 All right, thanks for staying with us now. Referencing a new source, the World Bank has said that development progress in the country has slowed down since 2015. When Major General Mohamed Abu Hari retired, he was first elected as president. According to World Bank's Nigeria, World Bank's Nigeria Public Finance Report titled, A Better Future for All Nigerians. 2022, Nigeria Poverty Assessment, Nigeria performed well between 2001 and 2014 with an average growth of 7% and was among the top 15 fastest growing economies globally. Now the report released on November 21st 2022 read in part, Nigeria's development progress has stagnated between 2001 and 2024. Nigeria was a rising star in West Africa with an average growth rate of about 7% per year and it ranked among the top 15 fastest growing economies in the world. However, this trend ended abruptly in 2015 as oil prices fell, the security situation deteriorated, macroeconomic reforms were reversed and economic policies became increasingly unpredictable. While it may seem like Nigeria took a downward turn during President Muhammad Abu Hari's regime, he did make some progress in other aspects. So tonight we're asking, right, in your own assessment, has Nigeria prospered under Abu Hari? Please let's hear what you have to say. Remember, you can join the conversation, send us an SMS or WhatsApp to us at 1-803-4663 or you can also tweet at us on Twitter after 1 with the hashtag we show. So if you call an economist, if you call a security agent, sorry, a security expert, if you call a business person, if you call a CEO or an entrepreneur, I think everybody would have different things to say to you. You call Dangoti. Dangoti would tell you this is the best government that happens to be sliced by the game because under this leadership he's been able to start and finish a whole refinery that is the biggest in the world. So everybody would have their scorecard. So I'd like us to approach this not from the expertise point of view, from what you have felt personally between 2015 till date, has personal, I'm talking about your life, has your life progressed on a personal level? Have you seen growth? If situations were turned or maybe different, would your outcome or your current status be a lot different or a lot further, whether for good or for bad than what it is today? Do you understand? Are you feeling a lot more secured? Are you feeling a lot more happy to be associated with a brand in Nigeria? What exactly is running through your mind? That's why I'm here. Let me start with you. This topic, when I saw it I was just laughing because the answer for me is very direct but I'm going to start by there was a survey, I was going through a series of write-up and I saw a survey by the African Pulling Unit. So this survey was conducted by from ordinary people on the streets. So it states that just about 8% of Nigerians are happy with the current state of affairs on that President Madhubwari. That's people on the street. Okay. Not even up to 10%. So I think that in a nutshell says a lot of things. So let me confess not to me. I don't think there's any Nigerian that has not felt the impact of this government. Me, cost of living, it's very, very evident. Rows by almost 150%. So the normal things you buy in the market, skyrocketed and every day, every time you're going to the market, things are changing. Let me come to, I have a business. I'm running a business as well as I work with a company and I can tell you it's been a struggle from FX to so many other things operating cost rows, even assessing funds from the bank. It was, it's not easy running a business during this period. It's not been easy. It's not still easy. So I'm not, this is not, this is a very honest approach. It's been difficult under the current administration and definitely from my own side, I would say been striving, I've been striving to stay on my feet and be prosperous, but definitely I would not say Nigerians or have been prosperous under this regime health wise. You're not confident in the health system. There's no proper legislation or maybe there was, but it wasn't properly put in place. A lot of young people have even gone more into drugs. Gone more into drugs, not about security. I remember there was a time which I had to, I missed my flight, I had to like go by road to the east. There was a time, yes, yes, I stepped down and we had to walk through them. So the fear of even traveling by road, that was a huge risk and so many people said do not do it. So if you're in a situation where people are actually advised that you do not travel by road, these are common people on the street. They also want to travel. Someone said I've not been to the east for almost three years because of insecurity and traveling by road. So that tells you how the state of mind of ordinary Nigerians, so it's not been easy. I don't think Nigeria has really been prosperous, but since you're trying, I don't want to go away from what you ask, which is our personal experience. No, we'll come back to Nigeria. I just hope you get your personal. It's not been easy. It's been tough business-wise. It's been tough. The cost of living, the standard of living, everything, it's been so tough. I can see you're nodding. Because I mean, I'm nodding because I agree with everything that you said totally. I would just buttress her point because cost of living especially, my