 With less than 30 days to the 2023 general elections, the dire security situation across the country has continued to provoke apprehension about the possible subversion of the polls by criminal elements and their sponsors. The federal government must therefore assuage the concerns of Nigerians regarding security and public safety. Now this is an important guarantee to hold a hitch-free election. Valence Reno has amplified in many areas and it's an indication that the exercise may not hold in this crisis areas. This could lead to a constitutional crisis if polling failed to hold in a significant percentage of constituencies. Instructively, the Independent National Electrical Commission, INIC, has consistently raised the red flag regarding the security situation and its consequences for our elections. On Tuesday, at least 27 people were killed following an air strike which hit some herders waiting for transport to transport their cattle from an area that connects Benway State to Nassarra and the attack is said to be perpetrated by unknown forces. We are joining us to discuss this tonight is Dr Law Meffo. He is a forensic and social psychologist and also joining us to discuss tonight is Uppunabo Incultira. He is a civil rights advocate. Thank you so much gentlemen for joining us and good evening. Good evening Mary Ann, good evening Nigerians. Let me start with you Uppunabo until we can get Dr Meffo to join us. It's interesting that all the reports and the responses we've gotten on this, I'd even like to let you know that this story was not a cover story on our national dailies. It was hidden somewhere in page 6 on the Vanguard newspaper and I think on the punch. And nobody has responded to what happened in Niger State. We've been able to extract some response from the police public relations officer in Nassarra State as to what happened in Nassarra. And of course the governor of Benway State also spoke and pointed fingers as usual to the government in power. But what bids me the most is how could an unknown aircraft be flying in Nigeria's airspace and not only flying but was able to shoot down so many people and cost so much injury? Well Mary Ann, I must say that this is the first time I'm even hearing this. I'm not convinced of this fact, this information you're talking about. And probably because it was not contemporised by the media and most likely as a result of, I think Nigerians are just in north of all these attacks, the condemnation of attacks being done in the country. And so I strongly believe that media practitioners who only go believe that it's no longer news when it gets such attacks and such news will definitely not sell their paper. And so I think that for now the influence is politics and media practitioners are more interested in political news because they are there to also make money, not just to inform education and things. They have to sustain their, like Dr Law just said, that they are trying to fix his life, which means he is definitely trying to get digital or something to power his generator. So these are the flagging issues that are affecting also the media of musicians. So they just want to come up with news that will sell their paper so that they have enough tech on it. I think that is why most of the papers we are not really bothered about carrying them is more or less now. I want to then refer to you that the daily occurrence probably early occurrence in this country. You all have all kinds of problems. Now you also asked the question how a plane will carry out such, or the perpetrator will use the plane and the security of this is unable to detect or state it doesn't mean before it happens. It's simple. You see, the security situation in the country is played by twin issues. Inertia and complicity on the part of the authority. And that is what is also responsible for the electoral violence that is going on in the country that is gradually assuming apocalyptic dimension. And so you have a government that is not really interested in the protection of lives and property in this country. And I can't find so many instances. Let us look at the book around most of the so-called book around characters that criminals that were released. Most of them, they said they have been granted a message or a fandom or a message or whatever, no manipulation. Most of them we have been saying and after that they say they have been released and we have released them back into the public. And they run into thousands, thousands of them. Everybody says that he once tried that strategy. But so they realized that if we are repeatedly, no matter how you try to realize this, they will be back to kind. And even the money is given to them is to enable them to carry out their criminal activities. And so he stopped it. But the federal government is still going on, especially the government for no state and so on. So that is the level of complicity we are talking about. How does it stop as a deterrent rather than penalize these characters rather than imprison them and imprison them? The federal government is treating these issues with heat glue. And that is why people are talking of ethnicity, they are talking of nepotism, because the belief is that the most of the characters are from the North. And so the president is trying not to think that that is the truth and that is the conviction of most Nigerians. So when you have such situations, how do you expect the federal government to react? And if you remember, even the Minister for Defense came on air, shamelessly said Nigerians should defend themselves. How will Nigerians defend themselves when you don't have the kind of republic, you don't have the kind of ammunition that these criminals carry? If the army cannot defend this country, if the police cannot defend the country that are licensed to carry this thing, if they don't want to carry it, who doesn't have the license to carry a gun and who doesn't have the gun that will defend themselves? That is completely ridiculous and rationally misleakable. But that is the situation we find ourselves in right now. And it is so pathetic, so pathetic. So that is just a big presence to the question you are. Okay. Let me