Google Speech-to-Text API Automatic Transcription (Chirp). Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:49of getting to some
00:00:50of the things we want to talk about and
00:00:52of get the show going, I'm really concerned about uh,
00:00:55this calikat bishops and the back and
00:00:59of forth within them. the presidency, the one that really concerns me, look, uh,
00:01:03there are things you can say in your private spaces with where your friends or
00:01:07with whoever you want to talk to, but as soon as you come to public spaces like social
00:01:10media is public, television is public, uh, the pages of
00:01:15of newspaper is public, radio is public, so we have all of those public spaces,
00:01:19of so of what of I see in terms
00:01:21of of the remarks of some some persons - using certain
00:01:24words against eminent personalities in Nigeria is very, very
00:01:28troubling, now if there's with greatest respect, any
00:01:32regular
00:01:32of random person would
00:01:34of respect, saying things i may not pay attention to really none of my
00:01:37business, but when people you feel that should know better begin to
00:01:41use words and description to describe someone because they do
00:01:45not like or they don't appreciate their point of view, it's very detestful
00:01:49and it's very um very painful to see and
00:01:52of watch uh whether is the cardinal or the saltan
00:01:56or our very nobel lashu in or some
00:02:00of these men who have achieved a lot, they may say things or do things that you may
00:02:04not agree with, there's a civil way to have a conversation, there's
00:02:07a civil way to disagree, on social media, some of
00:02:11you cuss me out, some of you comment me, i will never reply, i'm not that
00:02:15guy, because i'm very focused, i know
00:02:17what i'm doing, i understand
00:02:18what i'm doing, we may not always be right, but when you come to public
00:02:22space, there's a language, there's cunder,
00:02:25you can't be unquot, you can't be irresponsible with the way
00:02:29you use your word I disagree with the president
00:02:32of a lot of things,
00:02:33of I
00:02:33in disagree with the government, it doesn't matter whether it's
00:02:35a PDP or APC government, I
00:02:38of disagree with lots of governors, but you mind what how you
00:02:41use words, the choice of words, in fact some
00:02:44of the words I have seen been used on some eminent personalities, it mean
00:02:48clerics especially clerics, I can't
00:02:51a even repeat it on television, and it's very, very shameful
00:02:55that certain persons who should know better cannot contain and
00:02:58constrain themselves. uh when it comes to the use of
00:03:02language, i think is
00:03:03a irresponsible and has to stop. think i think
00:03:07um that also reflects the society that we have we have
00:03:10created. um, totally agree with you, and
00:03:14the interesting thing is sometimes, mean we also posted a
00:03:18video just yesterday uh on sunday and it got a lot of
00:03:23of traction, i'm not going to give us details, but sometimes the fact
00:03:26that the average Nigerian may not even take
00:03:30his time or her time to look at the interview from the
00:03:34start to finish, perhaps one person picks a
00:03:38snippet of what was said,
00:03:40you know, and then there you go with the opinions and abuses
00:03:44and all of that, and and so it's
00:03:46a reflection
00:03:46of the
00:03:46of society we have created, um, yes, on
00:03:50this table as well, we have criticized the government
00:03:53of the day and previous administrations, but there's a language
00:03:57to
00:03:57of use, there a and where people, 'who pride ourselves
00:04:01as people uh who have virtue,
00:04:03a who have values, who have culture, we have some sort of
00:04:06heritage, but it looks like all of sudden we are throwing all of
00:04:10that, out
00:04:11of the window and all of that, so we have to sit
00:04:14of back sometimes, i've seen the controverses, i've seen the
00:04:17responses, in fact even from the government officials on the dary has made his
00:04:21a comments about uh the the position
00:04:23of the bishops um and all of that, but i think we have to be
00:04:27careful so that we'. do
00:04:30not um go, things don't get out of
00:04:34of hand, especially because we are few months to an
00:04:38election, and we are indeed hitting
00:04:40of the polities so really
00:04:42of badly with the kind of things that we say online, i think some
