 Adelaque sacks 12,000 workers, dethrones three monarchs and promises to probe alleged looting by the media past administration as he takes office as the sixth executive governor of Oshun State. And Northern Christians endorse Pital B. César's Babachir Lawong. This is Post-Politics and I am Mary Anacorn. Oshun State Governor Senator Adelaque has sacked 12,000 workers and ordered the dethronement of three more next barely 24 hours after his inauguration. The governor also nullified the appointment of 30 permanent secretaries and suspended the chairman and members of Oshun State Independent Electoral Commission. Statements by the Chief Press Secretary to Adelaque Olawale Rashid on Monday stated that the new governor signed the executive orders which covered chieftainty matters, appointment issues setting up for of the new review panel staff, audit and employment matters. The governor has also directed that all bank accounts belonging to the state government should be frozen with immediate effect, claiming that the media past administration had looted some of the assets of the state and vowed to probe the alleged looting. Mr. Adelaque was sworn in as the sixth civilian governor of Oshun State on Sunday, in the presence of thousands of people of the state at the Oshubu Township Stadium. While joining us to discuss and break this down is Olushalai Lekha, his former Deputy Governor of Oshubu Township State and Ayo Ologun, a spokesperson transparency and accountability group. Thank you so much gentlemen for joining us. Thank you. I'm going to start with you, of course, Mr. Lekha, because you have obviously been a former Deputy Governor of the state of Iqiti State, I beg your pardon, and you're a member of the People's Democratic Party and I'm guessing that this was not just a win for members of the People's Democratic Party, but also a win for Oshun State. But many have queried, you know, the first dissolution of, of course, appointments to permanent secretaries and secondly, the throwing of three monarchs in the state as some of the first things that would be accounted to Governor Adelaque. Care to explain to us why the governor took this position? Well, first you begin to wonder what the immediate past governor had been thinking of or what he had been having up in his mind for him to delay the appointment of 30 permanent secretaries to the last minute of his administration. I believe this is just the way of setting up bottlenecks for the incoming administration. It is not proper. You are talking of people that we actually come around and be in place to work with the new governor. And I believe the governor also, if he's going to work with entirely 30 new permanent secretaries, he needs to be able to have, to be given the opportunity and privilege of being able to assess the competence and the capacity of the people that have been appointed. And quarantine 30 permanent secretaries for him without his input is, is a little bit awkward. And I believe the new governor has done the right thing. I'm going to go to Mr. Logo in a bit, but the governor has said some of the, one of the last things he said yesterday was the fact that he reduced debt in the state and he left behind 14 billion Naira. Even though Governor Diliki has frozen accounts also saying, in fact, he has alleged that there has been some form of financial corruption under the Yatala government. You obviously have been watching from the sidelines, what would you say about when it comes to prudence in spending under the Yatala government before I go to Mr. Logo? Mr. Lekha, can you hear me? Mr. Lekha, can you hear me? I think that we lost that connection. Can you hear me now? I can hear you now. Okay, great. Yes, I can hear you now. So I was asking, now that Governor Yatala has said that he reduced debt in Oshun state and he has also left behind 14 billion Naira, I just said that the governor, the incoming governor, has frozen all the government accounts, alleging some form of financial misappropriation. What do you think would have cost the governor to allege this, again, being that this is what Governor Yatala is saying, he has reduced debt and he left 14 billion Naira. What could have possibly made the incoming governor freeze these accounts? That is the former governor has made a statement, which the new governor has not really had the opportunity to offer certainty in the authenticity of that statement. Anybody can come up and say he had left 14 billion Naira in the purpose of the government. And I believe the new governor has done the right thing by first of all, freezing all government accounts to ensure that corrupt acts are prevented in terms of some people using the opportunity of the last minute exit of the previous governor, the past governor, to defraud the state government. So freezing all the accounts I think is in order and this to enable the new governor to do to ascertain exactly what is in place. It is when he gets there and he sees things for himself, that is when he is able to ascertain whether actually 14 billion Naira has been left in cash in the course of the government. And I believe he has done the right thing that I mean, he is going to be held accountable now that he is governor. To you Mr. Logan, let's talk about the stay of Governor Yatala and of course the fact that he lost as a sitting governor this particular election. We saw that he wasn't very quick to congratulate his opponent, he had said that they were going to study the results of the election that led to a delicacy win. I'd like to hear from you what your assessment of Governor Yatala's government has been so far. Mr. Logan, can you hear me? All right. Can you hear me? I'm talking about the assessment of Governor Yatala's administration in the last four years. There are basic things that he has been able to do that you cannot take away from him except otherwise made public by the new administration. You would recall that at the time Governor Yatala's administration took over administration, the state was almost going insolvent. It was a period in time when the government of Washington state under the leadership of Governor Yatala could hardly pay salaries of civil servants and when Yatala came in, in the future that process, started paying salaries of workers and not just paying it in food. So Logan, are you there? Can you still hear us? Can you hear me? I think we have lost that connection with you. Hopefully we can get you back to give us more. But back to