hello everyone welcome to the program this is politics today live on China's television I'm shimal in Abuja tonight our attention is on a few issues broading on state of the nation from uh how the linked looted asset to former minister of petroleum resources Des m is now being there's an agreement by the United States to return about 52 million us to Nigeria they said 50 million of that will be used for Rural electrification and 2 million to fight corruption and also for uh to uh enhance Judiciary and uh corruption fight in Nigeria so it looks
like good news but we know that we have so much money outside of this clim outside of this country that could be return by those who have looted all dry who have taken and stolen the funds of this country country outside of this nation and hopefully some of them will return in other in places like the United States United Kingdom and in Switzerland but tonight our attention is on the implication of non-convention based forfeitures what does this mean um and how can we go ahead uh uh after more of this I'm getting an experienced person
in prosecution of this similar case but I also getting an experienced lawmaker to give us an Insight in what is happening in the northern region of the country you heard and said so what happened in the defense of the 2025 budget by toob men and the national Summit today was the turn of the IR chairman who is asking about three times more money uh than usual for in you say the amount to prosecute election in Nigeria is Bome and also expensive we'll be hearing more on all of these issues stick around with me everyone before
because we need to serve you with some of your political Rand up stories [Music] president Batu Shad to the part of budha tomorrow to participate in the 2025 edition of the Abu Dhabi sustainability week according to a statement by the special adviser on information and strategy Mr Bayo nanuka the president of the United Arab Emirates His Highness shik Muhammad bin Zed Al Nayan invited president ubu to attend a summit which will take place from January 12th to January the 18th the court of appeal in Abuja has barred the federal high court in Koo from adjudicating
Over the Koo Emirates legal battle the appet Court held that the court has no jurisdiction to dabble into the Koo State chiy matters on the grounds that such a case can only be determined by the caral high court justice Gabriel Cola who delivered the lead judgment held that the federal high court has no business adjudicating over the chiy matters but ordered that the matter be returned to Carell State high court being the proper court for such matters Governor Abdullahi sule of Nara state has dismissed insinuations suggesting that norn Governors are fighting president Bola ubu over
the tax reform bills he stated this when he hosted the state leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria at the government house in Lafia at the state capital I don't want you to misunderstand the issue for some people who are making noise oh they you are fighting the president nobody is fighting the president nobody how can you fight a president that has make you look good you know this is the truth so all we are saying is that some aspect of it you know we need to look into it Senator John aut has been elected
as the president general of thez and deu worldwide Senator azota mbata a former senator who represented Rivers East at the National Assembly was elected at the stakeholders meeting of the IU social cultural organization at the Old Government Lodge Inu the Inu state capital the ceremony was attended by the governors of enugu IMO anambra ABIA and the Deputy Governor of EO State along with prominent leaders in the [Music] region thank you so much everyone for staying with us and that is it you've been served with your political Roundup stories now before we forget let's forget today
and now let forget federalism demands creativity and Independence Les we forget Nigeria is a federal republic not a unitary state federalism thrives on the principles of autonomy competition and accountability among its federating units ensuring that states function as centers of innovation and development get in practice Nigeria states have become financially dependent of monthly Federal allocations which constitutes an average of about 85% of the revenues to the state according to data from the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics this fiscal dependency stifles creativity it breeds inefficiency and fors a culture of entitlement contrast these with the United States
for example where States like California and Texas independently generate revenues exceeding $1 trillion annually by leveraging the unique resources and fostering business friendly environment similarly in India Tam Nadu thrives as a manufacturing Hub where garad Cap capitalizes or it on its port and renewable energy investment Les's we forget Federalism is not about sharing oil rent it is about creating wealth and opportunities at every corner of the nation Les we forget that a power to chart a new cause lies within the grasp of Nigeria's Governors the unar potentials of the agriculture tourism renewable energy and Technology
sectors in so many states are star green with over 34 solid mineral types scattered across the Federation and Nigeria's ranking as one of Africa's biggest economies there is no excuse for states to remain stagnant and bankrupt bere of ideas Governors must Embrace innovative governance models that prioritize human capital development public private Partnerships and local resource optimization Les we forget a federation thrives when its constituent units are strong competitive and self-reliant and the prosperity of Nigeria lies in the hands of visionary leaders who dear to think Beyond Federal allocations to build wealth that improves lives Les
