CHANNELSTV — broadcast
20260808 003000 UTC
517 transcript segments
Google Speech-to-Text API Automatic Transcription (Chirp)
Data courtesy of The GDELT Project (https://www.gdeltproject.org/), from the Internet Archive TV News Archive.
Machine transcription. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a verbatim quotation record.

[00:00:01] these agencies for whatever random purpose and
[00:00:04] have had the well with all to be able to do all it takes institutionally
[00:00:08] to bring them to life, buse those agencies actually
[00:00:12] of existed, except that they were unauthorized and they were illegal, but they actually existed, they
[00:00:16] function, they were living,
[00:00:17] of breathing,
[00:00:18] you know, they were money guzzling, you know, you
[00:00:21] entities that actually existed, so you know,
[00:00:25] I'm not surprised at the outcome
[00:00:26] of the ICPC investigation, I think... "it was a given
[00:00:30] already that that was going to be their conclusion, because I already said from the beginning that
[00:00:34] the police cannot police itself, and where I look it is that the ICPC is
[00:00:38] an organ
[00:00:39] of the presidency, accountable to the presidency, and the
[00:00:42] of investigation is centering around someone in the presidency, at least the
[00:00:45] allegations, so I didn't think the
[00:00:48] of ICPC was a correct agency to do this, and I
[00:00:51] wasn't, it was a forg conclusion how they were going
[00:00:56] eventually conclude, but the news that came out that there were other..."
[00:01:00] agencies created by this same
[00:01:03] of person um it's not that big of a surprise because if you could do
[00:01:06] one and function with it yeah what stopped him
[00:01:10] from creating as many others as as as he could benefit
[00:01:13] from
[00:01:14] of really interesting yeah so but the thing you're saying
[00:01:19] of authentication
[00:01:20] i have fourback position the thing that that you said that struck me
[00:01:24] of though kelly
[00:01:25] of is that it looks like he's going down alone alone we will not allow
[00:01:29] of it
[00:01:30] of i don't think because I think I think if he sees he's going down, I think
[00:01:34] he will start singing like a canary,
[00:01:37] and I think that's why he's insisting a public hearing as opposed to the house
[00:01:40] wanting
[00:01:41] a closed
[00:01:41] of door hearing is, I think he knows that discrete hearing, it was the exact words
[00:01:45] of the chairman
[00:01:46] of of the com our time, they don't want the public leave the guy
[00:01:49] alone, absolutely,
[00:01:52] of yes, yes, absolutely, I think that the only way we can get to the truth of this is
[00:01:56] of if everything is put on the table and everything is out in public, unfortunately
[00:02:00] part of this whole sack guys that the middle man
[00:02:04] who was the go between has tragically
[00:02:08] passed away so at this point is really just the
[00:02:10] of he said she said and where the truth really is is
[00:02:14] difficult to determine. i think again the federal government has
[00:02:17] a responsibility
[00:02:19] of to through the agencies that are supposed to do this work maybe the
[00:02:23] police in this instance the
[00:02:25] of man was he
[00:02:26] of murdered did he because he said the place where the man was staying was run down i think
[00:02:30] a
[00:02:31] of hotel or something or something, yes, but the whole hotel didn't burn down, it seems to
[00:02:35] have just been his room, so nobody's talking, and this gentleman, this at me guys
[00:02:39] of mentioning that people are missing that point, that that is the man who
[00:02:43] allegedly you introduced him, they never had an interface
[00:02:46] with the president, chief of staff, all
[00:02:49] of the accusation that that's the middle man, would have loved, but the
[00:02:53] middle man is now dead, yes uh, and i don't think if this
[00:02:57] work has
[00:02:57] to be done responsibly, we need to find out we died, it may
[00:03:01] not give us much, but it can give us an idea of what we're looking
[00:03:06] of at, of but
[00:03:07] of if if it is about this man going down, then it's a very dishonest
[00:03:11] process, it's not going to be makes sense, and uh,
[00:03:14] let's let's repeat, mr. gagd, honorable gagd, let's
[00:03:18] hear this thing publicly, yes, don't keep
[00:03:21] of anything secret, yes, all right, let's go to the
[00:03:24] of guardian newspaper, uh, i like this one, he's taking a
[00:03:27] total, detal from the things we've been looking at
[00:03:31] how
[00:03:32] a poor regulation shields oil firms
[00:03:35] of and host communities that's the methane
[00:03:38] emissions in the Niger delta, there's been
[00:03:43] of a sipage that has been reported in places like
[00:03:44] of I think B community, I think that should be in deg also local
