 Welcome back. It's time for Off the Press and I've been joined by Chief Jida Johnson. He's a Chief Lecturer. Now Jiraan Institute of Journalism is joining us from Lagos this morning. Good morning to you, Mr. Johnson. Good morning. Good morning to our viewers all over the world and it's a pleasure to be with you on this wonderful Friday. Thank God it's Friday. Thank God it's Friday indeed. Well, let's start with the Punch newspaper and the punch is leading with R5, wiki, other nominees facing its screening Monday. Well, the writers there present we create new ministries from full cabinet in two weeks that's Bacha Pia Mila and National Assembly, other state nominees, awaits other state nominees, PDP, FALDS, wikis nomination, Lampoon's to Nubu Overlist. There in front of the punch you have the faces of those who made the list. Give us your take on this list. It's finally out. Now Jiraan's I've been waiting for this list. Are you disappointed? Were you expecting something different from President Nubu? I am not disappointed. I am not elated. I'm just indifferent. The more things seems to change the more they remain the same. If he took the president 59 days before he could come up with this list and this is the least you have been waiting for since when he promised that he's going to eat the ground running, then why should anybody be excited? Or why should anybody be disappointed? Or why should anybody be elated? Because the more things seems to change the more they remain the same. It's him, quotes him, stories him, all same people that we have constituting the core of this list. For example, the former governor is not going to bring in a former governor and give him a sub ministry or another ministry are going to give him a super ministry. And then if you have governors that super tend over their state and then they are part and parcel of what we have in terms of poor performance and poor delivery of what is required for sustainable human resource development, social development, economic development and political development. And you are bringing such into the cabinet at the national level then what agenda are you setting? If you are bringing people that have caused division either to their actions, their speeches or their inactions and then you are using them to form a government that you meant to promote national unity and then there's much left to be desired. So as far as I'm concerned, what this wiki has been impressed, had been a minister before in the past. It was part of the much maligned 16 years of PDP administration that the APC has used as so-and-so in the last nine years. Air Rufi was a minister under PDP administration in the past. So it is like the recycling of people that have been part and parcel of what look, let's look at it. It's at every cycle the legislature is dominated by ex-governor who is a former PDP governor. The secretary to the federal government, the brilliant work of the government, which is the civil service, the secretary to the federal government is headed by a former PDP governor, now an APC person in terms of Georgia Kume. And now you are not bringing Air Rufi. So none of them should. I've said that in Nigeria, there are no political parties. And that just says it's just political interest. And they don't really care about us. If Michael Jackson were to collect reality, he would have collected reality for me because I've used that term more than any other term when I'm talking about the Nigerian political class because they don't really care about us. So as far as I'm concerned, what type of expectation? Look, these are people that were operated as MPRO at their state level. You knew the way wiki operated as a governor. You knew the way Air Rufi operated as a governor. And you're not bringing such person into the cabinet at the national level whereby they no longer have final authority, final control. They have to report and comply with some certain, certain, in their, in their respective states, they are the final authority. This time around, they have to comply with some certain rules, certain business. We see how it goes because we spoke about Bari's administration, the failure of the Bari administration. Don't forget that the cabinet of Bari administration was also dominated by former governors. You know, this former governor syndrome, this former governor syndrome and this political settlement thing. Do you ever see Nigeria moving away from this? I don't know whether to call it madness or, or trend because listening to Nigerians speak, you can tell Nigerians are not happy about this, having these people being recycled all over the place from one administration to another. The governors who didn't, just as you have said, who didn't perform very well in their states or who were so authoritarian in their states moving to the, the, the national level to become ministers on all of that or end up at the national assembly. Do you see us breaking away from this? It's becoming a trend that's come to stay. Yeah. Yeah, politics is a game of interest and a game of number. And so I was, I was having a discussion with my, some of my colleagues. They said, okay, you know what the president would do? President, we just use the political class for two years. After two years, he's going to, he's going to reshuffle his cabinet. He's going to send them. I said, no, no. If you're even going to remove those, it's those that don't have political capital because in two years time, the president will be, will start campaigning for reelection and also campaigning for reelection starts unique political capital. So don't forget it is there. These governors, these former governors are going to be in this cabinet for the next four years and they might likely be there for