 Welcome to plus politics tonight. We speak with an amazing personality in Nigeria He's an elder states person chief or labored a judge at tonal doer of the Yoruba land He's a Nigerian politician who became the military governor of undose state and letter chairman of the Nigerian Poth Authority and then national vice chairman in the southwest zone of the People's Democratic Party Deputy national chairman of the People's Democratic Party in the south and deputy national chairman overall and former chairman of the Bank of Industry Good evening, sir, and thank you for joining us. My pleasure So let's quickly get to the crux of the matter if you look at the state of the nation and what's been going on But as an elder states person, I'd like to ask you what do you or what would you say about? Some of the most recent decision taken by the president That's Bola Amutinibu some of which includes the student loan acts and the electricity art among orders Let me say this that in my Part of the world my part of my culture if Somebody comes to you and says he's going on a long journey What you can do what we used to do what we still do is To pray for that person that as you go may you go in peace May the blessing of the Almighty Surround you In the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ Surround you May the Almighty God be your pilot You know, it's still too early to start judging Condemning or So far Students loan. I don't know the modalities what makes a lot of political science Because there are millions and millions of parents and all school children Who cannot afford to pay any school fees and education education education is so important in any society Because education makes people easy to rule But very difficult to deceive So when you have a sizable number sizable number 90% say of your Population being educated They will be able to follow your school of thought If you are lying to them, they will query you if you are telling them the truth and you put a smile on their faces They work knowledge it so The signing of that into law. We don't know the modalities, but I want to plead with them that that policy Should be well thought out the procedure Because the most realized that it is not every part of this country that is in metropolitan city You need they will go to the bank The parents could be literates Are you going to run it through the local governments or are you going to run it through the state government? There will be an agency So those are the modalities, but the concept in itself to me Is loud about because when Papa Ola was started in the 50s the British told him he will fail But he is was even a free Education, but this one is a student loan You know and you you saw what? President Biden did in America recently That we don't want to unboden I mean overboden those students that when they now graduate Before they get a job. They have a big loan on their neck the government most planned to have the those who Have shown positive Linness to to education or they are brilliant They must be giving free education You know then the others who are managing you can do it and This should be interest-free loan as I've told I haven't read the details, but the concept in itself is Acceptable to me, but let me make sure that they don't overboden These kids because when you get a graduate you be looking for a job looking for a house be looking for for a car be looking for a better life, so Maybe sometimes down the road they may say okay You are allowed to pay about a quarter of the loan you have taken if you've done well in your school Because not everybody does that's that Johnny completes it So Maybe I would just discuss the several criteria is it just like you've said you do you have haven't gone through Some of the conditions or requirements of the student loan at but a bit of it is that Those who are students of the polytechnic colleges of education Universities I mean you have a right to actually apply but One of some such condition is that it's expected to have a guarantee Who should be like a civil servant and has had like a passcode for like 12 years? Or judicial officer, however, it is there's also a Requirements that you should have you know after this loan two years after graduation You should be able to get a job and pay the loan back You know so some criteria is that Nigerians have quite query You know I'm not saying how can these things be especially if you look at the rate of unemployment at almost a 41% In 2023 how can these things be and some people already believe that this is like putting the cuts before the horse You know I I had the news about this student free loan and I Chockled a little bit because I went through it. I Graduated about 56 57 years ago You know and I remember very well that there was The the in Western region then they gave scholarship to university students And Lego State had just been created That was in 1967 and We were in 1968. I was still in my first year that day Four of my colleagues Doctor of swami any Baba who's not a doctor Alex O'Neill Jabesi then we see Banasko myself. We were there having lunch at the university and then the Students who came from Western region were all jubilating that gotten scholarships And that means it's not a loan is free scholarship So I told him I said look Let's think about this. We are now we now have we can benefit from Western region But we can benefit from our state They have just created legal state that we should go and go to the governor's office and go and discuss it They said go to the governor's office. Are you crazy? Yes, let's go there, you know, they say ah the soldiers will arrest us and they lock us up And I said don't don't worry the wife of the governor is my mother's cousin She was a miss a ganga Williams. You know, Mrs. Johnson that if the governor locks us up