[00:03:48] government area of river
[00:03:49] in state, we've we've done this, we brought people that are
[00:03:53] living in that area to come and help us understand what's going on, I know
[00:03:56] that is in Nra, one of those agencies. responsible i
[00:04:00] visited i think also so visited but
[00:04:04] i don't know what but the guardian is saying look
[00:04:08] um the the the firms that
[00:04:10] of of are doing business in this area need to be more a bit more accountable what do you
[00:04:14] make of it? yes, i remember many years ago these iocs
[00:04:17] shell and total when we became more conscious
[00:04:21] of the spoliation
[00:04:24] of of the environment from the exploitation of fossil fuels in the beginning we we were just so
[00:04:28] excited about discovering all that it was about extracting it from the ground and
[00:04:32] exploiting um its financial uh
[00:04:35] potential, but then we began to see that there's a price to be paid
[00:04:39] as well and you begin to see you know uh horror
[00:04:42] stories of communities completely devastated
[00:04:45] you know whether from oil spills, whether from even
[00:04:48] gas flaring which we still
[00:04:49] do today to the detriment of even us having enough adequate cooking
[00:04:53] gas uh for domestic purposes, so there's a lot
[00:04:57] of spoliation
[00:04:58] of the environment and you know... to do, the world is more
[00:05:02] of conscious now about things like climate change, global warming,
[00:05:06] you know, um, depletion
[00:05:08] of the ozone layer, you
[00:05:10] of so while everybody is trying to cut, emissions in
[00:05:14] terms of
[00:05:16] pollution, we have a situation where
[00:05:20] instead of cutting, we are just negligently allowing it
[00:05:24] to proliferate, so when you see communities
[00:05:28] in the Niger delta, where this primary resource that we all depend
[00:05:32] on for our sustenance, is this oil and gas that is more or
[00:05:35] less propelling the country's entire economy and all of our well
[00:05:39] beings, but the price that has been paid... for all of
[00:05:43] us to be able to thrive and prosper, the price that is being
[00:05:46] paid by the environment and by the people of those
[00:05:50] communities is totally and completely
[00:05:53] unsustainable, and so we have regulators and those regulators
[00:05:57] in the governments are supposed to make to hold companies to
[00:06:01] account whose activities are having a negative impact
[00:06:04] on people's livelihoods, on the environment, on
[00:06:08] quality of life, mean you see people with long disease,
[00:06:12] is simply from inhaling all the particles in the
[00:06:16] atmosphere, and so you would expect that there should be
[00:06:20] severe penalties that are enforced
[00:06:24] on those who are responsible for spoliation the environment in the
[00:06:28] all producing areas, but it's not happening, so what that report essentially is saying is
[00:06:32] that poor regulation, poor oversight is
[00:06:35] leading to devastation of livelihoods,
[00:06:39] degradation of communities and
[00:06:43] declining quality of health of those people and the government should buck
[00:06:47] up and make the IOCs, they are not poor people, when you look at these
[00:06:50] international oil companies, they've extracted so much wealth from the
[00:06:54] ground that they should be able to do right by the communities
[00:06:58] where they are extracting their product from,
[00:07:01] but you know they make a small show of okay, there's something called
[00:07:05] community, they employ a few people within
[00:07:08] you know the community to keep rest, yes to keep restiveness
[00:07:11] at bay. to the barest minimum that he can get away with and
[00:07:15] leave it at that and it's not satisfying, so I'm glad that the guardian has
[00:07:19] highlight highlighted the story, maybe it will lead to
[00:07:22] greater scrutiny into the activities of of
[00:07:26] those who um, and it's not just oil
[00:07:30] producing, even in terms of other mineral resources, where
[00:07:34] there's mining, there's also all kinds of
[00:07:37] devastation that happens in all
[00:07:44] story on the guardian, the manufacturers acting for a 20% on the
[00:07:48] MPR, you were 26 point some is it 26.5 because the
[00:07:51] cost of borrowing is quite high and is affecting business for them,
[00:07:55] how how how are you able to to keep business going when you're boring at
[00:07:59] 26%, how can you pay you can't even that's a benchmark
[00:08:02] so yeah when you get your
[00:08:04] more retail so
[00:08:05] bank uh it the be manufacturers are crying that borrowing cost is too
[00:08:08] much but we must thank you so much for coming on the program and bringing very
[00:08:12] sharp insight to the subject matters that we've raised from the dailies.