the next eight years. We saw in, we saw in Borelli's administration. As far as I am concerned, there's no difference between this cabinet and other cabinet we have had. Well, their portfolios are not yet known. Their portfolios are not yet known. That's some of, that's some of the argument. And then don't also forget one of the writers you have whereby the chief of staff to the president said, you know what, there may likely be new ministries being formed. New ministries being formed. When government is telling us to cut our costs is our, to cut, to cut our expense and to, and we were talking about reduction of the cost of governance and they are talking about building, creating new more ministries. Imagine some ministries. So when we, when we spoke about, you recall about some time ago, we spoke about them looking at the recent report in order to reduce the cost of governance and the rest of it. Now what's the essence of creating new ministries? You create chaos for the boys Abii. Is that what was promised? Is that what this arbitration promise that they are going to do, they are going to do for us? You are creating more ministries. You are having more ministers. You are having more permanent secretary. You are expanding, you are expanding the bureaucracy of governance and at the same time you are asking people to take responsibility to make sacrifices and you are not willing to make any sacrifice. Where you have, it's going to be like 43-44 persons cabinet and then you, what, what I've said, what type of meaningful discussion can you have in the National Executive Council meeting where you have about, close to about 60 people coming to deliberate, deliberate over a period of five hours. Let's allocate minutes to them. The deliberate over a period of five hours, you have 60 people. How many minutes will go to each person? What meaningful contribution can you have in such, in such council? And you recall that time you said that in America, the only 13 departments, in that, the 13th department was the Department of Homeland Security, which was created as a result of 9-11 in order to bring about coordination between, among the various security agencies in America, both the internal and external security agencies, so that they can share, they can share information, just that thing. Now, you are now having close to about 40. You see, you don't need rocket science to tell you that you are working on the path of failure. As long as you keep going on the wrong way, the best way to, to, to move forward when you're on the wrong track is to go backward. That's the best way, the best way to make, to move forward when you're going on the wrong direction is to turn backwards. Who's turning backwards sometimes might mean going forward. Are you getting my point? So do we need to still go on this route of having as many cabinet as possible, as having as many super human beings, human beings that are treated as emperors, human beings that have cause division? I can say for a fact that what type of character is there, Rufai, for instance. What, you just look at the inflammatory statement he's made in the last ages. Look at what he's done in Cardinal. For example, he kind of- The most recent one that many were hoping he would apologize for or deny is still hanging in the air. There are so many vibe comments he's made in the past. And then look at someone, someone like Niesongwiki. I asked people, can anybody effectively name the deputy governor? He operated as an MPRO. Nobody knew any other person as an actor or player in reverse politics. Everything centers around him. So these are people that I've operated in the past. They've operated as MPRO and I've said that we should address them as Imperial Majesty, not as His Excellency. Because these are the characters you are bringing to the national level. And these are the characters that you are bringing to Super 10 Obama Ministries, Agencies and Departments of Government. We had been Minister of Education state before. Minister of Federalist Capital. Are they the only ones? Must they be in all government? Are there no fresh ideas? Are there no other people? Just look at the way, look at the type of democracy we are practicing. This is what Fela will call party-party government. Look, the committees of the National Assembly were released yesterday. Look at the children of the former governors that have committee chairmen. The daughter of Ibori, the daughter of Ibori had to take a committee chairmanship. The son of Alawakala, the son of Erufa. Erufa's son is also there. So the father will be a minister. The son will be the son. And then you see in Ocean State, APC playing the Earth Street. APC playing the Earth Street, taking the governor to court, saying that the governor appointed himself as a commissioner for works. It's unfortunate the situation we have found ourselves. It's just that the civil society is dead. It's just that we don't even have legal immunaries that are fighting for human rights. What's your take on the fact that the federal government has gotten a cutting junction that's stopping the organized labor from going on strike? Yeah, that's, that's, we saw, we saw, we saw, we saw, we saw, we saw the judiciary being used to try to stop us. We saw those videos attempt. The question you asked is that why would the judiciary stop a legitimate action of organized labor? You see, it is, it is, it is part of the fundamental human right of the citizenry, not to even talk of labor, to petition government, to, to, to, to protest. I get my point. No, your protest should not disturb my own, my own, my own freedom. However, the right to protest, the right to petition government, the right to express your, your opinion, the freedom of association and