 The National Security Advisor, Major General Baba Ghana Mungono retired, has warned all separatist groups against disrupting the November 6th Annambara State Governorship Election and President Buhari's arrival to emo state. Residents complied with the IPOP initial sit-at-home directive. Now, the big question is, who's in charge? Well, joining us to discuss this is Public Affairs Analyst Ambrose Ibuki and the Director of Public Affairs Ibuki Leadership Development Foundation, Law Mefo. Thank you very much, gentlemen, for joining us. Thank you for hosting us. Great. So, Mr Mefo, I'm going to start with you because the big question is, there's a lot of compliance with the sit-at-home, you know, order given in the southeastern states. One would have thought that maybe it's just about the President's visit, but this sit-at-home order has been going on. There have been complaints about trucks that have been burned, laden with goods that were supposed to be taken into the southeastern states. There have been several complaints about this sit-at-home order, and this is not an order coming from the states, but it's an order coming from IPOP. So, it begs the question, who's in charge? I tell you, what is going on in the southeast since May of this year, it has been most embarrassing. And before May 2021, South East was the most peaceful section of Nigeria. And today, it is home to unknown government, all manner of extreme violence. You know, it's a plane now, there. And this sit-at-home order issued by IPOP, since they arrest and bring it back to the country of Enand for continuation of his trial, it shows two or three things. One, it shows that the political leaders of the South East are not really in charge. And I say so because even the people are staying at home in adherence to the order or the directive given to them by a non-state actor. It simply means that they cannot order them otherwise. Most of the people who stay at home are not necessarily staying at home because they want to stay at home. They are staying at home because their security cannot be guaranteed. And even that is the case. It simply means that it's not only the solidarity for the Canada that is at play here. People are afraid of their lives. As we speak now, about one or two hours ago, a traditional ruler from my Guleri was killed. Killed this evening, you can check it out, check it out. He is trending over the social media, very current picture of the assassination of a traditional ruler of a town in Anabra State, Aguleri. It's sad but it's going on now. The point is, even the governors, particularly who are named in the constitution as the chief and security officers of the state, cannot guarantee the security of lives and property that there is a problem. Well, they can always tell you that they cannot command anybody. But they should do more. They can do more. There are counterparts in southwest Nigeria using Amotecun and other extraordinary measures arising to the security challenges of their region. We expect that the Southeast Governors should do the same. And if you bring it to the warning of a national security adviser... We will come to that. Just hold that thought. Let me go to Ambers. Ambers, I hope you can hear me. Just as I asked Mr. Law about who's in charge, he's saying that most of the people who are complying to the state's home order is because they're afraid for their lives. And they're not afraid for their lives because, one, that we do not have security operatives, they're not afraid because we do not have governments, because we do have all of these things in place. So again, I ask, who really is running the South Eastern state? We saw the president visit the state yesterday and we saw governors, we saw commissioners, we saw chiefs and leaders. But if non-state actors seem to be giving orders and people are actually complying because of, or out of fear, what does that say about South Eastern states? Well, first of all, the passage policies of this present administration against the Southeast makes it a common burden for people from the Southeast region. Most of them feel alienated for example, look at the railway tracks, brand new railway tracks that are going on around the country, only Southeast does not have a new railway gauge. A lot of plans or other infrastructures that were other parts of the country, only the Southeast was left out. And then some of the utterances of this administration is chewed towards the start-up. While the South Eastern states are leading from this, the IPOC cashed in on these sentiments. And then we wrote on that to become very, very popular. We should bear in mind that IPOC did not start today. IPOC has been there even when Jonathan was the president. And they were being radio broadcast as soon at that time. But because they were largely ignored by the federal government then, they didn't even help the fed. So you're saying that this federal government has given so much credence to these non-state actors and that's why they've become so powerful? They said what? Are you insinuating that maybe the federal government has given too much attention to these non-state actors, especially the IPOC? That's why they seem to be powerful. First of all, giving so much attention to IPOC issues, secondly, negligence of the Southeast in many of the dispositions. For example, when they mentioned the famous concentration on the 97% that voted the president in the first person, Jonathan, they must not do anything for the 5% that they didn't vote to me. Then also, there was the issue of when these, you know, confrontations with the security agencies with IPOC heightened and that has also become very popular. But basically, the problem is the same issues of security that is happening across the country. Our security agents are over-stretched and there's a lot of gap in the security architecture in terms of securing lives of properties all across the country. So that gap