come to Dr Meffor. Let me come to you, you are live. You are a forensic expert. You are a social psychologist. But then, of course, we all live in the space called Nigeria. Just like Openabos said, it looks like we have grown thick skin to the reports that come about violence or killings. And it somewhat feels like we no longer value life of the average Nigerians. And that's why when we see these reports, they're just numbers to also just a regular happening. But I'm still stuck on the fact that they're telling us that in Nassauwai it was a drone that dropped a bomb. And of course, in Niger State, an unknown aircraft actually bombed and injured people in a particular community, especially it did not just target anybody, targeted vigilante members, people who were supposedly protecting the lives and property of people in those areas, being that it means that there is some form of lacuna. Security agencies have not been able to protect the people, so the people have taken it upon themselves to protect themselves. How could this even happen for a country that has intel? How would an unknown aircraft be flying in the Nigerian airspace and it was not shut down so much so that it got to Niger State to kill vigilante members? Well, the situation is very pathetic and worrisome, as the matter of fact Nigerians ought to be more worried than ever before. What has happened is unbelievable, but I must tell you this wasn't the first time that such a thing should be happening. I recall, there was a time when we were reliably informed that strange aircraft like that was dropping some supplies, supplies to some unknown name or other non-state actors. And the authorities never responded to give explanations as regards what actually happened. So, I am not surprised that this is happening in Niger. My only worry is that we are less than one month away to the general elections, especially the presidential election, that will also in a new government, President Mohammed Buhari, is a successor. I suspect that even this group doing this is not really checkmated. Now, they may truncate the election. I said this because even, you know, empowering an aircraft is not an easy thing. And if they are domiciled here, where are they? Where are they based? Where is the aircraft they are using? Where is the aircraft? Where is the domiciled in Nigeria? Does it fly in? If it flies in with that clear as into Nigeria space, what is happening to our systems? How did such foreign aircraft get into Nigeria would have been detected? I would have been challenged. It shows that there is much more going on than me. I totally align with my brother there that is identifying two key factors responsible for the growing insecurity in the country. Especially official pollution. You see, I have often said that it is a problem when it comes to what you call terrorism. One month the terrorist is another person's freedom fighter. And I recall that when President Bailey Goodlaw Jonathan was around, you know, president as he then was, you know, he said that he had Boko Haram even in his government. He was referring to the asymmetric nature of the counterterrorism and the terrorism is going on in the country at that time. And it is the same thing going on now, official pollution. Nobody can tell me that a whole aircraft will enter Nigeria and nobody sees it and nobody challenges it. And do you remember that there was a time it was said that Zaffara State was declared a no-fly zone? I'm not aware that Zaffara State has an airport. So why was it declared a no-fly zone? I learned that aircrafts enter Zaffara and leave. And you need to understand the kind of things going on in the country. You know, pure criminal enterprise going on. And that was Zaffara as an example. How to do with the gold mining and the minerals. And the terrorism going on in the country is also related to some of these things. If you go to a place like Brown state, desert forests and so on and so forth, you'll be surprised that the mining activities are going on in those places. So you discover that there is a kind of, you know, what you may call a govern the space in the country that is really growing. Non-state actors, you know, penetrating the country and getting ground. And if they are allowed to top it all, they converse the system to the point that we are not able to hold a conclusive presidential election in February 2025, you know, it's going to be a big problem. And the reason I say this is because I have looked at the constitutional provisions, the two conditions for the production of Nigeria proposal. You need to hold an election effectively in a minimum of 21st states of the federation. And if you take the number of states in the country that are language, you discover that we are really facing a very clear and present danger. Look at the entirety of the South East Nigeria. South East is up to date even today, you know, if police personnel and some others were killed today. And it has been a daily occurrence in the South East. So you can see that the issue of its security is escalating and even the dimension, you know, the dimension is becoming more fragile. Because if you can now, if the non-state actors can now deploy aircraft, it means that they are not relying only on ground forces now. They are also deploying air power. And that is the major problem. And till now we haven't had anything from the authorities because I had expected that by now the chief of air for FF stars should be talking. FF stars should be talking. Even the president ought to have someone there. Animal disease security meeting. Even as a land as we are. But they were not seeing such a land. Exactly, Mr Mefford. That's actually my next question. Yes, that's actually my next question. I'm going to toss it to Oppenabo. Oppenabo, just there's been some calculated silence on this matter. Apart from the fact that one happened just at the border of Benraith State and Benraith State has a governor that seems to never let these things slide. But then the one that happened in Niger, which for me, I think that that is a serious matter where somebody really went under the radar in our own airspace. I mean, let's talk about