 Welcome back to the breakfast here in plus TV Africa on this day in history I'm going back to the year 1930 to tell you about the Hoover Dam It began of course a construction. Well, the United States began construction of the Hoover Dam on this day this Dam that eventually took about five years to construct and 21,000 workers that were part of the construction of the Hoover Dam. It of course had an average of 3,500 men working every single day on the dam Author Powell Davis an engineer from the Bureau of Reclamation originally had a vision for the Hoover Dam back in 1902 and his engineering report on the topic became the guiding document which was eventually put to use when the Construction eventually began in 1930 for many many years Actually, the dam was the construction of the dam finished on this day For many many years the water had been a source of contention among Western states that had claims on the Colorado River and so they of course began construction It took like I said 21,000 men I'll prove off from Congress and of course a little bit of controversy here and there before it eventually was fully constructed a few facts Also concerning the Hoover Dam initially it was meant to be called the Boulder Canyon Dam and You know that was mostly because of where it was located and and the place that they decided that they were going to You know create the dam just right next to the Grand Canyon, but eventually after construction it was renamed by the guy in the head engineer after President Herbert Hoover in 1930 that of course eventually was changed after Hoover left Presidency Franklin Roosevelt who wasn't a huge fan of Herbert Hoover Then renamed the dam and said it was going to be turned back to the Boulder Canyon Dam But later on after Franklin Roosevelt President Truman eventually then approved it to be called the Hoover Dam much later in 1947 I believe Also an entire city was created for the people working on the dam at that time And that's you know, some of the people who currently still live in those areas Descendants of the people who built the Hoover Dam and it reminds me of their job at your quota still complex You know, I've heard of stories from their Dakota still complex and now The original plan for you know all of it also included a small city Which I think they probably achieved in to some extent, but there was also a plan for a small city for workers and Yeah, but not to that I don't think it did to the extent that they had planned You know because of the failure of the dam of the still complex to fully kick off and be fully functional I don't think they eventually did but some of those complexes that you see around their Dakota still complex now where constructed way back then While the dam was still while the I keep saying damn while the my Dakota still complex was being constructed I think many interesting facts about the Hoover Dam about how, you know one of the world's largest refrigerators cooled all the concretes that were to be used for the dam and That all the concrete used in the dam can you know, fill the entire US and About how nobody actually once said that they are to be called to be named after, you know President Hoover. He's it was stated that he's one of the least beloved president. So there was lots of Oppositions of that, but it stood and now it's called the Hoover Dam. Yeah, so moving on from 1930 I believe to the year 2005 on this same history There was a terror attack in the US actually four different terror attacks in the US and this Was at London's systems transit London's transit system Okay, in the UK in London. All right, so it was on the morning of July 7th, 2005 Bombs were detonated in three crowded London subways and one boss during the peak of the city's rush hour So there it was basically a synchronized Suicide bombings, which you know people had believed to be the work of Al Qaeda It killed about 56 people including the bombers and injured another 700 people it said to be the largest attack on Great Britain since World War two There was no warning for this these three guys, you know, they had planned this they picked up the fourth guy on their way They all wore backpacks with the you know, these explosives they entered different You know trains heading in different directions They detonated the bombs and basically, you know, killed themselves and other people now these attacks took place as World leaders including British Prime Minister Tony Blair were meeting in the G7 G8 summit in nearby Scotland now despite You know thought that this probably was a walk of Al Qaeda foreign powers You know was found that these people were actually British and maybe even one was Jamaican Well, it was thought to be doing funny enough This attack happened on July 7th by July 16th The police had investigated about six hours six thousand hours worth of footage and found the men July 16 I mean look at that look at the short time. Yeah, even though they were dead they were able to trace CCTV footage and found people who carried out this attack and Much later that month July 21st another group of four men tried to replicate the attack Well, luckily the devices did not detonate now guess what on the same day of this four bombings attack in London There was a consulting company that ran mock exercise Entirely on paper in preparation for a possible terrorist attack in London similar to one that actually happened So they were preparing for a mock exercise to say if such a thing happens in the UK How can we deal with it and such a thing happened that same day in reality? So this basically prompted initial conspiracy that you know the company the government had something to do with it But you found that this exercise was common. It was unaffiliated and these these men would let go So about two other people were in basically fingered in this attack, but they were cleared two years later So it was in this day in history that four bombers attacked transit station in London in 2005 to coordinate the suicide bomb on London's transit system With explosions that thought through the transit trains in London on the ground. I remember, you know this day very well This was a couple of years after the World Trade Center bombing in 2001 and it was kind of in the peak of Al Qaeda and its attacks on the United States and on the West generally in Europe Later on there was you know others in France, you know, I think there was one in Australia or Switzerland I'm not sure now, but it was in in that era when there was a lot of those terrorist attacks, you know But this also showed The importance of intelligence gathering for for them to be able to prevent, you know later further bomb attacks in the future I remember that there's also, you know, sit at times when there are certain raids that you hear about That's you know, eventually bossed Terrorists that we're going to you know attacks on time later in the future The importance of intelligence gathering the importance of funding security networks Properly that we lack very well here in Nigeria and also the perspective of Or the idea, you know, that Al Qaeda doesn't necessarily Al Qaeda Members or attackers don't necessarily have to be from Afghanistan or Iraq Because this was at the same time that the war in Iraq was going on, you know, the Saturday in 2003 the war in Iraq was going on There were still of course bombing left and right in Iraq and Afghanistan while this happened in the UK And so it's just it was just a reminder that terrorism always have to come from those areas, you know They could be British citizens. They could be American citizens They could be you know from any from your own country And there's always a presence of sales terrorist cells in every country I mean that were possibly a presence of a terrorist cells in every country in the world And loan I think they're called loan strikers or loan rangers who also carry out these type of attacks But don't you think that when we look at how other countries foreign powers like the US the