 Welkom to the advocate, where topical issues are discussed in a no-host bad manner. In other words, we call a spade by its name. My advocacy today is on the clamors of separationists from different facets of the country and the arrest of its leaders. Peter is back after a while and is talking on issues of food security in the country. Kulila Wal wants to explain to us what he means by a democratic kul. Sit back, the panelist are here to present your Sunday dose of provoking thoughts with no-host bad after this break. Sunday boho, un ham di kano and the separatist movement. so, tif Sunday boho has been arrested. This makes it the second separatist leader to be arrested by this government and this is bad. It is human rights violation. It discredits and Matalunia Sepreti's movement before abi, read about Kale's Pojimons, read about Charles Komi Koodoji and the Western Togoland battle in neighboring Ghana. Many elites and poorly informed middle class talk about Pakistan and India. We refer to the unbundling of USSR to justify our demand for Yuruban nation of Biafra. Have we ever taken time out to read about the journey of this secessionist movement? Do we know the struggle they went through? Is this what we want for Nigerians who are already stressed? Killings, harassment, oppression, violation of human rights, etc. Secession movement is not easy. It never comes easy. Are we ready for this? If you are a secessionist leader and you have the perceived support of your people, be careful because no one really has your back. Like Nambi Kano and Soende Ibuhu, you will be left to hang. Secession is not easy and a Nigeria's case is secession what we need. Well, we will discuss that on another day. But for now, let me ask you these questions. Have you heard of Hawaii and Sovereignty Advisory Commission? What about Larry Sissid Kilgo? The first, of course, is a commission established to achieve the secession plan of Hawaii. Larry Kilgo, formerly famously called Larry Sissid Kilgo, is one of the most popular faces currently fighting for the liberation of Texas from USA. Yes, Texas wants to secede from the USA. Texas is an oil producing state, a rich oil state unlike Nigeria Delta region, yet they want out of America. My point is this. It is not until you are oppressed that you have a right to demand for secession. You have a right to demand for secession wherever, but there are processes and procedures. The government should not oppress the people and the people should not be seen as challenging the stability of the nation. The first thing is to have the buying of the entire region that you want to pull out of a union, a nation, in our case Nigeria. You need the buying of power brokers of your region. Secession is an intellectual process, not a violent one. Violence makes it gory. Many needless lives are lost. I'm not justifying these brutal acts, but I'm saying it is a universal script that will play out in any country in the world if approach the same way we are. For Nigeria to change, we need to understand the process and address each bit of it tactically, not emotionally. Emotions do not win cases. It empowers the politicians that we all have acts to grind with. It fractionalizes and weakens the masses. God bless Nigeria. Wow, you know, Karade says something about processes and procedures. Intellectual processes, ideological procedures. And I think that's what is missing. We, I mean, the secessionist, like you said, they approach this without any laid down processes. There are no procedures. And just before we got on this program, Kunlewa was asking something about, so you want to succeed. What was the developmental plan for the new nation you want? The moment he said that, I just said to myself, I think both the secessionist and their supporters are really not ready. Most of the time, it's greed. It's a personal vested interest trying to play out. But we define them, use this secession as a cover for it. I don't know about Hawaii and the other ones you quoted. But honestly, this really calls for soba reflection. Well, I'm of the point of view that whenever this secessionist talk about dividing Nigeria, they divide Nigeria on a parameter that is permissible to them. We are not permissible to the minority units also functioning within them. So I have the belief that if we divide Nigeria across the three major borders which we are thinking of, we still will have minority groups in the east, in the west and in the north that will not agree with those compositions or units they are planning to have. A one quick thing I always ask, I noticed something common. Why is it whenever westerners are referring to northerners, they say Fulani. Fulani don't even make up to 40% of the entire population of the north. So I don't even understand what exactly, when they talk about Fulani and power. I like the question mark it put at the end. And that's so we think. So really that's so we think. For me, when I was putting this piece together, I had to, it was a very lengthy one. I needed to remove so many things just to summarize it. Because at the end of the day, you realize that yes, I don't have any problem with anybody wanting out. And that's why I gave examples of countries. People want out in different countries, in America, Texas, they