Google Speech-to-Text API Automatic Transcription (Chirp). Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:00information, intelligence driven security uh strategy
00:00:04will also drive this process. I also happy that
00:00:07uh the military, especially the retired major on this program who
00:00:11is also bringing
00:00:13of the issue is understandable and we appreciate. you also know
00:00:17that by the time you bring a retired police officer,
00:00:19a retired civil uh civil defense officer, you find that they will
00:00:23also speak from their own point, but the point remains is
00:00:27that a step has been taken in the... area of catering for the
00:00:31military and I believe that the next few months or
00:00:35days to come we will begin to see reciprocacity from the
00:00:39military where the more the moral booster will
00:00:42begin to show in the area of defense for
00:00:46the ordinary Nigerians and their motivation to serve uh
00:00:50and also most importantly is that as we continue in
00:00:54this journey it also
00:00:56of show shows that Mr. President is also prioritizing the issue. of
00:01:00security, because don't forget that as a president you have issues
00:01:04of education, chasing funds, health and all that, and
00:01:08also to add to what the other speakers said, we have had programs that
00:01:12also the military families benefit like the
00:01:15Nelfond, the children
00:01:17of the military are also beneficiaries of those sort of
00:01:21safety nets that
00:01:22are able to reach not only to a
00:01:24a particular area that to the generality of nigerians, so I
00:01:27believe
00:01:28in that
00:01:28of we will be able to see a lot of increment in the area of
00:01:32operational uh standard operational procedures
00:01:35of the military and then
00:01:38the the also important to state at this point that the increment in salary
00:01:42also comes with the increment, i believe with
00:01:45of allowances, so you
00:01:46of are saying that you are making the military more attractive, which
00:01:49you bring
00:01:50in higher level and higher standards and ensure that very
00:01:54important personnel are also kept within the system to be able to improve the
00:01:58military, that just
00:02:05down and that is the fact
00:02:08of that um the salary increase is
00:02:12of like roofing
00:02:14but there are other pillars that needs to be strengthened and I think those are the
00:02:18pillars that captain Omar and
00:02:22Dr. Gen have been mentioning. Payment for the
00:02:25of men is admirable is greatly appreciated
00:02:29from what. everyone has been saying, but then
00:02:33uh, you've also
00:02:34of spoken to the fact that the president has given
00:02:36a clear order, so uh, no ambiguity about that
00:02:40one, from September everyone gets their pay rise, but then there are some other
00:02:44things, operational, funding, operational uh,
00:02:48stuff, operational needs
00:02:49of the men, um,
00:02:51you know, the cycle of rotation and all those
00:02:54things, those are other
00:02:57of concerns that have existed in the milit. before
00:03:01of now, in they have also spoken
00:03:04in about sabotage, how we manage those
00:03:07things so that they don't frustrate the men who are
00:03:11of working assiduously to keep us as one as nation, and
00:03:15then the fact that you know the insider
00:03:18me you workings, particularly in the communities also frustrate, maybe the word
00:03:22is also sabotage, the efforts
00:03:24of the men, how do you see yours
00:03:27helping with those other?
00:03:30of legs of our of our fight against insurgency
00:03:33so that the work that we expect this, the
00:03:37work of encouraging and motivation that we expect this increment to
00:03:41do will actually be done without a fear of
00:04:00reason he can hear us now,
00:04:02of because I think that's one
00:04:03of the other um matters there that that need to
00:04:06be uh understood, yeah, salary increase is
00:04:10good, but if you have to spend that money fending for
00:04:13yourself, yeah,
00:04:15of you know, making sure that you
00:04:16are able to do the work that day, right, and and there's also the the inflation,
00:04:20you know, we also have inflation, by the time they pay that money does
00:04:24inflation
00:04:24of also eat it up such that at the end
00:04:27of the day really doesn't make any sense, so there's no, Unfortunately there is no
00:04:31special uh what do you call it now? there's no special
00:04:35market yeah for for the military military and I
00:04:38of don't even think that uh any private employer would or
00:04:42rather private business would want to be given that
00:04:46lakuna so to speak
00:04:48of buse and everyone will just go and buy a
00:04:50camouflage
00:04:54I'll be I'll be just be using it to to
00:05:08uh but then there is also the issue that people have also raised joke about.
