mohammed did everything to absorb federal government and herdsmen from the act.

He attributed the clash to climate change and change in weather. He coming back as minister definitely is expected to continue image laundering and marketing both popular and unpopular policies of the government.

Vanguard