 Coming up this morning, Nigeria gets into a pivotal point with a surge in political campaigns. These, in the midst of increasing debt, inflation and discontent across the country, will be talking the state of the nation with Satguru Maharajee this morning. And support for former governor of Lagos state grows, including from media owner Raymond Dokbessy, a member of the opposition PDP. And in a twist, a court orders Dokbessy to be taken off EFCC's watchlist hours after publicly endorsing Tinabu. And also coming up this morning is Off The Press, where we review the major stories of today's newspapers. I would say glad to have you join us on the breakfast here on Plos TV Africa, this very, very interesting Tuesday morning here in Lagos. And of course, for those in the southeast, it's obviously the first day that you will be going to work because of the season at home on Mondays. But welcome to the breakfast, I am Osaugi Obama. As always, we start with top trending stories. And we have two very interesting stories for you this morning. First of all, of course, starting with one that I just mentioned, and that is the founder and owner of Dark Communications, Raymond Dokbessy. It's a name that has been known for a very, very long time, probably since the 80s or even earlier, with the foundation of Dark Communications. Of course, here in Lagos, across the country, everyone knows of AIT. But of course, besides his interest in media and television, he also, of course, got involved with politics a couple of years ago. If you remember in the 2015, after the elections in 2015, there was a lot of clam on lots of conversations going on with regards to fight against corruption. And one of the biggest stories then was the $2.1 billion that was allegedly embezzled by certain persons in the previous administration, most importantly, Sambodatsuki, and I say back then. Of course, we all remember how that trial went and how that case went. He was in prison for a very, very long time, or well, held by the security agencies for a very long time, without any actual courts, sentencing him to jail. There was a lot of clam for his release, and eventually the government eventually did set him free a few, about two years ago, I believe. But one of the persons who was also involved in that chaos, and in that, you know, in those allegations is Chief Raymond Dokpese, who was, of course, the founder of Dark Communications. He, of course, had his own time with the FCC and with Nigeria Security Agencies, the court case that has lasted for a very, very long time. I believe sometime in April, there was a court ruling that, by the court of appeal, basically, that seemingly set him free and, you know, acts that case be thrown out because the FCC couldn't really prove its case. But yesterday, the Chief Justice John Soho of the Federal High Court in Abuja, held that Raymond Dokpese had no criminal allegations, and the charges against him weren't, you know, strong enough, didn't hold any water. He basically held that no criminal charges or allegations currently raised against Raymond Dokpese should stand. And if you remember also, he was the organizing committee chairman of the PDP's National Conference in 2015. The Federal High Court yesterday ordered that the FCC should go further and remove him from their watch list. And so that's really what has created most of the controversy, mostly because this is, you know, just almost immediately after he threw his support behind former Lagos State Governor Bala Ahmed Tinubu Hu, you know, from what the media is saying, very likely would be running for president in 2023. So it really, from this is my perspective now, it really could just be coincidence, could be timing, you know, and that's what makes it look fishy. He has every right, of course, Bala Ahmed Tinubu Hu has every right, and we've said it multiple times to run for president. And at the same time, every person who, you know, is an under and has every right to support who they choose to support. And that includes Raymond Dokpese. He says, of course, that he's supporting because of their friendship, which has been on for a very long time. And of course, if you have, if you know, of course, they are about the same age, I think both 69 or about 70. And so, you know, there's really nothing surprising seeing that, you know, these two persons, you know, would be friends, you know, they've known each other, I believe, for a long time. And there's nothing really, really surprising about it. What really has caught a lot of people's attention is the fact that this is happening, you know, almost seemingly back to back, you know, immediately throws a support. The court then orders the EFCC to take him off, you know, their watchlist. And that's what, you know, everyone is pointing out, you know, seeming like, oh, you know, immediately you support a part of the government, you immediately, you know, get, you know, taken off, you know, whatever allegations that were placed against you in the past. And so, that's what people have made, have pointed out to seem a little fishy. But I personally will want to look at this as, you know, seemingly coincidence. It might just be a team with timing. And, you know, maybe that's why, you know, it's creating some controversy. But another thing that I will point out with regards to this case, it seems like it's yet another location where the EFCC, and, you know, we can never really tell who exactly to blame here. But where the EFCC has once again, you know, failed to prove its case against some of the people that were very, very popular in the news while being accused of corruption or money laundering or means of misappropriation of funds when the government came to power in 2015. One of those names once again, that, of course, you know, it seems like the EFCC has failed to fully prosecute. And it's one of the reasons that we've continued to say in Nigeria that we need to do better with our criminal justice system and mostly with the investigative aspect of it. So we don't continue to have these allegations and these arrests and these hounding of persons. Then eventually the court throws out these cases. And, you know, there's really nothing that EFCC can do at that point. It makes it really, really seem like some of these things are really political instead of actual money laundering charges. And they would, and maybe they only existed in the first