assembly, a core fundamental element enshrined in every constitution established by the fundamental declaration of 1948 under the United Nations on what should be the rights of the citizenry. We saw attempt by that administration, by the last administration to stifle labor, when the federal government approached the court to stop us from going to strike, to stop doctors from going to strike. So where you have the judiciary being co-owed with the executive, it is not good for the democracy. What is required is what the judiciary has to be independent to listen to both cases. The right of lawful assembly cannot be legislated upon, cannot be adjudicated upon by any court. These are fundamental. They are the cornerstone of democracy. And when you talk on the cornerstone of democracy, what you are inviting any human society, it's not key. Because labor has said in seven days from now, well today makes you six days from now, they are going to go on strike. What, what, what, what might take place? Do you think? But usually for me as far as I'm concerned, strike does not solve problem. In actual sense, when you look at it from the point of view from strike, strike does not solve, does not solve any, any problem. Because look, when you talk about strike, strike only, only, only affects the people working in civil service. How many people do you have in civil service? Majority of Nigerians are working in the informal sector. It affects the economy. Majority of Nigerians are, are, are, are owners of small and medium-skilled enterprise. So if you look at it, when someone that operates his business is forced to shut down, when you compare to those civil servants, whether they go to work or they didn't go to work, at the end of the day, they will be beat their salaries. So as, as far as I'm concerned, I'm a bit skeptical about strike, because if you look at it at the end of the day, what is it that will get in return for those strikes? There are other means that there are some other engagements in which that can be, can be deployed as far as getting, getting, getting the, getting the, the attention of those that are in government. Which other means, which other means would you suggest? Because labor will tell you, they've been in talks and you go to a point, the labor itself began to feel uncomfortable with the discussions and, and so now they're resorting to strike action. What do you, which other means would you say labor could have been or should use to get the attention of government to achieve what they are seeking for? Well, for example, you can shut down government, you can do specific strike, strike in the presidency, strike in the national assembly, and strike in the courts. Another critical sector, you got critical sector where you could, you could do strikes or strike in the revenue generating, the revenue generating area of government, where government generates revenue, strike in NPE, strike in, strike, strike in some critical sectors in which government generate revenue, strike in NNPC for example, you have a shutdown of those, of those, of those critical sector. But overall, when you look at holistic strike, it affects more the informal sector to be fair and candid. And at the end of the day, a labor will force everybody to go to, to, to sit at home for two weeks. At the end of the civil servants that are usually beneficiary of the strike, of the striker and the labor leaders themselves after one or two weeks, they begin to yield to the pressure of the executive. And then it's just like, what you ask yourself the question, what is the essence of the strike in the first, in the first instance? You see, the real strike labor should do is, is labor organizing itself. We've had the elections, the labor could have organized their consequences for your actions, labor could have spoken with, with one voice, with respect to what the individual union and the rest of it. And what we have also seen is the politicization of the union. In the past, you need student union, they've, they've, they've prescribed student union for you to have a successful strike action. Actually, you need student union. I recall how, while we were in school, how we forced the then Babangida administration to live, to live legal in 1991. So I recall that I, I knew the number, the number of times we went on strike. That's how people like, that's how people like show are very much, isn't it? Exactly. It was, it was, it was the student union. Union. It was not the student union president then, but it was little student union president. It was little student union. I think, I recall is the red drum, recalling red drum was, was, was the student union president then, then later became student union president. I recall how we shot down Todd Mellon Bridge. How we shot down Todd Mellon Bridge. The federal capital 32 was still in Lagos. How we shot down Todd Mellon Bridge from Bagada end and then from Ibute Meta end. So there was no way you could connect, you could connect the island. There was no way top civil servant could connect the island. We shot it down and then I knew the number of federal government cars that were seized by Unilag. By Unilag, there's another story about that that made me not to participate in union in actual sense because the cars that were seized, I knew what student did, we did and I asked, I raised the question because if we are trying to fight injustice in the society, we too should not be perpetrating evil as well as that. I knew, I knew the experience I got from that. So you've seen children, you're being prescribed. You've seen the union, various other unions being politicized. You see the national union of rural transport workers. They are key members of the organized labor. National union to