we forget we keep reminding you of those things that matter for the benefit of our nation so tonight let's begin with what is some kind of Cher news especially as the implication of the monies that be collected will be used for the advancement of Rural electrification and the benefit of Nigerian people so today there's an agreement between the United States and the federal government uh in receiving about 52.88 million us uh has recovered assets from the Alis mad Nigeria's former petroleum Minister under the administration of former president Gul Jan today at an agreement signing the
Attorney General of the Federation Mr Latif Ag and the Minister of Justice confirmed a a former signing of the asset agreement between uh United States and Nigeria the Attorney General of the Federation says that the 50 50 million n of the recovered asset would be deployed through the World Bank to develop rural electrification projects while the remaining $2 million us will be used by The International Institute of Justice to expand the justice system and combat corruption take a listen to him the ass return agreement being executed today also ensures that the return assets are applied
directly to developmental projects as agreed the 50 million United States doar of the repatriated funds will be utilized through the World Bank to partly form the rural electrification project to increase the reliability and availability of renewable energy in Nigeria while the balance of 2.88 will be dispersed as a grant by Nigeria to the international in Institute for justice iig to support the rule of law and counterterrorism project through counter uh terrorism capacity building for criminal justice sector practitioners in the east west and North Africa all as the ministry of justice and the Attorney General of
the Federation what does this mean for Nigeria uh on this kind of situation I like and I try as much as possible to bring home the conversation what does this mean it's not just all about his signing and all of that is ceremony what does this mean for the average person for Nigeria and for the future try tonight to bring a very senior lawyer and someone who has prosecuted matters like this to give us an understanding of what is mean I have joining me tonight Senor advocate of Nigeria Mr wab shu is live for us
from our Lego Studio it's good to have you tonight on the program Mr shitu I know you've prosecuted for the on behalf of the federal government for the years CC on this kind of matter as a prosecutor a lawyer who try to dig down on issues of corruption in this nature uh and this is a non-conviction based forfeiture isn't it what does this mean for Nigeria I think we must commend the United States of America the US government and then we also must also salute the ubo administration particularly the efforts being made by the current
attorney general Mr La I pleas LA with me in ensuring that this happen is a is a major boost for the anticorruption War uh uh being spaded by the escc and the ICPC uh we now know that criminals who who take advantage of our Collective Commonwealth can no longer hide and what the significance of this is uh the effective use of asset for fure tool to combat corruption the idea is that when you are seen involving or engaging in Corrupt Practices you are deprived of the process of the crime the idea is to strip you
naked so that the crime the incentive for committing the crime in the first place is taken away because the the the reason why you know criminals and you know perpetrate crimes is to be able to have access to illicit assets and illicit wealth so the idea of the asset recovery and consequent repatriation of such you know assets is that these criminals are prevented from having access to this uh to this Loot and in Nigeria for instance by virtue of being a signatory to the United Nations convention against corruption as as well as the Commonwealth exper
group you know group you know 2005 agreement Nigeria is on signing within the International Community to uh to be able to take advantage of recovery of assets that are unlawfully taken away from Nigeria in this specific case we can identify two types of asset forfeiture the first one criminal forfeiture one when a when a defendant is taken through the trial process and eventually convicted the procceed of the crime is forfeited to the government that is Criminal forfeit the other root of forfeiture regime is the one that that is described as non-conviction based forfeiture regime in
which case the defendant is never tried the focus of recovery is on the assets that is looted so the defendant either maybe is dead or has taking flight or is unavailable is not tried but the the the state is interested in the recovery of the ill gotten well arising from the crime through the mechanism of you know civil for and this is what has played out here he not record that the zani has been tried but the asset has been recovered from him and now what you see play out today in the sign the former
signing by by the attorney J is an asset agreement between the US and Nigeria the US has recovered his asset and they have agreed to also repatriate these assets back to Nigeria and significantly uh the way these assets are to be uh applied I the details of this uh the application of this assets are contained in the agreement one to fund R through the World Bank to fund the rural electrification project this is going to be a beneficial impact to Nigeria uh given the the kind of challenge we have power supply and secondly to enhance