goodness, like the inflation rate is terrible. The things that you could buy for 500 Naira before, you're probably buying them for 1000 or even 15. And it just has been wondering how is, because at this point, I don't want to say an average Nigerian because I feel like there's no average in Nigeria again. So you're either poor or you're rich because everyone is just on survival mode. We're trying to survive. It has really not been easy. Like you said, rightly, it has not been easy business-wise because if you're even trying to sell something, the people you are trying to sell to, they probably don't even have money to buy what you want to buy. So how then are you supposed to sell? How are you supposed to make profits? It has been really, really tough, but my standpoint is inflation because it is crazy. It is really, really terrible. I mean, insecurity on one side, but inflation. I wonder how do people eat? How do people really afford? Well, 3 square million has never really been a thing in Nigeria. Let's not lie. It has been 101 because I mean, for various reasons, not even because of money. But really, how many people now can afford that 101? Some people are folding just 001 or 100. It is terrible. It is really crazy. So to say that Buari's administration has been favorable is telling a lie, to be honest. I don't think that it has entirely been favorable because it has been from one chaos to the other, devaluing NERA. And now if you are transacting foreign exchange, it is terrible. The hiking price. Why am I buying NERA at that very expensive price? So how much am I supposed to put on the goods that I am selling? How am I supposed to meet a customer's needs? Even the customer that I want to meet, they cannot afford for their own needs to be met. So it is the circle of wahala. Okay. So for me, I mean, it's very evident disposable income, of course, has dropped. There is no increase of funds anywhere. I mean, you know, I remember that when he became president, there was this expectation. Oh, the President Buari, I mean, not that General Buahari was, he brought about war against indiscipline, you know, everything. You know, everybody had such high expectations that finally, they did not stop hounding me. It did not tell you not to vote Buari, you have seen the change, embrace it. You know, so for me then, okay, so I will start from there. I felt that Nigeria was a country that strived on corruption. You know, corruption was what made it feel. Yeah, I mean, it is. Okay, exactly. So again, now this is someone who came, you know, with the promise of, you know, amounting corruption and all that. And I can say that one of my grievance with this administration has been that it's either someone somewhere is lying or it is either you sit at the helm of affairs and completely oblivious exactly completely oblivious because it would be actually impractical. It would be totally senseless to think that Nigerians are having a rosy. Personally, I'm not having a rosy. Number two, in the last eight years, Nigerians have become more depressed. That's a fact. And it is evident in the number of young people doing Yahoo, the number of people relocating, the number of people going into drugs these are all statistics. I mean, the facts are there, you know, and then again, I mean, you talk about policies or you talk about and then you're just hearing these things. The average person on the streets, there's such a huge disconnect. You don't even feel like there's a government in place. You know, so for me, I just feel, okay, what everybody is all man for himself. We're just waking up and then and then the biggest one, of course, banditry is like that's the new business. Anybody can wake up and decide, this is the business I want to do. Nobody will take, nobody will catch me. I can go scot free. Because I think again, under his leadership, right, let's start from insecurity. You know, it was a certain tribe called the Fulani Headsmen and all of that. It seemed like because this is almost like a symbol of our tribe being at the helm of affairs, I would have thought that you would have been a lot more tougher in dealing with that banditry and fighting all those Boko Haram and all of that, not because of anything. Because again, it almost seemed like our daddy is at the helm of affairs. So now we have the free reign. And that's what played out in terms of all these banditry and kidnapping, ransom Headsmen going to people's farms and destroying it and all of that. It just, it just felt like, you know what, my dad is in charge. So that's what looked like. You see, when the president is talking and saying that we did our best, you see, every time I hear the president speak, he's always speaking from a point of being defensive. First of all, I don't even know if the president is open to criticism, like in terms of like constructive criticisms. This is not people telling you something. I was going to say on Monday that because the president was coming to commission Dangote refinery, I was literally swearing for God forgive me, but you know what, like literally I was like cursing out, saying that what kind of wickedness is this? So you know you can actually get people in 10 minutes, they leave their houses and they will get to where they are going, right? Why can't you deploy the amount of security personnel to ensure that this leaky expressway is free