 We're glad to know you're still there and watching the run-up and we're being joined out by our guest, Dr. Omoshola Deji. And we did say that we're going to be talking about two very important things, first things rather. First of all, it is the budget that has been passed by the president into law and also we'll be looking at the issue of vote buying. How possible is it to fight against this vote buying and the campaign funding and every issue around all this? So we'd like to say a very warm welcome to you, Dr. Deji. Thank you for having me. Okay. A major thing will be about the vote buying, but let's just talk about the budget, first of all. The president saw discrepancies within the budget document and he still went ahead and passed it and said that he will direct the minister of finance to liaise with the relevant authorities to make sure that whatever problem the document had is going to be solved. I don't know why there was need for this budget to be horribly passed, even though he said it's because of transition to the next government and all that and all that. So do you see it as being healthy for our economy and our country as a whole? Well, I haven't seen discrepancies in the budget. I don't think it's right for the president to go ahead and sign it, but I think he signed it in order to keep the smooth relationship that had been between the legislative and the executive going. He doesn't want to do this last minute kind of like damage to the relationship. I think that's why he signed it so that the calendar that they're trying to keep in place, that the budget should run for a year and at the end of another year, there should be a new budget which has been part of the commendation that his administration has been gotten over the years. I think he's just trying to keep to tradition. Despite that, I haven't seen the discrepancies. I don't think it is right for him to go ahead to sign the budget because I haven't signed the budget. The budget is already a law, just like the case of the electoral act that is signed. So if you sign it, it is already a law and it has to be obeyed that way. So if any directive you give is not obeyed or the legislature intentionally decide to sabotage that effort and just decide not to go ahead with the changes that we saw to the electoral act at that point in time, then what happens? The Nigerian suffers for it. He doesn't have any pain to go through. This is the budget that is supposed to be so come to the Nigerian masses and you haven't been elected by the Nigerian masses seeing any kind of discrepancy in the budget. I think it is obligatory for him not to sign it. Even if it is going to take a week, two weeks, and I think it will be good for the legislator themselves. I have noticed such discrepancies to take some time. That is service to the people, even if it takes an extra week, even if it takes like a month to give people a budget that will ease their pain. I think it's worth it, even if they have to work on Christmas Day. I think it's worth it for them to take that time to take pain to scrutinize the budget. After all, public office is service to the people. So I think it is wrong on the part of the president. It is wrong on the part of the legislator to have gone and had to just sign something that is filled with error. And they are not going to suffer for it at the end of the day. It is the Nigerian. And I foresee a situation whereby the legislator, so long as their interest is covered, they will do everything possible, knowing that the president's tenure is going to end soon. They will do everything possible to make sure that everything stays the way it is. And I just hope that the president and the administration, as well as with maybe their candidate, if they think he will solve me, to make sure he has his input else immediately and not a candidate. So whether I participate in a Labour Party, we're just going to have a supplementary budget. That's scary. But is it even, is there a provision in the Constitution, you know, for such a thing to be done? If you've actually mentioned how that it is wrong, you know, on all levels. But then if it has been passed, then it is a lot. Is this also, is this going to be another situation where we start forming another committee and putting another group together just to make sure that whatever discrepancies we're seeing and at the end of the day, is it even going to be properly done? Well, I think the committees are already in place. What is missing could be the will to get the things done. If they want to pass a law, it depends on their interest. If they are so interested in it, it will go speedily. But if they are not interested in it, or their interests are so resolutely covered that you see them foot dragging. So most times it's not always about the interest of the Nigerian people. It's about the interest of the politicians. So long as the areas of interest to them, so long as their financial interests has been covered, surely they are just going to be. And most of them, they will think that okay, even if we add this way, we just have to make sure that we last with the next administration because this administration's tunnel is ending anyway. And the thing is that for the next administration, we're still going to have a supplementary. What that means is that if they try to amend this budget as it is now, in the next few months, regardless of the administration that comes in because the focus, the vision, the interest, the passion of every administration is different. So we surely see a situation whereby the next administration, whether it's APC or PDP, will come up with its own interest and the new National Assembly had upon it, we still have to like go over it again. So I think the legislators now that they are busy with their campaign, that they are trying to regain and regain power in their various constituencies, I don't think they will be