the drone because we have a video of the police public relations officer in Nassarawa State. He gave an explanation of sorts saying in fact that the explosion was not done by the air force, it was done by a drone. The drone dropped a bomb. And you and I know Oppenabo that you can't just fly drones anyhow in this country. But let's take a listen to what the police public relations officer had to say. Waiting by the water site, waiting for the vehicle that can bring the cows to come and charge the cows for them. Well, they are all of a sudden, they had an explosion, like a bomb, and it is out of which so many lives were consumed, including animals. So, based on that, I decided that it is important for us to visit the scene and then see an anthropocreative measure so that it will not get escalated and that's what we did yesterday. We have already put measures in place. We have fought for the area with the more policemen, especially the Moomba patrolmen. And we are also in contact with the surikis of Fulani, the hard-dose. Those are the officials. And then the Moomba men have been stationed all around that area, Doma, IK and Rukubi, so that we don't expect any prison. To the base of my knowledge, here, at yesterday, 27 people were buried. An information letter came to us that one person among those who are injured at the hospital also died here in Lafia. But that's for now. It's the number we have. So, he's telling us what we already know, and then he's saying casually that 27 people were killed, that they've deployed policemen to fortify the area. But those are people on the ground. Where is the NIA? Where's the NSA? Where's the Nigerian Air Force, because it's our airspace that these guys are using to kill our people? 27 dead already. We don't know if that's enough. There might be more people that have not been accounted for. Why is there some form of silence, especially for the one that happened in Niger State? And just like Dr Merfo said... Merian, the truth is Nigerians are sick and tired of the high blood pressure of the certain rhetoric and an end of conflict at the moment. You can see the lack of ethical attitude of the first year rule. And I believe that you understand what proactive measures mean. Because he said they are taking proactive measures when they are actually reacting to what has happened. If they are taking proactive measures, of course, that presented it can happen. Like you already asked, you know, how come visible invaders are airspace without the NIA, without the U.S. authorities or anybody knowing? It is definitely not possible. And that is why it's thought of complexity here. Now, if you talk of intelligence, if you remember when the prison was invaded, I think this could have been invaded. The federal government, before Mr President, came on Earth to say that he blamed it on intelligence. And immediately the House of Representatives reacted, responded by saying, you know, you asked 44 at your disposal and nothing was done. Then let us also look at the starting steps, the former starting steps of the burden of the Buratari and hope. What happened? So much was allocated for the purchase of arms and ammunition and all the security gadgets in order to stable security. What happened? When their successors came on board, they cried out. They said there was nothing on ground to justify for the money that they created, especially for Lenton. They rewarded it and passed it down to a point there. Then you also looked at a comment to the general of police that was ordered by Mr President to relocate to Gronostey. Mr President got to Gronostey a few months after, only to be told that the man never slept in Gronostey. What did Mr President do? He said, I will investigate when I get back to Abuza. The man retired. I don't want to say retired already because I mean the old direction of duty. But the man retired. So when you don't have the talent, rather you reward in attitude with all kinds of promotions and so on. Of course, there will definitely be this case of inertia. Let it be. Even on the part of the lower world. First and foremost, how are you taking care of the soldiers? Look at the justice. When the crime that was fighting crime, especially in kidnapping, abductions and so on. The justice government has to go to Abuza. I don't know whatever he did. At the end of the day, a DC, a deputy council of police, was involved. An operative of the theater was involved. And that is why I talk of complicity. And that is why I have inertia on the part of the junior officers who believe that if they die, they die for nothing. And again, look at the casting. If you remember the casting that was also arrested. What happened? That must have been settled under the captain. Even the criminals that were arrested, in that case, it has been settled under the captain. Nothing has been heard. And this thing discourages the soldiers. And so most of the way the idea is what they want to do is just to make their money and get away. Because if their superiors are making videos. Because this thing is now a great victory. It is a great victory for them. If their superiors are making videos. Once they can feel their sense of nothing. A guy for a council that will not be rewarded. Not even accept your effort. That is what is going on. And that is why... Look at how the PR is discussing. It was because to our national TV I was about to say something. I am not comfortable with that PR rule. Because it is a thing we are talking about lives. We are talking about security of the nation. And look at the casual manner in which this is just a penalty. Without any debt at all. No debt. He didn't make any sense at all. And that is why the country is where we are today. And that is why I said it is huge on inertia and complicity. But the general government, including Mr President, where you see in see. But you see it to be a loop for issues going on. It is in a hurry to meet. I am tempted to ask this question. I am really tempted to ask the question. How are you sure that the president is aware of what happened in the United States? If the president is not aware he is grossly incompetent. You have your NSA, you have a stabbing