from traffic so that people can use their time productively instead of spending long hours in traffic? Because the president was coming to, to leaky, to want to come to a pair for the commissioning of the refinery. I'm telling you, when Uti called me and said, there's going to be traffic, there's an address for you that the president was coming all over. In my mind, I was already panicked. I said, which kind of wallah is this one? When I came, I was like a joke. I literally left my house at 8 30 normally. Normally before I would get to my office like 10 30, if I leave late. That's why most of the time I like, I try to live like six so that I can get there for nine. I left 8 30. I got to my office at 8 49, 8 50. I said, really? So we can actually do 30 minutes. We can do 20 minutes on this road and we do two hours. Now yesterday, enough for them to emphasize why I needed to curse them out again because I left this office at 9 30. I didn't get to my house until like 12. Who was that for? Because of bad rules because of protocols, right? But you see, I'm tired of government doing window dressing. There are real issues. This road, they need real drainages, right? We need real solutions. Stop doing patchwork. So when you're coming as a government and somebody is trying to tell you something, don't take it that people are trying to attack you. We are the ones feeling it because when you are coming, they would have done all the panapallaya and the mess is off. You do not smell your hands. You are not feeling the reality of what we feel. So it makes no sense that somebody tells you that your scorecard is reading minus 100. It's not even zero, right? And you are saying, no, no, no, we've done our best. We've done this. We've done that. I mean, I was, I was someone, I think I was, it was in passing. I saw a write up on a commissioning that he did virtually for Mabuja. They say that road is not even completed just because I want to commission something. I commissioned it. Do you understand? So please, if we want to rate it just like the way you will rate yourself, you've been given a task. Did I deliver? I am the biggest critic of myself. If I do, if I do a shabby job, I look at myself in the mirror and I tell myself the truth. Do you understand? So nobody can come and deceive me that oh, it was a nice, no, it was a poor job. Own it. Do you understand? And look forward to doing better. And that's why I think again, this is the vengeance that Nigerians used in the 2020 general elections. So even if nobody tells you that you have scored badly, right? The reactions of the people you govern should tell you that you are scoring badly. That's why people are re-voting against you. They did not notice that. They did not notice that. No, look at the Nigerians. They did not see the Nigerians. Exactly. He's just been, he's been protected from all this. Even though they protected, you know, even in his own election in 2015, the numbers were not this much. The people that came out to vote actually, the people that voted in were not as much as the voting that happened in 2023. It was anger. It was bitter. People were taking flights from outside the country to come and vote. It had never been done in the history of Nigeria. So even if nobody tells you, the rigged room. Now look at the Naira redesign. It complete failure. Even people threw at you. I saw a Baba at the bank the day they finally decided that they were going to give us the old notes. When the man collected that money, he looked at the teller lady. He said, God will forgive you people. You people don't understand what you people put up. Do you know how people, do you know how many people died? Do you know how many people died? Let's open up. I'm ready for the demo. Anything you want to do. I mean, you cannot, it's just ridiculous. In fact, I believe they will tell you something. You go look and tell yourself now. I even feel that the Naira redesign was the focal. He truly defined his administration, especially the second term. He really did. All right. Thanks for staying with us. If you just tuned into Ladies Night Out and we're discussing on the topic has the Nigerian people prospered on the president, please. Let's hear what you have to say. Remember, you can join the conversation. Send us an SMS or WhatsApp to 08-1-803-4663. You can also tweet at us at Weishaw Africa one with the hashtag Weishaw. So let it not look like we're trying to be attacking or whatever. I think, oh, sorry. Our phone line is now open. The number to call is 070-250-7749. Remember to turn off the volume of your device, whatever it is that you're watching. So we don't get a feedback. The number is 070-250-7749. I wish Uti were here because, you know, I don't really know much about the finance sector. But from what Uti said, the president has done exceptionally well in the terms of all the policies that has to do with businesses and all of that. That they are amazing policies that have been done. You know, so that's the thing, right? In the midst of all of these things, you know, let me tell you why there's a problem. If you look at if you look at Maslow's hierarchy of needs, right? Maslow's hierarchy of needs at the baseline is food, shelter, and what's that other one again? Food, shelter, and housing. You understand? Yes, food, shelter, and housing. Food, shelter, and housing. At the baseline. So the problems are on