have all the oil, they have everything. They are rich, they are very, I mean, they have everything yet they want out. But you see there are processes. Anywhere you rise up against a government, the government, you've given the government a reason to oppress you. And that is what, and no amount of emotion can stop that. If you call the UN, call anybody. Listen, when the guys, when they organize a referendum in Catalonia, because they wanted out, these were lawmakers. Spain, other came from Spain. They chased after them. I think Kales or a few of them ran away to Belgium or Netherlands. And international warrants of arrest was issued and they went and brought them back. They were in prison, but they've been given a pardon. I think sometime in June, after two or three years. So you see, it is a script that exists. And that's why as youth, as Nigerians, we need to understand these things. If really we want a change. And for me, the question I ask you, which I really couldn't address was, is this the session we need? I would agree, and I will tell my friends that, okay, whether you're Robas or Igboz or anybody that wants to succeed, you have a right to. But I will support you to succeed. If you can prove to me that in your entire region, you are more developed than Nigeria, they will all agree that Nigeria is holding you back. Which region in Nigeria is developed? That's the first question. Is it the north? Where we say they've been holding power for so long, the people are suffering. If you see, I see some of these kidnap cases, you see model schools, and I wonder, this is the model school. And what is this? Is this the north where we say all the power and all the money is going to? In the south, we say we educated, but we say I developed here, like we could be better than this. In the east, we see a lot of Igboz guys that are making money, they are successful, but apart from the beautiful Lush houses, how our roads was the health sector like. So, it's not cessation we need, we need to first of all get our people, our leaders, regional leaders to think and act on a behalf. Then it will be okay. And I think there's a part we seem to mostly forget. Every country has a right to defend the sovereignty and its constitution. That is first and foremost, any threat. So when you're going to start a cessation, if you are not playing on the games or within the parameters of the national assembly, you are not going to have any normal peaceful response. Exactly. Because what it is is that you are a threat to a nation. That's what it simply means. So that's the processes and procedures. Processes are the procedures. Do it the wrong way. I mean you'll be you'll be hacked down. Don't empower. Now that I was talking about people that are already oppressed. You don't empower who the authorities. The oppressors. The oppressors, you cannot, you can't win this battle anyway. I think you're right. And like you rightly said, emotions don't win cases. Very, very key phrase there. Kule brought up something that I actually have been, I've always believed. So when you say you want to separate the East, you know you talked about the three regional lines. They are no longer three. You know, I don't understand. You know in those days, we used to say middle belt. We don't call it Delta Man in middle belt again. South has become a very strong force. Yes. You don't come to South South. That's true. That's true. To the East or exactly. So I think the border lines have become polarised right now. So when you talk about East, East is not what it used to be 20 years ago. True. I don't know about the North. I don't know about, but I know the East. You can call it. The middle, if there's no middle belt again, they've become a big truth. Bones themselves. Bones so mighty. They've become power brokers. They have become power brokers. So you can call them middle belts. They are not the minority again. Well, we keep talking and we pray that, of course, we ask for what's it called, the rights of those that have been arrested should not be trampled on. Absolutely. Fair justice for them and that is very key. Peter is next. He's giving us a lecture on food crisis in Nigeria. Insecurity and food crisis in Nigeria. Aribu land, which is defined as a percentage of land area in Nigeria as of 2016 is reported as at 37.33%. One of the cardinal campaign objectives of the Buhari-led government is tackling insecurity. However, despite claims by federal authorities of increased security measures and atmosphere of insecurity still lingers, rising cases of banditry, kidnapping, headsman clashes, open grazing becoming a hot debatable issue abound with huge amount of ransom being paid. This is excluding PTSD, which is the traumatic stress disorder that has been suffered by victims according to opposition. There's a huge value chain of opportunities explored by beneficiaries of the rots in the system. According to a premium times report, a total of 4.62 trillion naira has been allocated to the federal security sector in the past five years, despite claims by the Nigeria security forces that they are being underfunded. The recent NSAS protests against police brutality in the country led to the discovery and the mass looting of warehouses filled with food items