 You welcome back We are taking off hot topic this morning And that is a ticket touted to lead a position alliance against tinaboo ahead of 20 27 Election we do know that for any any country or any political Climate to be balanced we have to have a very very good opposition not just good leadership good leadership comes when there Is a good position as well in Nigeria. We are seeing 20 27 because 20 23 Is gone already so we're looking at the possibility of article leading the position That will maybe change the political trajectory of Nigeria come 20 27 We're going we are being joined right now by Nick Agulay public affairs analyst. Good morning and welcome to the program Nani and happy new year to you. Happy new year. Happy new year to you. Okay Now we've seen We've already accepted our fate as it were that 20 23 is gone The day just like subsidies is gone as well 23 3 gone So the election of 20 23 even though some governance are still in the courts and all that but the presidency That one is gone now 20 27 is what we're looking up to and This headline says at tick who is being touted to lead the opposition and he has hinted That he's going to contest yet again in 20 27 Let's first of all just get your thoughts on this possibility Thank you very much. I'm not sure if it is my system But I don't think we hear you out clearly However, I believe that you've asked me to comment on the Statement by the former vice-presidents and if that is the case, I will say yes, I Agree with him that Nigeria needs a strong coalition of opposition parties to Checkmate the government in power But I don't agree with him that he should run again in 20 27 I think he needs to retire He needs to give way to other people to also come into this space. I Mean he can say welcome a president who had a contested three times Before he made it on the fourth attempt I think Vice-president has contested probably four times or more and the age is now inside as well and He's just for him to be part of that strong coalition of opposition parties But he must it have to stand as a presidential candidate Okay, but what do you think the position should be like this coalition? It shouldn't be a coalition of collapsing the collapsing other Structures into one or just a common understanding between the oppositions Can you come again with that? What would you propose? As a formidable Opposition would you propose that the collapse all the structures of their parties into one just like they did for the APC Bringing CPC and all so many other parties or you say the parties can stay on their own But have a common understanding on how to operate as the opposition Okay, so Can do it either way They can remain individual parties by working in coalition or They can call us their individual political structures and form a one united party Either way it is what needs to happen. I mean if you go to politics like in the UK You discover that in the UK the Opposition is recognized by the laws is recognized by parliament So the as if it was in the UK, I will give the example in Nigeria if it was in the UK as President in April is now the president of Nigeria under the banner of the APC the second highest Party with members of parliament Let's say in this case PTP kept second in the last presidential election and Tico Abubaka will also be in government But he will be in government as an opposition leader And as president in the bull has a cabinet at Tico Abubaka We have a shadow cabinet. So if president in the bull has a minister for education At Tico Abubaka will have a shadow minister for education And this shadow minister is paid by government as well, you know, the different however in the UK is that you have to be elected into parliament first before you can You know have any of such political appointments, but at Tico Abubaka will have a Shadow minister for each of president tinibu's ministers So that at the end of the day, when president tinibu makes a statement I am going to do social and social education At Tico Abubaka as the shadow prime minister We also come out with his own policy statement, you know Country that of the president tinibu. So the voters have the whole time to be able to see What else they could have got From what this government their current government is giving them and that puts the current government on their toes They know that they cannot fumble They cannot mess up like in Nigeria now. You can see that the government is fumbling with the security situation in Nigeria President tinibu's government hasn't done anything different For president buhari's government in both president buhari's government There will be a lot of nigerians killed in their hundreds the government will come out and make statements They will be see the scene of the the crisis and that will be the end and we wait for the next Set of hundred people to be killed if we had the kind of opposition political setup as it is in the uk the Shadow prime minister will be telling nigerians what he can do to solve the insecurity problem And nigerians can clearly see that they are not getting the best deal from the government in part Because here is somebody else who has a different solution that is sounding more effective in their ears And that happens throughout the tenure until the next General election, but the next general election the voters are clear in position who have offered A better digital. So this is what needs to happen Even if you go to the u.s. Where they practice the Presidential system of government that we have copied it. It is the same 10 as we speak today The democrats are in power at the presidency And the republican party Is the opposition And for the entire four years of job by this president job by this tenure The the the republican party have been checkmating him country his policies often americans a better deal And that makes president biding not to fumble not to to mess up because if he makes any mistake The republican party are going to cash in on it and