that level. That is why we are having a problem. That's why we are where we are. That's why a lot of people are upset, a lot of people are angry. So even if they have done fantastic policies, right? If it is not if it is not hitting, you know, people are not able to see it. Because on paper, this is of doing business and some of the reforms that they did, especially in the economic sector, the finance sector, they've done fantastically well on paper, right? Well, you see the issue. Let's take our caller for, I think our first caller, Sulaiman from Bauchi, your life. Everybody. Are you there? Okay, your question. How, how we feel? Hello. Your question is how we feel about the government of Muhammadu Buhari. Yes, has Nigeria prospered under Buhari? Yes. I'm from the farmer, and I'm from the notice. And if you ask anybody from the notice, especially from, compared to 22, no, but no one will tell you that things are not going to be fine, right? Then in the northwest, just last few weeks, the Minister of Water Refugee commissioned three farm plants where they dredging, where you can plant, where you can farm, dry season. That place has been there for over time, nobody did it until the coming of Muhammadu Buhari. If you come to Kami, you had three dry fields before the coming of Kami, but today, you're going to buy 50. And if you want to buy 50, as the people have said, came from Lagos, you have to start. Thank you, Sulaiman. When you call next time, always switch off, because you're trying to hear yourself at the same time talk, so it causes a delay. I get you, you said the farm and all of that, the agriculture sector, and all of that, that they've been able to make some progress. There's been some progress, yeah. So, you see, there really been a level of progress, especially for us here in the southwest. Okay, so, you know, typically in terms of agriculture, there's, well, I don't know, for some reason, it is by default, let's just say by default, we say northerners farm, you know. So, in terms of interventions, in terms of policies that allow for, you know, ease of exports, ease of access to seedlings, you know, and all that. I know that there's been a lot of intervention for them, even from, even at the level of seed capital, there's been a lot of them. Again, that's a lot of people in the, in the north, in the north. But I don't know how far, but I also know that Lagos State was very, Lagos State did something, arrived in partnership with some, you know, other states, yeah, for rice. But now, Lagos State has actually built their own rice mill. Yeah, rice mill, yes, yes, they have. So, they don't really need your kebi stage anymore. Yes, yes. But they're still not going in partnership that they have. Yeah, because I was just, because I was under Governor Ambo, they did the lake rise. So, Lagos, kebi, lake rise, right? Governor Sung Wulu now, I hear, has built his own rice, massive rice, massive rice mill. Well, that would be actually very good, because I was just going to say, I remember when the border was closed the other time, and they did not allow any importation of rice, especially. I mean, people really suffered because the rice that we now had in Nigeria was filled with stones. It was very expensive. It was not properly processed. So, it was just somehow. So, I mean, if you say that, I mean, I knew that closing that border was in a bit, you know, increased on production, local production in Nigeria and increased on culture as well. But I don't think that it was particularly effective at that time. Let me take Abdul Lahee from Adamawa State, your life. I'm going to turn to the studio. Honestly, so, I'm kind of going to say that to be very frank, the President has done it first. I think the only thing that has the President is like a politician. I will say why he did assignment, he asked how did you do it, and how did you do it, how did you do it. So, most of them have taken the advantage of that. But in terms of intellectuals, in terms of agriculture, in terms of honestly youth empowerment, you know, the tax transfer, the President has done so much. But the problem was his maintenance. Honestly, I think all the ministers had the actions by the President out of this country. Honestly, his love moved well for us. And secondly, the issue of the government, some of the governments have done well, and some of them are just waiting for the President to do everything for them. Thank you. What did he say? Okay, so he said that in terms of infrastructure, agriculture, that he thinks the President has done well. Oh yes, infrastructure, yes. But you see, let me tell you something. I need us to understand this thing, and this is not me bashing any government. To whom much is given, much is expected. Nigeria is too blessed. It's almost like an insult. For the things that we claim to be commissioning, for the things that we claim to be bragging about, it's an insult. Because, guess what? Nigeria has no business, no business, right? In terms of where we should be playing, we are not even, we are nowhere, we're not even scratched at all because we have everything for goodness sake. Is it that it is in our having everything as the biggest problem that we have? But then again, I think that we should also look, while we are trying to think what is it called? Nambuari has not done so much. I think we should also look at it this way, that