My mom will go there and then she will release us on that premise The following day after the morning lectures, we headed to Vegas to the governor's office at the King, you know, the The King George defeat stadium opposite it. I was where Governor Johnson's office was We got to the gates four of us and they looked at us the guards there say what do you want? We said we want to see the government side. Do you look do you have an appointment? We said no, but we are students from University of Lagos They looked at us won't say we should get out and move ourselves out of the place, but there was their boss The guard commander who came and said look Are you truly from University of Lagos? We say did we have a point where we said no Well, we want to see the government say which you hold he went in and Came back and say we should write down our names Four of us. We wrote down our names And we were all engineering students. So we sent the names in now Those they then asked us to come in You know the people who are there at that time The attorney general and commissioner for justice Papa Banko Leukie The solicitor general Papa Joe Williams The third person was the secretary to government This Forgotten his name now But the fourth person was the protocol chief to the governor Papa Domingo So when they saw our names He said this must be Lagosians we say we should come in the governor was yet to come So we went there of course we all prostrated greeting all these old men and then they said what is our grouse? We say sir today The West announced scholarship for the students Why can't our state also give us scholarship they listened They said okay, all right, but you know, we have just started we're still about a year old in government Well, we'll think about it You know two months after that legal state started this scholarship scheme for students now The general concept I'm telling you that the act of governance Is to listen to the pain of your people Makes a lot of sense they want to start it but the vagaries The problems that will be involved in it. You must go and look for a civil servant You must go and look now already they are segregating You go how many of such people who come from some villages because this is a national policy So they need to sit down Work out a scheme Where every Nigerian who is looking Forward to some good education What cannot afford it? most benefit it is not just a Policy for the children of the privileged You understand so they must sit down Work out a procedure Because the major problem in this country is working out a Procedures that will be long and during that will make a lot of Both political sense a social sense and humane in its nature So that everybody will benefit from this policy It should not end up for the children of the privileged alone And we are watching because we are in the opposition. We are watching what impact it was going to have and Invariably This nation if we seal all the leakages of The kind of money that will that disappears from the from the covers from the treasury We should be in a position to give free education To most Nigerians. So when you say the kind of money, what kind of money? Now all the stories you are hearing those leakages those those millions and tons and tons of money dollars and The the charade that goes on between the central bank and the commercial banks it is mind-boggling and I I I wonder how you are is we've been going to this boss the money Is it through the same commercial banks and The major thing they do I am challenging them publicly all the commercial banks in this country. I Am challenging them publicly. What impact have they had on Nigerian micro business people medium Enterprises and even the big ones and at the interest rate they are charging Candid can day by by the establishment impact positively on the economic sector of this country, you know All of most of them. I'm saying it. They can challenge me They are round trippy They get dollars from the central bank and they do nothing if you go to them to say look borrow me XYZ The amount of hell you go through the interest rate. They will slump on you. How can you produce? So so we eventually get to that part of the conversation, but just before we move away from that Two significant arc that has been passed by this president and one of such is the electricity act Private sector involvement. It feels like I'm bundling state government or state governors can now Generate power. What do you make of this? Do you think they were gradually getting to that point where we say states can control their resources? And do you see this as viable? This is you was raised when we had the Constitutional review committee I How can we The the the whole of the Constitution of this country Is like a military is set off with military organization? It's not working Every decision goes all the way back to a buja. He doesn't work We copied the American system. You think the governor of California Will now be begging on monthly basis in Washington to give him the their own Chair of the resources to give him how he will manage this to give you how he will supply power to These people so how he will supply water to the people what what on the globe is he doing there in Washington? And the closer the governance Is to the people The better they will be managed You know, I retired as a general I Know what it takes to be in the military is Hierarchical the other goes from the top and populace to the base That cannot work with a democratic dispensation power must come from the base The wheel of the people so you think this is brilliant To me what I am saying is that he's not only just one Is is like he is a cherry-peaking We need to revisit and there is a report of the completion of that The the constitutional conference all these things you are talking about Are