appeal to the voters with a different dimension So if nigerian democracy must work we must allow opposition to thrive Because it is by the opposition thriving that those who are in government are able to Have sleepless nights knowing that They are watching their backs as the opposition is going to take the game from them So in other words, you're saying we should go into the parliamentary system of government that that would be better for nigeria Did you hear me? I saw you come back again with that. Okay, so I said in other words You're saying we should go to a parliamentary system of government That might just be better for nigeria because the opposition party would be checking The the ruling party so basically checks and balances Okay, so uh two things The first is that We don't even need to change Our political setup to the parliamentary system of government before the opposition becomes strong and viral In the us in the example I gave They are practicing the presidential system of government, which we are practicing too, but they have a very strong opposition So like the democrats are in power today The republicans are the opposition very strong opposition donald trump is not sleeping all the other republican presidential candidates They are offering americans something different from what your biden is offering And so it is happening at a different state in any state where the A democrat is the governor the republican party is the opposition and vice versa So we don't even need to go into the parliamentary system of government to have this strong opposition However, if you ask me that between the presidential system of government and the parliamentary system of government, which is better for nigeria I will say the parliamentary system of government is better for nigeria because the parliamentary system of government not only that it is cheaper It is also Better for a system like nigeria a country like nigeria. It is better for us and I can tell you why first The parliamentary system of government is cheaper because in the parliamentary system of government It is the national assembly members that also form the cabinet of the country So if nigeria were in the parliamentary system of government It is members of the senate or the national assembly as we would have heard it That would have also some of them would have been appointed to become Um Ministers in government so in both the executive arm of government And the legislative arm of government are the same people So that that avoids all the conflict that we have these days You see the conflict between the executive and national assembly is I see they are pushing different agenda except when Their self interest is together Secondly, it is cheaper like in the uk as we speak today The the they have they have two arms of the legislature They have the house of commons and they have the house of laws. So the house of laws is more or less like Uh, you know, they are not elected. They are appointed Um, they they are not the real legislators representing the people The real legislators representing people are those in the house of commons. They are called MPs members of parliament And each of them we first have to win an election in their constituency to go to parliament And it's why they are in parliament the party that has the majority of MPs In parliament is the one that formed the government So as we speak today The conservative party haven't had the the the largest number of MPs are also the government in power And members of the conservative parties who are in parliament Are also the ones that are in government. So you don't have a presidential election You don't have a presidential election because the chairman of the party that has the highest number of MPs Impaliment automatically becomes the prime minister So the prime minister of the uk today has to speak uh, rishik sunak He didn't come down. He didn't have to win a presidential election to become prime minister of the uk He only went to his constituency make sure that he won his election as an MP came to Parliament and because he's the leader of the conservative party and the conservative party has got The largest number of MPs in parliament. That is how he has become prime minister So you see in anglia the presidential election cost a lot of money And what the top people spend all that money when they get into office? They not try to recoup that money either their own money they spend or the money that was sponsored Was given to them in sponsorship by those who were backing them. And so that's another aspect of the of the presidential system that makes it more expensive and then this making official the opposition party Like in the uk the opposition party like i said, they are also MPs. They are on government payroll. They are recognized as government officials Let us have such an opposition party in agiria to put the leaders in agiria on their toes So if you ask me, I will say the parliamentary system is a far better system of government For nagiria than this very expensive presidential system that we have copied and not only that we have copied the presidential system We copied it wrongly because in the presidential system The the three arms of government the executive Legislature and the judiciary are totally independent But as you can see in agiria the legislature Has seen their department in the presidency the senate president and his counterpart in the house The speaker of the house of representative They have to see their senior special assistants to the president of agiria The independence is gone and of course we know what is happening in the judiciary So the this system of government we have is not working for us at all Okay Well, let's go to the crux of the matter opposition to be led by tikku Having 2027 in mind the basic thing is why is opposition Not as strong as it should be in nigeria because you have said it's not necessary that we change The political climate of nigeria the political