A former Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has said that his appointment by former President, Muhammadu Buhari, in 2015 was not by chance but the culmination of years of trust, shared convictions, loyalty, and service.
Naijaonpoint reports that Mohammed, who served in Buhari’s cabinet for almost eight years, made the revelation in his book, Headlines and Soundbites: Media Moments that Defined an Administration.
The book was presented in Abuja on December 17, 2025, a date chosen to coincide with what would have been Buhari’s 83rd birthday.
Recounting events after Buhari’s inauguration on May 29, 2015, Mohammed noted that it took some time before the former President constituted his cabinet.
However, he said Buhari’s confidence in him was evident early on, as he was personally appointed into the Ahmed Joda-led Transition Committee in April 2015, even after other members had already been named.
The committee was charged with liaising with the outgoing administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, reviewing handover notes and preparing a blueprint for the incoming government.
Mohammed narrated the phone call that culminated in his appointment, describing it as unexpected.
He said, “Hello,’ the voice on the line said. ‘Is this Alhaji Lai Mohammed?’ I answered in the affirmative. ‘Hold on for Mr President,’ the voice said.
“Then another voice, apparently that of the President-elect, came on the line and asked: ‘Lai, where are you?’
“‘Your Excellency, I am in Lagos.’
“‘What are you doing in Lagos?’ he asked.
“‘I live in Lagos, Your Excellency,’ I replied.
“He then went straight to the reason for the call: ‘Are you not coming for the inaugural meeting of the Transition Committee in Abuja tomorrow?’”
According to Mohammed, when he told Buhari he was not a member of the committee, the President-elect simply replied, “‘Ok, Tunde (Sabiu, his longtime personal assistant) will call you,’ and he hung up.”
“Within the hour, I received a call from Tunde, who asked where he should deliver the letter appointing me to the transition committee,” he added.
Mohammed said when the transition committee was first announced without his name, he neither felt slighted nor excluded.
“I was simply happy that the party had won the election,” he stated.
He said the personal appointment marked the beginning of a “cordial and special relationship” with Buhari, which lasted until the former President’s death on July 13, 2025.
The former minister also recalled that shortly before Buhari’s 100th day in office, a close confidant of the President reached out to him to assist the presidential spokesmen ahead of the milestone.
At the time, Buhari had appointed only Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu as his media aides, while ministers were yet to be named.
“I did not need a soothsayer to tell me that the call was a further indication of the President’s confidence in me,” Mohammed wrote.
He added, “The same confidant told me on another occasion that if there was anyone the President was very sure would make his cabinet and whose portfolio he was already sure of, that person was me.”
Mohammed traced his relationship with Buhari to 2012, when he asked, through Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, that Buhari write the foreword to his first book, Witness to History.
“Buhari graciously agreed, wrote the foreword, and attended the book launch,” he said.
Their interaction deepened during the build-up to the 2015 general election, following the merger that formed the All Progressives Congress.
Mohammed, who served as opposition spokesman for the Action Congress of Nigeria and later the APC for over a decade, said he regularly attended meetings with Buhari in Kaduna alongside President Bola Tinubu and Chief Bisi Akande.
“These meetings usually held on Mondays and Thursdays,” he recalled.
According to Mohammed, those long-standing engagements, built on mutual respect and shared political ideals, laid the foundation for the confidence Buhari later reposed in him.
“Serving in Buhari’s administration for nearly eight years allowed me to witness firsthand the former President’s dedication to discipline, integrity and national service, values that guided my own conduct in office,” he said.