the quality of Justice delivery and combat corruption as well as also sustain the counterterrorism measures and the rule of law in the country these are key areas key areas that are of beneficial impact let me jump in quickly yes yeah so uh justice uh you would say is serve on one hand because uh the person in question has not been able to answer to some of these charges because uh since 2015 uh the former minister they former Minister Alison mad as being in the United Kingdom and I remember ABD Rashid B the former afcc chairman
has said they've recovered up to $150 million us uh from loot related or linked to designing Alis mad in fact that they've also recovered um properties worth about 80 million us linked to Alis in Mad wi apart from other issues relating to bribery case in in and a few other issues related to millions of uh US Dollars and now one we say J said on the in one hand that some of these looted monies are coming back home these monies are supposed to be meant for the Nigerian people are coming back to serve the Nigerian
people but the question here is that what what could be the hindrance or the encumbrance legally speaking in terms of jurisdiction that is not allow Nigeria to prosecute uh the said former Minister adequately well you know the extradition procedures uh of getting somebody who has taken flight from a country to another country involve some you know legal you know you know compliance procedures that uh must be must be satisfied before somebody can be brought or exed from other country to Nigeria there are judicial procedures there are also some administrative and uh International procedures that must
be complied with I think efforts are been made by successive Nigerian government particularly this Administration to ensure that those who have fled the country particularly the uh are excted back to to the country to face their trial there are two ways and that difficulty is because you have legal and extal hles to surmount if this is to be achieved I think ongoing efforts have been made I think what has played out today is also a major Plus for the work of the anti-corruption bodies in our country you can see from this H from this recovery
that efcc is working ICPC is working the anti-corruption bodies are justifying their mandate because this will not have been possible if we don't have international cooperation if you don't have deployment of Technical and and other assistants as well as uh uh I mean bilateral and multilateral treaties in place before this result that you have seen you see play out today is achieved uh there must have been a lot of exchange of information a lot of deployment of technical assistance a lot of international cooperation between elements in Nigeria and elements in the UK what you saw
today is the culmination of those efforts and it also shows that Nigeria is collaborating you know effectively with International countries to combat corruption in our country and the US is also cooperating because this recovery was facilitated by the US the fact that us has you know facilitated this recovery is a ought to be commended and secondly for agreeing to repat this assets back to Nigeria it's also another major plus fundamentally also if I may jump in quickly to ask you yeah right now um and and we hear the US ambassador uh to Nigeria uh saying
at that Forum that uh they would love to monitor so that the the spending or the utilization of the funds uh that it should be used for the benefit of Nigerians agree that that makes a lot of sense but when we wonder uh the money recovered is Nigeria's money what is the logic behind the United States rooting the money through the World Bank and telling us how to spend the money for the WR recovery was facilitated by the US government and US government has deployed enormous resources in uring that this recovery is made I think
uh it is also in the Strategic interest of us to ensure that the funds recovered is utilized I mean is not Rel looted you have had speculations in the past by certain of certain of allegations of you know ACC looted being Rel looted I think wants to make Assurance dou sure that the money that is you know looted is applied for the benefit of Nigerian people and they are entitled to put in place safeguards because they are the one who who who facilitated recovery and what they have done if you look at it realistically the
items for which the recover funds are to be applied are generally of beneficial effects to the Nigerian people rural electrification through the World Bank this vment to to the world brand for Rural electrification will Boost energy Supply in our country and that will translate to meaningful development without power there's no way any meaningful development can be achieved secondly the issue of enhancing the Justice delivery system of our country is very critical to even to to democracy because there's no democracy that can be achieved without the sustaining the element of Justice or enhancing the quality of
our Justice delivery system and again we also know that we need to combat or counter corruption corruption is a major you know militating effect against against our developmental progress as a country this country is heavily highly endowed with human resource capacity but part of the problem that we have been having successively sucess for for years for many years is this endemic corruption in our society the elephant in the room is is corruption so if funds are a mar to combat or counter corruption it is something that is like likely to also benefit the country and