blood transport worker in Lagos and Nigeria, they are, they have become partisan, they have become part and parcel of the ruling class themselves. So how do you want to organize your success? Okay, the organized civil society, the civil society have become consultant to government in whatever areas from whether they are in the head sector, whether they are in the legal sector or whichever one, name them after all. One of them is a former minister today. He's a former minister today and he's a presidential spokesperson for the campaign of some of them that are journalists. Some of them that are journalists in the past. They are, they are spokesperson of the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the Senate leader used to be, the Senate leader, Bamidili Aqayemi used to be a student union leader. Today we're allowing a student union leader to function. So we have key critical sector of all the people in government accountable. I've said it, just to cut our organized and now vibrant. The Nigerian society during the civil society of Nigeria was under military administration, compare and conflate and contrast that to a democratic dispensation. And then you'll just be wondering what has really, what has really, what has really happened in our society, what has struck us. Okay, so let's move to another headline here on the punch newspaper. Niger, the coup there, UN holds humanitarian operations. U.S. France condemns Niger coup. Coup again in Africa? Well, I, well, I might support other, other countries, but from my point of view, this is my point of opinion, you would find complicity in some of the things that is happening in West Africa. Look at the coup in Burkina Faso, coup happened in Mali, coup happened in Guinea, nice in, in, in Niger. And it should be a cause for concern for, for, for, for, for all, for all actors in the democratic space. And what is happening in West Africa should be a cause for concern for everyone of us. Because as you see in Malungu Dalek, he could run for Juba or Wilong Parfuni, debt that is coming close to your, to your neighbor is sending you a signal. What are the things that were wrong in their society that prompted military intervention in government? What are the things? What, what are the, what are the fault lines? What are the red lines? What, what, what are the signals that you are seeing the society that didn't pay attention to? It's important for other West African countries to pay attention to all of, to all of these elements, all of these issues that led to coup and others happen suddenly. It must have been, must have been bringing up, bringing up over time. Unfortunately, our former president said he was going to settle down in, in, in, in, in, in, in Nijie because these Nigerians are troubling him. If we go and settle down in Nijie, I don't know how he's going to settle down in Nijie. Unfortunately also, we try to build a railway, railway station. We didn't connect Nigeria. We are connecting, we are connecting Nijie to, to, to Maradi from, from, from Karno to Maradi. I hope that will not affect our investment, but it is very, very important for attention to be paid for. Equals beyond rhetorics, serious attention, when they are red lines, when they are fault lines, when they are signals, their indications that things are not right in the society. It is important for African Union, it's also important for, for, for West, for, for, for Equal to point out these things to the leaders of this country, for them to do the right thing. Okay, let me move. So all this month of France is doing, France is just being the ostrich, you know, you know, there is, there is, there's an attack and look at the age of these people planning, planning this coup in this various countries. Look at the ages of, of, of the various leaders of, in Burkina Faso, in Mali, in, Burkina Faso, in Mali, in Guinea, look at their ages. They are, they are, they are less, they are less than 40 people planning this coup. And it's, it's, it's a signal also for us to understand that the, that generation it is contented with, with the leadership of the various leaders in Africa. And you knew, you knew the movement of, what the movement in the last election of that particular age, you knew, you knew how they participated in the political, and it's important for this present administration to embrace that generation. We are told that that generation will fund the coup of the cabinet. What do you have the same old same people? So they should pay attention. They should pay attention amid the needs of this particular, of this particular generation who, who have lost hope. And if this present administration in Nigeria is saying that this campaign is winning hope, what type of hope would they have in this kind, in this kind of cabinet of people that have handle states, federal and local government at one point or the other in the past? Okay. So let's move from the punch to the Guardian newspaper. And the Guardian newspaper is leading with summer travel and inflation overpriced airfares, 795 Naira to the dollar exchange rate for clothes, holiday trips for average Nigerians. It's actually their big story. And details of that something is four and five of the Guardian newspaper. This increase in airfares is, is, is alarming. I was in Enougon last week. I was in Enougon, not only the increase in airfare, the emissions sector is suffering from epileptic service. I was meant to be in Enougon Wednesday. I booked a flight with one of the major airlines and then to travel on Wednesday for my meeting on Thursday. And then Luan built, oh, oh, 45 a.m. I got a text message, which I didn't know until about nine when I woke up because the flight was to, was to 30. And then that the flight is canceled. And here I am to facilitate it training in Enougon. How do I get to Enougon nine 30 in the morning? How do I show how to go, how to go, how to go to public transport? And and then it was, it was an hour in experience. But I tell you one thing, I was trying to book the ticket on Sunday prior to that. It was, it was difficult to get a ticket. And you know, my little ticket was one and 2000. My, the ticket I bought to go was 96,000. 