00:04:45of people say some people will
00:04:46say, no what yeah, it's my view, it's my opinion, but you must be careful
00:04:49because your opinion uh could be considered or
00:04:53of misconstrued, so that's why you have to be careful with your choice of language and
00:04:57your and and your words when you post, yes? "there's the freedom of expression,
00:05:01yes you're
00:05:02of allowed to express yourself, but I think that we should also have some sort of um,
00:05:06some sort of uh boundaries, when we do that, you just, you know, some people
00:05:09will never learn,
00:06:11you cannot hold, "if that's your position and is within your right to do so,
00:06:15but let's go to what the president has done that is commendable
00:06:18uh, increment between 30 to 80% to over
00:06:22250,00 of our troops, i think this is a good one coming in
00:06:26from uh the presidency and the president himself, there a lot
00:06:30of moving sides, first it was the expansion the
00:06:33divisions from eight to now 12 with four additional ones,
00:06:37which is supposed to help us have more boots on the ground, response time
00:06:41forward. forard basis so that all the
00:06:45things that we complain about, because one the problems we have is the
00:06:49issue of corruption, the issue of complicity, the issue of men on the
00:06:53ground, the issue of response time, so the administration perhaps is trying to
00:06:57look at all sides, but more importantly the issue of welfare and
00:07:00remuneration, as kelly, i just got a message was
00:07:04yesterday of some persons who are retired military
00:07:07officers who are complaining that the promise
00:07:10of uh pay increase. that they had from the president, they haven't seen an
00:07:14implementation yet, so they want to make case out of it, what you can host them,
00:07:18so i was surprised to see it was like almost a coincidence, same day
00:07:22we now see that the president has said look uh from the
00:07:26generals,
00:07:26you know major general, lieutenant general uh brigader general and the
00:07:30generals i think a 30% increase and then the conels and the
00:07:34rest, i think about 50% and then the lower cader about
00:07:3780%, so cutos to the president, cudos
00:07:41to this approval, whether it's for political
00:07:45reason or not is not important to me, because we know that
00:07:49during election, lot of promises are made, lot of increment can
00:07:53happen, that's why people are unions and
00:07:56comrades, this is when they make their cases know whether it's
00:08:00asu, medical doctors, everybody who can make case if
00:08:04because the way the politics is played, now that they are
00:08:07desperate for votes, if you don't put them on the
00:08:11edge and "you may not get anything after the election, so
00:08:15it's almost like recurrent decimal that we're used to, but
00:08:18particularly Kelly, I did host session, I talked about it the other day in Abuja where
00:08:22which is why I i went to Abuja and I said I think it's
00:08:26counterproductive, it is planning against yourself, if
00:08:30if if you go and give a man a gun who has said,
00:08:34"I am ready to die for my country," which is one the most honorable thing
00:08:38to do, I don't think anybody will say I want to die for Nigeria because of
00:08:41money,
00:08:42I don't think so, so if they chose that, if they made that choice, which lot a lot of
00:08:46Nigerians may not be able to make, I think anything less than
00:08:50300,400 thousand as your minimum
00:08:53pay is not worth it, so I don't know what the minimum is, we're going to find
00:08:57out that, but I commend the president on this, and I hope that this is
00:09:01going to be implemented as quickly as possible, whether this is
00:09:05political or not, I don't care, the most important thing, so the voage bill has
00:09:09increased now from 600 billion to about 900 billion. I think it's
00:09:13worth it, I support it, if
00:09:15you want to increase it more, we will back, Mr.
00:09:17President, this is absolutely commendable, um,
00:09:21yes, I know the critics would always come from Mr. President, um, but
00:09:25it's commendable, the issue of welfare of those are the
00:09:29frontlines is something we have hammered over and over again as a
00:09:32network, and so to see this, yes, the timing, some would
00:09:36question it, but I think it's it's uh, it's commendable, the
00:09:39implementation days we here September one according to this.
