 A former House of Representatives Minority Leader Dr. Wumi Bewaji has observed that the appointments made by President Balaamit Tinibu are not lopsided, contrary to insinuation in some quarters. Bewaji, who is the Executive Secretary Coalition of Democrats for Electoral Reform, spoke against the backdrop of comments that Tinibu's appointments were concentrated in Yoruba Land, stating that he sees no lopsidedness here and insists on the appointments being fair and balanced. Joining us to discuss this is Are Dotson Hassan, he's a legal practitioner and President Yoruba Council worldwide. Dotson, it's so good to have you join us. Good evening. Great. Let's start by looking at Mr. President's appointments so far. I mean, the most recent of those appointments is the CBN governor, who is yet to be ratified by the National Assembly, and two young people, a Minister for Youth and a Minister of State for Youth Affairs. Many people a few weeks ago, a group of persons had said that Mr. President's cabinet is Legos-based as opposed to, you know, spreading it. And these were not just people from other regions of the country, these were people from the Southwest. What are your thoughts on that? Well, to really clarify, Ashurajibullah Khmer, you know, who is a digitalized Nigerian, is a man that knows his honours, is a man that chooses his disciples with a good heart. And he's not sentimental about the ways he's been appointing his cabinet. You can see from the spread of his ministerial appointment, definitely he picked in consonance with the national spread. And prior before now, his essays, his aides and all that are all from the North, from the East, from the South, South. I don't think there is a Legos voice to that, as far as his appointment is concerned. There might be some concern about all these guys are people that have been around. Ashurajibullah will never appoint a dollar. He will never even appoint, especially to, to, to oversee some sensitive positions that he knew to resolve. He would definitely go for the deck. And from the, from the world goal, looking at the FRS appointment, you can see these are people that have been as part of his inner cabinet and that is the, the, the FRS. But now we have the Caduto, the, the EBA. And then we've equally gotten on other appointments that are of other races within his cabinet. So most courageous enough to have given the, the North to ensure we have economic stability. Nigeria for a long time, we are, we are really here to feel the, the essence of democracy, the essence of governance. I can bet you we are really getting the, the much expected results of a president who understands both the foreign policy and the, and the, and is the local, is only in our governance properly. What results are you making reference to, if I might ask? Yes, if you look at the economic policy and the planning at that date and in terms of foreign direct investment assurance at that today, they just secured the Chinese North for the, for the real life, for a bigger real life. And we, and so, as of yesterday, even during the UN side meeting with ExxonMobil, with companies, with a lot of other interests, I think it's enough assurance. And it's giving confidence, it's providing leadership both at the, at the ECOAS level and also within the country. So leadership is very key in governance. That is one key thing that you must really salute the, the, the president for. The president is not running a one-man show and he's not running an ethnic pseudo-governance. We have witnessed what ethnic pseudo-governance means. So this is not a Yoruba government. There might be some level of people that have worked with him from the time past. Let me look at his SDF. The SDF is from the, the middle ground. So we are looking at how much he's been growing his office. You know that this is a man that understands the youth, looking at the arrays of youth. This is the government for the first time that price youth appointment. So go and look at the recent appointment of all the SDF. We are in the bracket of youth. I don't know how. Since, since you've gone to the youth part, I want to thank you for going there. You talked about the, you know, economic policy direction of the government. Might I ask what exactly it is? Because Nigerians are trying to understand what Mr. President's economic policy plan is. That's one. Secondly, with how bad our economy is and the downturn that we're facing with the post, you know, subsidy removal era. Why do we need a minister of youth and a minister of state for youth? How smart a move is that? Because you're singing the praises of the president all fine and well. But is that a smart thing to do in an economy that's very bloated already? Especially when we should be cutting the cost of governance. So governance is a system. Appointment of officials in key positions that needs to drive the government are very important. And in terms of the innovation Ashwaju is bringing, in terms of having minister of state in some places and at the same time guiding the ministry of transport to the economy and transport, that's of the youth to instill the need to balance the ties among the both the female and the male so that they can be and also to give the women a voice. So our best can we appreciate a president who in his wisdom believes that the economic blueprint that we have set down at the moment looking at the way the cleanup exercise is moving like a tsunami within the CBN you could, from your own look, go out the CBN, the recovery from the CBN at that date. We are also getting feel as Ashwaju gas is blueprint in pumping the real re-administration, re-overhauling of MNPCs. You can see how for the first time you can see how MNPCs already don't remitting in the traditional account. I'm so glad. I really appreciate you for helping me to go in the directions where I want to go tonight. Let's talk about the MNPC. It's a limited liability company now. It's supposed to do business and of course accrue monies, but let's leave that part. As of yesterday, Dangote has been said to import crude oil into this country. In the next two weeks they're going to take receipt of the crude. This is what the refinery is going to be refining. Yet the MNPC has told us that they cannot supply crude oil to Dangote because they have pledged the oil, our crude, to an African bank so that they can use it to pay loans. The average Nigerian is asking how the MNPC is working to benefit Nigeria and Nigerians