meant to ameliorate food insecurity in the nation. The looting revealing Nigeria's perversive poverty and food insecurity. Food insecurity in Nigeria is continuously being aggravated by my rate of factors including insecurity and most recently the COVID-19 pandemic. About 9 out of 10 Nigerians cannot afford a healthy diet. Nigeria has the second highest burden of stunted children across the globe and millions of children suffer from acute malnutrition. About 3.7 million Nigerians or people across system states are food insecure. Other factors driving food crisis include civil conflict, large-scale displacement, rising food prices, climate change population growth, natural resources, degradation, etc. Propelled by this certification in security and the loss of grazing land to expand settlement. The south word migration of Nigerians herdsmen is causing a lot of violent competition overland with local farmers in some communities. Communities have had to pay bandits before they could harvest farm produce. Rising conflict between herdsmen and farmers in the country is already six times deadlier in 2018 than Bukoharam's insorgency. Food supply to some parts of the south was cut off due to agitation from aggrieved fulani herdsmen. Tens of thousands have been firstfully displaced. Crops and livestock's worth billions of Naira destroyed at great cost to local and their state economies. To stop the bloodshed, the federal government should bolster security for farmers and herdsmen. They should end impunity for assailants, implement conflict resolution mechanisms and the Hastin livestock sector reforms. It should also elaborate the new national livestock transformation plan and the commence implementation of same. State should also become creative in diversification of IGR. It is worth mentioning that embracing innovation is also becoming imperative. Traditional methods like bush following rotational farming grafting and agro forestry is being replaced by vertical farming the drones and the bees the polly house, polly tunnel farming artificial intelligence, internet of things and automation as well as robotics among others. With fluctuation in global oil prices Nigeria can diversify its earnings by making agriculture attractive through ensuring safety of farmers. If the United States can rank top by volume of exports which is 72 billion dollars then Nigeria can replicate same. You know you know whenever we talk about this matters on food and insecurity it always comes down to the top point Nigeria as a country does not even know how many Nigerians it hopes to feed. No computer data no computer data of the entire people in the country. We are too, we are over 200 million people. We are not sure of how many and how many we are. We are not sure. And then secondly we have ignored something the desertification of the upper part of Nigeria that is Zampara Katsuna Boruno it is causing an issue upon the desertification naturally man moves towards water. So taking away the desertification let me add another bigger problem our borders are insecure. So I were in a quagmire of issues if we do not get right as a country which other simple countries have gotten right we just might be able to never solve our insecurity and food insecurity we will never solve our insecurity and food insecurity I think. And you see what you are saying now someone yesterday who made his statement and the person said listen we are complaining about the rising cost of tomatoes in the market they said it went to it was a lady with a husband they went to the mall and one of the supermarkets and they realized that about he said oh like I assume it's not all majority of the tomato paste that they saw there were all from Nigeria now the question is this with the advent of these companies being set up to produce tomato paste have we deliberately increased the amounts of tomatoes that are produced in the north? Because now these people be taking a chunk of the same tomatoes as opposed to circulate around Nigeria to produce tomato paste sell the same tomato paste to us whereas we are left with a smaller quantity than we normally would and we know the theory of economics buying and selling and demand and supply thank you so of course that will increase I think we are not strategic enough in the way we address food as a security in Nigeria someone made a statement they called me a statement about South Africa I said every year the people wait on government to hear government's policies before the strike especially after an election because they know that is the next big thing that's the next way to make money yes government came in and said they want to do a greek and not just this government even before that we know what Mr. Adeshino did how many of us have plugged into a greek now we are complaining about the basins that they want to go discover oil in the north asif bla bla bla and I say fine number one that's the story for another day the money will not be given to the state government it will be given to NNPC or whoever to explore and it will be shared in normal way of old whatever that is now the truth is the people in the north often look for a way to resolve their problems we know I mean I'm shocked that we had we've had this headsman crisis in so many