Lai MohammedThe readers may be wondering why I say again. It is to connect the past with the present. It is about Lai Mohammed’s unrelenting efforts to hamstring the media since 2017. It is not unusual in these climes to have spacecraft in readiness to transport leaders into the clouds for them to lose their heads. Exactly 32 years ago, I wrote in these pages, drawing the attention of President Ibrahim Babangida to the cheer orchestra and the clapping crowd around him. The piece was captioned “Amicus Plato…” It reads as follows: x “In a period of disquiet, all manner of suggestion and criticisms inundate those interested in public affairs. Usually, attention shifts to criticisms to see what can be learned from upbraiding, to see who is making the criticisms and to ferret the motives of the critics. Is the criticism in the normal course of duty of professional critics? When does a critic become a security risk? In the period of unease, the friends of the king step forward to protect the king’s interest, and they regard every critic as a devil deserving of surveillance or public condemnation. In their zealotry friends are sometimes passed as felons and saboteurs. It happened 15 years ago. History is repeating itself today.