lastly the funds also to be applied to counterterrorism and also ensure uh the sustainance of the rule of law so those items rule of law cing of terrorism which is something that can militate against development I mean combating corruption and then enhancing steady energy supplies those are items that will be beneficial to the Nigerian people so and us as a leading Democratic country that is one of the leading strong Economist in Nigeria ought to know areas of critical needs that will be of beneficial nature to the country and it is not just us that is
putting this agreement into paper is a culmination of consensus between Nigeria and and us on these areas they must have I assume that there will there would have been a a a lot of you discussions negotiations before this agreement was signed and Nigeria must have agreed to those items for which this this looted funds will be applied so I think is if if funds are recovered there must be adequate mechanism for application of the funds and that also require a lot of monitoring a lot of transparency a lot of accountability so this agreement has shown
that the two countries have signed into this agreement so the temptation to believe that these funds will be diverted is is not there either on the part of the of the of the Nigerian government or the US government and then the certainty that these funds will be returned is also guaranteed I me from the side of the US government I think if we recover funds for the US government we are also entitled to set the template for the application of the funds so I think transparency and I hope the US will not play Big Boy
at that point to that how would Nigeria determine for them because there are those look it's our money we should be able to use it for what is best for our own people but the question here is that uh we we cannot Rejoice too uh too I mean it's might be too early to Rejoice because I remember four years ago ibraim magu the former afcc chairman had said that nothing less than $2.5 billion US was stolen or looted or linked to Alis in MWI Des Alis MWI we're just talking about 53 million us that's just
po sum in in in the amount that we're talking about past efcc chairman have said he've recovered about5 million us doar and all that there's still so much money to recovery and it does look to me that uh an easier way because we been on these Des Al and loot linked to her for over six seven years now since uh the the the loss of the election of the G Jonathan government but the question is that how do we get much of these funds that are still hidden in foreign climes thank you very much I
think I think we must accept the fact that there's a new Sheri in town now the Attorney General of the Federation Latif you can see that he's committed and committed to this process efcc under is also committed to this process and ICPC is also playing a huge role the kind of recoveries that have been made particularly recent time is mind B CL which shows the commitment of the U Administration to fight corruption but it is not it not just the T Administration or any Administration for that matter that should be settled with this responsibility stakeholders
across the board also have a responsibility including what the media is doing by you know sustaining this kind of Enlightenment program you are also you know get getting everybody to be or I mean uh to be on their toes because except we deploy efforts locally and internationally to recover much of our stolen wealth within and outside the country there's no way government will have access to funds to be able to drive development so I think so if people seal our funds with Reckless abandon and then take them to Shores you know yeah I mean is
a is a major is a minor against the the government this government is trying for instance trying with a lot of policy options but there's no way the government can suceed without access to Capital without access to funds and we all know that this government may have inited a lot of deaths a lot of near empty treasury so some of these recoveries will assist the government in driving the kind of change that it has Nigerians to deliver and it is yeah yeah the question here is that have we learned any lesson as a people how
can our country be looted dry to this extent that we all open our eyes and see billions of dollars not Nar dollars looted and taken to outside of the country I think I think the solution that the solution is that our government uh the anti-graft agencies and all the Stak holders must ensure that there are consequences for criminal infractions when you still blind they recover the phones and step you naked and then send you to jail nobody should be above the law those who have stolen our country Drive should be brought to book because when
you steal from our colle Commonwealth what you are doing is to deprive our people of access to infrastructure development and democracy dividends and so whoever is stealing our country blue is actually a criminal that should be brought to book and I think they have the efforts of the anti-graft agencies must be commended and we all as a you know as a people must rise to the occation to ensure that we see something say something I also do something which is the slogan the FCC has been preaching for a number of years Mr wab sh to
very senior lawyer senior advocate of Nigeria and one man that had uh question and query in the courtroom on behalf of the federal government Prosecuting corruption cases is perhaps one of the most senior ones that have done that for Nigeria thank you so much and inde to that I'm not I'm not Dr I'm not Dr very apologies Dru apologies last time I will address you as Mister thank you so much indeed I appreciate I appreciate it my pleasure let's get some more inside I'm being joined by 7ak youu former lawmaker is life for us here