is there and the fear of people, of what might happen. For example, it was coming out from the ugly incident of N-South Scotland that ended less than a year ago. We saw how people lost their lives. We saw how, you know, the calamities that happened during that period and the issue of people being actually dead in broad daylight and everywhere, you know. So it's, people are afraid. So when you, people, if a group says don't come out and the government says you can go about your normal business and you come out and something happens to you and you look around and you are basically on your own. What do you do? So to avoid these kind of scenarios, people just stay away. Okay, okay. People stay away more out of here. Okay. I'm going to come to you again on a number of polls, but let me go back to the method of law. The interesting thing to note in what's happening in the South is just like Ambrose has said is that they feel like they are the poor cousins. They feel like they have not, they've been shortchained. They've not gotten as much attention from the federal government as others, you know, regions in the country. Do you share in that particular analogy, do you believe that the Southeast has been given the short end of the stick? Again, if this is how the Southeast feels and they have complained and nothing is being done, what do you think the challenge is? Is it the state governors themselves that are not liaising with the federal government to bring more attention to those parts of the country? Or is it just that really the Southeast has been abandoned? I think you used the right word. The Southeast is totally excluded from what is going on. In terms of the reckoning, in terms of being given, the rightful place in the scheme of things. In terms of infrastructure, my friend and brother just talked about using the example of a railway infrastructure. The Southeast is clearly excluded. And the second, the Niger bridge that is going on now is going on because the loan from which it is being financed, the second Niger bridge was mentioned as one of the three projects that they, not even a loan, is a repatriated loot from one of the past leaders of the country. The country, I think the US, insisted that the second Niger bridge and two other broad projects should be constructed using the money being returned to the country. So, if you remove the second Niger bridge, what else can be said to be going on in the Southeast? A little bit of construction work going on along Enugu or Lechan Expressway, a little bit of feet, Enugu, a portico of the expressway. And that is where it ends, nothing else. If you go to the Southeast, there is clearly no federal government presence. That is the truth. There is nothing, you can't see any major infrastructure, nothing, paper, chemicals, nothing you can really find in the Southeast. Unless you want to talk about the ubiquitous police stations and the anti-checkpoints, you'll find that every pool where the South-Westerners have been extorted, hopefully, you know? Unless you want to use that as a measure of federal government presence. If you remove that, nothing else is found. So the exclusion of the Southeast from the scheme of things is there. It's not something that can be argued by anybody. And the few appointments we've gotten are appointments that are guaranteed by the Constitution. If you find one or two ministers, it's because they just say that every state must have a minister. But beyond that, mention other appointments made under General Abu Harry that was really extended to the Southeast. If you check the 14 frontline security agencies in Nigeria, not a single person is an Igbo man. So the issue of exclusion is very obvious. It's very clear. And the place is really left naked and open. Because they are not involved even in the security architecture of this zone. If you go to the entire Southeast, the five police commissioners, they are not an Igbo man. DSS, none is an Igbo man. Civil defense, none is an Igbo man. Just take it, name it, all of them. None is an Igbo man. None is an Igbo man. So I'm trying to give you a scenario that really led, these are the things that led to the growing security and restlessness that we find in the region. Well, we have to quickly wrap up. So I'm going to go, I'm just going to give you just a few seconds to just look at the issue raised by Baba Ganamongo as to the elections that are coming up in November, of course, and we've already seen things that have happened that has led up to the campaign process and the back and forth, like I said at the beginning, the killings, the burning and destruction of properties. This message by Baba Ganamongo to iPop, directly to iPop, what do you think it means and how well do you think iPop is going to receive it going forward? Do we see free, fair, credible elections and a peaceful, nonviolent one coming up in November 6th? I think the politicians in Anambra contesting these elections are the ones hitting off the polity in the States. We have seen all the, you know, court actions, counter-court actions going to secure injunctions in different courts across the country or necessarily charging off the polity. And this has been the case with Anambra State always. In every election cycle, I think it behoves the, we're going to be talking more to the Anambra politicians because it is becoming to alarming. It was only in Anambra State that the history of Nigeria that the shipping government was kidnapped and taken to unknown places by its own political acolytes. So, right now we expected Anambra to have calmed down to have learned from the lessons of history but since they're not still learning. So first of all, the politicians to tone down the narratives. And then they cannot talk to their people. Election is not war. But in Anambra State, since the election is warfare. Well, the basic things first of all is to tackle the security from the level of the politicians. Because