00:09:42men byyo or nonuga, so we hope to see this and we hope
00:09:46that because some these military guys, some have lost
00:09:49their legs, some have lost their hands,
00:09:52amputation, it's maybe one part their bodies is being amputated
00:09:55and all of that, some have lost their lives, they've paid the ultimate
00:09:59price, and you know someone who perhaps know someone who have who
00:10:03lost father or a brother or husband
00:10:07and and and vice verser, so I think it's it's really commendable, I
00:10:11know there are some sort of question. some saying no, why don't you do this for the police as
00:10:15well? the police is perhaps the older security agency, they
00:10:18deserve um more of this kind of welfare, some
00:10:22say oh the reason is also that um if you do this, it means that
00:10:26you're also um maybe pushing the army to continue with the
00:10:30issues around internal security and all of that, but I think it's
00:10:33commendable, some people say it's one step a time,
00:10:37so let's hope that after this we'll see more of this
00:10:40increase in the package and welfare of those at the
00:10:44frontlines, especially because the always a lot of things have played
00:10:48out, I mean, if you see the bizarre conditions these
00:10:52people serve, I mean if you go to... the north for instance
00:10:55and see where these people are made to sleep, what they are made
00:10:58eat, we sit at the comfort of our houses and
00:11:02we have three square meals, but that's not the case for the average military personnel,
00:11:06so this is commendable, um, some again will criticize
00:11:10president b, but i think
00:11:12you know what, he's a master strategist, hate him or you like him, there's a
00:11:15former president who built, i think nine or 10 tertiary
00:11:19institutions and maybe two in the south, it builts nine or 10 in the north
00:11:23and builts two in the south, said was going to use that to appease the north,
00:11:27but he lost an election, so president is master
00:11:30strategist and he knows how to play uh the
00:11:34game, if this is for the game, do not know, but um, because
00:11:38it affects the welfare the military offices,
00:11:42we are in total, total commendation
00:13:18before we get to the papers guys uh uh the
00:13:22operation gazel to um well in 20 23 Nigeria was
00:13:25struggling with uh our effects, you know sometimes you get
00:13:29import licenses, I didn't have the foreign exchange to be able to back this
00:13:33import, our reserve was low, well that's commendation to this president, I think they've
00:13:37done well in terms of that, so that's why I'm even wondering why they went for operation gazel, we're going to
00:13:41look at all us, so for those of you may not understand what what I'm I may be talking
00:13:45about, under president Muhammad Bukhari, there was a time we took a
00:13:49facility I think from Mathxin Banks about 3.4 billion dollars
00:13:52in terms of uh cash for crude so it's not as
00:13:56if we're they were giving us dollars so that they will get it
00:14:00back in crude so it was like forward sales in that kind of
00:14:04scenario it was supposed to be for five years and there were terms uh
00:14:08well uh that was for fxr creation
00:14:11now uh the federal government has gone back to say they are
00:14:14refinanceing it i think we had paid about 1.5 billion of
00:14:18what of it remaining 1.5 so they are refinancing it to now make
00:14:22it 4.5 such that one f covers the old one and
00:14:26then 3 billion a new facility to help you our
00:14:30priority areas uh in our public
00:14:33finances that's on one hand on the other hand they've also uh repurposes
00:14:37such that i think we're committing about 9000 barrels a
00:14:41day i think it's going to be about 78 thousand barrels a day there are so many questions to
00:14:45ask when it comes to this in terms of interest in terms of why this is
00:14:49happening even when
00:14:58you got anything on this? Yes, I think for me, it's uh,
00:15:02the words of additional loan, but this we paying time back
00:15:04when with our crude oil, that those question
00:15:08it really, but the words the vice president is what struck
00:15:12me, and for me that is where that's where my
00:15:15interest lies. I'm trying to see if I can pull out the exact words the
00:15:19vice president yesterday at at the neck, after the
00:15:22neck, he said he... he said
00:15:26that um government policies are often heard before
00:15:30they are seen uh speak through the price of food condition
00:15:33of hospitals records in schools strain on family.