00:05:13other services, yeah, would they also raise come
00:05:17up in arbs and say no, we have to increase our moneys as well, I'm actually
00:05:20expecting so-called press conferences and
00:05:23calls, if they don't do it, individuals labor will probably come and
00:05:27say, okay, what's good for the gees is also good to for
00:05:31the gand, there's someone someone came on, I think on our
00:05:35program on our one of our programs morning brief and the
00:05:39pensioners, I don't whether this thing will affect pensioners as well. well,
00:05:43well, it probably should, I don't know, well
00:05:47it's not part of what has been, yeah, you, I think some
00:05:50time you when you raise salaries across board, then it trickles down to
00:05:54whatever you equise, I don't like
00:05:56ambiguity, well, let it be on, it should,
00:06:00it should trickle down, and you know, when you talk about it,
00:06:04I think it should, because they will soon come, the military
00:06:08pensioners will soon come and say increase, increase our salary or...
00:06:13areas as well, yeah, so well, Mr. Dati, I was asking, I hope you
00:06:16you, you got what we were saying the other time, the other legs
00:06:20of uh, our operations that can help uh
00:06:24servicemen to perform well, the sabotige that was
00:06:28mentioned, inflation and those other things, so
00:06:31that the encouragement they receive now, the moral booster
00:06:35that they receive now can actually last and sustain them for longer than he
00:06:39should,
00:07:18So I was asking the other legs
00:07:21the operations of our nation,
00:07:25the nation's security apparatus, how, how do
00:07:29you see those other legs helping to
00:07:32sustain the impact or influence that is
00:07:36been expected of this the increment that has been announced
00:07:39inflation, the sabotage, operation? funding and all of
00:07:43those things, well first and
00:07:47foremost is that we should appreciate that a step has been
00:07:51taken in the right direction, there is focus has been
00:07:54turned to the area of not only paying leap service to
00:07:58security, but taking definite steps to
00:08:02ensure that something is being done, and uh we can see that
00:08:05clearly, and that in itself will not only boost the moral of
00:08:09men the armed forces, but also further boost. the other
00:08:13paramilitary uh police,
00:08:16civil defense and the rest knowing that subsequently it will also get
00:08:20to them uh, so we believe that at this point as Nigerians
00:08:24we should begin to appreciate the fact
00:08:28that so much is being done, so much sacrifices is being done, and so
00:08:32much to be done to ensure that we make up for the
00:08:35264 billion nara that is needed to make
00:08:39up for this increment and uh we believe. that men the armed
00:08:43forces will also reciprocate this confidence that uh
00:08:47Mr. President and Nigerians have in them by ensuring
00:08:51that with the kind of motivation and concurrent support
00:08:54being given to these forces will be able to see lot of
00:08:58positive stories coming in, especially in the area of our
00:09:02present challenge which has to do with security and also the
00:09:06area of sabotage, the area of uh
00:09:09other uh equipments that are needed. 'I believe that
00:09:13those things are also being worked on and like uh the
00:09:17major will also at you agree with me, it's not
00:09:21everything on security you say to the public, but because you don't even
00:09:25there are several people that are watching, some are looking at how
00:09:28what is done and they are also sabotus they are trying sabotage what the
00:09:32government is doing, but I believe that is also in the kitty and is
00:09:36being done, but I believe that uh the government has showed
00:09:40courage, government has showed'. commitment in ensuring that
00:09:44they prioritize the issue of security and
00:09:47subsequently uh our belief is that men the armed
00:09:51forces will also up their game and uh they will
00:09:55also uh a channel that moral
00:09:59booster into seeing results for the everyday
00:10:02Nigeria who are yearning and crying for an improvement in the area
00:10:06of security
00:10:19the that is chairman governing council for the federal polytechnic in oyo
00:10:23state. we've also had Captain Omar retired who's a security expert
00:10:27and uh former military officer, we've also heard
00:10:30Dr. Guiness, senior researcher, born
00:10:34international center for conflict studies,
00:10:43do we say the president's comment is a policy statement? no, it's a salary increase
00:10:47statement, but we be talking about salary and reality when we return from this
00:10:51break.