96,000 to go from Lagos to Enougon. Now, my little ticket was 102,000 return ticket. No, so I'm spending close to about 200,000 to buy a ticket to fly locally to and through. Now, and then the routes are bad. You've increased the prices of petroleum through the PMS specifically. So road travel is expensive. And then the issue of security. So you have a situation of demand and supply. There is a huge demand for air travel as a result of security. I knew how tensed my, my son was for me to travel by road. And I knew I was, I was using X word for those that invited me for the training that why would he invite my dad for this? Why would he go by road and stuff like that? You know how many trauma most, most, most family members have gone because they are, they are, they are love on how to travel to the road. So that's the reason why you see the air prices that's, that's then to the regulatory body. You see the regulatory body in Nigeria. We don't even know what they are doing. A, a, a student of mine as a journalist traveled to United Kingdom and he said, I've been using three gig, three gig data. I've uploaded all manners of video, three gig. He said the data I bought is three gig. Since Sunday I've not exhausted that data and that you just buy 10 gig in Nigeria. And before you say Jack Robinson is gone is 10 gig data, same thing as 10 gig data in United Kingdom. What are the undercurrents that are going with it? Are we much more interested in revenue generation or providing services, quality services for the citizenry so that whoever is operating a business is operating the business in the interest of your national, that's what is called national interest. They said it affects the interest of the leadership. That's when they begin to talk about national interest, but national interest talk about anyone operating the business, anyone engaging in one activity in the nation must do that in the interest of your national, what are your national, they are your citizen, the citizen of the country, not those in government, not those in power. But what do we know and what can we see? Well let me just tip it in there that for me when flights are cancelled I think it's not something, yeah you may be disappointed because you have an appointment somewhere and all of that, but sometimes when flights are cancelled usually there is a genuine reason and that is a reason of safety. And I think for anyone probably safety is key. There are reasons of safety, there are an economic reason like I'm not so telling you, if that flight is chartered, it's an economic, look one airline is the ticket for my flight to, to, to, to, to, to you since 2009, I've not been refunded. Wow 2009. Yeah 2019, right, 2019, you know what happened? I had to return for my birthday so I had no choice but to buy, to buy another ticket. Now you know what happened? It was the political season, the flight, the flights were chartered by the political class so they pay more money, so they diverted the aircraft. So sometimes when they do it, they do it for economic reasons, where the safety reason no doubt, but in most cases it's for economic reasons. When somebody calls for the flight, probably I want to do a wedding. One, one of the political class wants to do a wedding in one state this weekend and then you have to bring in people. You saw, you saw the event that happened in Plato State over last weekend where you saw the governor of your state, the governor of, the former governor of River State and then the, the chief justice of the federation. I think it's the appeal, is the president of the appeal court or the head of the president that was doing something in Plato State. Now what do you think will happen to the airline? It's the same way you charter a bus to come and pick you up. If you want to go for an event in the east, you go to God is good and you charter one so every other user, every other user will not have access to, to that particular bus because you've chartered because you are paying premium price for it. Okay, let's move from that story to another one here, still on the Guardian newspaper. Please restrategize as iPod declares to which sit at home in the east. Well, well, Abacha said something that if it's not just in the last, last day, more than 24 hours, then go ahead as they're handling it. For example, we look, these, um, you're talking about the insurgency in the east and you need, um, um, I'll say something in my Maluku dialect again. You see you, you cannot cut an oak tree when the oak tree is fully matured. It is easier to cut it when it's, when it's, when it's, when it's, when it's, when it's, when it's small. So you nip it in the board. Now you see in the crisis of iPod, you knew where the genesis of it all we need to do is to nip it in the board. And who are those that are the sponsor, identify them and deal with them, except they have political capital. That's why you can't deal with them. Now you can see the nuisance that Assalito Kubo has been doing now. Now inside for government to nip that in the board, you have non-state actors using non-manners of platforms to promote their ideology, to promote anti-anti-establishment, anti-democratic values. And nothing has been done to that effect. So in five years' time, in six years' time, you'll be saying, okay, uh, government is