kind of like bothered or interested about making sure that they amend the budget. And I think that the kind of legislators that we have, for them to have send it to the president, they would have made sure that their interest is covered first. So I think the president now would bother about the interest of the Nigerian masses, but with the kind of politics we play, their interest having been covered because if it wasn't covered, it wouldn't be sent to the president for his assent. But their interest having been covered, I'm not certain that they wouldn't even have time to go to it because they will be going to the various constituencies and forming alliances and the alliances for the next political dispensation, making sure that they put themselves in the right car course or clique so that they can benefit immensely from whoever wins if they are lucky that the candidate that they support wins. Well, like I said, when you ended the first time, I said it's scary because some of these problems that the president noticed came from the legislators themselves because the president sent a bill of like just above 20 trillion to the legislature and they jacked it up to 21.83 trillion I think, adding more money to what the MDAs budgeted and so many other things, adding even more projects to the budget that were not originally there from the presidency and the ministry of finance and budget. But now that this has happened, you rightly put it that they will be dragging their feet if their interest has been covered in whatever is called as prescripances. So what we are looking at is the Nigerian economic life in 2023 and beyond because of this kind of a budget that has been passed knowing full well that there's something, there's a problem with it. What do you foresee for our economy with this kind of a budget that we are not even sure where it stands? Well, I think the economy is going to go from worst to worst because of the indices that we have that is manifesting. Inflation rate at over 20 percent, we are using majority of our resources to service debt and we are still thinking of borrowing more. And the same goes that even if it goes, our borrowing goes sorrowing and we are not bringing out initiatives that can earn us money. So we, based on that if we keep borrowing and we are using the money that we are earning, majority of it to service debt, definitely the economy is just going to be in comatose. So for me, I think Nigeria should braze up for tough times ahead. For example, it's evident after the, we see that before election, government tends to pamper the people, their policies tends to favor the people. But now there's no much pampering for the people. So to say another thing that immediately the election is over, Nigeria should braze up for tough time because they are going to remove petroleum subsidy, which is going to worsen the already bad economic situation for the citizens. So there is really tough times ahead for Nigeria. In the budget that was spared, I think the National Assembly made provision for subsidy to join. So that is a strategy for them because last year that wasn't the case. So they are playing the political permutation that by June, election would have been over. A new government would have been sown in and the government has four years. So that is the strategic time to remove petroleum subsidies. So I think the only pampering, if I may use the word that government has given to Nigeria now and which is for political and electoral purpose is just shifting the day of whether the petroleum subsidy will be removed. And we know, we all know that on spectrum subsidy is removed, the price of goods and services is going to go up. The price of rent is going to go up. The price of transportation is going to go up. Everything is going to go up. And the inflation that we already have, you can just imagine that things are just going to go from bad to worse for Nigeria. And that's why we can see that gradually the middle class is gradually being eradicated. Because if you look at the way people slide into poverty, why the exchange rate is falling? If you see somebody that bought a goods and maybe they bought the goods for a thousand mera. But the time is going to sell it. If the exchange rate has fall and the goods is imported, he himself is going to purchase the goods for maybe a thousand, two hundred mera. And maybe he sold it for a thousand mera. So the rate at which the middle class has been cut off is going to, it is alarming. And I foresee that once this tunnel is over, by the middle of next year, Nigeria should base up for serious economic achieve. And I think that's why Nigeria's right now must at least make sure that they endeavor to take the right decisions. So whatever the government that comes into power do, they'll know that okay, they are part of it. And if government knows that at the end of the day, power belongs to the people, then they'll be careful by their actions and reactions. As regards how it's affected the people and the economy they live in. Okay, trust me, the rents are already up. And the goods are up. But if it goes beyond what it is today, I wonder how it's going to be. We've been talking with Dr. Masala Deji and he's, we touched on that the budget has just been passed, I think on Tuesday or so by the president. And we're worried that the president had to pass a budget, even though he found out that there's going to be some problem, though there are some problems within the budget. And he said that okay, let us just do it and afterwards see how we can do a discussion about that. Well, we'll delve into the next thing that we're supposed to discuss today. And that is election funding, vote buying and generally 2023 elections as they come. How can we make it better? How can we make it free, fair and commendable as it can be? We'll just take a short break when we return. We'll still have Dr. Deji here with us.