system of nigeria from presidential to Parliamentary before we can get things done. Why do you think the position is not? Strong enough in nigeria formidable. Yes, that is not formidable enough. That's the word to use Uh, I could be here you very well. I just why do you think the opposition is not as formidable as they should be in nigeria? Okay, so the opposition is not as formidable In agiria as elsewhere or as we expect because of selfish interests Our politicians love themselves too much And let's go back to the topic we started with at ikua bubaka You would have expected that at ikua bubaka as an elder statesman will be calling for a strong opposition Against the government of president in nigeria if he had to full stop On that statement, he will be all right. It will be okay. It will be the right thing to say in this 2024 as we start But he immediately put himself in the frame By saying I am going to contest the 20 27 elections So you can see that he's not ready to give way to anybody So how can we form a strong opposition when he must contest? He's not giving room to the labor party or the nmpp or any other Coalition of opposition parties that will come together and will give a chance to any of them Imagine as the president so if they don't give way to each other A house that is Divided against itself is going to fall So you can't just come into a college because what what the statement? former vice president Atikua bubaka has betrayed his his emotions Because what he's basically calling for now? He's saying all the other parties that are not apc Come together for me so that I will be your presidential candidate Into the 20 27 elections. I want to become president by all means. How is that going to work? He's never going to work You know, so this is the reason why opposition is not working in Nigeria Selfish interests of people in opposition are actually being used by the government in power There are people in opposition for instance, you see what is happening in the labor party You see the crisis in the bdp and all of that These are people in opposition parties who cannot withstand the crimes falling from the table or the party in government And they are not being used as internal insurrectionists To dismantle their own parties. So if we are going to have a strong opposition Politicians must bury their selfish interests Politicians must look at the need for Nigeria Instead of their own personal need Politicians will be ready to say even if I don't stand as a presidential candidate or any other candidate Let Nigeria work. I am ready to sacrifice my personal ambition for Nigeria to work Until we get politicians to that level Opposition is not going to work in Nigeria. All right. So, I mean, I like the fact that you just addressed The crisis in pdp in even in nmpp. The candidates were suspended and we're looking at the apapa faction in in labor party and pdp Everyone has theirs. So how do we even form this coalition that is going to be formidable in my mind's eye? I'm just trying to understand because we know how Nigerian politicians can be sometimes Their ego triumphs over the growth of the nation So what is that coalition going to be like? And are you sure that they can all come together and say we want to form this formidable Opposition party that would ensure that we check whatever the ruling party is doing So two things The first is that let us be very clear That when you have a coalition Of human beings in any situation at all, there are bound to be dissenting voices There are bound to be people who are not on the same Page or wavelength with the rest. There are those who will definitely have their own selfish agendas that they want to pursue There are all sorts of interests. So It is a family even in a family a family unit Whether it is In a business It is in an office It's in politics. It's in education even in in religion You know in all these places where you have human beings You cannot have 100 percent of the people in line Falling in line with the vision the objectives and the aspirations of that You are always having people who have their own agenda. So that is the reality of life. That is humanity for you however What matters is that a majority of the people On the same page with each other moving forward regardless of the fact that some elements in their group are falling aside If that is the answer then you can make way forward But if majority of the people Are pursuing their selfish agenda Then you realize that that group is not going to function So how does this apply to the opposition party party or parties in Algeria? It's the same thing label party NNPP Cannot all get their members to be on the same page with their parties objectives and aspirations However, if the leadership of these parties and majority of the members of these parties Decide within them that it is Nigeria first And they have all selfish interests last they will be able to manage any other dissenting voices That are within their parties and they can form this strong and Indomitable opposition From today because you see that the problem in Nigeria is that We elect people like we just finished a general election in 2023 Instead of people to now accompany the government That is in power through the governor process of four years We basically just give up on them and begin to look to the next general election And this thing has been hurting us for so long We need to accompany the government in power through the whole four years With our own opposition And the opposition does not only Need to be political party opposition It also needs to be the people and more government opposition We keep saying this thing that there are four arms of government The executive the legislature the judiciary and the people the people are the fourth arm of government I mean all the countries that Our young people are not being attracted to with their jackpot into if you go there One thing you are going to notice immediately is that the people