place because they belong to the opposition political party in the country. And I'm not necessarily saying that, yeah, you know, that's exactly the case. But that's what it seems like. And it's one too many of these, you know, situations where people are arrested, you know, there's public, you know, and then media trialed and there's so much talk about it. The EFCC of course goes left and right, trying to ensure that these persons, you know, are found guilty, you know, in the media, but fails to, you know, ensure that they're found guilty in court. And it's happened too many times and we've seen so many of these, you know, situations. And not just that, there's also a couple of situations where we've seen in the last few years where persons who join the all-progressive Congress or throw some support behind the all-progressive Congress or speak in their favor, suddenly no longer have corruption cases against them. These are persons that have had these cases for many, many years. Suddenly, you know, have those cases thrown out somehow, some way. It's just, you know, yet another example. And so, you know, it's a good time to look at these situations once again and say who exactly is to blame here? Who exactly would we say maybe has gotten it wrong? Is it the EFCC and its prosecution? Is it the investigative part of it? Did they do their, you know, groundwork and their homework, you know, 100% before his name was even called out to be a suspect in the money laundering charge back then in 2015? Or is it the criminal, is it the justice system, judicial system that once again has shown that it has some loopholes here and there that can be beaten, you know, no matter what the crime or the charge against you is? These are, you know, for me, the biggest part of this whole conversation. I'm going to move away from the part where it says, oh, you know, immediately he supports Bala Mettinibu. His case is thrown out because I don't think that should be the focus. Even if yes, it looks, it does look fishy. You know, I want to assume and put, you know, place the benefit of doubt and say, okay, maybe it's really just timing. Maybe the court was always going to do this regardless of whether he supported Bala Mettinibu or not. But once again, what more needs to be done by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, what more needs to be done by our judicial system to ensure that we don't continue to have these cases that really just look political instead of cases that are watertight and have actual facts behind them before a person is arrested or is even named in a corruption case? Well, that's on that story. And we'll move away from there and move to the southeast, well, this actually happened in Lagos, but it's for the, from a governor of Anambra State, Peter Albi, he also ran in 2019 as vice presidential candidate under the PDP alongside, from a vice president at Ikuwabubaka. He's been in the news lately, but not for the best reasons. Last week, if you remember, I spoke about this, that the Premium Times newspapers did put out a report, one of the, I think it was their second Pandora Papers report, the first one actually Pandora Papers report talking about money, shell accounts that have been opened rather in different countries around the world, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, many places across the world, Cyprus even, where rich people, wealthy people, politicians, kings and queens, businessmen, opened these shell accounts where they somehow kept their money to avoid paying taxes in whichever country. But one of the challenges with it is the fact that there's a lot of people who run criminal gangs and use these shell accounts to hide money that has been either stolen or been gotten through drug peddling or money laundering. There is that. And that's what, of course, Peter Albi's name came up with sometime last week. There was a lot of conversations about it, mostly about whether he did declare to the Nigerian government that he had those shell accounts or not. And then there were those who maybe also mentioned that, well, the Premium Times report didn't necessarily say that these funds were stolen, they really only said that he had a shell account in a different country where money was kept, which isn't necessarily a crime, except it was not declared. But the biggest conversation really out of all of that was the source of wealth and that's what really has been a source of conversation in the last couple of days with some of the persons who are running for or likely to run for president in 2023. And his name has always repeatedly come up mostly because there's a lot of people who have looked at him and said, this is one of Nigeria's purest and cleanest politicians, one of the people that you look at and say, okay, this one has a really, really clean record from the time that he was governor. And there's really nothing that you can, you know, point at and say, okay, while he is dead, he always dead in this other direction. And so that's, you know, that conversation continued to build until yesterday when he got on, you know, assisted a television station here in Lagos. And the question was asked about the source of his wealth. And of course, he went on to make, you know, very, very interesting statements and shared how he had been very, very wealthy even before he joined politics and how politics even made him poorer because he had to step away from his businesses that he was running. He was Nigeria's only or sole importer of, you know, certain items. He mentioned Heinz products, you know, and then some wines and alcohol, basically FMCG products. He also of course is, you know, was a board chairman of, you know, certain banks for many more than 30 years. And of course, I also finally still mentioned that he still has major shares in, you know, about three major banks here in Nigeria. And those were some of the things that he had to mention yesterday just to show that he really didn't make a lot of money from politics or politics is really not the source of his wealth. Most of his wealth came from businesses that he had run before joining politics and before becoming governor. But I want to share some of the thoughts of certain persons who reacted to this, which, you know, I found pretty interesting. A guy here, Sadiq Tadeh says, is so sure of his ways that he had to come openly on TV to explain his worth and the source