years and the question is how many state governors in the south have decided that you know what let's start producing an amount of rice let's start producing an amount of yam let's start feeding ourselves in the south so that if this thing worsens not just that we're self-sufficient but we can even sell food to the north to help them are because they cannot create food we are putting everything back on the federal government which they should take the blame no big deal but what are we doing as a people to make sure that we have food to eat I think everything has been politicized to a very large extent because you just raised a very valid point we've been there's been headsman crisis for a very long time it's just became I don't even know what now made it brought it to the front burner but it's always been there we've always had cases of people being attacked in their farms we've had cases of cows moving into farms and eating things but you see because everything is about the politics everything the advent the oil boom completely destroyed our capacity to think yeah it shut us down we hibernated we hibernated if at all we did not shut down we hibernated so we have a minister for agriculture and without putting blims pointing fingers but the question is which goes back to that same question what's your developmental plan Femi-additional opened our eyes to a lot of things a lot of things kasala bread as a matter of facts which when you listen to Femi-additional you will understand no akumumi addition akumumi addition sorry akumumi addition Femi-additional is the president worries I'm sorry you know where you were talking this is my is a great you've been family listening to me yeah are you referring to so am I I'm not talking about you sir so akumumi addition opened our eyes to huge opportunity in the agro sector and you will be shocked how many billions of naira has been voted for this that information is not public because guess what karede if the information is made public it's made available if the process of the dissemination of that money is not through government if it was through independent institutions that also exist I am sure my village in Ohozara produces rice I recall I recall very well at the time when I was there they would go to rice farm they will produce rice when you hear about rice I we am from Eboni States and my village produces rice but the process of that production is still is too acute to feed the the clan to meet their demands to meet their demand why can't we move in automation there why can they move a factory there but it can be done because there is someone who represents us who will rather keep that conversation at the state house of assembly of federal house you know there was a one time minister of agriculture and I remember he really celebrated that we started exporting koko no it's koko ok impressive that we are exporting koko but I would give you the numbers we've always been doing no I'll give you the numbers that's of 20s this was 2016 as of 2016 we were making as much as $3 billion from our exports in koko but now normal Nigerian was saying impressive but we need to pay attention to something our imports of koko derivatives which are koko chocolates all the things are there was at $9.6 billion meaning Nigeria is running at the deficit of $6.3 billion $6.3 billion when you have the raw material what is your plan for processing and now this processing efficiency is what Nigeria can feed itself I don't have a doubt about that I've traveled all across Nigeria I've been to every state Nigeria can feed itself Nigeria's problem is storage and processing processing and storage those are two major problems and there's one other thing transportation a lot of these things they just they are there for so long bringing them down here because by the time you look at the the cost the variance in the pricing from the village or wherever it is coming down to the city and even within the city from the amount of something is sold in Ikorodu is different from the amount is sold in probably or relay or somewhere in Badagri why is the same legacy but the amount is not just little hundred or two hundred at times as much as five hundred six hundred and I always tell them there are there are no headsmen between Ikorodu and Badagri so you cannot blame headsmen for that no Kaya, they are headsmen they are headsmen in uniforms no no no you know in uniforms mh collecting something that's what I'm saying as I understand uniform Benustit njja name is Mini mimi will tell you that mimi will travel to her village and she will send pictures and she will say this big yum here same is less than 1000 Naira and when you see the big yam and she will tell you that yum is probably 400 Naira in her village she will bring a basket of tomatoes And tell you this is 1,200 nera That same basket goes for 6,000 when it arrives Ya, I was in Jaws before I came here No, I don't live in Jaws and was bragging about that So, I was in Jaws and the basket of tomatoes there is 800 It's even less than this thing But what happens? And I sent to my sister in law and my wife was apparently in Jaws at the time I sent to them and transporting it and if you divide it Why is tomato that expensive in Lagos? If I decided to start