00:11:28This is Binne River
00:11:31Life,
00:11:44there was a time I avoided
00:17:03Well, well, well, policy versus
00:17:06reality
00:17:07is our... next conversation, particularly in the housing
00:17:10sector, as at
00:17:14today, Nigeria's housing deficit
00:17:17stands at 15.2 million
00:17:20units, in other words, well anyway, that's
00:17:24a standardized figure established by the national
00:17:28housing data technical committee in collaboration with the world
00:17:32bank, now to address this massive
00:17:36shortage, say federal government
00:17:39has made laid out some some rules and current
00:17:43national education agenda through
00:17:46the renewed
00:17:48hope um housing
00:17:51agenda and through aggressive
00:17:54PPP, financing, financial restructuring and
00:17:58legislative interventions. the country is shifting housing
00:18:01from a traditional welfare program into a highly
00:18:05regulated economic engine. why it has taken us this
00:18:09long to get here is something that beats me because a good number of
00:18:13us will remember first tax 77 and we
00:18:16remember first tax 77 because of houses uh
00:18:20you you won the house through some kind of
00:18:23i don't know lottery or something and then
00:18:26you um you pay over time
00:18:30for the uh facility well we have this morning with us um
00:18:34architect executive director este services
00:18:38at the federal housing authority, he joins us from our abuja studio, thanks for joining
00:18:42us this
00:18:49let me start a comical note, i'm sure you must have gotten
00:18:53so many requests for now that you are there, just can you give a
00:18:56house,
00:19:00a serious note, yes, because for even
00:19:04from your side for over 30 years, i've been here, talking,
00:19:08talking, talking, and now you get to where you are not supposed to be
00:19:12talking, you're supposed to be showing, and then people come
00:19:16with all manner of expectations, and the
00:19:20very first thing you want to think of is what they call
00:19:23management of expectation, and um,
00:19:27sometimes we tell people lies, we raise their hopes
00:19:31so high, and at the end the day we dash them,
00:19:34you know, a man that was expecting two oranges, and you give him three,
00:19:38he's very happy, but a man that you had promised
00:19:42him um 10 oranges and you give him five, he's not happy
00:19:45because it's like only half, so management of expectation is
00:19:49very important, that's why government must be careful in
00:19:53communicating their policies. i i've been
00:19:57on this seat of housing advocacy for over 30
00:20:01years a way back in NTL legos
00:20:05channel 10 um over... 30 years ago,
00:20:09real estate this week with Patrick Dolla and everything, now
00:20:12coming, I can say with every sense of
00:20:15responsibility, and please let me say this, I am an
00:20:19appointe of Mr. President, but right here in the studio I can get
00:20:23text message your appointment has been taken, and I'll go back to
00:20:27my constituency, what that means that I have a constituency I came from, and I'm
00:20:31going to go back to, so I'm going to be careful the things I
00:20:34say so I don't mislead people just...