00:15:38is the confidence of those who invest their labor in the nation's
00:15:41future and very importantly the ambitions of state governments
00:15:45and also said that or called for
00:15:48responsive, scalable and data driven social protection
00:15:52policy to tackle multidimensional poverty in
00:15:56Nigeria, that is my interest, the policies
00:16:00are good, but the interest for me and my concern is that
00:16:04when you do all these things, when you do all these policies
00:16:08and all of that, let it translate to the cost of
00:16:11living, as you've rightly said, um, skating up
00:16:15that social protection, but for me that is where my interest is, that you
00:16:19do all of this, and the average Nigerian feels the
00:16:23impact of this, your effects, of this your grows, domestic pro,
00:16:27whatever it is, let the average Nigerian feel the
00:16:31impact, because that's where that's where the that's what the question marks are for many
00:16:34Nigerians, the fact that when you do all these things. "it looks good, it sounds
00:16:38good on paper, but the reality is on
00:16:42ground, the head wings are biting and biting really
00:16:45hard, so I'm happy that the vice president said that, he said it with the responsibility
00:16:49of charing that committee, I hope that they get to see
00:16:53this through. Jeff, yes, at the end the day, one
00:16:57the questions we're going to ask is the interest on this uh, I don't know, maybe
00:17:01between nine to, there's a way these things are calculated, it's not an all commerce
00:17:04conversation per say because it's technical, comes to these
00:17:08finances uh so we're going to query
00:17:10all of that with the economist who will join us later on on the show because
00:17:14this is our future this is like we don't have enough fx or we
00:17:18need some money take our crude give us the money and
00:17:22refinanceing it's a bit technical but we will try to
00:17:25break it down and help you understand what exactly this means for you and i
00:17:29uh because it's your money is your crude is all of us common wealth the
00:17:33people were employed to do the work for us are the ones doing this and i think this
00:17:37needs to be lot more transparent when it comes to public
00:17:41finance uh, because sometimes the more they explain the more people doubt
00:17:45them, that
00:18:08Welcome back Mr Ak is
00:18:46this nigeria the our first paper and there are two stories i would like
00:18:49you to being on the the lead story and some
00:18:53story uh below the pictures you see there fg
00:18:57onveils pay rise for 25000 troops lowest
00:19:01rank gets 80% increase i'm not sure how much that comes so we need to
00:19:04find out and all military wage bill rises
00:19:09by 640 billion as government seeks to boost
00:19:13moral that's
00:19:14a page for read and then
00:19:15at the very bottom 2027 ami can't deliver vote coalition
00:19:19no threat to tinable says wike
00:19:22hit body judge attack a icon unfair ADC VP
00:19:25candidate what do you make of this story
00:19:29sir well I think these are very important stories this morning
00:19:32incidentally I was one the editors at this
00:19:36Nigeria very serious news. paper now - to the
00:19:39issues, first have red reports uh
00:19:42where
00:19:43you know some persons are criticizing the president that um is
00:19:47increasing the salaries of uh Nigerian troops
00:19:51because the 2027 general elections, I do not think that is what it
00:19:55is, I completely disagree with those who hold that opinion,
00:19:59we all agree this country that we are faced with very severe
00:20:03you know insecurity banditory kidnapping for
00:20:07ransom. and of course terrorism
00:20:09that is almost gofing
00:20:10the entire country, so there's no better time to boost the moral of
00:20:14our troops, the are about 200 and
00:20:1825000 the numbers currently, the
00:20:22army, the air force and the navy, and as the papers really
00:20:25reported from the generals, from brigadier generals
00:20:29to major generals, lieutenant generals and the generals, they are
00:20:33getting a 30% pay rise corners to -
00:20:38I think corners to uh warrant officers, they are getting
00:20:4250% pay rise, and from staff
00:20:45sergeant to private, the average private soldier gets 80%.
