Google Speech-to-Text API Automatic Transcription (Chirp). Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:03of
00:00:04of
00:00:18of of of
00:00:36of
00:00:55is getting defectters. The party received new members
00:00:59and the party is national secretariat in Abuja
00:01:03and the reasons for the defactor's movement into the
00:01:07ruling party are clear
00:01:09take a listen to them, we are not here for any financial
00:01:13of gain, we are not here for any pecuniary
00:01:16interest, we are not here for any monetary
00:01:20consideration, but we are here for the sake
00:01:26of of the unity of Nigeria, your excellency, "we are
00:01:30grassroot politician with strong followership, significant
00:01:34political influence and credible chances of winning
00:01:37elections in our various constituencies. your
00:01:41excellency, as you see us here, everyone here is
00:01:45a highly productive in their careers, highly
00:01:48successful, we are adequately educated and
00:01:51exposed, so we are not here to jock, we are
00:01:55here to support the
00:01:57of pathway to success that is APC.
00:02:01well receiving them to at this point as we head into the
00:02:05elections means one thing for the APC
00:02:10of leadership let me welcome all of you to our great party
00:02:12and thank you for taking this decisive
00:02:16action that you're
00:02:20not just changing a platform but you're coming
00:02:24in to join in reinforcing our belief in
00:02:28president and his new
00:02:30agenda, I'm
00:02:34happy that most of you are from northern part of
00:02:37me Nigeria, where
00:02:38me I come from, where all of
00:02:40me us come from, if anybody has to work for the
00:02:43unity of Nigeria is
00:02:47of President,
00:02:47we repeat the same thing he has done for
00:02:49us, that's why I'm
00:02:53happy that you're coming to join hs with us
00:02:57so we can build a stronger Nigeria. in more
00:03:00united nigeria in Nigeria that will work for the
00:03:04prosperity, common prosperity of
00:03:06of the common man
00:03:07of the street, but as the party is gaining
00:03:11more members, is it gaining the confidence of
00:03:14Nigerians, as race to 2027 election
00:03:18intensifies, the government's proposed petrol price
00:03:21measures
00:03:22of have
00:03:23of reopened the debate over subsidy, the cost of reform and the
00:03:27of relief households are still waiting for. the minister gave the
00:03:31nation the new price and petroleum administration regime and its
00:03:35protocol. pump
00:03:38of prices should not have to
00:03:42follow every swing
00:03:43of in global
00:03:44of crude or the exchange rate. the government is
00:03:48negotiating sealing of 1,350 nir a
00:03:52liter on the ex guntry or
00:03:55of landing cost of petrol to keep on prices
00:03:58stable. where cost rise
00:04:01of above the
00:04:02of ceiling, refiners and importers will carry the
00:04:05shortfall and recover it later, when crude prices or
00:04:09exchange rates allow without brising the ceiling,
00:04:13this is neither a subsidy nor a price
00:04:16control, of course on that
00:04:19announcement, barrage of responses and
00:04:23of reactions of have triled it and it's coming so fast, opposition
00:04:26leaders are giving their thoughts and
00:04:30of a
00:04:36of of a of
00:04:37of of of
00:04:44me a of
00:04:51of
00:04:53of
00:04:58me supports, you call
00:05:02me ignorant of economic
00:05:04policy, your government said it could not be
00:05:08done, now
00:05:10in a desperate and cl.
00:05:26It means that 86,400 per
00:05:28month, are we not a problem?
00:05:31opposition candidates are challenging president bolatinobu's
00:05:35record, while disputes within the ruling party rais
00:05:38questions about his unity and readiness.
00:05:43for the all important 2027 polls tonight on the
00:05:46program, we put those questions to the man with at
00:05:50his center of it all, the APC national chairman
00:05:54professor, can his party turn
00:05:58political strength into better living conditions
00:06:01and make a convincing case for another
00:06:19the election, I saw that you went on vacation and
00:06:22have you recuperated enough to get started for the election, not
00:06:26do vacation, I went to plan, oh, you went a retreat,
00:06:30yes, personal retreat to plan, and I came back
00:06:34straight to medi for retreat with all the working, national
00:06:38working committee the party, all the state chairman.
00:06:43and the critical people that will play a role in 2027 general election,
00:06:47i was with them for four days in three days in my degree
00:06:50and um it was we ex-ray the party, we look at our
00:06:54strength, we look at our weaknesses and we look at the opportunities
00:06:58are there for us to win the election and we measure ourself, we are good to
00:07:02go, so
00:07:03it was all true also that you were sort of inducing people
00:07:06bribing them, 5 billion for governors, 2 billion for
00:07:10senators, 1 billion. for house of reps, house of
00:07:14assembly, like that, like that, I'm sure, I'm sure, I'm sure that's what they're
00:07:17doing, they said you're doling out money, that's that's what they're doing, rather as
00:07:21opposition, they've done all they can to win even a
00:07:25word chairman in our party, they can't win it, that's the least they
00:07:29would have done, they can't even get one person from APC to
00:07:33come to their party, so do do you actually bright
00:07:36people, or do you actually bribe me to come here?