00:20:39um um gain favor the system, that say I
00:20:43want to say that for all the past 30
00:20:45years, I think this administration has
00:20:49done... more for housing than any other
00:20:52administration, and I will say the reason, they have been
00:20:56able to address it in fundamentals that are being the
00:20:59problems in housing for a long time, and that helps
00:21:03in laying a foundation. Now, that
00:21:07foundation is going to take a little bit of time,
00:21:10and I'll give you the timelines specifically. For instance, I'll take
00:21:14the federal housing authority where I, I, I serve
00:21:18as an executive director. the moment we got in, the first thing
00:21:22the government did was to give us dedicated
00:21:25ministry and a minister who was an architect and
00:21:29now a minister who is an engineer, it helps a lot. the
00:21:33second thing was to set up the two main arms of housing
00:21:36delivery, federal housing authority, federal and mortgage
00:21:40bank to set them up strictly on professional basis
00:21:44and not on standard appointments. for
00:21:47instance, didn't support the president, I
00:21:51was not in APC, as matter of fact, I
00:21:55dragged APC, we dragged ourselves up to Supreme Court, so they couldn't
00:21:59reward me, they finally defeated me, so they couldn't reward
00:22:03me, but Mr. President said, as far as housing is
00:22:06concerned, I want this to be based on professional
00:22:10consideration, so the five of us
00:22:13as the MD, honorable Oyetunde
00:22:16Ojo and the four eds are all
00:22:20professionals in the industry,
00:22:24he was two-time commissioner for for works,
00:22:27you know, and dancane was an ed
00:22:31with federal mortgage bank, and I came with the vast
00:22:34knowledge the understanding the system, so they gave us
00:22:38dedicated ministry, gave us professionals as
00:22:41ministers and set up the two arms, some professional
00:22:45consideration, let me come specifically to
00:22:48FHA, we got to FHA,
00:22:52we left, let me federal housing authority for the
00:22:55past over 55 years have less
00:22:59than they have about 50 estates, which is less than an
00:23:03estate a year, just just
00:23:14the issue of uh, you said the president set out one or two things and that's
00:23:18admirable to hear coming from a profession. and a critics such as
00:23:21yourself uh we we understand the creation the national social
00:23:25housing fund and you've also spoken about the federal
00:23:29mortgage bank and and all of that
00:23:32but the social housing from we understand is for low income and vulnerable
00:23:36groups in society so the question then will be how is this fund being
00:23:39protected from systemic administrative
00:23:43leakages you know that could make it vulnerable
00:23:47to all kinds of things and not be able to achieve. the intended specific
00:23:51goals? two things: the
00:23:55first is that i always like to lay foundation so that
00:23:59whatever i'm saying, i'm saying is interpreted within
00:24:02context. um, when my appointment letter
00:24:06came and i was given the post of an executive
00:24:09director, um, there were two things that were
00:24:12specifically mentioned in those um, in that
00:24:16letter. as matter of this is the first appointment about. accepted in
00:24:20my entire life, i've never accepted any appointment, i've always like
00:24:24said let me be a private sector person and speak my mind
00:24:28so that mean what i believe i say,
00:24:30what i don't believe
00:24:31i don't say, but once you
00:24:32an appointe they expect you to speak a certain way, which
00:24:35like i've just said i will not speak that way, two things, one was
00:24:39that there was going to be a housing
00:24:43delivery um production hub
00:24:46each the six geopolitical zones and two the... was going to
00:24:50be social housing trust fund that was
00:24:54going to be set up by Mr. President, the next thing that
00:24:58happened was that Mr. President said he was unlocking
00:25:01about two trillion and that
00:25:05um out of that we're expecting a large
00:25:09chunk to benefit federal housing authority and federal mortgage
00:25:13bank. this is how the system works which Nigerians need
00:25:17to know, why I will continue to be
00:25:20advocate, Mr. President will make a
00:25:23pronouncement, it is up to us to be able
00:25:27to take those pronouncements and actualize
00:25:31them, that the role of Mr. President is the role
00:25:34of visioner, role of a will power, role
00:25:38the person that that that sees the
00:25:41future, and the role of us are supposed to
00:25:45be the roles of people who are cleverent, you, we must be
00:25:50able to look into his brain, tap those things out and
00:25:53actualize them. right now, those lofty
00:25:57ideas are still in the process of
00:26:01incubation. and the incubation goes
00:26:05along standard government principles that takes what they call
00:26:08lines of least resistance, so there must be a
00:26:12strong advocacy from the generality the
00:26:16people, because the funds are limited, the intentions may be
00:26:19good, but they can tell the president, sir, there is more pressure on
00:26:23this area, let us divert this funds or let us use this
00:26:27funds in this area, so we must continue
00:26:31to put pressure on, advocacy for housing delivery to
00:26:35put housing at the front barner, that is when
00:26:38government will operate, that is how government standard
00:26:41operates, are you saying coming back to the
00:26:49coming down to the specifics, the national um
00:26:52um social housing trust fund
00:26:56is, i happen to be part the systems
00:26:59walking it through different.
