 Former Deputy Senate President Ike Kweramadu has proposed a political solution to ensure the release of the detained leader of the Indigenous people of Biafra, Aipop Namdi Kanu. He believes that this can be achieved if the South East caucus in the National Assembly moves to intervene in the matter. He said it would help the federal government understand the feeling of the people and also reduce tension in the South East. Joining us to discuss this is Ihe Ibeji and Ambrus Ibuki. Thank you very much, Ihe Ibeji, for joining us. Thank you very much. Good evening, viewers. Yes. This sounds very interesting, but the part that gets me is helping the federal government to understand the feelings of the people. The federal government of Nigeria went round this country, and I'm talking about the Bahá'í administration and all of the people that work with him, to canvass for the votes of the people, making promises to make sure that they all are carried along in the administration as he went forward. Now, this is the second tenure under President Mohammed Abu Hari, and I'm trying to understand what the former Deputy Senate President meant by helping the federal government to understand the feelings of the people. Okay, so thank you very much. I accept his speaking with respect to the feelings of the people as are today in terms of the violence and the issues that have arisen over time because of the IPOB and the Nandikandu issue. Well, because in terms of the feelings of the people, in terms of the agitations right from time, in terms of what they've always wanted, respect to marginalisation, getting back to the civil war, of course, the federal government understand that. So I want to believe that what he means is the exorbitant situation that has been brought about since this agitation, that when the Nandikandu came into the picture with the IPOB, it seems that the IPOB has brought the economic shut down in these South East states. I want to believe that that is what he means, understanding the feelings of the people, because they have the system to know the feelings of the people originally in respect to what their demands are. Now, let's go back to some of the things that he said. We know the reason why IPOB came up at the first instance. We know about the civil war and we're not going to go back into all of that. But then how did Nandikandu come into play? Of course, it started from some agitations. Where it is today, we cannot necessarily say that this is what all the evil people stand for. But if the government is yet to understand what the people of the Southeast need in 2021, but all of the things that we've seen happen in the Southeast, and I'm not in any way excusing the burning of government establishments and, you know, INEC officers, you know, killing police officers and all of the things that are happening there. Of course, you know that when there are agitations or tensions, there are also criminal activities that can happen, you know, besides it. But how do you think that the federal government should respond to the issue of, you know, the Southeast and the tensions? Let's even take out Nandikandu, who is one person out of the equation and look at the East's southeastern problem and why we're here, why there is even room for Nandikandu to emerge in the first instance. So, I mean, first and foremost, the federal government would need to look at massive, that first and foremost, the intent of infrastructure development, the slant in lack of infrastructure development in the Southeast is one area that needs to be addressed. Number one, but very, very key. Let me know, let us not move that aside. There's been this psychological, this mental burden right from the time of the civil war that has always been on the mind, on the side of the ordinary, even my people crossing, maybe not us, maybe unspoken, but there's always been there. The federal government needs to find a way to tackle that. I mean, a lot of people speak about other solutions to these things, political solutions without talking about that. I mean, how do you make an average human mind, you know, forget, so to speak, what he terms as injustice, you know, to their race for something that they feel that should never happen in the first place and agitation, they felt that we should have allowed, we should have not allowed to achieve. You understand? That's the mental and psychological burden on them. You need to begin to tackle that, to assuage them. How do you do that? You need to engage them. And that's one of the roles that the leaders and the governors should play, disproportionately. It gets to the point where the leaders and the governors need to understand that. I think we lost our connection, but let's go to Ambrose, can you hear me? Thank you. Yes, Mr. Bokeh, so my question is straightforward. The former deputy senate president is seeking that the certain members of the National Assembly come together to propose a plan of sorts that can help the federal government understand the plight of the people. The situation in the southeast is both political and otherwise. But is this political solution, in his