resurgentizing, the military is resurgentizing the water. Once you have criminal elements, deal with those criminal elements when they are just forming. The moment you deal with them, then you provide peace because providing peace, safeguarding peace of the people and territorial integrity is the first responsibility of government. When government feels to do that, government is inviting anarchy. Yeah. Well, this is interesting. Coming from the police because I know there was last week the federal government sent troops over there, military, to the southeast to counter this seat-at-home order by Simon Epper. And let me ask you a question I asked our guests when we were talking about it. The court had ruled that Masi Namdekalu be released. Shouldn't that be the first step in bringing peace to the southeast, releasing him in obedience to the court directions? Directive? Well, um, one of the things we have seen is the overwhelming power of the executive over all the agencies of government. We have seen that this regard by the executive across the length and breadth of the globe in democratic governance having this respect for the courts and having this respect for the legislature. You can even look at it in advanced democracy. You know, 12 professor came around in United States and told the president of the United States to disregard the Supreme Court ruling on the student loan judgment, which said it's illegal. So as far as I'm concerned, there is a need for democracy to be studied and there's a need for new checks and balances to be put in place concerning what we show up in democratic society because they need a checks that is meant to be provided by the but the judiciary does not have any any any agencies to carry out this enforcement. It relies on the agencies of of the executive to carry out this enforcement. The police, the correctional services, the DSS and the rest of their part and parcel of the executives, their agencies of government under the executive. So institutionally by the the judiciary expects the the arm of the executive to carry out this order to comply with it does not carry out its order, does not follow its directive, does not follow its judgment. What do you expect? So the judiciary only has the force of those pronouncement and if you do have respect for it, it's just a matter of time. We are inviting an akin the society and we have said it once caught up ruled over the matter. Look at for example the show of him by the DSS and the correctional services concerning him. Then this this this about two days ago when the court ruled that okay is provided be and then we already arrest him and the rest of it. All of those drama those that are in government today you understand that those of them for example if I'm the central bank governor today I'll be looking at what has been done to him if it can happen to me when there's a change of government in the future or if you are if you are if you are as I do kubo the rest assured that what is happening to um to to unambicano my likely happen to you in the future if a government that is not favorable to your to your to your to your political uh to your political views and your social views is in government so it's important for us to establish those tenets of democracy those values of democracy that talked about independence of the judiciary respect for the rule of law protection of the human right supremacy of the constitution all of these values is important for us to strengthen to strengthen democracy when you don't have respect for such you begin to build opposition within within the society and these are some of the likelihood of what we witnessed we said earlier that in our neighboring countries what are the things that happen in our neighboring neighboring countries look at what was um what was meant to happen in senegal for example you know it's the senegal president was a former opposition leader and then he became president and he himself wanted to extend the tenet it took the intervention of a coarser for him to stop him from going for a third time when in the past he was an opposition that was gilded then when he became the president he himself gilded um the opposition the opposition leader so it's it's people don't learn from history and history has a way of repeating itself all right naga will mention dss there's also on this uh front page of the guardian dss silent over alleged arrest of former aviation minister syrica what do you know about this for me as far as i'm concerned there is the need for those in government today to to reduce the influence and interference of dss in prosecuting um political economic and financial crimes i get even a point now you have the efcc to prosecute this let the dss go after let them go after ipop is the state's security service in a natural sense there's nothing like dss it is it is the state security service sss that is now is that is is is codified in our law is sss that is codified so it is the state security service let them go after ipop let them go after banditry let the police let efc let other agencies of government prosecute financial crimes corruption crimes efc is better suited other than using state security services to be going after those those those those elements those that are offering threats to national security to security of lives and property to the territorial integrity of the nation these are the people we should focus dss of when you begin to use dss to do this activity it is weaponization of the judicial system it is the weaponization of government dss by training and by design by training i'm saying it emphatically dss by training and by design are not meant to go about this type of activity it is meant for the police it is meant for the efcc to