00:20:50pay right, that is a more booster, the last time we heard 100, they've
00:20:53increased their salaries to 100,000 and we saw the opera,
00:20:57every nigeran agree that that money was just too small for them for anybody
00:21:01to put his life on the line, so that is coudos to mr
00:21:05president, president, but I do not see any politics in this,
00:21:09every Nigerian thinks that
00:21:10it is time to raise salaries, whether it's that the armed forces or the civil
00:21:14service, and even those of us are journalists, we also need a pay rise,
00:21:17because you know if you look at the economic indic. whether the macro level or the
00:21:21micro level uh, it's prices of goods and services are quite high,
00:21:25so increasing salaries at this point is, it is strategic,
00:21:29from um cumulative wage bill of
00:21:32660 billion it is rising to 924
00:21:36billion, that's for the end forces, the president says that the country's
00:21:40earning more money now from all the economic reshuffles, all
00:21:44the all the you know uh all the principles, all the
00:21:48policies that has put in place. that the more money is coming in, so I think it should go around the
00:21:52arm forces cannot be left out, yeah with regards
00:21:55to uh criticism of Ameshi
00:21:58by the FCT minister who says that Ameshi is of no
00:22:02electoral value, I for anybody to dismiss the
00:22:06former river state governor Shibika Ameshi that is of no electoral
00:22:10value, I think is that for me, I think that is within the rem of
00:22:13politics, Chubi is very serious politician in this
00:22:17country, he served as um minister two
00:22:21times under former president Muhammad Buhari,
00:22:25yes, whether anyone likes it or not, he peached his
00:22:28tent, more in the north, he built the transport
00:22:31university in uh Daura, that is Buari's
00:22:35home town, he faces criticism anyway,
00:22:39from those of us who are from the Niger Delta, the south of Niger that he was not
00:22:43able to build rails across the Niger region and then there were
00:22:47no good rules during his time, well to that extend. he gets some bashing, but
00:22:51whether it's of electoral value, i agree that
00:22:55QBK is very strong politician, he has electoral value, for anybody
00:22:58to dismiss him, well that might be to to that individuals per, so I
00:23:02do not agree with that, well there are a whole lot of issues coming up, and I think
00:23:06that um we're approaching the election
00:23:09here, there will be criticisms
00:23:12from uh all sides uh pro and for as it
00:23:16were, now the big story uh, as as also
00:23:20reported by this Nigeria, the the
00:23:35that is generating, it is so unfortunate that every
00:23:38time there is - different
00:23:41opinion from what those in the presidency want to
00:23:44hear, they take on the role of attack dogs and then
00:23:48the they seriously attack that individual, i think this
00:23:51time uh, i think that the managers of
00:23:55president president, they are not doing
00:23:59a good job, from my formal boss, bayyon nanuga, he was my
00:24:03boss at the news temple pm news and to daniel, daniel buala, daniel
00:24:06buala is a lawyer, one can excuse him, but for professional
00:24:10journalists who should master the art of public
00:24:14communication and image management, it is
00:24:17not every time that somebody criticizes the president,
00:24:20that
00:24:21uh you you you just attack the person in this case I've not even seen
00:24:25where uh John Cardinal and
00:24:27who who addressed now appeared on Chinaz TV you know
00:24:31to give clarification to give some because most Nigerians
00:24:34including members the Catholic show want to know what has happened in their
00:24:38meeting and then he tried to give some clarification by saying that
00:24:42you know the president push back on some issue but these were the cour
00:24:46issues one the issue of uh return of uh
00:24:50secondary schools back to the churches, the economic hardship that Nigerians
00:24:54are facing, the independence of EEC, that is the
00:24:57independence national electoral commission, he was, I think the catholic bishop
00:25:01wanted the president to do more by leave by by of
00:25:05course granting more autonomy and
00:25:07the they actually converse for first line charge for the
00:25:11inec so that INEc can draw their resources from first line charge
00:25:15instead
00:25:15of instead of a budget approval by the president as we
00:25:19know he 'p dictates the tune, these are really of genuine concerns
00:25:23to Nigerians really, so for anybody to push back or and says
00:25:27that is uh not
00:25:31reflecting the collective views of Nigeria, I think that is just a misnormal,
00:25:35all
00:25:43because it that particular story would also get
00:25:45attention, the rider at the bottom of that newspaper
00:25:49this'. He stays with onico