in the studio let me get your view on these looted fonts I mean how crazy does it sound to you that this amount of money is been stolen by those who are uh giving the the burden and uh the trust to administer uh governance in our country well uh thank you very much first of all let me commend Mr President and also the Attorney General going so far however right from 2003 when efcc uh Act was uh made a lot of us have spoken about it go for protection go for prevention give priority to prevention
so that people cannot have the Capac people cannot have the capacity to to loot money but somehow it wasn't understood that way by the people who operated the efcc they went for prosecution and Recovery that is why up till now nothing much has been out of the $2.5 billion or so you know it's only you know 50 52 million for from that of Des so for me you know up till now the attention has not been focused on prevention and so long as we are not attacking prevention there is no way we'll continue to spend
money on recoveries so is it possible that we could still have after the 2015 at leisten the aacha loot they are list M link loot we still could have had people loot as this much in the last 8 years or so certainly if they had gone for prevention nothing much of this loot that that that would have gone out of this country because prevention is the key there is no looting in this country which has not gone through the banking system nothing No Loot in this country that has not gone through the banking system under
the radar of course so even the banks are culpable but the government refused to focus his attention to the banking system is there any any looting that has not gone through the banking system whether it is you know local bank or foreign bank there's none so why are they not you know looking on that side they first of all look at that side of banking system how did the money lick how did it go out of this country how by flying caring the dollars in in brief case and going out of the country with it
if that the case how did the dollar come in how did the dollar go out so you know if we are really really serious in this country and we want to fight you know corruption we should go for prevention and then those that are already are there are so many in this country they in this country efcc you know have their own cases they have BR their cases and put them you know under on under some kind of you know wardrop or something like that they are not for me you know while while while you
know America yes we commend them but what are we doing with those within the country how much have we covered how much how much of them have been tried how much of them have been sentenced how many of a question I asked Dru is the modality I mean the the template uh where the United State is telling us how the bond the funds will be disburs and utilized so in this sense if you are asking the World Bank to help us to spend the money to tell us how to spend the money I'm very sure
that part of the money will be used as a fees consultancy fees and or what not don't you think my brother they don't even know that this money is a federation money it is not federal government money first of all it to go to Federation account that's how it should go that's how it should be because nmpc is a federation entity this money belongs to local government to state government and to federal government so for World Bank I mean for United States of America to say it should go through the world bank and then you
know come on on on I mean to spend on Rural electrification is it the most important today we are crying of of insecurity in this country much more than not having electricity in our rural areas why will the money go through the and they go to rural electricity I I I mean there is something you know as suspicious even the even United States of America is is suspicious of the federal government of Nigeria how we manage our resources in the first place it is ours it's been recovered so why should it go through the World
Bank to do what to pay some Consultants or to do what 100% of that money definitely will not will not go into the certainly because there are not not not only computers are working in the world world bank or trees or or chairs there are people who are working their fees are going to be salaries are going to be paid and probably you know consultancy fees like you mentioned like I said so long as they fail to understand this is Federation money it should not if even if it go through the World Bank it will
go directly to the Federation account this is not the first first time Senator if you remember that when monies are reputated to Nigeria uh those countries tell Nigeria how to use the money this is not the first time is happening and the question is that I mean are we being looked down upon or what is it a trust issue where the United States is returning our own money and telling us oh this how you going to spend the money you see that is the way they see Nigerians is the way they see Nigerian government we
do not trust you we do not even though it's your money we should help you how to manage it that is rubbish for me you can't collect my money yes I we appreciate they have collected the money to reparate it and you said it has to go certain certain processes I mean certain ways of doing it if you don't trust this government tell this government that we do not trust you we don't trust Nigerians but for you to go through the back door and say well we have to reparate this money we do not trust
the way you you spend the money we have to manage the money the way the the way it should be managed for me is not right it's not fair to Nigeria it's not is not even you know a credible assessment of the of the government of of I think the government should resist that you should not continue to dictate how we will spend our own money you have recovered this thank you if you say you have spent some money to recover then tell us how much you have spent then then you deduct it from the