[00:08:16] Mr.
[00:08:17] to be thank you, my pleasure always have a great weekend Nigeria and see you on Monday when we shall be
[00:08:21] saying thank God this Monday. Let's go a
[00:08:25] break, we'll be right back. Stay with
[00:08:26] us.
[00:08:39] Our website, channelstv.com has. information on our
[00:08:43] top stories and others, subscribe and watch channels televisions
[00:08:47] live stream on youtube and other social media platforms
[00:08:51] using your mobile device browser or download the channels
[00:08:55] tv app for android and iOS devices from their respective
[00:08:58] stores. you can also watch us via your smart tv
[00:09:02] platforms on Apple tv, android tv,
[00:09:06] fire tv and roku, channel's
[00:09:09] television, youbukatis.
[00:09:13] "the day begins with news gathering and research. we need to confirm
[00:09:17] the story
[00:09:22] as well as policy makers. from the business district to the
[00:09:26] corporate, the policies, actions and even inaction of
[00:09:29] both the fiscal and the monetary authorities make
[00:09:33] impact. 90% of Nigeria's economy is an informal
[00:09:36] sector, just like this market. and take for example, they're impacted
[00:09:40] by government policies like in. inflation rates,
[00:09:43] prices, keep going
[00:09:46] up, well trading
[00:09:49] is fast and mostly virtual, get the top stories that set your
[00:09:53] investing agenda, beyond Africa, we got you
[00:09:57] covered, it's a full menu for you every
[00:10:00] weekday, business morning and business
[00:10:03] incorporated only on channels
[00:10:06] television.
[00:11:12] Welcome back to the program everyone, this is the morning brief, we are live from our
[00:11:16] global headquarters here in Lagos, Nigeria and you right here we always try to
[00:11:20] have very timely conversations, this morning the spotlight again is on
[00:11:23] Ocean States. the developments there, the politics
[00:11:27] there, and this very latest twists where the president has now
[00:11:31] asked the EFCC uh to vacate
[00:11:35] uh the court order, we
[00:11:36] are joined this are by a senior advocate of Nigeria,
[00:11:40] Kayode, joins us live on the program virtually, thank you
[00:11:43] indeed senior advocate of Nigeria for joining us here on the
[00:11:47] program, um, the twists and the
[00:11:50] elections, the politics in Ash is getting really interesting, first the
[00:11:54] EFCC the accounts the oshin state government uh
[00:11:58] then Mr. President uh went ahead to ask
[00:12:02] the the the the commission to you what the case the
[00:12:06] court order the same yesterday the Ash governor
[00:12:10] Ademola Adelec has now suwed the
[00:12:13] EFCC 2 billion
[00:12:15] nara um for damages
[00:12:19] sir thank you
[00:12:22] thank you very much um these events honestly, i think
[00:12:26] are quite interesting, but let's leave the
[00:12:30] politics that may be associated with these events
[00:12:34] aside for moment, and let's just talk about the
[00:12:37] law. now the EFCC uh
[00:12:41] create was created in 2004,
[00:12:44] for good reason at the time, and we must ask
[00:12:48] ourselves, what is the scope of authority the
[00:12:51] EFCC? the EFCC has the authority. to
[00:12:55] investigate, prevent and prosecute crime which
[00:12:59] associated with economy or finance, financial crimes and economic
[00:13:03] crimes as well. now do we have an
[00:13:06] EFCC that is like a supervisor of all
[00:13:10] regions, all states, all governments, all
[00:13:14] departments and agencies,
[00:13:17] and under who do they operate and to whom should they
[00:13:21] account? these are the relevant things that we must ask ourselves now.