Nigeria's problem is deeply rooted. Eight years is not enough to fix Nigeria's problem. And unfortunately for us, when any government does anything, no matter how massive it is, in Nigeria, it just feels like a drop in the ocean. A drop in the ocean. Because there's a lot of problems already. They say the phone has been buzzing. They've told me to keep quiet. Ezekiel, go ahead. Ezekiel, you're alive. Good evening. I want to greet you all in the studio. Thank you. Now, in fact, we are trying to talk about the president, what he has done, his rule. I'll be sincere with you, for me. But I was calling him, I was calling him five over on this. And I'll tell you what, we are seeing some people called as them, he has done that. The truth is, what impact are the common people on the street feeling? What impact are people on site? Are they enjoying from his government? Who, if I got your help, who do you help? If it's Nigeria Beach, is that, see, if you talk of impact, is that what's, I mean, they come on the streets, what are they benefiting? That's when you say, yeah, he has tried. If you go outside now, to the street, I'm going to ask people, how much is a bag of rice? How much is a bag of cement? How much, you know, what's the limit for me? I was calling him five over hundreds. That's why I say, I don't manage even five. It should be zero. Stop on the majority. Forget you too. Thank you. Thank you, Ezekiel. Let's take more call. Let's go ahead. Okay. When we're talking about prospering, or prospering, we're looking at a whole, it's wholesomeness. I love when you started by saying Nigeria, before now, Nigeria was seen as a great nation, and suddenly just became stagnant. These are people that have really looked at what he has done, or what this administration has done, to be able to draw those words. And I started by also mentioning this little curvature. So we're not, yes, agricultural, but it's just like one out of, we're talking about security. I'm back to Defa where we talk about the banking sector. Like the caller just said, we are supposed to feel the impact of some of these things. The banking sector, I'm also in that industry. And to be honest, I know companies are strong. They don't have access to funds. Some of the civilian policies don't favor businesses. Rates are going up. And these are things which, so how, how, I don't know, how is that even possible? How is it? It's not helping businesses. Businesses have not been helped all this time. So I beg to Defa what you said. No, no, no. I beg to Defa. I think I really need to know where she's coming from. Because I also have, from the area I'm coming from, it's negative. I've not seen the positive impact of some of these policies. To a certain extent, I even feel like they're confused at some point. Because today they come up with a policy. The next day they are contradicting. It's just all over the place. When we talk about health, what's the improvement? That's the problem is execution. Thank you, implementation. One like implementation actually. From Kogi State. Stephen, you're live. Go ahead. Hello. Good evening, ladies. Hi, good evening. Good evening, ladies. Good evening, Stephen. At that time, I was a Buhari's personal. Why wouldn't I have a product? Probably because I've been given a somehow attachment. If only we had allowed the institutions under supervision to do the right during last presidential and speech elections. If the right thing had been done, even the world would have praised him. So, we are talking, praising himself for all having ever been, because of the action of the police and other institutions that denied Nigerians the right of children, the right person. And again, honestly speaking, if we understand what leadership is about, it's also, it's also accepted when you are, yes, because President Mohammed of Buhari's time when he came in, in 2015, people still had fainting in the elections. I came out. I was under that ring. We stood in the night. The way we stood to count votes in this president, we stood. We were there. Our votes must count. We wanted, wanted to get rid of corruption in the country. And that was why, and because there was a good president there, Jonathan, at the Helms of, no, at the Helms of Affairs, because if President Jonathan was not a good president, like in terms of like a good leader, let me put the word as a good leader, he would not even be president today, because that one would have done exactly, you know, or some of the things that we saw play out here, almost like force and use of power and all of that. They allowed the people's will to go, you know, to just, to happen, right? So, I don't know how to play it out, right? You can't, you can't have it good here and have it bad here. As a leader, there has to be some level of balance, right? It shouldn't be that you are good here and you're not good here. That's where I have a challenge, right? It's not like, it's not like Nigeria is so bad, right? Because I know some people will come with that argument. What are you saying? It's done a lot of things. Nigeria is not that bad, but you see, for the capacity to which Nigeria can play, we are not even near that level at all. Okay, I like what you said, like the capacities to which Nigeria can play, but then we don't expect that it is just one person, like I've said again, that would do the work in 80 years. Let me tell you