money and the balance you repatriate to Federation account so that you know it will be beneficial to federal government state government and the local government let's take a breath there Senator we'll go on a break and when we come back we be talking about the situation in the northern region of the country there seems to be a lot of shelling a lot of gunshots and a lot of killings going on and it seems to be a 10 days of a lot of activities it's become a full-blown theater of war but how do we win this
war we'll be getting more insight plus attention also on the defense going on about the 20245 budget at the National Assembly anext was today yesterday was out of the Ministry of Finance and other Allied Ministries under the economic team we'll be right back everyone join us again thank so much everyone for stand with us and so our quiz for today and we're asking well a question that I thought that a lot of people might easily get to answer and I get to I I'll try to find out some of you who are the fastest fingers
so a question today the analment of the June 12 1993 presidential election by General Ibrahim bang led to the emergence of which key movement is it NCO or sap or sh or PRP what is your answer if you know Nigeria's politics so well and Nigeria's political history get your answer the fastest fingers how we're no is in them don't worry it won't go without some kind of appreciation well let's get to our conversation with Senator abak Yu a former member of the Senate Senator today we saw in chairman and his team uh going for uh
the budget defense just like we've been seeing all of our Ministries and Par servs and mdas also doing that yesterday we saw the Ministry of Finance defending uh the 2025 budget and the performance of the 2024 budget but ID like everyone to listen to what the in chairman said he's worried about the uh how uh how much it takes and the effort in conducting elections in Nigeria and one of those things he said is that they need more money because there are problems with infrastructure of ion across the country take listen to the chairman Professor
mmud yakubu when we talk about the byelections and end of ten elections to be prepared for this year that will also include the conduct of party primaries by political parties if a political party is conducting direct primaries starting at World level we have to deploy our officials to each one of the 88,89 Ws but I think this is part of the problem and it's adding to the cost when you deploy staff you pay their DTA and sometime they the when they are deploy to a particular State the party will not write to say we are
sorry we are postponing it and until next week it means we have to demobilize the staff and remobilize them and the buget doesn't provide for demobilization a remobilization endlessly so there are so many issues to consider 2025 is a critical year for in our preparations for the 2027 general elections so this amount in that in the envelope that we are given is inadequate for those activities you heard the in chairman there me so Senator what do you make of his submission well you see first of all you know in is soft on how it manages
the political parties that is you know uh why do I say so if he's talking about you know primaries again the parties you know who postpone the primaries you know they are not managing the primaries for the political party they're allowing the political parties to manage the primaries you know for in so so the more the more you look at this things the more certainly more money will be required no doubt about it however you know like I have said in the past and I'll will continue to say that you know in must bear its
own full responsibility of managing the political party under the act that it has has been uh formed I believe that in has so much powers to do and insist the political party must do what is right and what is fair to everybody so long as I is ladal on this issue you know is not going to have you know things right6 billion or so is what anek is asking for uh for 2025 operation is not a major election year you think that is too too too expensive or is it too much with full management you
know that am that amount is too much because it is not an election year it is too much you know how how how many he because he spoke about the primaries you know of political parties he talk about direct primaries and what have you all these things you know yes is related to to security is related to other issues for me 125 billion on off election year I think that amount you know is too much I don't know much about it I I I have no I have no figures before me how they arrive at
the 125 billion but by by by looking at what has happened in the past I don't think you know uh uh that amount you know uh is is is not going to be too much you know to be spent you know within this particular time although we know cost have changed no doubt about it cost of foiling cost of this cost of that you know new new new minimum wage and the rest but I think you know if we look at it critically if they stamp their feet on managing the political parties they do not
need this much of money I I I think what in is driving at here because listening and following up with what the presentation of the in ch in 2024 in presented 80 billion but they were only uh uh 40 billion approved to them they complained and they were promised that they will get more but they couldn't get more an is say they want to start preparation for 2027 maybe what an was doing there was to say let's go for war and 20 since we ask for 80 billion you give us 40 billion let's ask for