words, the answer to the problems that the southeasterners are facing? Again, I asked our other guests the same question. The issue of Nambi Kanu is one. The issue of the southeast is another. And in addressing all of this, is it just a political solution that will suffice? Can you hear me? Oh my goodness, I think we lost that connection, Bokeh. But back to you, Ihechi, if you heard me. Yes, I did hear you. Yes, so I mean, that is what I meant by, what I mean by, it's a holistic, it's a comprehensive solution to the problem. It is not just political. It's not just infrastructural. You need to look at that psychological part. That's one of the most difficult parts of it, to make a common evil man forget that so-called injustice. And if I may say, that's one of the reasons why this IPOV in agitation has come to fall. One of the reasons why muscle, which was the first under Rafa Wazuriki, as far back as 2005 to 2011, was one of the reasons why it came tonight in the first place. Even though that one was not as violent as Bokeh currently experienced today, which, quite frankly, is criminal. I mean, any form of violence to me from any sort of agitation is definitely criminal. So those are the crops of the issue. Crops of the issue. So it's not just about infrastructure. You want to build a second Niger bridge that will solve the problem. No, that's not just going to solve the problem. That's just crushing the sources. You want to build the east-west road. You want to build this road. You want to do the Oka road. You want to do the Oni-Cha-Oi road. And you feel that will solve it. Okay, that's good. It starts it. But what about that area where you get to interface with the people to make them understand that you accept and understand that this agitation and this war that was fought at some point in time, you know, it has ended. And you want them to really be one people. You want them to be one Niger. As long as you're not going to interface with them in that kind of manner, then in this sort of agitations and splinter groups will always come up. And that's the way I see from where I come from. The way I'm standing. Well, I want to thank you very much. Unfortunately, our time is moving pretty fast and we have to wrap things up here. Thank you so much for speaking with us. We appreciate it. All right. Well, thank you all for staying with us because time is not on our side. We have to wrap things up. But we recently got wind of the news of one of our very revered guests, Obadiah Meilafia, a former governor of the CBN. And so in honour of him, we bring you this package of all of his appearances on Plus TV Africa. We want to say our hearts and our prayers are with his family. My name is Mary Annakon. Have a good evening. This tragedy is about the lives of our very precious young, the hope of our future. Before we pontificate, let us, for a moment, place ourselves in the shoes of those young people. This is the rainy season. For several weeks, we are staying in the forest. They have no goal. They are lying outside, calm rain, come shine. Cold heat mosquitoes. Come thunder, come storms. With guns pointed at their heads, would press for their lives to be snuffed off at any moment. As you know, five of their colleagues have already been killed. One was buried on Saturday. I saw the television broadcast of the funeral. The parents and the family are heartbroken. So before we pontificate about other people, who to me are very imaginal, their life is not worth the fraction of the lives of these young people. I don't know how people bring that. What is the definition of a bad man? I hope I don't have to bring a dictionary and open it to you. And then say, look, my friend, this is the definition of a bandit, according to this bandit dictionary. A bandit is a robber or a thief. My worry as well is that going by the history of some of these kinds of funds, you would be surprised that it is the rich and the elites that end up having access instead of ordinary people who really shoot the target of these funds. So, you know, I'm going to make the best of our systems. Nigeria in 2017 overtook India as the world capital of poverty. So we are having very serious problems. There has been a massive fall in foreign reserves from a peak of about $60 billion to today around $33 billion, $34 billion. And not only that, there's been a massive fall in the value of the Naira from about $160 Naira to the dollar in 2014 to now almost $548 Naira to the dollar is an extraordinary fall of almost 200%. I mean, it's terrible. You know, the presidency is the highest majesty of the federal republic of Nigeria. And as they say about the papacy, any cardinal who badly was to become pope should never be appointed to that position because his motives must be very questionable. If he loves it so much, because being pope should be something that should be held in great awe and people should not have an inordinate ambition for it. By going four times glass, you know, wanting to be president, some people say, okay, they get him about the benefit of the doubt. But from the very beginning, people say, no, no, this is very bad news.