you Mr. Leca, let's talk about the fact that the World Bank had named Governor Yatala back in the day as the best governor in efficiency and public expenditure and just like Mr. Logan was trying to give us some background. He seemed to... We're paying it to time. We're paying it to not take away from... We lost you for a second Mr. Logan, but welcome back. Go ahead. Governor Yatala, as part of the social issue, as a governor, who will be... Apparently we're having trouble with Logan's line there so I will stay with Mr. Leca. Mr. Leca, let's talk about the inaugural speech of the Oshun state, nearly inaugurated governor. I want to look at his developmental agenda. It's very important to me because of course these are what we will be holding or the people of Oshun will be holding him to in time to come. He talked about the welfare of walkers and pensioners. He talked about boosting the state's economy. He also made reference to homegrown infrastructure, policy and of course, et cetera, et cetera. But let's talk about the welfare of walkers and pensioners. Recently, I had a group of pensioners on a radio show talking about how badly treated they have been from the government and how most of them have died and most of them have suffered penery as a result of the fact that government have abandoned them. What exactly will a delegate be doing differently? And he's talked about boosting the state's economy. What's the mainstay in the state and why have they not necessarily taken advantage of it and do we see their delicate government doing this? Again, I'd like to add quickly, many people have made fun of the senator saying that he's mostly a dancing senator. Most people seem as a fun guy as opposed to a man who would be able to hold that office and bring all his promises to pass. What can you tell the average person differently? Well, don't forget that the issue of outstanding pensions and the outstanding salaries and out salaries or maybe a cutout of salaries that have not been paid in the past is still there, is still intact. The media pass government of Osho State did not actually set to the outstanding salaries or outstanding pensions. I think he started right from his own administration and let the ones left of hate during the Arabian Shola administration there. The new governor has come in, he's a new sheriff in town, and I believe he understands the problems on grant and is one man that can be trusted. He respected whatever anybody says, right? He has said it in his speech and we hold him by his word that he is very much at home to address these pertinent issues of pension, palaver, and the outstanding salaries. And I believe he's going to start from somewhere to see what he can do to ensure that the pensioners are given a leeway out of their present suffering, as regards the issue of him being a dancing senator, where is he, when you take a look at him, right, he's not a pretender, he is himself, right? And the fact that he loves to make himself happy does not mean that he doesn't have soft and soft tears. Don't forget he's a graduate of criminal justice and with a bias in political science as a graduate, and I believe he has the competence and the skills required to be able to govern Washington state. And don't forget also that you have been a senator, so I believe he had acquired all necessary experience and he had the required capacity to be able to govern Washington state, irrespective of whether he likes to make people happy or to make himself happy. And I think that is good for him. I'm most curious about these very interesting development agenda that he has placed before us and they are showing people industrialization, wealth and job creation, people focused policy and education, affordable healthcare, security and social welfare. It seems to me like the normal thing that any politician would bring as either his blueprint or his mandate, but then what Nigerians are now most interested in is the how to. Because of course we know that he's already inherited a problem of civil servants who have been promoted before he even came into office. He's also having to deal with an INEC or rather a state independent electoral commission where he has had to sack some of the bosses. He has this job mostly cut out for him. Where do you think that if you were to be one on the advisory board to the governor, where would you think that he'd rather start from? And what do you think the people of Washington state need most importantly right now? And where should the governor be starting from? Well, don't forget that there are lots of problems already on ground and definitely there's no way he can solve all the problems at the go. He has to start from somewhere and having a manifesto or his plan. These are plans, right? And he has to be taking the plans one after the other to be able to effect the implementation. But I believe that there are two key areas which I believe to focus on immediately apart from ensuring that the welfare of the workers are taking to proper consideration. One is the state of education in Oshu state. If you look at the rating of Oshu state today, it's almost at the very low end of the rating scale. And I believe that a lot of things have to be done when it comes to in-service training for teachers, both in primary and secondary schools. First of all, let him take a look at the staff strength, staff, student ratio, whether there is need for employment or not, and also to employ the right set of people if there is a need for that. Not only that, there is a need for continuous professional training of teachers. This is one thing that is missing in most governments. Teachers are there, they are being left untrained for years. You can't do that in a profession like accounting or engineering. We are every year they are expected to participate in some sort of continuous professional development. These are usually, I mean, this type of training, this type of development have been found to be absent within the teaching profession. And I think that is an area where it really needs to come in and do a lot. Because if you have under-trained teachers, then you don't expect excellence from the students they are teaching. So in this area, apart from also providing a enabling environment in terms of facilities, which I believe is not too bad in Washington state presently, however, ensuring that the teachers are properly trained on the job. Issues of in-service training. Okay, let's talk about the main