a higher figure let's see whether we come back because I is talking about ITF pensions gratuities uh infrastructure delation across the country and for 2027 election and I'm worried how are you preparing for 2027 election in 2025 2 years before the election so that that's what I said you know they are playing on the psychology of the government they even talked about envelope and I have always been question this issue of envelope how on Earth would you budget before you plan what is the requirement of in that they only be given an envelope I have
I have problem with this with this system of budgeting before planning so long as you budget before you plan then you'll have you know abuse of resources here and there and maybe they are saying that maybe we need maybe we need 50 billion you know so let let us put our request for 125 billion maybe we we we will get we we'll get maybe 70 billion so they are also play on the psychology knowing exactly you know how things you know are been are been done in this country in terms of you know budget you
know presentation and budget uh manipulation so uh says Today part of the statement that uh uh the an chairman is made there he says that conducting election is exorbitant and cumbersome do you think there are better ways for us to do this that that is why I said there are better way if they manage the political parties is not managing political other political parties the problem well the political parties if they don't manage them well are you the politicians you are the problem no no no no no no no you see if if if the
party is really really serious and and and and is standing on his feet and and and and and and trying to do what is right I'm telling you I will spend less money because they in is not monitoring the political parties because in should also monitor the politicians they have because the names of the politicians you know are sent to whatever name is is sent to them they don't even you know care so is come from political party whether whe whether whether the primaries was done credibly or not so long as a political party has
presented a candidate then is open to a lot of litigation so that is why I say you know I must stand on his feet and make sure the primaries what the iCal parties are presenting you know to you know are subject to less litigation let me take you to what is happening in the northern region of the are you worried about the recent attacks the waves of attack a lot is been done by the military by the way we saw what the president said in respect of uh the uh the troops on the members of
uh of the military that were killed by these terrorists and we saw what is happening in k in zanara uh in part of Bru State and we're seeing a rise in 10 days now we seen the kind of activities that perhaps we've not seen in a while in the northern region of the country why do you think that early in the year first 10 days of of of the of the New Year we're seeing this uh this kind of activities well first of all my sympathy goes to the families of uh the people who lost
you know their loved ones however like I've always said when you have ill equipped uh security ill financed SEC out of security you know no much intelligence at the same time ill motivated everything is poorly done in the sense that I sympathize with president with President you can provide All the Monies you can provide so long as there is these people are not trained for that particular purpose you know and then you know even the founding the other day I was listening to the chief of Defense staff why he said that you know even the
purchase of the kinetics you know is being frustrated outside this country so I mean what are we trying to do in this sense so the most important thing is first of all redress the issue of motivation redress the issue of you know financing the The Outfits redress the issue of getting them you know functional equipments to work with and then you know using the locals because nothing is happening without the locals knowing so if the locals do not have trust and confidence in our Armed Forces they will not go anywhere and this is the beginning
of the year last year at least for for for some for some few months six months it has been a little bit you know of especially in the Northeast yesterday or the day before yesterday I landed the is and and the B of Haram wants to take over you know the government House of of Chad even Chad that drove these people back to Nigeria you know are having this issue much more of Nigeria so I think think you know we should look at it from the point of view of you know increasing the military increasing
their number better training for them better motivation better intelligence and also the involvement of the locals if you look at of course the senate committee on the Army uh is was uh commensurating commiserating and mourning uh the soldiers commer with the military and the nation uh on the uh the uh the killing of U some soldiers in Dam local government of Brun new state which happened on the 4th of January and there was a statement by Senator abdulaziz m y who is the chair of the senate committee on the Army you look at what is
going on uh in those part of the country some of the attacks in some of the communities in danua uh in beru state uh in fact the military is saying about in the last few days about 115 or so of these terrorists have been uh uh killed and a lot of them more have been uh arrested and uh today we saw the military on the ground um on the operation flush out lauawa and they are on their case in chasing them and flushing them out uh as the activities are growing we see the also the