00:27:04um um platforms to be able to actualize it, it hasn't come
00:27:08into fusion as yet, but I know that there is lot,
00:27:12because you can't just pronounce it and it becomes, it has to go
00:27:15through legal processes to give it legislative
00:27:19backings and then comes out to either setup
00:27:22specific institution or as an
00:27:25authority or as an agency or as
00:27:29department any the ministries. "these are
00:27:33the different area that is going through, and as at the time the
00:27:37former minister left, there was that platform set
00:27:41up to handle that, and the new minister happens with someone
00:27:44who is making sure that the government is a
00:27:48continuum, so I believe that in the next couple of
00:27:52weeks the modalities would have been made public
00:27:56and then the funding system and structure,
00:27:59but something will not change." " and that
00:28:03thing is that I was privileged to be the national vice
00:28:07chairman for the national housing policy and the national housing
00:28:11policy is very definite specific
00:28:14on the target of social housing
00:28:17beneficiaries, no income
00:28:20earners if you end zero
00:28:24income, no income earners,
00:28:28low income earners if you earn the minimum way,
00:28:34and lower medium earners income earners if you earn less
00:28:38than four times the minimum wage. these are the
00:28:41categories that the housing policy has defined
00:28:45as potential beneficiaries of social
00:28:49housing schemes. now for those who are
00:28:52notum on the the informal
00:28:55sector, we we have been able to program ways through the
00:28:59federal mortgage bank on how you can show your self to be
00:29:03any the categories and I want to um um tell
00:29:07Nigerian something, be careful, the things that you
00:29:10say and the taxes that you declare, because at the end the
00:29:14day it can work against you. I remember
00:29:17specifically um, when we're going through the
00:29:21procurement processes, guy that had um,
00:29:24you know, had a turnover of over two billion, and he brought it and showed
00:29:28me uh, didn't qualify for the category that
00:29:31needed. you to have a turnover of about 500
00:29:35million
00:29:36and when he was asked the reason because it was very transparent they showed him that his
00:29:40turnover didn't fit into the f and he
00:29:44sure they say no go and look at your tax declaration
00:29:48your tax declaration says this is your turnover and that's what we so coming back
00:29:52to what i've said there is no way that somebody
00:29:56that does not belong to that category is going to benefit from it
00:30:00because the law is very very ' stringent on it,
00:30:04i think one the issues really uh, mtok is
00:30:08that many people may not even
00:30:09be aware of this fantastic initiative that you're talking about. okay,
00:30:13i'm also aware that the federal mortgage bank is an age-old
00:30:17institution the federal government, and
00:30:20until now that you're talking about, i grew up, i'm sure you
00:30:24do, you did as well, listening to the advert the federal
00:30:28mortgage bank and seeing it on television
00:30:31now, "it's all quiet in the land, so
00:30:35uh, what has happened and what is happening to
00:30:39the federal mortgage bank, how do people access it,
00:30:43because the gap that we are, the deficit that we are trying
00:30:46to close, 15.2 million housing units, that's a lot, and
00:30:50clearly the federal government can't do it alone, so what are the things, how how
00:30:54can people come in, you know, particularly through this federal
00:30:58bank, another funding."