transporting tomatoes up and down I'll make a lot of money But I'll tell you what Nigeria ignored the most Which is pain of our problems with insecurity right now You see the troubles in Sub-Saharan Africa You asked the question, you said how did it move to the front burner The troubles in Sub-Saharan Africa So when Libya was breaking down, Sudan was causing havoc More guns were coming into the system in Sub-Saharan Africa Nigeria, as usual, didn't care We spent money on oil National assembly was buying new cars We refused to secure our borders What happened is those guns and those borders trickled down Remember that our politicians Hired some of these people for their little vendettas Let me not only put my hands on the politicians alone Our small community refraff fights And I'm not going to mention who was also We hired a few of these gun criminals From outside to fight our wars And everybody is wondering all of a sudden How the hell they get here Everybody is not your business, really? And you see, what you are saying is so after that No, listen, we spend, we don't understand And we don't take our time to really study about security If we did, we realized Nigeria hasn't done anything Now, Egypt doesn't have insurrection South Africa doesn't have insurrection Nigeria doesn't have insurrection But in terms of GDP They spend more on securing their military Than Nigeria, who is suffering And all around does We spend less than I think 0.5% or 0.6% I think Egypt spends, South Africa spends around 0.9% Egypt 1.2 or 1.6% Nigeria is towards whatever of their budget And their budget, let's face the facts Most likely will be bigger than Nigeria's budget So in terms of the actual amount They spend way more on their military Every single year than we Nigerians Who are confronted with insurrection Across both from the northern part To the southern part And that is military, not stock of the interior security I mean, police and blah, blah, blah We spend a lot, yes And I think one of the challenges people are having Is interaction, explanation of where this money is going And how it's been done But the cost of funding the military Is no joke There was this report that came out some years ago That said a fully kit American soldier I mean, what, maybe in Afghanistan or so I'm not sure, I need to confirm that Maybe it's worth around $40,000 or $30,000 Fully kit, standing full soldier ready for battle And that amount So you're not sure we'll come back that same way Maybe we'll depreciate to around $20,000 Or $10,000 or $5,000 and when it's going to So funding the military is heavy And when we say And when I look at Nigeria in security I laugh because they say All most of our expenses are going to the military The civil defense service We're supposed to be the frontline First line of call in the area and all that We're not spending enough on that Even look at their uniform, it's tatted The police, we're not spending on them And they're supposed to be the human Have the human face, we'll be able to interact with you So these people are hungry We're not spending yet on security Kyodin, I tried to bring out one point Spending on our military is like securing Let me bring it down to base It's like securing an entire state Spending on your police is like putting burglar proof On your house That's to tell you the efficiency we have in Nigeria Now imagine we have approximately Give or take as we call ourselves 200 million, our usual number How many people do we have in our police force? Less than 500,000 Of those less than 500,000 250,000 are guarding vital assets Be banks, CBN, ETC Then politicians Then you have 250,000 Policing 200 million people UN is one policeman to 10 In a best situation One to 10 Nigeria has one to 10,000 One policeman to 10,000 How are you going to secure 10,000 people As one policeman If we like, let's spend $500 billion As long as that is the amount of people we have It's not going to be possible to police We always mention state policing I always come up and I say Why do you talk about state police? You build from the ground up Not from the top down So if you are going to be looking at anything Ethnic policing If you grow up in a locality Let me give an example Let's say you grow up in Etiusa From when you were a child If you joined the police at age 20 There's nothing that is going on in Etiusa That you will not know You know the bad boys If they still TV, you know You can count on the probability But you can now employ somebody from To come to Lekia And expect him to handle It doesn't work that way So instead of us clamoring And I blame the middle class for this For the so-called fictitious state police With state governors Ordinary small state elections Board that are giving them No rival party can win elections The state police want to give them The empress of states So in my position We should go actually We clamoring for local government police In the hands of local government chairmen That we can hold responsible Let's also remember that Local governments are not immune That's the local government chairmen They don't have immunity Really? If they cross you Ah, you didn't know Ah, let me tell you too So you're Etiusa chairman You're Surulere You know anytime you just feel They've stolen your