00:25:51on states the nation, it says church has duty to speak
00:25:55truth to power catholic late
00:25:59council there defending uh the... bishop or
00:26:03bishops, so I mean the back and forth as
00:26:06to whether
00:26:07or not the church should be
00:26:11involved, or if religious leaders should speak on
00:26:14politics or stay on the
00:26:18pulpit, politics or pulpits, should religious
00:26:22leaders speak issues around politics at
00:26:25all, well for those
00:26:29who who think that religious leaders should stay a loof should
00:26:33not speak on what is happening around them on
00:26:36politics, the they are making a mistake. now these religious leaders that we
00:26:40talk about draw their strength and inspiration from the
00:26:44Bible and for muslims they draw their own inspiration from the
00:26:47quran and if you look at prophets in the bible
00:26:51they spoke truth to power, they they like if if you look
00:26:55at if you look at pharaoh of Egypt those days you
00:26:58know uh prophecy the bible spoke to
00:27:02to to pharaoh, if you look at Samuel and Saul, there were prophets who
00:27:06also uh met them and spoke to power,
00:27:09including king David, so uh, for anybody to
00:27:13argue that, it is out of place for religious leaders not to
00:27:17speak truth to power, I think they do not understand the role the church, the
00:27:21church is moderator,
00:27:22the is barometer of society, uh, because the members,
00:27:26Christians themselves are members of society, they feel the
00:27:29impact of policies of government, whether rightly or... wrongly and
00:27:33so what the catlick bishops have done is to is
00:27:37to carry the message, the feeling of what the
00:27:41christian body in Nigeria, the the concerns to the
00:27:43presidency, if I were one of those
00:27:46managing
00:27:48the the managing the president information, it even though we had the
00:27:52president push back on television against some the issues
00:27:55raised by this catholic bishops in managing the presidency,
00:27:59it is to give it is to give further clarification and nation and
00:28:03not to dismiss and then of course sorry excuse
00:28:06me
00:28:07and not to dismiss uh you know um somebody in the
00:28:11standing in the stature of cardinal John acon who everybody
00:28:15knows is not flippant he speaks true to power whether in the days of president
00:28:19jonathan he he he his voice was loud
00:28:22in the during the eight years of buhari his voice was loud it
00:28:26was not silenced and so and for anybody to think that because
00:28:30it is tinuble that is in power um uh the catholic bishops to keep quiet,
00:28:34that person must be making a
00:28:49when former president Goodlock Jonathan was in
00:28:51power, the pentecostal
00:28:55pastors were very active, I recall vividly enoca
00:28:59deboy who is the general of Asia of - redeemed christian
00:29:03church led you know protest in lagus
00:29:05including uh the latter rain uh
00:29:09pastor tunde bakari they called musicians it was a whole lot
00:29:13of drumming and protest in lagos against you know
00:29:16insecurity in Nigeria at the time when she chip guests were kidnapped and
00:29:20President Goodlock Jonathan was in power so so why didn't
00:29:24these individuals who benefited because I remember at the
00:29:27time um President Tinuble was governor of Lagos
00:29:30State and
00:29:31there was a whole lot of criticism and good law took it
00:29:35with um equanimity, he didn't, it didn't arrest anybody, there was no
00:29:39insult, so why is it that now the
00:29:41same observations are coming from the
00:29:45Christian faith, and then there is this very strong negative
00:29:48pushback, I don't think it is going to do any good to uh
00:29:52the the 2027 ambition of President
00:29:56Tinubu you know in the elections, rather if this is not properly
00:30:00managed, it is going to st up anger if you look at what even
00:30:03the uh the Northern youth council of
00:30:06Nigeria said through their president Issa Bubaka yesterday with the
00:30:10statement the issue, they are rally support for cardinal John
00:30:14and the middle b forum is doing the same thing, so if that is happening
00:30:18you can see that it is already generating very negative
00:30:20feedback, and that is not good for sitting president
00:30:24who wants to win reelection. all right, well
00:30:28i think the one with pastor dev, i think they said it was a prayer.
00:30:32walk not the protest, but
00:30:34that the one with
00:30:37uh uh passat, he joined the protest I think in Ojota area, just to put context, let's go to the
00:30:41Guardian newspaper, Mr. Ak uh is leading
00:30:45with something different because there's nothing to add, I think we've said it over and over again, in fact
00:30:49when we started this morning, I was uh just giving my own
00:30:52two cents on some people who move from
00:30:56disagreement with the um the lord spiritual cardinal.