[00:13:25] "now as I said,
[00:13:26] the EFCC creation of statute and of course let's say let's put
[00:13:30] it this way by an act the national assembly, but we
[00:13:34] shouldn't forget that we are, in fact especially
[00:13:38] now stranously trying to approach
[00:13:41] through federalism, so should we have a situation where
[00:13:45] an agency the federal government will simply come into a
[00:13:49] state and say, we do not like what you're doing, and as such we are going to bring an
[00:13:53] order against you." Let us look at
[00:13:57] section 126, 125 the
[00:14:01] constitution, which provide for the
[00:14:04] appointment of accountant general and auditor
[00:14:08] general for the respective states. This is a
[00:14:11] constitutional provision, and if we go to section
[00:14:15] 12 um 54,
[00:14:18] it says the auditor general for
[00:14:21] the station have the power to conduct periodic. checks
[00:14:25] of all government statutary corporations,
[00:14:29] commission, authorities, agencies, including all persons and
[00:14:33] bodies established by law the house of assembly. now
[00:14:37] don't forget money spent by states are money
[00:14:41] spent under the law by way of appropriation. now
[00:14:44] this constitution which we refer to, which of course is superior to the
[00:14:48] act of sets of EFCC, goes for that to say in section
[00:14:52] 1256 that in the
[00:14:55] exercise of his
[00:14:57] functions under this
[00:15:00] constitution, the auditor general
[00:15:04] for a stage shall not be subject to the
[00:15:08] direction or control of any authority or
[00:15:12] person. so if we truly find that some to
[00:15:16] what thing is going on in the state, i think the first port
[00:15:20] of call should be the auditor general of that state, well of course people would
[00:15:23] probably just simply say, well the auditor general and appointe
[00:15:27] the governor will probably just do his beading,
[00:15:31] but we must recognize that the constitution is superior to any other
[00:15:34] enartment. aside from that, the ES see in
[00:15:38] itself must ensure that it does not bring
[00:15:41] about um processes, procedures or
[00:15:45] acts that may truncate the smooth
[00:15:48] running the accounts of a state, affecting civil
[00:15:52] servants, affecting the people, affecting the programs the
[00:15:55] state, especially the executive who was
[00:15:58] properly elected by the
[00:16:01] people, so as we speak,
[00:16:04] let's talk about the directive which is the big
[00:16:08] elephant in the room, so initially
[00:16:12] when we saw the is it letter, the release or the directive for the
[00:16:15] PND to the banks by the EFCC, the
[00:16:19] argument was whether or not they
[00:16:21] had the rights or they had the powers, the other certain things insue to
[00:16:24] talk about 72 hours, the must get a court order, we didn't get to
[00:16:28] see that court order, the first time personalized saw, heard anything
[00:16:32] about a court order was from the president's statement where it said the ESCC had gotten
[00:16:36] a court order. on August the 5th and is saying to them, please go back to
[00:16:40] court and vacate it uh and allow these people, because what you're doing
[00:16:44] is embarrassing to me uh, people will misread this to be
[00:16:48] political, the the place is already charged, let's talk about the extent to which the
[00:16:52] president can go, because when I was reading through that statement, I wanted to see what
[00:16:56] provision the law he relied to be able to intervene, can
[00:16:59] he intervene,
[00:17:03] well there
[00:17:04] there are two ways to look at it, first, did we
[00:17:08] actually have the ASCC going to court to get a court order,
[00:17:12] who was the judge, which federal high court was this order obtained
[00:17:16] from? so i i think that is still hanging on the air, was there
[00:17:20] a court order or was the president simply
[00:17:23] advice to ask EFCC to go to the
[00:17:26] courts to now give act the
[00:17:30] EFCC evania of
[00:17:33] um uh proprietatory and ask them
[00:17:37] to
[00:17:37] then sall we vacation this order properly, an order
[00:17:41] that in my own opinion, because I haven't got the evidence that they actually proceeded
[00:17:45] before a court to obtain the order to freeze the accounts the ocean
[00:17:49] state government, although they said well they have 72 hours which to do
[00:17:53] that, but the point is should the
[00:17:56] president be the one to say go to the court
[00:18:00] to vacate the order, well the the
[00:18:04] the EFCC is a agency. under the
[00:18:08] control the executive and to that
[00:18:11] extent the work at the pleasure and
[00:18:15] I use that very loosely at the pleasure of of Mr. President, not in
[00:18:19] the day to day running, but in the appointmentts, in the
[00:18:22] policy, the of course they have board of board of
[00:18:25] governors, the policies and what have you, but
[00:18:29] we must be careful, and I think if I had an opportunity to say this
[00:18:33] to Mr. President, should not create the impression that he is.