these politicians are controlled followers. If the politicians can tone down the narrative, their followers also will tone down their actions. All right, we have to go, Anambra is... And when this is achieved, I probably have no place to even play or to play in the election. All right, we have to go because our time is up. Anambra State Bill Care is a political analyst and of course, Mephul Law has also been part of the conversation. Jasmine, thank you so much for being here. We have to wrap up now. Hello, can I say a word? Well, we really have to go now. I'm so sorry, we do not have time. We're really out of time. So once again, thank you guys. We have to quickly look at what's happened all through the week. Let's quickly show you our weekly roundup on plus politics. And when we come back, I'll be saying my goodbyes. Now, I don't share my colleague's viewpoint on this issue. Yes, it's right to say that wherever the chairman comes from, we will inform some other positions. But that will not be a factor because what you see is that in GDP, they actually think about where the president is coming from first before deciding where the chairman is coming from and then they go to the convention and then make that a reality. In the case of GDP, it's totally different for me personally. GDP has a zoning arrangement. We think in their constitution. There is often a correlation between unstable democracy, unstable leadership and if there's some coup d'etat in Africa. For example, in the past 40, in the past 40 years, we've had about 100 coup d'etats and 200 successful... 100 successful coup d'etats and 200 accepted coups in Africa. That's really, really troubling for a particular nation where each country is independent in the 1950s. We are not saying that people should give them on the same point, but we are simply saying that the promises they made to Nigerians, the things they told Nigerians to have, Nigerians are not saying it. And we are crying. Let me use the example of Kaduna, for example. When we started crying in 2018, 2019 about banditry and kidnapping, we were called as if we are alarmists. Nobody listened to us. Today, what we were crying and asking government to do is what has actually consumed the entire state. Had they been government listening to us at that time and at responsibility, they would probably not be where we are. You would imagine that most of the people that are angry for Jonathan to come back and give the stories through and not turn politicians. And the major reason why they are trying to do that is simply because it is only a general presidency that would assure them of window four, that would assure the country of a four-year presidency before it goes back immediately to the north because he had already done four years. Any other southern politician will remain in power for eight years. We have amazing Nigerians on the international scene doing great. We have one in the AFDB. We have one in WTO. We have so many Nigerians, some of them we've never even heard of them because they're not politicians per se. We have people who are capable of doing a lot of things. But when it comes down to the politics of it, can we really point to those people? I mean, even in the Southwest, we just keep talking about one person. Where are the other guys? Including. The other guys and women are there. They're there. They're even within the political parties. But because you do not have a sufficient amount of people who put Nigeria first and who will say that this is the person that can lead us in the direction we want to go in the next four years, then you have those who are businessmen, who are political jobbers, as they say, controlling the primary election process of the parties. The Independent National Electoral Commission is not in competition with the National Assembly. The Independent National Electoral Commission is also not in confrontation with the National Assembly. Now, I think that there's some level of misunderstanding and misstatement relating to what is going on. I read the statement from the National Assembly by the spokesperson of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Now, nobody is agreeing relating to the powers of the National Assembly to make laws for the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In fact, Section 4, Subsection 1 of the Constitution and Section 4, Subsection 2 of the Constitution, gives the National Assembly the power to make laws for the peace, order and good governance of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. So how do educationists like you push for these mega-portions for education budgeting to be increased? Because whether we like it or not, it might not necessarily look nice for them in their blueprint, or when they're doing a scorecard for themselves. But how can we push for this to become a big priority for all our politicians? Because whether we like it or not, there is some politics to it. Absolutely. I just read that the education budget, the Federal one was just about 6.3 and it's about $742 billion out of about, say, $11 trillion or so, was earmarked to education this year. That is extremely low. So it just tells you that the government is not paying attention to education at all. This is the time when we're saying that we have a lot of out-of-school. This is the time when we have insurgency issues. This is the time when COVID has caused a lot of loss of learning. This is the kind of money that has been put towards COVID in every other country. A lot of schools have been shut down for a greater part of last year. A lot of public schools are still doing staggered lessons, so you just wonder what our government is looking at. Well, we hope you had an interesting week with us on the show. We'll be back next week with the bumper package, as usual, talking about masses arising in Nigeria and, of course, on the African continent. I am Mary Annaclone. Have a pleasant weekend.