00:07:40I ask you, I ask I ask you also. so the
00:07:43people that are defecting, I'm asking, are you bribing them in the real sense? do you
00:07:47give them any incentives? let me, let me, let ask, let
00:07:50ask, let ask you a question, when governor were
00:07:54coming, they said we're paying each governor to defect
00:07:58200 billion, that's the figure, that's
00:08:01what they gave, now we moved over how many governors, we're
00:08:05taking of how many trillions that would have moved, you
00:08:09can't moved like 3 trillion. of economy
00:08:13without the economy shaking and without the moving being sent, without
00:08:17the trail, without the trest, are you paying them in inst, but you
00:08:21know, but that's what they claim, you see, so when people make
00:08:24claims, big claims, i would have asked,
00:08:28i would have love them to bring evidence, but
00:08:30you see these people are just just propagandis, they
00:08:34made one them, one the spokeman of ADC made one
00:08:38statement to tell you how they don't even know what's happening even in government in their
00:08:41country, he said the total amount
00:08:44given to the students for student loan is
00:08:482000 per annual, he did even
00:08:51know that we pay school fees, the whole school
00:08:55fees the students regardless the amount, what is 5
00:08:58million, 3 million, 4 million is paid for you,
00:09:02but every month we give them 10 2000 for
00:09:05up, he assume because one them, those students that
00:09:09got the money and they were on air, they were celebrate. and they say we
00:09:13paid our 2000, he assumed that is the amount being
00:09:17given to them, they don't even study the document, they don't have time to for rigos, they
00:09:21don't have time for details and that's why
00:09:25the the the the craft numbers go to
00:09:28the air with those numbers and just throw them to the air, but give us an
00:09:31understanding, what evidence shows that
00:09:35these defectors reflect public
00:09:39approval of president policies or this
00:09:43government's policies rather than politicians calculating where their
00:09:47careers are safest because everyone politicians want
00:09:51safe haven for them, are you winning over Nigerians or
00:09:54you are simply recruiting? let let ask
00:09:56me
00:09:56you a question these politicians, who are these Nigerians? are
00:10:00politicians not Nigerians? do you want to separate Nigeria into
00:10:03categories? which category going to place people that don't actually
00:10:07support, but and who told you
00:10:11that? his people would on the policies of this
00:10:14government of course, of course, but you listen to
00:10:18the the the statements, the
00:10:28take one the candidates, his excellency was the vice
00:10:31president, he chaired the economic
00:10:34team as 1999,
00:10:372003, he privatized most the critical
00:10:40infrastructure of this country, let me take one
00:10:43them, the aluminium spending company
00:10:47in, it was
00:10:51built for 3.5 billion US dollars, it was
00:10:55sold for less than 130 million US
00:10:58dollars, less than 4% the cost
00:11:01of building infrastructure, you mean that in less than
00:11:05five years the company was less, was it has,
00:11:09it has degraded by
00:11:1296%, you
00:11:16mean these people are not listening, and they don't know
00:11:20the the the the iron smelting
00:11:23company in um in delta, the iron in
00:11:27delta, it was built for 1.5 billion US
00:11:30dollars, it was sold for 3000 for 30 million US
00:11:34dollars, just about
00:11:373% the cost of building construction, you mean
00:11:41has degraded in less than in about 10 years
00:11:44and
00:11:46you accountable for this, of course these people are, these are facts, people
00:11:50are reading it, people know, people
00:11:54know he... about even confess, he said he's sorry to nigerians
00:11:57and we made mistake in the power sector
00:12:01because they spent 15 billion that we couldn't see anything that the f 15 billion
00:12:05us dollars that was invested in that sector you know
00:12:09now so we you can visibly see what we are
00:12:12doing but what are the legacy of
00:12:16articu which the
00:12:19companies when he came in
00:12:22Toyota Pujo was for. national, it was
00:12:25running, all the cars that we give national assembly members 1999
00:12:29came from pujo, he privatized it, today
00:12:33after privat pujo cannot produce one i
00:12:36mean, he was vice
00:12:40president, but he he chaired the privatization
00:12:44company, committee and you
00:12:47think he chai it, of
00:12:50course, and for this reason
00:12:52you don't think
00:13:04far better now I'll give you many
00:13:06factors president met
00:13:10legos at roughly about 18 about 14
00:13:14billion naira per annum roughly today we are
00:13:18talking about over a
00:13:21trillion revenue a sort of institution.