[00:18:38] to
[00:18:39] go to court or ask people to you refrain
[00:18:42] from going to court or to set aside and order properly made
[00:18:46] if indeed it was properly made, otherwise the
[00:18:50] impression that we create is that
[00:18:53] the the president has overriding
[00:18:56] authority to determine what happens even in the courts,
[00:19:00] but that cannot also be so, especially if
[00:19:04] we have a criminal case. or charge
[00:19:08] against somebody where whoever it may be, because the only person
[00:19:12] under the law that
[00:19:13] you can enter in only prosec is the attorney general,
[00:19:17] but then again the attorney general is part the executive,
[00:19:21] so lot these things require um are testing them
[00:19:25] in court, well a manner of speaking,
[00:19:28] think it is a good thing that um governormal has gone to
[00:19:32] court, it might be an opportunity for us to address these issues,
[00:19:35] mr. president should be my opinion have simply whispered
[00:19:39] to somebody, tell EFCC to
[00:19:43] back down and allow um proper running
[00:19:47] the state to continue, especially as he also said in the
[00:19:50] statement, that is so close to election, don't create the
[00:19:54] impression that something towards going to happen and that I am in the
[00:19:58] no, we have delicate balance that we're trying to maintain our country
[00:20:01] now, lot of people do not have lot of mistrust, lot of people
[00:20:05] have accusations against the executive. center, so we must not allow
[00:20:09] these things to build over, that's my
[00:20:11] view. well, now
[00:20:14] that the governor has suwed the EFCC uh two billion
[00:20:18] nara as as damages, or for damages, I wonder what you
[00:20:22] make of this, you think that perhaps was this really
[00:20:25] necessary, and then in terms of um, the directive by the
[00:20:29] president, it looks like a presidential overside, but where
[00:20:32] exactly does this leave the
[00:20:36] EFCC in terms of operational
[00:20:38] independence, well
[00:20:41] I do not think ESCC uh still will be unable to operate
[00:20:45] without interference, I think they would be allowed
[00:20:49] to ' but you see don't forget the constitution which we run gives
[00:20:52] lot gives enormous pass to um the president and this is
[00:20:56] why
[00:20:57] you know there has been a lot of call for
[00:21:00] uh federalism so that people in various regions can run their
[00:21:04] affairs as much as possible in the direction they want to go but to go to the first question
[00:21:07] which you asked about governor swing well i just know
[00:21:11] what he's asking for i don't know what damages but the base upon which is asking for
[00:21:15] damages but of course we have an idea he's been embarrassed and for the
[00:21:19] one or two days "a lot of things may have gone under, but the truth is that
[00:21:23] we must realize that every
[00:21:25] law made by the national
[00:21:29] assembly, and I'm going to refer to decision the Supreme
[00:21:32] Court, I think it was in 2003 was attering general legal
[00:21:36] state versus general the federation, in which the Supreme Court
[00:21:40] held that any act enacted by National
[00:21:43] Assembly, a subject matter must
[00:21:47] be subject to constitutional power." the
[00:21:50] states so as to reasonably um
[00:21:54] restrict the act to
[00:21:57] mains in other words the national assembly
[00:22:01] should ensure that even in enacting laws of
[00:22:04] regulations they do not make sure laws that will trample
[00:22:08] upon the authority and the rights of states under
[00:22:11] the constitution that case I refer to was with
[00:22:15] respect to the oban and planning
[00:22:18] of of. legal state and what the authority to to
[00:22:22] give um planning approvals, so the states must be
[00:22:26] recognized not as sub to the national, but they must
[00:22:29] recognize as as having the authority also to
[00:22:33] go ahead to run the states as the defeats
[00:22:36] particularly provided for by the constitution, but
[00:22:40] should still back down in doing what they have to do, but they
[00:22:44] must do so within the amit the
[00:22:46] constitution.