there? reduce the powers at a buja you most Reformed the whole system whereby you you you give more powers to the states What is wrong in having state police? What is wrong in having look at government police? Well, but now we have states having capacities to generate power If they have powers to generate good enough Good enough But first of all the most of their resources you take in on one hand you take in all the resources to a buja to be shared And you are telling them go and generate at what rate Would they generate because I'm an electrical engineer how much would they generate if you decide you have a thermal station You know gas turbines you need gas you need power lines Owned by you you be able to go from the main power The high voltage ones before you come to the distribution network. So how are they going to do it? How are you you must you know? It's like giving I'm telling you okay. I give you a free hand to go and do something and at the same time I am holding you back by your fork by your frock and saying hey Wait a minute. You must come back to a buja. It doesn't work that way when you let go let go All the resources You know Still being collated Compiled at the national Why should all major resources? If we copied the American system take parts authority the New York parts is run by the mayor of New York The airport in New York is run by the mayor of New York They generate their income they manage the people you know the there is this definition of What you call? politics And I want people to listen Politics is the management of the resources of the land for the benefit of the people That's brilliant. I'm not sure I had that definition That's it. So if any politician comes out to you and tells you that listen, please vote for me I will represent you. What is he saying? I will go there To ensure we manage the resources of the land for your benefit But is that what is happening? When all the resources are channeled through one source And then he gets there the minister of finance will sit down on some whatever Start chopping the But again, do you think that with this electricity art it feels like we're gradually unbundling Maybe we're just gradually Decentralizing the center and empowering the component unit. I'm asking you thoughts now. I'm telling you. Okay. Let me tell you this from my experience When papa balsangio was president We bought 18 gas turbines 18 gas turbines By genera electric They landed in this country If they have all been functioning today We will have had more than enough to distribute All right 18 gas turbines now Why haven't they been firing? lack of gas But when you go around The southern flanks of this country, you see gas being flared So it is not that easy To say you want to go into generation by any state One you must have gas Somewhere to collect the gas pack the gas to the station fire the turbines When you generate you must have enough transmission lines Strong enough to take the power and start distributing within your state It is not cheap It is not cheap, but there's nothing wrong if you have the resources in state a And state b has some other requirements more than you you can cooperate You you understand what i'm saying rather than one mighty a Corporation federal corporation Managing all the distribution They had you know, they did what they call the disco the distribution units. They privatize them But the production Was still handled by the federal government up till now. They're not producing enough All right So who is fully who Oh, it's easy to say, okay, you can go and you know, uh, generate and Where like, okay, take my state Where is the gas we should use for a turbine? I'm sure we have that conversation some other time, but quickly let's get to the headlines now Several headlines has quoted. I mean there's some court. I don't know if they're it's a misquote To say that you would not congratulate president tulibu then of course if During his inauguration or have you I'd like to find out if that position is correct, you know, when people say congratulate Now as an individual and as a very strong member of my party I told you that I am a life member of the board of trustees of my party Number two, I am also the One representing the southwest And the national caucus of my party We are still in court How do you expect me to jump ship? How would the members of my party with the high responsibility? You know that is a throne on me Jump ship when the the the process is not over And I told the The guys who came I absolutely I have nothing personal with uh Latin Latin we have nothing personal, you know, but hey look at it From my own political angle The day the justices will finish That a has won b has lost We know that the lines are now well defined like the Berlin wall The only thing I can do now Is to pray for this country That as we are going May he guide us As we are going may he be our pilot Let there be peace in the land That's all I can do now my party we are we are fighting every day in the court You know presenting our case and these and that and until then the process is not over I mean you don't need to be to be a high professor Before you can know that You know If I was an independent person that is non-partisan I could do whatever I want But I'm being guided by the rules and regulations and I don't want to To to to behave in a manner That will place me. I mean the kind of respect and regard That I have in my party One a life member of the board of trustees of the party Two the only man representing the south west in the national caucus Of our party Let's wait until the just judges In the supreme court when they decide who is the president otherwise if you see me go there then I become a perpetrator We'll take a short break when we return the conversation continues with chief olabadi george. Stay with us