of his money, even though he isn't in office. Also remember how Seymak indeed declared his assets in 2019, a better way to explain transparency and accountability. I found that very interesting. And also Safin, his name is Ugo, also, you know, put out the statement said, Loki, it's annoying that he had to go to clear his name. Some people have, you know, heroine, king pain histories and probably go skip that one. Well, go ahead. He said some people have heroine king pain histories and drove bullion vans into their houses, but I've become, you know, the next Messiah. When you're from, he goes on to say, when you're from a certain section of the country, your kaftan has been white and stainless before. Your kaftan rather has to be white and stainless before anyone considers you being worthy of presidency. From other parts of the country, instead, you could be a repented shekau and you're good to go. I probably will share that again. He says, when you're from certain parts of the country, your kaftan has to be white and stainless before anyone considers you worthy of the presidency. From other parts, you could go and be, you know, you rather, you could be a repented above a ka-shekau and you're still good to go. I'm sure you get the message in that, you know, post. And this one also says, Peter Albee is a better person than me, because I won't send Nigerians. The standards Nigerians expect from Peter Albee, not even Buhari was this scrutinized. But he has to explain his wealth, his standards of governance to people that elected the current president twice. He says, he had the moment you treat Nigerians with respect, they see you as weak. And in quote also says, GEJ was weak. And of course, referring to how the former president was described later in 2014. Nigerians said these things because their president allowed them to exercise the rights or their rights to insult him. I'm going to share one part again. He says here, Peter Albee is a better person than me, because well, I won't send Nigerians. The standards Nigerians expect from Peter Albee, not even Buhari was this scrutinized, will be asked to explain his wealth and his standards of governance to people that elected Buhari twice. And that's what my guy calls William. These are just some of the reactions that I found pretty interesting with regards to the video that of course I was supposed to say yesterday of Peter Albee explaining the source of his wealth. And I kind of agree that there are certain persons across Nigeria's political space that really aren't held to any standards. They aren't scrutinized. They aren't questioned. There's a certain person that we even know, and we're not talking about having to dig now, we know about a very dirty past that they have. We've heard, we've seen, we've heard of investigations, we've found them and they probably have been found guilty in different regards here and there. But they aren't even asked these questions. They aren't put on the same pedestal. They aren't made to declare their wealth. They aren't made to answer certain questions when they want to vie for political office. But instead, when you see others from a certain part of the country, and unfortunately that's what it seems, when you see others from another part of the country or from a different political party, the conversations are entirely different. The standards are different. The questions are different. The interrogation is completely different regardless of how clean this person's past seems to be. You see people still go ahead to dig as far as they can, dig until they find crude oil just to ensure that they paint them dirty and ensure that they find something that makes them not worthy. Why don't we have the same standards for every single person who wants to run for political office in Nigeria, regardless of where you come from, regardless of what part of the or what tribe or what religion or what political party that you are in. Why don't we have the same standards and ask them to also have these same conversations. It would break my heart completely if, and this happened in 2019 if you remember just before the elections, there were certain things and I've repeatedly said that the standards with which we interrogate people who see political office in Nigeria are so poor. If you remember in 2019, there was a pre-election debate that certain persons of course attended. Nigerians forgave every single blunder on certain political aspirants and of course scrutinized the other ones with all they had, with all the weaponry that they could bring forth. There were so many blunders on a certain group of people that couldn't in any way answer certain questions, didn't know whatsoever, left or right, didn't have any answers to any of the questions. Nigerians forgave those, you know, things and of course continued to ensure that those people have a soft landing with their political journey. Whereas others don't face the same scrutiny and that's what really hurts me because we are very likely going to do the same thing in 2023 where you can already tell that there are certain people who have questionable characters who you can already tell don't in any way deserve to even consider political space in Nigeria. But they will not be asked these questions, they would be given soft landing, they would be given, you know, basically a free expressway to run, you know, and contest for those seats. And those who seemingly, you know, have, you know, of a better standard, who seemingly, you know, of better quality, who seemingly have a better track record would be scrutinized back and forth. And it makes you once again, you know, start to agree with those who say that we get the leaders that we deserve in Nigeria. It might be a hurtful truth, but it is what it is, we get the leaders that we deserve. Yes, you might say, oh, you know, I've been such a good honest Nigerian, why do I deserve bad leadership? But because we continue in our multitude to let these very, very little loopholes exist, let these very, very poor standards, you know, exist with regards getting into political office, we somehow get the leaders that we deserve in Nigeria. Those are our two top trending stories this morning. We'll take a short break. Chris Wando joins us next without the press to have a review of the major stories making headlines across Nigeria this morning. Good morning once again and welcome to the breakfast.