 Former President-Chief Ulusha Gwon Basandra has announced that many politicians justling for one political office or the other ahead of the 2023 general elections ought to be in jail by now for corrupt practices. He argued that if the independent international or independent corrupt practices and other related offences commission ICPC and the Economic Financial Crimes Commission, ESCC had done their jobs properly with the support of the judiciary, many politicians aspiring for political positions and their supporters should have been jailed. Now the former president insisted that Nigerians must learn from the events of the past and put aside sentiments in choosing the next president of the country. He said that each contender must be properly x-rayed and profiled. Well, joining us to discuss this is Tungi Abdulamid. He's a legal practitioner. Thank you very much, Mr Abdulamid, for joining us. Thank you for having me, Miriam. Interesting. Former President Ulusha Gwon Basandra has been known to be very vocal. At some point in time, we knew him for his letter writing. And now as he turns 80-something, he has decided to speak about the politicians who are running for office. Now, a lot of people might agree with him. A lot of other people might disagree with him. Some people have said that, well, the former president needs to look at himself while he lumps all these other people as corrupt leaders. Can we say that former President Ulusha Gwon Basandra is one way or the other with clean hands in terms of corrupt practices? I think sometimes in Nigeria, we meet at points by looking at the messenger and look at the message. Yes, President Basandra, we also have been in power. We also have an issue of... Can you hear me? Yes, I can. Go ahead, please. I was trying to explain that President Gwon Basandra has done well in terms of attempt to fight corruption. If you recall, President Gwon Basandra was the President that created the EFT. He was the man that created the FAAB-RCTPC. He has done a lot in terms of establishing institutions to fight corruption. But he has done that. In order to do that in some media, probably he is a partner in fact, a partner at the region. You know, he sometimes has a lot of issues to deal with. None of them were to be done. It is fair to say that he has to go ahead and the time when the bad goes in charge, because he has to deal with the bad to fight with people's opponents. So he has done that, I believe that. He has done a lot in terms of fighting corruption. Unfortunately, we have lost our connections with the barrister. We will try to get him back. But quickly, while we wait to get him back, we will bring you some reports from Nigerians on the streets. Stay with us. I feel he is playing mind games. He is just trying to play mind games with us. I don't think all of them deserve to be in jail. But most of them deserve to be in jail. Like who and who? If I am to mention him, we all know what is happening in the country. We know the situation of the country. We know that these people are past leaders. Most of them that are contesting for president, there are people we know. So, I don't think they deserve to be in jail. I don't think all of them deserve to be in jail. But most of them deserve to be in jail. Like who and who? I don't know. So, I cannot... If I start mentioning him, the list is very long. Ok, Tinnubu is contesting. Oji Sakali is coming out. Richard Socorotia has decided that he wants to come out. So all these people, Artiku is deciding to come out. So all these people, there are people that we know. There are people that have the capacity. They have the capacity to change this country. And they do not do anything about it. Now they are coming back for us to vote for them. So why? What do you have to offer? No, I don't share that sentiment with him. Because for him to come out as a president, for him to come out to tell the Nigerians, or to tell the whole world that the presidential aspirants should be jailed, is totally wrong. Because if he is even talking about jailing anybody in this country, should be the former president, or the whole former president of Nigeria should be the one to go to jail. Not the aspirants. Because we believe that those who are coming up to contest, or the old aspirants, they have one or two ideas that they are trying to use this country to change things. So why would he just come up and say, okay, all the whole presidential aspirants should be jailed? I disagree with him. If all the presidential aspirants should go to jail, the opposition should go to jail too. Because everything started from this regime. So either the PDP or the APC, none of them are clean. So if the opposition should say that all the presidential aspirants should go to jail, that they should start from him. That's my take. Well, we're still being joined by Barsat Cindy Abdulhamid. Unfortunately, Barsat, I think that the connections are not friendly with you today. But you heard what our respondents on the streets have said. The last person said that the former president should be pointing that finger to himself. And some other people are also calling out some of the people who are trying to run for presidency, saying that these people had a shot at doing the right thing in the country, but they didn't do it. What's your take? Yeah, I think it's also for people, like I was saying earlier, it's for people. Because he was in charge, he had ZXCC, he had ICPPC, another way that he was able to flee. One, two, three or four people were convicted during his regime, about 10 people. I'm talking about political, what's it called? People in his cabinet. For instance, I'm aware in his group that it wasn't said about the people. He made several allegations about people being corrupt and these and that. I would not see him at that, when he was in charge. But the vice president at the time was his vice president and had immunity, so he couldn't have prosecuted him while he was in office, could he? Yeah, I know he was his vice president. He didn't raise those issues at that time. Why he wasn't in charge? No. He was after he left office. That was one of those issues. So if you have a better issue, if you have a better issue, it's going to be against the vice president at that time. So there are so many allegations against people who are corrupt in this country that have been developed. So I agree with you that if you have ZXCC and you have ZXCC and you have ZXCC, if you don't, so many people today will be in jail. Like I said, there are so many good allegations against people. We heard about 2019, we were good known for the interests of the people of our house, nothing has happened to us until today. We hear an aspirant, a Smith presidential aspirant, that was asked to drop his ambitions, plus he's alleging against him being dropped. It was dropped. There's not many issues like that. We hear from the channel of the APC, they say that once you turn the APC, you're seen that for living. So I'm not saying it's inhibited to this issue. Even the former people in June, to the next thing I agree with you, some of them are doing their best, their job is to be done. They may likely not be in charge to be able to even contest elections as it is today. They may even be failing one prior or the other. But, unfortunately, that's not the case because the APC and the APC are being used as an instrument to fight opposition and fight people who are not in support of what is going on in the country, in support of the government of the day. We see how CCT was used against Salah Kiwa as the president to be able to say one thing or another, and we see how certain people have been pardoned based on similar allegations. So, you see, we are inconsistent in terms of our personal corruption in this country. In fact, the APC and the APC are doing their job. They align with people who are in government in power. They use a cheap glove to handle them. If they are in opposition to be a different body, we see how different audiences are. We saw that Salah Kiwa is doing his job that he withdrew from the stream he was presenting at that time. He was trying to compete with the APC and the APC. And in every audience, they gave him what he wanted. So, that's what we have seen in this country. I agree with you on that too. If certain people are coming up to this to say their position, their position, their protest election, one position or the other. But also, if some people get back to the protest election, other areas of the position are also afraid to submit an election. Some of them don't even be pushing a bit to contest it. If a law has been applied, all of you should not let it be by chance. Okay. Well, unfortunately, time is not on our side. I want to say thank you. My friend is a legal practitioner, and he joined us live from Lagos. Thank you for speaking with us. We appreciate it. All right. Well, thank you all for being part of the conversation tonight. Don't forget you can catch a replay of the show on our YouTube channel. It's Plus TV Africa and Plus TV Africa Lifestyle. I'm Marianna Kun. I'll see you tomorrow as we continue to talk for development. Have a good evening.