[00:22:50] Let's let's go back to the law and prosecute that you talked about,
[00:22:54] so would this have been handled
[00:22:57] better or it should have looked less messier than it
[00:23:01] is if it was the attorney general that you know
[00:23:05] made this move and could he have made this move, at what points can the attorney
[00:23:09] general the federation coming, because as we say we don't have anything establishing
[00:23:12] the fact that there was actually a court order, we only believe the president because
[00:23:16] it's in his own statement, but we don't have any other evidence to... show that
[00:23:20] there was a court order to that effect, but never
[00:23:24] mind the fact that yes, there
[00:23:26] was
[00:23:29] that president, but of course i believe that he must have
[00:23:33] got somebody to draft it, maybe whoever just it just included in
[00:23:37] it that you should proceed to the courts to
[00:23:41] um that who who
[00:23:45] determ where what what's
[00:23:49] the present? "the president is allowed to run the
[00:23:52] country also in provision the
[00:23:56] law and we should not allow states to uh to be
[00:24:00] bullied, we should allow our
[00:24:02] governors emasculated in the manner of
[00:24:05] speaking. i don't if I answered your question. okay, so let's
[00:24:09] let's go back to the issue, we'll come back to it in just moment, let let's
[00:24:13] go back to the issues the state. now the reason
[00:24:17] efcc, well literally every agency of..." government is
[00:24:21] is is dealing with crisis of confidence, is
[00:24:23] almost almost literally everywhere wherever you turn because
[00:24:27] of selective application of law and justice, and
[00:24:31] there's something I want to bring to your notice and maybe your judicial
[00:24:35] intervention, I had we had a conversation here with both sides of
[00:24:39] this argument, meaning the APC in the state and the accord party
[00:24:43] in the state, now the EFCC swiped in due to some
[00:24:47] spending the saying that had to do with ecological funds and to the
[00:24:51] tune of 11 billion and they said they accelerated spending on
[00:24:54] transaction few days to the election raised the suspicion which is
[00:24:58] why they wrote a letter to the
[00:25:00] bank for a P and they post no debit that's
[00:25:03] on one hand now the state government is also
[00:25:06] alleging has also said that since February last
[00:25:10] year when the court about who should be in
[00:25:14] charge the local government whether is the PDP den or the APC
[00:25:17] chairman happened the APC chairman have. in charge and
[00:25:21] fac has been paid directly to them, according to the commissioner said
[00:25:25] about 11 billion monthly is spent on the local
[00:25:29] government when they sorry 11 billion comes
[00:25:32] into uh from fac to the local government areas in the state, but
[00:25:36] expenditure in terms of salaries and all the things they make payment in terms of recurrent
[00:25:40] comes to about 6 billion, but since this chairman
[00:25:43] took charge, they've not paid a couble to
[00:25:47] any teacher that the state government has been. bearing the cost,
[00:25:51] don't you think that if VSC want to do a thorough job so that it will not look like
[00:25:55] selective justice, they should also go and check what this chairman are doing
[00:25:58] with the common wealth their people at the local level?
[00:26:03] Yes, indeed, the if the
[00:26:07] ESST the
[00:26:10] citizens,
[00:26:11] whher
[00:26:15] government, then they should go to the local government
[00:26:19] as well, but let us bear in
[00:26:23] mind that
[00:26:26] um, the can you hear
[00:26:28] me? Hello, yes, go.