team, you have all the security agencies, they are not to you on daily basis. Especially your NSA. So if the president is not aware of what is going on, then he is grossly incompetent. Because it is easy. The boss is not at his table. He is not the president of the country. He is the president and commander in chief. But let me tell you this. A lot of these services don't even have regard for Mr President. I must tell you this. Because how can you instruct under an idea to raise the volume and the amount of power to other? In the military, it is very serious to fight. It is a case of mutiny. But what happens? Nothing. So they don't have regard for this president at all. And that is because of the fact. The government is not controlled by one man any more in this country. It is controlled by actors. And the government makes a lot of money from all this crisis. And that is going to continue. That is why it is going to continue. OK. Dr Merthyr, let me come back to you. Many security pundits have said that previous attacks that had the nature that looked like the ones that we've seen in Niger and Nassar were attempts to check and see how watertight our security was. And if it's anything to go by, if these people somewhat have seen that our security or our defenses were weak in terms of our defense, where does that leave us as a country going forward, especially as we're just a few days away from my elections and this is very important for the future of this country, where does that leave us as a country? If these so-called terrorists, whether they be within or without, where does that leave us? I made one statement. I said that one man is a terrorist, another man is a freedom fighter. I have heard some people describe Boko Haram as a freedom fighter. And that sent a signal to me, it was a red flag. In other words, some people who are in a position to checkmate terrorism and the insurgency in the country are not really doing the work. And they are not doing the work because they have a reason. They are not seeing these people as terrorists. This is one level of the problem. Another aspect of the problem is the need to apply attention to his base. There was a statement made once by the governor of Borges State, Alaji Balamo, and he made that statement on a national television. He said that they were running a project of resettling the nomadi Kefoulanis in Nigeria. You know, that statement is very important to me because some of the people that are coming into the country are not normal people. These are warriors, these are fighters, these are terrorists. And these are on arrival policies and all those things. And of course the equal ones that they are able to call that has the borders of all the countries to one another. These are problems. You would discover that Nigeria is facing a very peculiar problem. Very, very peculiar because some of the people who should be up in arms fighting on behalf of the country to stop the advancement of these terrorists are not doing the work. They will find the governor of the capital of the state at the point of paying these people. He said he was trying to negotiate peace. The more you pay them, the more they get more sophisticated arms and bring in more of their people, stranded over Africa, bring them into the country and have them resettled. In fact, before Badaya, my life here died, he made another statement. You see, we need to put policies together to make sense out of what is going on. He said that in the communities in the southern Kaduna are being displaced, wiped out and replaced by the aggressors who are the traditionalists. Oh, Dr Mefford, we have a connection issue. I see it. And the people that have attacked them are allowed to take over. Are allowed to take over their places. But at a point, we found it was reported that as many as 112 communities had been sanked in southern Kaduna Redw. By who? That is the question. You know, it is the same people. These people, officially we have been told that they are not even Nigerians. And again, we hear from very place, top place Nigerians like Governor of Belgium that there is a project to resettle some people in Niger. How are we sure that the people doing this are not the same people that have been resettled by thought processes? This is one aspect we need to pay attention to. The fourth dimension, which I think is equally important, is that if you look at the original Fulani, who have always known, they have been infiltrated by their kids coming from all over Africa. And if you look at it, my problem may not have any problem with the Fulani, settling in Nigeria and all that. But we need to be sure that these are not the warriors. We need to be sure that these people are not the terrorists. Because if you look at what is happening in the Maghreb, a Mali all over the place, and of course what happened in Central Africa Republic where the Fulani concentration there was a disaster, and they haven't found settlement anywhere. And I believe that all these people are mingling with the fighters to find their way. I have seen and read many, and I do not know that. I am sure that we are aware that some people believe that this country belongs to them, and they decide what will happen. Because they believe that the country belongs to them, they can say to whoever they want in Nigeria, and they make in a list the services of these fighters to enable them to achieve such a purpose. This is what I see to be going on. Planwch? Dwi maeth i ddim oedd. Dwi os bwysig ddim ddim yn ei wneud eich darllen. Blum dr Meffo, mae eich gweld yn ei adael o'r chael ben i chi. Mae amlwg wedi'u revelaidd bwysig i ddim. Roedd eich ddim bydd y ddim yn ei wneud eich prif. Mae'n amlwg y ffyrwyr yn y cyffredinol. Ddiolch yn ddim yn ei wneud o'ch gwaith? Roedd eich ddim yn ei dyfodol o'r cyfle diolch. Roedd eich ddim yn ei ddweud o bobl o'n amlwg. I'm guessing that we will have this conversation again and again until we can get answers. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right. We'll take a quick break when we return on voter education tonight. We'll be discussing the electorate and INEX preparedness ahead of the 2023 election. Stay with us.