UK How they handle, you know attacks like this An attack was was, you know happened July 7th Almost a week later They apprehended or actually the people died but they identified people who perpetrated an attack and many instances throughout history Why is it that we're not looking in that direction? Let's get like Training from people who do it better. That's really why do we have, you know, you can send up We used to have things like this, you know back then Yes, well, we had people get authentic training about how to actually prosecute Anti-insurgency war why why don't we have things like that because we are in dire need of military intervention in Nigeria How can you know our security situation being such shambles that people are Abducted and parents are protesting and they are threatened with arrest and bullets, you know So our do you agree with me that we could use Some training by foreign powers who know how to do it better So I don't think we necessarily need foreign powers to train I think what we have lacked for a long time. We're speaking about the Hoover Dam now from 1930 Over time at that time it was the biggest or the highest, you know, dam over time They've been able to develop, you know other dams that have, you know, be more than 700 meters higher than the Hoover Dam So but that's where they're coming from The UK the US Germany France Russia They have a massive budget every year for security and that includes not just equipment No, no, we don't have peanuts compared to what they compared to what they would not exactly compare our economies are different I wouldn't exactly compare them with that level But I am saying that the need for training is something it's something you cannot So so this is where I'm this is where I'm headed. They have a massive budget, you know, they do not You know means words or you know Shortchain themselves when they come to spending on security They spend billions and billions of dollars every year on security and pounds every year on security We don't and it's not I don't think you will blame it on, you know having two different, you know economies We I don't think we prioritize these things well enough for us to be able to spend, you know, as much as we should on them We started talking about Boko Haram in what 2009 or so Since then we've had enough time to increase our budget for security But because we've continued to do the same things every year. I don't know what's on the miracle that we expect to happen We keep bringing in the army when we instead should be spending more on intelligence gathering spending more on Local security. We've had this conversation of state police for a very very long time Intelligence government you hear how they basically rummage through Thousand and thousands because they spend enough because they spend enough to have cameras They spend enough to keep those cameras running every single minute of the day Since time we had stories about contracts, you know to a Chinese company to install cameras in our highways Where is that? Yes, the Abuja was a thing called it was some CCTV, you know scam or something in Abuja When we're obviously not serious about these things because they spend money for those cameras to be running every single day Every single minute every second it costs money and they do not you know in any day anytime feel like okay Maybe would have money for cameras today Maybe would have money for fingerprints, but there's so much that they do in order to ensure that their cities are safe And for anybody who wants to carry such an attack in the UK You will be worried that you you definitely will be scared that you will be caught or in the United States You you have those fears because the the chances and the loopholes that exist are so little You know for you not to be caught But here in Nigeria you can have a serial killer walk around for ten years and commit murders in In in hundreds and nobody would ever figure it out Community policing and all of that, you know They have their system of the 911 where once they see anything suspicious They inform and alert the police and they get right on it, but our police funding our police people tell you They don't all of this is still funding. Yeah things like that. So it's still funding You know they invest enough and that's why they have what they have we don't We haven't in any way been able to be To open up more avenues with which we can make more money and invest in education investing security investing infrastructure We keep giving the same excuse and every day where we are currently when Economically in such a bad state that there's not even a 2,000-hour extra that can be put into security If we're serious about it because we don't even have money to fully fund our budget We have to keep borrowing every year to fund budget to pay back loans that we've taken And so it's just of it's these these are the effects of a country that has not been serious With these things for a long time. I keep speaking about blocking leakages in government reducing the cost of running government in Nigeria There's so much and so many ways that we can save money and we can make more money But we don't seem to be taking it seriously if we have a You know ways that we can create systems create Better auditing and save 500 million save a billion save 2 billion every year save 200 billion every year From different sources from customs from immigration from there We make so much money in Nigeria that just disappears into thin air And so if we have better auditing and we're able to save all that money and put it into infrastructure or put it Into security some of all these things would not happen. How how can you imagine that a hundred and fifty kids will be kidnapped from a School and just be taken away How I mean you hear these things that you can't just imagine that this is real life It can even in movies this kind of things won't happen. So how is it possible that in 2021? This is a country that has been dealing with insurgency for more than a decade in 2021 We still have a situation where students in the hundreds can just be taken away from a school And there's no checkpoint. There's nothing that stops them from being taken away We then start to you know negotiate or find ways to do you know have a rescue efforts You know to bring these kids back it makes absolutely no sense But imagine this happened imagine a hundred kids were kidnapped in the UK in the US in 1930 today you would not be able to try it will be almost impossible because they would have improved with regard to intelligence and security and You know better ways to protect school children, you know by one year later The minutes of sports Sunday there I hope that we can bring this up and one bring this up is just to show that over time we always fail to Look for excellence with the people that we put into into office look at what is happening with Nigeria sports perfect example men and female Athletics Teams are not getting into the Olympics We have that and we have a minister of sports at the end of his time as minister of sports I don't think there's anybody who's going to question what he did and what happened to Nigerian sports while he was there Nobody's gonna ask all those questions. They will simply say oh is not is in on Nigeria would laugh over it and we'll move on But there's the person whose responsibility it is that Nigeria sports should be seamless and we should be able to break boundaries You we should get the best out of our athletes, but nobody's going to ask him why we have failed to make it to the Olympics Nobody's gonna ask why don't have the best athletes in the Olympics and that's the same thing with every other MDA in Nigeria today There would only we're even speaking about Ibrahim Magu being given appointment again Well, all right, so that's that wraps it up for today in history talked about 2005 attack in the UK and the 1930 construction of the Loverdam. Let's take a break here We'll return to talk more about security