money Carry them to court They don't have immunity Oh, that's good news Thank you, Kule You should not start to see me I mean, even talking about security And delving back into the food and beds Now, one of the reasons In my view That we're not really transforming In food is because the youth are not fully active The banking sector Where it is today is done by the youth Movies and entertainment is done by you Any active sector in Nigeria today Is the youth I think it's time For the youth to get involved In food and security Amazing Up next is Kule Lawar Stay with us A democratic kuh As mostly feared From our military history When the kuh is mentioned Is usually related with Treason And overthrow of government Scary things happening to our economics Well fortunately In democracy It provides As allowed within the constitution Of the federal republic of Nigeria To unseat some elected offices Without waiting till when their terms are over These are perfectly constitutional Legal And endorsed to be tried in your constituency As provided by the constitution The basis of a democracy As the concept began Was on representative governance And has its foundation in the legislature Which of course comprises of The state house of assembly Which is in your state The federal house of representatives The green chambers The senate The red chambers And they are charged With responsibility of oversight On the executive As one of their first functions The second function will be Resent and law creation At this structure I would like you to note That constituency projects Are not within their job description And can be considered as nothing else But an anomaly without constitutional backing Legislator are also tasked With the power to impeach an executive That is a governor Or a president But what goes on When you feel underrepresented And what is key to your representation Is lost in political translation Members of the legislature Legislator can be recalled And hears how to go about it Step one Identify the constituency Which you are unhappy with And representative you are unhappy with Within the legislative government And find out how many total votes Were cast in the election And have brought the representative to power Two Get 50% plus one signature At least And PVC numbers And please note INEC only accepts this in manual form Three Send the petition to INEC Which will be verified And a referendum As regards the representative's position Will be placed in that constituency In the next 90 days Four If the representative loses the referendum The seat will now be lost And INEC will declare the seat vacant And conduct a fresh election in 90 days It looks like this can't be done Which is most of the time what we say When the middle class don't want to make a move To repair the country I will tell you the truth I want to know the opportunity cost of that I'll tell you the opportunity cost The present electoral act We spent so many talks over And it has hurt us to see That it seems our own independent electoral commission Is now going to be a puppet In the hands of many different other Positions within governors There is poor oversight of the executive And we watch our state governors Push up high budgets The presidency ignores a heightened insecurity And most of all Knows that repeal basic freedoms Like speech and movement Of people in the federal republic of Nigeria You can do more than a hashtag Against a representative you dislike You can stand your ground Or fall and watch the country bow to anything No body collapse Thank you for the democracy Honestly, that's very apt And quite honestly I think there's so much we don't know in this country I even sitting here I'm wondering Is this simple But it's made to So when you say constituency project Is not part of So that's the major thing these guys go there to say No I'm telling you When we find people there We are waiting for the constituency project to be executed So it's a case of Who's constituency project is better done or bigger So if it is outside of their purview Who should be charged with the constituency project please I think Before you come in as the What's it called The oracle in this part Now In my view I think we are Nigeria's countries in Fx In the sense that There is what the constitution says And there are laws that have been passed By the national assembly Which does not amount to An amendment of the constitution In over the years Some things have been added in the constitution But there are some things that take place in the national assembly That are not necessarily part of a new constitution Or an amendment to the constitution That are just probably I don't know if to call them bylaws Or stuff that just happen within them I think that's where this falls And then the question is Will it be illegal for them to take it on Or will it not be And that I think is always a challenge in Nigeria We are always too scared to approach the courts There are some things I like what PDP is doing now Taking materiality to court I love it We need a solution to that Yes, we know that There's a law that says If a party is going through It's fractionalized You can borrow it and all that But let's try the court We don't We need to try the court We need to go to court Over cases