pursue such crimes there are other crimes k-nose crimes in us crimes that dss is designed so by their design and by their nature and by their training they are not well equipped to do this that's why you witness what you witness the drama you witness with dss concerning me feeling you witness that same drama in the court which will end when dss heard children for many years on that rise administration which should be those are antithetical you can be in political power you can be in the good book of dss today and you can be the one using dss today you might be a victim of dss tomorrow and that's why the right thing must be done it is it belongs on each and every one of us to tell those in government to do the right thing all right let's move on to the nature news um it's leading with transport ministry promotes bicycles as eco-friendly commuting option for sustainable future it's a picture of bicycles there um i'm a man you remember the minister of transport under a passenger administration who came up with the idea of transport and i think he was transporting himself to throw off his then when fuel subsidy was removed under a passenger administration and then he was knocked down do we have bicycling in Nigeria and then those that are asking us to embrace bicycle what do they drive they drive for do they drive jeep they drive just like those that are talking about climate change using private jet when you talk about the likes of John Kerry when you talk about the likes of Bill Gates they are talking about climate change how how we have contributed to yes they are using you see the hypocrisy of those advocating change it's playing the ostrich is one of the things you see with people that are heading international government agencies and even ministries and department and agencies of government now the national assembly members are approved to buy for themselves cars that we use for c4 now the presidency is planning to increase the number of ministries that we have so that we have substantive ministers so that you have ministers of state and they are going to buy them of each car these ministers are going to have each yet they are requiring us to cut our our code our our code according to the size of our clothes so it's it's just hypocrisy which bicycle where will you ride the bicycle which routes will you ride the bicycle are there are there bicycle tracks on Nigeria and then if Nigerians are knocked off the road by by by by by vehicles by the siren by the siren of public officials who use their siren to to arrest you off the road now they don't even have respect for other cars using the road we do we have respect for people riding bicycle i'm even trying to picture it i mean just it's just unimaginable totally unimaginable yeah to see bicycle being to see bicycles on our roads the risks they talk before they talk before they think that's their problem they talk before they think okay fct a class 5000 shanties illegal development in katampe district didn't anything happen there well well one of the things you can't take away for a ruffa actually is the going back to abuja master plan which was um which was what one of the major things it did while he was minister of federal capital territory there's no doubt about that them there's no doubt about that that he really did something good and something positive about about that as far as i'm concerned when you when you go through i remember when i was going to katana about three weeks ago i had to go through abuja because there was no flight to katana and then you so you have to have to travel by road to katana because to see this change in times even as we are pushing here but you see encroachment encroachment on government land i thought that the land in abuja belongs to the government you see encroachment on those lands by communities by by big wealth whether you like it or not there are shanties in every developed society wherever you see um i didn't know times times times times magazine did a particular story whereby um you know the service community the service community those that work as guards as cooks as sheriff as the rest of them they live directly opposite to i bro areas in every i bro area not far from it adjacent to it is a shanty because the drivers the cooks those that service them their family are usually in shanty so if we come to vi there are shanties in vi i knew where shanties are if you go to leki there are shanties in leki if you might be shocked to know that there are shanties even in banana banana island where people that service so so it's it's nothing new it's nothing new it's nothing new because those that service the rich the poor that service the rich um are often suffer from neglect when it comes to and then obviously also look at when government is doing projects do they do project based on uh democratic capital which is the number of votes it is the community that supply less votes that get the book where the rich are living that you have class a project the community where the votes come from you don't get any project from go and do your study i've done my own with respect to that where you have the bulk of the votes from you don't see projects there oh well i mean that reminds me of what mr fulani was saying recently is not mr deli fulani uh who is complaining that despite all the votes they gave to president tenable from his state that they have to come through people in legos to be able to access abuja so well that's that's well um that's another issue bringing another twist to it that's another issue from another thing uh the the answer in anything yeah i've you seen the cabinet you've seen the actors and players for example dugun state nominee is a player in legal state he plays all his politics