Former Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has described the suspension of Twitter in Nigeria as one of the most difficult decisions he took during his eight-year tenure.
Mohammed also insisted the move was motivated solely by national interest and not by the deletion of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s tweet.
Speaking on Arise News on Wednesday to discuss his new book, Headlines and Soundbites: Media Moments That Defined an Administration, he said the decision to suspend the platform was driven by the need to protect the country.
“There are some decisions like that that you have to take, not because you like them,” he said.
He further rejected claims that Buhari’s deleted tweet triggered the suspension.
“Honestly, that was not. I went to President Buhari and I asked him, we need to suspend the service of Twitter. And he asked why.
”Is it because they deleted my tweet? I said, no, sir. And I gave him instances and examples, ” he said.
Mohammed explained that he had long advocated for regulating social media to prevent it from becoming a national threat.
“I started by advocacy. I started by visiting media houses. I started by trying to work with them. But it was clear in my mind that an unregulated social media could be a disaster.
”I was always on the issue of social media between 2016 and 2023. I kept saying, I’m not trying to stifle free press, but we must regulate the social media,” he said.
The former minister defended the Buhari administration’s stance on EndSARS and the Lekki Toll Gate controversy, standing by his criticism of CNN’s coverage.
“Nobody ever said nobody died during the EndSARS. People died even in Abuja. They died in Lagos. They died in Kano.
”But what we were saying is that CNN was not at the tollgate. CNN relied on second-hand thought and information,” he said.
Mohammed described the widely reported “massacre” at Lekki Toll Gate as “fake news.” “Five years on today, nobody has come to tell us that my son or my ward went to the tollgate and didn’t come back,” he said.
He recounted the personal toll the EndSARS period took on him and his family, noting that they even urged him to resign.
“They were bullied online. They were bullied offline. Their businesses. They’d had enough. They said, look, wait a minute.
”We are not benefiting from this thing. So why are you exposing us? And I had to sit them down and tell them it’s not as easy as that,” he said.
Reflecting on his role, Mohammed said one of the biggest challenges as a communicator was preventing misinformation from overshadowing facts.
“One of the jobs of a communicator, one of the biggest challenges, is how do you prevent fake news and misinformation from overshadowing the real facts?”, he said.
He insisted that his actions were motivated by national interest rather than preserving the Buhari administration.
“We never saw preserving the administration as a priority. We saw preserving Nigeria as a priority because there’s a country called Nigeria,” he said.
Mohammed highlighted his consistent engagement with the media and public throughout his tenure.
“For eight years, I tried to communicate government to the people, get feedback from them, and take that feedback to government.
”We organised town hall meetings. I used to meet every fortnight with bureau chiefs.
”We were meeting every month with the Minister of Defence, the Minister of Police Affairs, the Chief of Army Staff, inviting editors, discussing issues not meant for publication to build confidence,” he said.
Mohammed described his book as a personal effort to document contemporary Nigerian history from an insider’s perspective.
“For eight years, I was privileged to be at the centre of policymaking, government communication, tourism, national orientation, and culture.
”I find it a duty to let Nigerians and the world know what actually happens behind the headlines and soundbites,” he said.
The book, set to launch on December 17 in honour of Buhari, covers key moments including rescuing the National Theatre from disuse, preventing the P&ID $9.6 billion fraud, and supporting military operations during the Bring Back Our Girls campaign.
Mohammed also offered personal reflections on Buhari, describing him as a “mentor, friend, and boss,” and recounted humorous anecdotes, including being teased about his fasting habits.
On the national security front, he clarified distinctions between Boko Haram and banditry.
“Boko Haram is religiously inspired. Banditry is materially inspired. It has nothing to do with ethnicity or religion,” he said.
Mohammed stressed the importance of proactive communication.
“When about 200 girls were kidnapped in Dapchi, I didn’t wait for journalists.
”I went there myself. I went because I wanted to take possession of the narrative,” he said.
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