arm of government is a strong opposition to the government in power The people arm of government are accompanying those who are in power For the entire duration of their time and of course the nigerian constitution provides us The people the people arm of government the nigerian constitution provides us Definite and specific responsibilities on how we can be part of the governor process for instance If the the the executive arm of government is not performing well Our representatives the legislators legislators are expected to checkmate the executive arm of government And if the legislators are not doing their work the constitution has the people arm of government The power to recall the legislators so as you can see if legislators today Know that the people arm of government can begin a recall process against them in order to protect their job They will put more pressure On the executive arm of government to perform and of course the executive arm of government knows that at the next general election That is if they survive and they are not impeached by the Legislative arm of government who are under pressure by the people arm of government The executive arm of government will face the voters at the next ballot and the voters will slot at them So you can see that the people arm of government Is the basic opposition unit in a democracy like the one we are practicing Even before we talk about the political opposition the political party opposition So in agiria the people arm of government Because of what has happened over the years has become docile has become Removed from the process disengaged Our young people who form the majority bloc or votes in any election in agiria are no longer interested in agiria They don't know anything about agiria 90 percent of them if you engage them the only thing in their head is they want to jack back So that is where we even need to start By reversing that process or making our young people to become engaged in their country because this country we have Look, there is no way I'm a diaspora. I can't tell you I can't tell the young people in agiria for free That you jack back that place you are going to everybody knows they knows that you are a foreigner You are a visitor. That is not your place. There is nothing at all And if we form the strong opposition at the people level of government who can make agiria even a better place Than those places that are attracting us to jack back Okay Some people are saying for us to get a good opposition We just need two parties that many parties is killing the democracy in agiria We should have just two parties as we had the sdp and the nrc. This is because sometimes Parties are said to be sponsored by Candidates from major political parties. They just spring up with one small party to disrupt another party and all that So people are advocating a two party system in agiria. Do you also buy that idea? I don't buy that idea in agiria Practice a two-party system under the babangida military junta And we know what happened that was just for his own selfish interest to be able to transmute From a military dictator to a civilian president in agbada for me, I would rather want parties to Develop by themselves and have this internal Democracy that the practice that will lead them to become a major party because These two party system. I'm trying to think in my head. Where does he exist? Because in the u.k. They have about three We have the Presidentia Yeah In the u.k. They have about three. They have the conservatives, which is the tories They also have the labor and then they have the labor. Sorry and I didn't get that So so when I'm talking about the u.k. Even though they operate a parliamentary system of government But they have about three of them, which is the conservative also known as the tories They also have the labor party and then they have the liberal most times So can't we have a cap because we have a lot of political parties in agiria In lords and so many people are buying these tickets and saying they want to contest to be president or governors Or you know, whatever political Position they they they didn't fit But can't we have a cap on the political parties that we have in agiria if it's even five and we know that Okay, you have to just align with one of these parties And and sorry, let me just add this mind you Most of the time we don't even know what the the the goal of each party is what they really stand for So for instance, if we have about five political parties, I can say oh I can align with this whatever goal they have whatever Principles that they've laid out. I can align with them Hello, mr. Nick. Are you there? I think we just lost them. But do you understand what I'm trying to say? So for instance, you know, you have pdp and pdp says this is my mandate. These are the things I stand for I can't say I want to align with pdp because you know, that's what they stand for and they go with my own Principles as well. Just like how you have the democrats and you have the republicans. They're they're too diverse Diverse principles So it's easier for me to say this is who I want to align with if we have about five political parties in Nigeria I can easily say I want to align with this party. I think this party would you know transform Nigeria Another person can say I want to align with this other party. This party is is it for me? I mean Ideologies But I feel like if we cap it, you know into okay, these are the three four five political parties Then in a way we're forcing their hands, you know to start to have ideologies and guess what? The revolution is coming that you talked about Yeah, but if they don't have ideologies, they will just go to the same pool of Manifesto and pick the same things come and change the English and then present to us That's what they've been doing. They don't give us a roadmap to achieving whatever they're doing When you were talking about UK or America and all that they have a national dream They have a