like Where was I The other day that I heard about Health, birth and death Now being a federal issue Some of this You need to just go to court Okay, the constitution says Primary health Is responsibility of local government And the state I believe And now we are having primary health In the federal and all that Let's try this Do they have a right to do that You are not fighting And such things You realize that Government will not go against you Because you are not fighting Anything that touches them To the court You are only looking at the processes And the systems And these things are the things We don't do That allow everybody To do whatever we want In court But going to the court Is not a cheap way PDP dragged the government To court It's an institution It's a body But brother It's too scary Going to the court And I want us to Look at it from the generic point That word you said Is a problem scary It's not as scary Okay, for example in Nigeria If you have cases There are people that do pro bono Okay In Nigeria Lawyers Lawyers There is even the national There is a legal aid I don't know if it's called legal aid Is it a government Is it a government Why would I go to government No I'm talking about Normal Exactly I'm talking about normal issues Now If you're able to rally around Like what's it called All these things we sign online That I say we're signing petitions And stuff You can rally up people like Sarah And other institutions Let's push this and try And you will get the support You said something about In Kunle's speech Kunle said something about When you want to Recall a rep And he said So you get Petitions signed But he said Inaq will not want that Electronically not physical That's fraud That is where the scam comes in So why is Inaq Because the moment Inaq says It has to be physical Then it cuts off a demograph Let me explain something If that is going to stop you Do you know what the backlash Of not doing that is Is what you have now in the national assembly You asked me a question Constituency project For once anyway It's been a long time So I can talk about it Constituency project came into Nigeria When I was looking for third term It's a direct infringement On the operations of the Local government and its functions Directly There is no legislature In the world That does projects US UK Zimbabwe Gungo Ghana Egypt They don't do projects Your work in the national assembly Is oversight First, oversight on the executive Second Amendment of laws Between 1999 and 2021 The US Senate And its legislative Have Amended approximately Over 4200 Laws Do you know where your country is On that I don't need to tell you An electoral act of 1999 Okay, after a little touch up And brush up in 2014 To amend for card readers We are just facing it Are they really doing what they are supposed to do Let me tell you Nigerian lawmakers End over $400,000 per annum That is higher That is more than 20 times higher Than those in the US 20 times? Yes The US Senate turns about approximately $40,000 a year We end about $400,000 And still infringing With that word constituency projects The first handshake of democracy To the people Is the local government If you take the functions of that How can you deliver democracy To the people That is direct infringement Of an arm Remember state governments are of the Wedding That they are on top of the local government No Local government And it's a separate tier of government Like your state Local They are not under the state government But state government Had even grown wings enough To begin To fire elected Duly elected chairman Or your case in the example So that's the dismissal Of the chairman Of the local government Is it constitution State governments do not have the power So how did that happen And nobody challenged it So that's what I'm saying And that's what I'm saying The supreme court has reinstated them In all your states The supreme court has The governor does not have jurisdiction No, you see And why did the supreme court Restate them? Somebody challenged it Challenge it, yes You see Why you don't challenge Why you don't try It was not within the administration That fired them No, but that's the thing If they had been challenged During the administration Of the president That fired them They would have been reinstated And that's what we say There's so much laxity In our system Let it be Because we do something That is Don't make them constitutionally Yeah So like state governors State governors Taking, preferring Into local government funds It's not supposed to happen Money is supposed to flow From federal government Directly to local government But state governors Do it and realize it Okay But it's not supposed to happen The money is not supposed To pass through any fictitious Ministry of Intergovernmental Affairs In quotes And you know And you know why that will continue They will continue The same reason We cannot get the 50% plus one Because you see You can only get 50% plus one Where you have voted Where you are absent from the vote No, no No, no I'm coming Where you are absent from the vote You get where I am When I finish this point Your position is not absent It is you the voter that is absent Somebody will vote for you And that's what you call Reagan So at the