in legal state the state nominee is a player in legal he plays all his politics in legal state so they haven't seen nothing yet with respect to when the time for gubernatorial election comes the issue some state should not be surprised that those that will play politics in the ghost it will be the one that will be the god of their respective states because it's the politics of of who i know and politics of who i've worked with and politics of loyalty that's the politics of what we practice in Nigeria and not politics of competence and national interest it's it's not peculiar to and that's that informs some of the decisions you've seen that have been taken with respect to the sharing of the committee members of the national of the national of the national assembly the father will be a minister the son will be the son will be a chairman of a committee on on on finers or is it on committee on appropriation it is well with Nigeria who will recover from i recall when when Aula was daughter wanted to contest the gubernatorial election in legal state under sdp in 1991 i recall what he was told to kumbadu soon i remember that story said we cannot serve the father and serve the daughter just by the fact of the legacy that i will be with in the south west he was very mentally rejected by by by the people that no no no there is this entity there is ethics i don't know where we have turned that decency to in politics now it seems the more knowledgeable we are the more educated we are the more we have lost our cultural value cultural value of what is called homologous in uberland i don't know what is called in other culture but the cultural value of what is called homologous in uber in uberland is we have lost those values because if in 1990 to kumbadu soon could be rejected to kumbadu soon could be rejected and people said that was what killed that campaign that no no no we cannot serve the father and serve their daughter it's impossible that killed a campaign and in 1991 if we are so sophisticated and so enlightened like that and then in 2023 the rest of the political cast to the length and breadth of Nigeria we've been imposing their children their sons and daughter their cronies in various offices then we have lost the value of homologous there's none of them i'm saying it from head to toe that's homologous there's none okay just before we wrap up let's let me take you back to the punch newspaper this advice from the world bank to nigeria reduce government burrowing from cbn how you see you see when people talk about um um when you look at the federal reserve in america when they said they removed the the the depth cap what it is done is that you approach the congress the congress then gives you approval then the united state government we approach the federal reserve bank who will borrow government money in nigeria is directive you don't follow the due diligence you recall when the adopted government said that government can no longer meet its obligation that we are printing more money we are printing more money it was a lone voice obasek said it long time ago it was a lone boy shortly after kubi the government was printing money government was printing money rather than government to borrow money from central bank government was busy printing and that has affected the value of nira you could see how the exchange rate of nira compared to other currency in africa in west africa to be precise and compared to the value of the dollar so it is very very clear you must follow the due diligence even if you want to borrow you must not circumvent the process if government wants to borrow money from the central bank there must be a transparent approach not government just calling and that's the reason why imif now imifela is facing the music all others that were involved with him they are they are lounging in in in in one exclusive club or in one exclusive house now whereas it is lounging in detention it's very very important for wherever is the central bank governor to point it out on how these things are done with respect to how government can borrow legitimately and what government cannot borrow we can't be borrowing money to fund the lifestyle we cannot afford you know that last time we cannot afford it is increasing the the number of ministries we have that last time we cannot afford it's increasing the number of committees you see we didn't read the story the the speaker of the house of rep increased the committee from 100 the standing committee from 103 to one to one from one and three to one and 34 143 we can't be doing that you can't you can't be you look you are nine if you don't have any money we don't have to go to bank to borrow money to buy cars to buy office equipment you know what we do in government government will go to bank to borrow money to fund lifestyle to fund lifestyle we cannot afford it's part of the reasons that endurance are strongly kicking against this money being allocated to the members in the house want to buy cars and and all of that from alone it's because the it is the national assembly we are looking at by the time you put commissioners in place in the various states and then you put in place the federal executive council the number of aids the number of special assistant that they were then you know that indeed they have not it is the court of covenants they are asking us to do something why they are doing something else well thank you so much jidda johnson my chief jidda johnson for your time it's a pleasure to be with you I'm majesty to serve in your kingdom thank you chief jidda johnson is a chief lecturer nigerian institute of journalism lego state and he's been my guest on of the press stay with us we'll be back for our very first hot topic on the breakfast