national goal. So the the the importance of having political parties is Who are the people who are ready to pass through this route to arrive at our goal Our national goal who are the people who are ready to pass through and not a route to arrive at that same goal So if you want Nigeria to develop and you say free education is going to Make us develop faster. Yeah, we want development So my party is talking about free education and not the party may be talking about Manufacturing about some other other things, but it is to arrive at the same goal But when the Nigerian politician says it's about common interest no permanent friend The common interest in their own case is not the common interest of the nation They're talking about the interest that what will benefit you and benefit me not what will benefit the country So until our politicians begin to see Nigeria as Constituency one and then every other one is just a secondary constituency We will not succeed because they are they are my people say you're fishing into your basket Yeah, you won't only want to fish into your basket. So wherever it favors you We've seen in river state, even if I don't mention names, but we've seen in river states That somebody left a particular party Went to another party to contest governorship and then he lost the governorship and he was expecting ministerial position Now maybe this is a conspiracy But I I think in my mind that for that person who left that party to go and contest in another party Still having the gods the ambition Yeah, to to expect to be given ministers may have been sent He may have been sent by somebody from this party that he allegedly left To go and disrupt other parties to make sure they don't make a headway and come back and get some some returns Yeah, that could just be a payment or I'm going to give you a slot for what you do We've seen a lot of these things happening prior to election Maybe a few months to election you just see these ones coming We're going to form our own party and all that before you know what is happening. They're singing a different tune Okay, we are going to align with these other political party. We have adopted that a lot We've seen all these things. So I think like you said, even if it's going to be five But it should not be more than 10 Yeah, in fact, how do you tell someone who is not really really well-lettered to go and start looking for the political party? Because you know, we need to have Such that people can identify easily if it is three parties fine if it is five parties fine if it's even 10 But what are you doing with 80 political parties? It doesn't make sense to me. Yeah I mean, I've always I've always stood from the point of view of Each party. Let me know what you stand for. Let me know what your geologists are that way. I can easily allow it's easier It's easier for everyone. The only reason why they want to do this is because they want it Maybe they want to be able to still, you know, go there and finesse people and then get all that they can for themselves As long as it benefits them It's like a tertiary institutions. Most of them people write They write plagiarism Write projects projects is just go select your your topic come here look for any project that That sounds like the one you want change the English and submit Yeah, so that's what is happening. They give you a manifesto, which once they get into office They are not they're not able to keep the promises. They don't keep it A manifesto is a document telling people what you have promised them to do You've taken an oath to do and then you're voted into office based on that manifesto and you jettison it and tell us that It's not easy to take care of Nigeria except you are a magician I mean if it's if other nations are flourishing then why why can't you you know how your mother would say The person that took first in class. Do they have two heads? Really if other nations are flourishing Do they have two heads? I mean we can just start to put in the work here in Nigeria But yeah, um anyways, I think I don't think mr. Nick is coming back. We sort of have some technical Issues, but yes, we were talking to Nick Agulay. He's the public affairs analyst and we've just been talking about the coalition of political parties and article being Tauted to lead the opposition party come 2027 That's why we wrap it up on the short this week the first week in January of 2024 has come to an end and we Yeah, before we before we go I would like to give you a little information for the people who Might be afraid that once the third mainland bridge is closed You may not be able to move on the road. We've been given more information about that from Very early hours of the morning till till 12 noon Traffic is more coming to the island So the road will be open the bridge will be open according to information reaching us now It will be open till 12 Midday and it will be closed at 12 midday and then the other section from island to Going to the mainland will be opened at that time So hopefully if you're coming from the mainland to the island You have to come before it is 12 o'clock in the afternoon And then when you're going back you cannot move earlier than 12 o'clock except you need to take other routes That will take you to your destination So the information that we got earlier just told us that they would close it and The over shaky access so we have this now. We don't know the length of time it will take Whether it will be one month or two months, but we do know that every day you can commute on that road But just on different lanes you can time it well Yeah Well, like she said, this is where we drop it and we are very very happy that you were able to stay with us for the entire full first week of 2024 I can't believe I keep saying that 2024 We made it this far. We're going to go even farther than this. I would like to thank you My name is Nyam Gul Adgaji. We'll see you on Monday. My name is Rume Paul Singh. Have an amazing weekend