activities of these elements you know in and around the country but the question is that do you think that if you have had a better coordinated approach the air attack or the the the the air approach by the Nigerian Air Force and the uh the ground support by uh the Nigerian Army do you think we probably would have gotten better result or you I mean do you suppose that maybe there is not much much of a Synergy with in the military well certainly you know better coordination will give better results is it 2 weeks or
3 weeks ago when when they bombed you know and kill innocent Souls you know looking for LS you know so there was no communication you know as to find out even from intelligent point of view who are these people where are they so they just go there you know bombed and then and and then come back you know why are the combatants on the ground why are they why are the combatants not that that is we are talking about you know motivation we are talking about you know equipment availability of those whether you know thein
things we have why why don't we hear about these things in Niger why don't you hear about these things much in in in chat in Cameroon you know in Mali why are we not hearing about these things why is it only Nigeria Nigeria Nigeria Nigeria what is it what is it that lack of coordination I was happy Senator when the minister of interior on this program talked about the monitoring of our borders because that's a major problem when these F these guys come in and out of our borders uh the very much vast on uh
unmanned borders in Nigeria several kilometers of them that we cannot control the the the coming in and out of these Terror groups and uh and interests and the question is when ah heard that we're going to have a better monitoring of and we can in Abuja see all of this I was happy and also was a bit excited when I saw that there was an increase in the budget of Defense uh way more than we have ever seen in the history of this country it gave me joy and I'm hoping that this year the monies
will be properly utilized that's because that's very important and the border control will be better done digitally so that we can move when some of these elements move in and out but what are your expectations based on some of these indices my expectation if this we want we want these things to happen is first of all you know what is the composition of the budget is the budget going for increase in employment you know of the Armed Forces increase in training increase in intelligence increase in in in kinetics and what of you until we I
mean we if if the money is just you know to to to to to for humanitarian aspects when I say humanitarian you know uh just you know uh spend the money anyhow without you know proper determination for the purpose for which this monies are meant for then certainly my expectation will not be met and I'm hoping that uh those places that have been liberated will not again because D and the rest you know there's been a lot of quiet in terms of Terror attacks I mean and we're seeing some of these attacks yet again we
thought that maybe for a longer and a more permanent reasons some of these elements have been silenced but now we're hearing them again well my take on this my understand my thinking is that you know the there there's movement of of of troops from one session to of the country to another session so now these people you know monitor too they realize that troops are now moved from the Northeast probably to Northwest and therefore there is now luxity in terms of number of people so as long as we do not have much number of armed
forces you know then we will continue to be running around with with with ISB and and and Haram they are well connected well coordinated you know well funded because I the chief of stff say you know he said so much about this you know in the last interview that he had with Al jaaz so I I I I think we have to look at you know increase in volume of the number of our troops yeah how many of them do we have and then you know we train them we train them in that aspect that
we have not not concentrating okay we are train our own forces you know for war Insurgency is different from war so I think you know these are the areas that I think we should look into you know uh in the coming months Senator abaka Yu former Federal lawmaker represented tab State in the Senate and uh he wanted to be taba Governor but of course that didn't happen maybe it will happen in the nearest Future but thank you so much senator for you always say this you know you know you know I'm an old man now
you never you never if your mind is still sound and your head is still working properly I mean no one can maybe I maybe I allow the the younger ones to also battle it out for us to sit down and watch I always like to remind you so that you don't remind you don't give up when the time comes I will let you know whether I I I'll throw in the towel or you know the to is still your pocket so you know where to throw it but thank you so much it's always a pleasure
having you thank you so much interation but those who are asking what exactly and I've seen a lot of wrong answers here to the question we asking tonight but yes quickly let me go to the analment of the June 12 1993 presidential election by General ibraim bad bang led to the Emer of key movement of which key movement NCO sap sh PP well the answer is not sh p a lot of you said and it's not sap it's n thank you so much everyone I'm noticing those of you well don't worry we'll get back to
you on some of what we excite you about some of these answers thank you so much for watching I'll see you on Sunday God willing God bless Nigeria
