The Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, has disclosed that a past
administration spent N2bn to repair a leaky roof at the National
Theatre. The Minister however, refused to reveal the actual
administration that made such horrendous repair on the National Theatre. According to him, he could not say if the money was actually spent on the project.
The above revelation was made by the minister on Saturday during a courtesy
visit to Prof. Wole Soyinka in his office at the Freedom Park in
Lagos.
While lamenting the poor edifice at the National Theatre, built originally for the promotion of arts and cultural heritage in Nigeria, the minister added that the Federal Government was
planning to initiate a Public-Private Partnership that would help
transform the theatre to become the pride of the nation.
Soyinka, on his part, said President Muhammadu Buhari was
fighting the biggest anti-corruption war in Nigerian history. He also
commended the progress the President has so far made in the fight
against graft especially in the $2.1bn arms scam.
Speaking on the matter, Soyinka said: “I don’t think that will
happen this time and the reason is this: We have not had corruption
being exposed on this scale before. We have not had a situation where it
is being alleged and increasingly proved that money which was supposed
to have been spent on defending our nation, ourselves and our
neighbourhood has been shared among individuals.
“We have never had the experience where we were in a state of
critical emergency where children were being kidnapped under our noses
and we were helpless and our soldiers were being sent to the warfront to
defend our very existence and we were not backing them up with conduct
that shows integrity and commitment.
“During the civil war, I am not aware, may be it existed on
this scale, I am not aware but I am just saying that as somebody that
has gone through a civil war, even though some of us spent it in prison,
I have not heard such exposé.” he said.
It is really a pity
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