state. I think we're having a connection issue yet with you, Mr. Lekha. I'll try again. Let's talk about the main state of Oshun state. Now, also looking at the internal generated revenue from the state and how much the federal government gives to Oshun state from its coffers. If if the state government were to look into, you know, its minerals, its solid minerals and, of course, the natural and what nature has given to it. Do you think that the government's successive governments, not just your Yutala government, have done enough in terms of looking within to see how much they can do in terms of what nature has given to the state? And again, what are the other things that need to be done in terms of infrastructural development? Because it looks like all I have seen is just roads. And this seems to be not just the same thing around the Southwest. We've seen it in the South, South. We've seen it everywhere. Politicians basically just build new roads and call us infrastructural development. Should we not be going beyond that? The issue of underutilization of potential deposits in various states is not peculiar to Oshun state alone. And I think it's a general problem that our state governments actually need to address in partnership with the federal government. That aside, I think Oshun state, under the new administration, should focus more on agro-based industrialization. And if this can be done, I think that is a good way to start developing industries that derives most of its inputs from agriculture. It's one good way by which the new government can start. And in terms of roads, yes, road construction, road infrastructures are very important. But this time around, we need to consider roads even leading to farm areas, leading to rural areas where most of these agricultural products are being produced or most of the roads leading to farm areas are so bad that even to bring the products out to the urban centers, to urban markets, it becomes very difficult and it costs a lot. So that's not too bad in road construction, but then there should be a target. All right, I think we have Mr. Logo back. So Mr. Logo, I'm going to go back to my question earlier on because I was trying to ask you about the legacy of the Uyatella government and what he will be remembered for. Now, he has said that he will soon be back as governor of the state, that he's only stepping aside as a law abiding citizen. And he's also criticizing the elections that brought about the sitting governor right now. And he's saying that the matter is being still challenged in court. Care to explain to us what you think the former government meant? Of course, the former government meant by saying that he's simply stepping aside is that by the provision of the law, an election has aired. And behind me, that is responsible for that election has declared the winner in that election, which makes it a compulsory duty that the newly elected governor should this one. But then you will recall that the Uyatella government has gone to court to challenge the outcome of that election. The case is at the tribunal presently and it's ongoing trials. Which means whatever the outcome of the legal processes is, if eventually the tribunal subsequently moving on to the appeal finds the election unduly in favor of Governor Adelaide K, that means the governor will come back. And if the court otherwise feels that the election is due and is binding on the citizen of the state, that means Governor Adelaide K will continue for his first four-year term in office. But by and large, whatever the outcome of the court will be is what we await in the first case of the tribunal subsequently moving on to the appeal court and every other layers of justice that is required in post-election activities. I remember when the sitting governor, now the new incoming governor, won the or was announced as winner of that election. Governor Uyatella at the time did not necessarily congratulate him and many criticized that saying even if he did have intentions of challenging the results, the honorable thing should have been to congratulate Mr. Adelaide. Now I'm going somewhere here. In terms of liaising with the incoming government and letting them know their way around in the government house, how do you think that relationship has gone so far? Has there been an open door and a friendly gesture in that regard? Well the process leading to the swearing in of the new governor yesterday wasn't the friendly one. Like a lot of people have opined, one would have expected that the immediate past administration would have put in place a transitional committee that would have worked and in hand with a transitional committee set up by the new governor Adelaide. But that didn't happen. The governor set up his own transitional committee and the immediate past administration failed to put up its own transitional committee. What we had according to the news report is that they had gone and the administration required the chief of staff to be the liaising officer between the outgoing government and the new government and that in itself has been adjudged not to be good enough. It should have been a synergy, a seamless transition. But that is in the dustbin of history. Now whether a transitional committee was put in place or not a new government has been sworn in and it is expected that whatever actions and inactions of the past administration would be reviewed if necessary and whatever action the new governor would be taken should be such that would be legal. It should not sacrifice political correctness on the order of legality. That would be an undoing for you. I'm wondering to you because you obviously are a civil society. This is not the first time we're seeing this happen. We see this happen time and time again especially if an opposition is taking over from the incumbent. We've seen this in reverse stage when Governor Wieke was taking over from former Governor Rotimi Ameichi. There was not a quadril transition of sort and this has also happened in several other places which you can actually agree with me. But why do we keep seeing these actions and what exactly do our politicians need to understand about winning and losing? We need to understand that the reason why we often see this happen between as good an administration and an incoming one is because as a nation, as a state and as a people, we feel to do what is needed. I've always been an advocate of the fact that there needs to be a transitional