end of the day Maybe in a constituency Where you have about 400,000 people You see about 250,000 people that voted In actual sense The people that came out to vote Were like 50,000 or 30,000 So when you want to call somebody back Once the 50,000 go and sign Where are you going to get The other people that came to vote So how can you call them But I'm going to point out something You know, now this democratic Why it's really interesting Nigeria to even attempt We know most of us are looking at it At the federal level Let's come home maybe to be State House of Assembly Thank you Now, Nigeria as you know That we do not State House of Assembly elections Are get as poor as 13% Of total voter percentage So I'm going to use I don't want to pinpoint anybody But there's one I was aware of Somewhere around Mushi I didn't call anybody's name And she got into power Anybody can assume who I'm talking about She got into power with approximately The total votes were about 37,000 Meaning if you want to take her out of office You need just a little of a give or take About 14,000 No, not 14,000 About 19,000 19,500 Let's say anything above that So 19,500 signatures And you've removed the state house of If you remove one Everybody will fall in line But you know what's even more And what's even closer home Is that I like what you said The local government, the states The federal and I mean The national assembly But what about councilors You know, councilors also play the role Of quote on quote They are an assembly In the local government They are the legislature of the local government Exactly, they are So they play that But we ignore them So why are they very Because you haven't voted for them No, you know the problem One I can tell you, averagely Across the 36 states of Nigeria And because of my work With the Electoral College Councilors not even know their job description And they get so bad They don't know their job description They don't know what they are supposed to be doing They don't have an idea Of what they are supposed to be doing Which is a massive problem Then second Local government chairman Do not even know What councilors are supposed to do I can tell you that As far as it goes up Even some SA politics To a governor Do not understand that the legislature And the council are legislature And the chairman are executive Yeah, exactly They don't Are you kidding me I wouldn't be surprised How many governments know How many So the thing is Why is this information Who is Like budget does They take that big And break it down Who is breaking down Electoral laws And interpretation To the masses That's what we don't have Well, I'll say The Electoral College Electoral College Don't know that Honestly, you know that It was I feel very embarrassed Saying this on the television But it was A flyer I saw of you Doing a program That I even knew That Electoral College Actually exists We're not a government body We're not a government body No, I'm only saying that The information So if there is an Electoral College That is doing all of that It's not yet very popular People need to know it It's not widespread It's not widespread People need to know it I know budgets I know where to go to Once Fedagamere is budget Typically, it's not It's very vague Budget it has become The go-to place Maybe Electoral College Needs to position We just started We had less than three years We were about three years old So we timed We will get the budget I knew when budget started And of course Do them seven, six years To get down the line I think the Electoral College Is very much welcome And please Because this information Needs to be public I must tell you That when Nigerians Have full information About something They will act better But you know what Why are we waiting For Electoral College And this is where I challenge you That lesson The same way We look for any information About JZ Let's use the internet And just search It's like when people talk of Police We need state police I believe we need state police I believe we need community police I believe we need to break down police However Do you even know That the way the police is We are not using it We are not implementing it fully Do you know that As much as yes We say the police reports To the IG And everything If you are in the states It is difficult Quote on quote For it to be controlled And it's been proven Even in this dispensation When this guy came to rivers And approached the weekend What's his name? Amichi When there are convoyments The one coming from federal Had to calm down For the one in the states There are so many things online That you can't search We don't look for it We can talk on and on And look back You know the show has been Okay So as usual On the advocates Is always an interesting composition That's all we have time for today On the advocate Join us again next week The advocacy continues On our social media platforms On Facebook Plus TV Africa Hashtag The advocate ng And Instagram At plus TV Africa Hashtag The advocate ng To catch up with previous broadcasts Go to plustvafrica.com Forward slash The advocate ng Don't forget to subscribe On our YouTube channel Plus TV Africa Join us next week Same time on this station And let's keep advocating For a better society Ciao