what happens. Now, my question, my question is this, can we actually categorically say that Bwari hasn't done anything? Maybe not 100% because I don't know, but I feel like the truth is you can't be all good because even if you're doing the right thing, there are some set of people that will still insist that no, you're not doing the right thing. What happens when the head of the fish is rotten? Has he done 50% of the things that he promised? Let's read the things that he promised. Praise him because he said that when the president actually has carried out 50% Let us read it. I'm sure you have the answer. Let us answer your question. Praise from Potacot, your life. I want to get it. Yes, go ahead, your life. Yes, I'm calling from Potacot. Go ahead, Prince. Yes, we know. Yeah, it will be sad for me to score Bwari even 1%. I will not, somebody gave him 5%. I will not give him even 1%. They are still Nigerians. The question is, before he came on board, what was the parallel market dollar to Naira? Well, it was not his fault now. We had a global crisis, global COVID. Now, that is one. What is the price of rice today? The bag of rice today that is very common to the poor man to feed on? You can't afford it. Insecurity everywhere. They stole the people's mandates. People cannot freely travel in reverse right now. There are some areas you cannot go because of insecurity. All of these promises were made by him. Today, I don't know how to read Nigeria and I don't know where we are going. As we kept our children for one year at home, nobody said anything. Our children went out on demonstration. What happened to our children? Same country. Thank you. I think it's good for us to remind ourselves. Okay, sorry. You said something about we had a good precedent then. Again, you know, coming to conclusions like that is based on time. So people are saying that time. Exactly. The reason why there was so much agitation for Bwari to become president then was because everybody felt that Jonathan failed the country. They felt that he was very lax. Exactly. And allowed people to plunder our resources. Exactly. So in the blink of an eye. In the blink of an eye. When I saw ACS of change. An act that he did to call the president, to call the president's elect, which is Muhammad Buhari, suddenly made him an elder statesman. Made him a hero. Made him a hero. Let's take comments. Let's take comments quickly. Somebody has said it down. Wait another eight years, imagine the celebrating president Bwari because the next president is always asked to measure the next president. This person did not say his or her name says the question should go to people who use the train, who use the second Niger bridge, all other infrastructure by this government. How do you know whether a government has done well is by the problem that came its way. Ukraine and Russia will be in oil price. The rise of inflation is everywhere in the world. Boko Haram is over. This person said Boko Haram is over. Boko Haram is over. That's palliative. Have you forgotten all those videos? When he came to us, let's take comments. I can't take comments. Mind a very brief comment. So change never comes easy. If you don't believe me as Chinese, that's actually my point. I feel like everyone just feels like Bwari should just come and perform magic. The truth is, is it really Bwari or is it the entire government? Because Bwari is not the government. Bwari is supposed to be the president. There are a lot of things that we're putting on Bwari. Quickly, but let's go back to the time of COVID when the federal government had to do a lot of bailouts for a lot of things. Now, he begs the question. The same way people elected the president, but the same way people elected the governors. How many governors actually did anything for them? Good evening, my dear beautiful sisters. If you do not read this message, we have problems. The answer is a capital no. During the first four years, he promised us change. We never got that change. The next four years, he promised us next level. You are seeing where we are. He belongs to APC, which means all promises cancelled. Ah, down here. On education, security, and other things, he failed woefully. I was calling him zero over a hundred. His eight years has been a total waste and nightmare. My dear beautiful sisters, Dami and Glory, you are welcome back. I missed you guys. My name is Daniel. He'll always live regularly. We know, we know, we know, we know. We love you too, Daniel. Thank you, Dami. Thank you. He's thumping. We see how so many people are laughing because it kind of disgusts me. We know we are so close to all our social media handles. Like, share, and invite your families and friends to watch and follow the conversation. Now, if you missed it, this is our quote is very long. A very long quote. The true mark of a leader is the willingness to stick with a bold course of action and unconventional business strategy, a unique product development roadmap, a controversial marketing campaign, even as the rest of the world wonders why you're not matching in step with the status quo. In other words, real leaders are happy to see while others sad. They understand that in an era of hyper competition and nonstop disruption, the only way to stand out from the crowd is to stand for something special. Where is the something special for Nigeria? See you guys tomorrow at 8 p.m.