law in the nation. There also needs to be a transitional law in all the states of the federation. There should be a law in place that guides the process of transition in such a way that whoever is handing over to an incumbent whether the same party or an opposition party knows its limit. He knows what he can do within the time of election and the time it will be added. Even if you are, even if you are succeeding yourself, the transition law should be made in such a way that there will be limits to the possibility of what step and action an outgoing governor can take so that it does not create undue or undue milestone for the incoming administration. We have such law existing in Kenya. We have it existing in a number of other countries. I take a state government as next the park in the country by putting a transitional law in place. But this becomes necessary so that we don't continue to have this kind of crisis in virtually all the states of the federation and even at the federal level when we are transiting from one administration to another whether within the same political party or other. So I am saying that for us to avoid this kind of situation going forward there is a need to put in place a transitional law that will guide the process of a seamless transition between an outgoing administration and the other. And all politicians should know that power is transient. Whatever you want to do, the maximum limit of time you have is eight years. So whatever you do should not be about political commitments. It has to be about the interest of the people because by and large, like they say, so they go, so they come, the barack remains. You people will go in and out of the government house or out of the government office, but the state remains as one. So whatever action and inaction anybody wants to take as an outgoing governor as an incoming one, they should put it at the back of their mind that they have only been privileged to be elected to serve the people. And the interest of the people should be sacrosanct and not the interest of their political party or their self-aggressive. Let me ask you a final question before I go back to Mr. Leca. Do you have any concerns about the incoming government? I mean, just like I asked Mr. Leca, who's a member of the PDP, many have really criticized the senator saying that he is more of a fun guy. They do not take him seriously. Even though the Ashur people seem to have necessarily taken him seriously, and that's why they voted for him en masse. But do you have any concerns? And what do you hope to see from the Adelaide administration, especially his first 100 days in office? The choice of Governor Adelaide Leca to dance is about his passing. You also recall that when we had it, I hope a very special line in this getters, the governor, he was given to sing him. He was given to a lot of song when it goes to campaign, grants and all of that. So it's not an issue for me if the exercise is in its being of enjoying the moment dancing, but that's not the point. The point really would be what are the things that it needs to do. Like you asked in the next 100 days, I have a lot of concern about a lot of action that I have taken between yesterday and today that are for me more of political correctness than legality. You would recall that a number of hours ago, the Art of Assembly issued a statement where they said that, look, whatever action I've been taking by the promulgation of the law of an Art of Assembly or by the court can only be reversed by the court or by the Art of Assembly. And that is one lesson that the president of the nation of a governor Adelaide needs to learn. You don't just go around making executive orders simply because you now have power in your hand. No, people around them should be able to advise in making sure that whatever decision is being taken is in tandem with the law, which will not sacrifice legality on the halter of political correctness. And this is my fear that it has not been properly advised in some of the decisions it has taken. You can call for a view of actions and inactions of the governor before you. Well, that is not to throw away every decision taken between July 16th, July 17th, and yesterday that was one in forgetting the fact that the Indian Pass Administration subsisted until the 26th of November. So whatever decision we're taking between July 17th when it was elected and 26th, I mean, and yesterday when it was won as governor, those actions can only be refueled in the heist of the law and not just making blanket executive orders and trade them into the dustbin. There is no reason to sacrifice legality on the halter of political correctness. I hear you. Finally, Mr. Lekka, because we're out of time, can you say that governor Adelaide is a unifier? We know that there are people who are divided on the results and who emerged. And of course, with all of the sackings and the reversals, there are going to be a lot of frayedness. Do we see him being a unifier as opposed to being sentimental about what's happening right now? Well, if you take a look at what he has done, I don't think they has reversed all decisions taken between the 17th of July and November 26th, but at the midday past administration. While I agree with Mr. Yolugun on his submission, some of the things that he said, he actually said that he's going to set up some committees, some partners to investigate the actions and inactions of the previous government and then see whatever needs to be corrected. I think that is still in order. Governor Adelaide has exemplified the unifier nature, even when he was being elected as the governorship candidate. He was able to bring out the various factions together and the different interests were able to come together and work together as a team. And that is what you can see that in the victory in the election, in the governorship election. So, I believe he has that trait of a unifier. Okay. All right. Well, I want to say thank you very much, gentlemen, because we're out of time. Ulushalai Lekka is former Deputy Governor of Akiti State and Ayo Ologun, Spokesperson for Transparency and Accountability Group. Thank you so much, gentlemen, for being part of the conversation. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Well, we'll take a quick break. When we come back, we will be talking about the Babache Laol position and, of course, what the Northern Christians are saying and who they intend to support come 2023. Stay with us.