and to ameliorate our sufferings even after we've taken out this subsidy. Help me make sense of this move by the MNPC to send our crude out of the country. They have not been able to tell us who and who they're giving this crude, apart from the bank whom they have said allegedly they want to give in payment of loans. The other entities, they have been tight lipped about it. How is this going to help us and our economy that again is in a state of limbo? Well, before now, I think one of our own positions from the table of your back house worldwide, and I like a lot of like minds is the fact that the way the MNPC is currently positioned is highly opaque, invested with a lot of corruption. And for the fact that Mr. President is wanting to get it right. I believe you understand his game plan. In view of the question to that effect, for me, my first advice is that there is a new for total cleanup of the MNPC. I will not give the total note that the MNPC has really met the expectation of Nigeria for many years down the line. MNPC has always been to me as just like an ATM to some chronic corrupt elements. And in view of the fact that he's a president, we still need to let him know that he is not just booting out the MNPC. But there is a need for total audit as what we are getting of the MNPC. But as far as the MNPC making the entire oil and gas sector a collateral to a bank without appropriate admittance by the National Assembly. Because for you to guarantee the national aspect, because a whole lot of these are just coming out under this administration. Meaning these have always been in existence in the previous administration. And it shows the fact that there is still much needed intervention. Much needed intervention beyond the fact that the president is coming up with a policy driven plan to ensure that both the oil and gas and the petroleum sector are divided. And there is a need for decentralizing the distribution refinery and all that. The refineries because we know as a day the country's refineries are yet to be on the capacity to work. But the surprises are given as well as a fact of the plan to re-overhaul the entire oil and gas sector. But for the Dalgothi to import and the need of the MNPC not to sell to Dalgothi, I believe it is a good policy plan by the MNPC. And that is why I want to advise Mr. President that there is a need to really shake up MNPC beyond just retiring those who are just 15 months to retire. But not just for them to retire. There is a need to really filter the entire MNPC that much. All the networks of the MNPC, there is a need for total audit. As you can remember, let me remind you, from years back, the former governor of Kaduna State Airways mentioned that from the day MNPC is established through this movement, they have not been sent in an audit of what MNPC is making. How come MNPC is now trying to show our remit money and trying to show some elements of our colleagues, some chameleonica positioning of themselves? It won't undermine the fact that we are not satisfied with the privacy of the petroleum products as I did due to the landing course and all the necessary things. But Mr. President, because the issue of oil and gas that is in need, because these are areas that concerns you and I, there is no way we need to begin to pass anyone in the back as to gas the own MNPC area. This is an area that we want the President to pay very much needed attention to firstly audit also to put a price, which we cannot continue to afford the over 600 dollar or proposed increment. But for the fact that MNPC is a private limited company, there is a need for us to really understand because there is still much nexus between the federal government and MNPC because the entire asset that the company is managing belongs to the federal government there. And from the exclusive listing of the constitution, this is still the asset of Nigeria. So MNPC is only playing a managerial capacity like a consultant to the federal government. But still holding and that is why as you are asking me these questions, I'm only trying to throw more life into it. That there is a need for President to ensure that there is reduction in the pricing of the oil and there is a need to also bring the exchange rate dollar rating of the country by ensuring the local market, by ensuring our refinery work. Because if our own refinery is working at 100% capacity, I'm sure there should be $15 per litre of oil. Okay Dawson, let me bring you back to what brought us to MNPC because we're almost out of time. As at yesterday or day before, we realised from some investigative reports that subsidy is not necessarily gone because as at August the federal government had paid $169.4 billion to subsidise fuel and petrol in this country. But Mr. President did make us believe that subsidy was gone. Again, there are several questions that need to be answered by Mr. President and those who work around him. I go back again to ask why do we need two ministers for youth? What are these two people going to do that one person cannot do? Should Mr. President not be thinking about reducing the cost of governance, working with a small group of people who can deliver as opposed to breaking the record of having so many people on his roster? This is your final answer as we wrap up. Well, to me I believe in view of the fact that the, let's talk about the cabinet. The cabinet is a balanced cabinet, balanced in the sense that the workings of the office of the president are especially considering the height of poverty that we have in the land, the height of the tension that we currently have in almost every sector of the economy. It requires, it requires reconstruction. Nigeria at the moment is undergoing reconstruction. This is not a matter of laying the batting of the former president, Muhammad Wari, and the batting of Ashouraju. Ashouraju is coming up with a new driving force. Okay. Trying to see all the necessary loopholes as far as the country is concerned. Well, we have to go Dutton. Thank you so much. Unfortunately, we do not have time. We've run out of time. Dutton Hassan is a legal practitioner. He's also the president of the European Council worldwide. Thank you. Always a pleasure to have you on the show. Thank you. All right. Well, that's it on the show tonight. I want to thank you all for watching. We'll be back tomorrow talking about the latest political stories and talking about development. I'm Mary Annaclone. Have a good evening.