[00:26:32] sir, we can hear you, if you can hear me, we can hear you, I can hear you, so
[00:26:36] we must ask ourselves a
[00:26:39] question, many governors have
[00:26:42] left the government lodge or governor's
[00:26:46] office and we have had ESCC coming after them after they have
[00:26:50] left office, we have the case of cogi state, we have several other
[00:26:53] states, now on the balance, should
[00:26:57] we not encourage EFCC to
[00:27:01] go after? suspicious funds whilst
[00:27:05] people are in government as against allowing them to leave
[00:27:09] office before we pursue them. mean no disrespect to governor
[00:27:13] demola del at all and i'm not suggesting that any such things
[00:27:16] happen in his state, but the point i'm making is that if there
[00:27:20] are persons who we have reasonable
[00:27:24] belief are taking the common partimony the citizens the
[00:27:28] state and are not using for the purpose for which those funds the
[00:27:31] revenue. are intended, then I think we
[00:27:35] should give EFCC the
[00:27:39] the the the latitude to go after this f,
[00:27:42] because the overall benefit the citizens should
[00:27:46] override the personal authority and interest the governor or the local
[00:27:49] governments, if the local governments are not paying teachers, they should
[00:27:53] be invited and
[00:27:54] you know questions should be asked, and then if somebody says like I have said
[00:27:58] earlier, what does
[00:28:00] the constitution allow, should be? the new the new the new
[00:28:04] provision which allows the local governments to receive
[00:28:08] their their allocation from fac and to disvse
[00:28:11] accordingly. if they fail to do that, whose responsibility is it
[00:28:15] to challenge them? well, if no one is going to do
[00:28:19] it and EFC is willing to do that, I will
[00:28:23] sooner accept that EFC will um do that for
[00:28:27] the benefit the people rather than looking at the
[00:28:30] legalize of. 'if we allow local governments to take the
[00:28:34] money away, they're not paying teachers, they're not doing
[00:28:38] necessary primary healthcare that they should be
[00:28:41] doing, then the whole sense of having
[00:28:44] the new tax law and of also
[00:28:48] having the new um law that and that gives
[00:28:52] autonomy to local government will become a
[00:28:54] mess,
[00:28:58] well senior advocates uh clearly on states '
[00:29:02] looks like the only states where local government autonomy is working, because that's the only states
[00:29:06] after two years the the judgement by the Supreme Court
[00:29:10] uh align for local government autonomy, that's the only states where local
[00:29:14] governments are receiving funds directly from the federal government, it doesn't
[00:29:18] apply to the other 35 um
[00:29:21] states, um so but
[00:29:25] when we look at what is playing out here um 30 days ago Mr.
[00:29:28] President directed ICPC to
[00:29:32] investigate um or to probe the Phantom Council and Phantom
[00:29:36] DG, and then just yesterday the president is
[00:29:40] directing the EFCC to vacate a court
[00:29:43] order. I'm just wondering in terms of
[00:29:47] maybe structural reforms for
[00:29:51] these institutions, what do we really need to
[00:29:54] do to indeed get these institutions
[00:29:58] independent in the true sense of that word?
[00:30:03] being really um standing firm without
[00:30:07] the interference, because I mean if the president has the
[00:30:11] ICPC had to wait for the president to direct them
[00:30:15] to probe the Phantom DG and Council, and then
[00:30:18] yesterday the president is directing the, in fact one
[00:30:22] would have thought that maybe the president should have even asked the commission to
[00:30:25] review its position rather than
[00:30:29] directing them to vacate a court order, so I wonder if you
[00:30:33] think, and I like the fact that you started all with that background that EFCC was
[00:30:36] created somewhere around 2014, so we are almost
[00:30:40] about almost, 20,
[00:30:43] 24, no, 14 years down the line, so I'm just
[00:30:47] wondering what kind of reforms do we really need to put in place to ensure these
[00:30:51] institutions are indeed independents and you know away
[00:30:54] from the influences of those from the executive side of
[00:30:58] things.