00:13:25institutions to working, he said the rail, the blue line, the red
00:13:29line in legos, red line, today they are all
00:13:33functional, he said that lasma is functional, he
00:13:36said, he sort of institutions, and institution build
00:13:40up lagos, he came today, he came up here, what has he
00:13:44done, first he set up the tax regime, tax law,
00:13:48tax law has brought in has free in more resources for the
00:13:52poorest the poor in this country. before
00:13:55now, you recall before
00:13:57this tax reform, if you
00:13:59have bicycle in the village, you pay tax for bicycle, you pay tax for
00:14:03radio, you pay tax for tv, you pay
00:14:06tax for even the chicken you are taking to go and sell in the market, you are going to
00:14:09sell vegetable, you pay tax for it, today your turnover must be
00:14:13more than 100 million na before you pay tax on it, it has
00:14:17free money for the less privilege for the SMEs to
00:14:21strive, business Nigeria to strive before now,
00:14:26"if
00:14:26you civil servant, if you're earning even 10 n your
00:14:29tax today, if you're earning less than 800
00:14:33thousand per annum, you not paid, you not tax, for
00:14:36any salary you're earning per annum, they will deduct the first 100, the
00:14:40first um 800 thousand for you before they will start
00:14:44taxing you and they also give you housing, the they
00:14:48def housing this for you, so you have a percentage
00:14:52also that that they did your salary." and for for also for
00:14:56for for rent, so
00:14:58you know there are so much that has come to the poorest the poor in terms the
00:15:02tax regime favoring the poorest the poor, this is
00:15:06reform the government has done, but that same tax has brought more money to government, it
00:15:10has brought more people to tax net, people that us don't used to pay tax
00:15:14before,
00:15:15the tax net and that has increased tax the country without affecting the poreest the
00:15:19poor, and the same way he has gone for power, the new power
00:15:23regime allow for the... states and
00:15:26private citizen to generate power, sell to the
00:15:30to individuals, sell to government and also they can
00:15:34generate, they can transmit and they can't contribute as
00:15:38states now this opportunity has given the state that
00:15:41generating power, of course you know that b has already commissioned their
00:15:44own uh on has already commissioned their
00:15:47own the same thing with no state
00:15:51administ government inugu has already commission the
00:15:55projects to where were they before i can go on and
00:15:59on and on and tell you the policy that has made people these
00:16:02defectos yes can you categorically tell
00:16:06nigerians that join APC guarantees
00:16:09neither a ticket nor protection from
00:16:12investigation and how do you explain how your party
00:16:16makes that
00:16:17are not holding holding a position in
00:16:20government not talk of not running from the law from
00:16:24the law because the feeling is that once
00:16:28anybody enter into ABC is covered all them
00:16:32today is a professor
00:16:34who was running for the house of representative. the ADC,
00:16:38he opted to leave to join us, these are
00:16:42these are people, they
00:16:43are not giving any ticket, nothing, you're not protecting from
00:16:46the law been closed, we can't even make the statement
00:16:50that once anybody enters in your party is protected from the law,
00:16:54no all his sins are are forgiven, give me one evidence, there
00:16:58are there are very notable nigerians
00:17:00undergoing prosecution, and all of
00:17:04sudden once they enter into your party, there's some kind of... give me one
00:17:08evidence, the the the allegations is actually the
00:17:12statement is linked to
00:17:14a senior member of your party, give me one evidence,
00:17:18should we go to delta state? yes, the former governor,
00:17:22so if and has proced
00:17:25stopped, when last did hear anything about that? i say has procedure
00:17:29stopped, mean i'm asking that, have you heard anything recently about that?
00:17:33you left office which year
00:17:352023? how many years ago? it's about three and a
00:17:39half years ago. good. so he defect our party which
00:17:42year about two years ago. the prosecution started which
00:17:45year? before he left your party? no, before
00:17:49ev before he left office
00:17:51even. so all of sudden there is
00:17:55no, even before then, of course it's a
00:17:57procedure. i just wanted to get your commitment
00:18:00that anybody coming to your party is not. as soon as the
00:18:04enter your party, they are not safe from the law, they are not. "they are not
00:18:08protected, nobody's protected, nobody is
00:18:10protected, but that's the feeling, I don't mention, I don't
00:18:14want to mention names, but I know members of our party also who are undergoing
00:18:17prosecution, who appear in the court every
00:18:20day, and you mean tell me that are
00:18:24they less members the APC, now you know anybody, as
00:18:28long as you've not been convicted, we
00:18:31assumed that you're innocent, because that's what the law
00:18:34says, so as as as APC member..." "we can't
00:18:38use street prosecution to go ahead and
00:18:42deny people that fundamental human rights, you are having a lot of problems, so
00:18:46you say you have done a lot of internal
00:18:49problems, are you the same person, are you the person tell me what's happening in my
00:18:53party,
00:18:53or I tell you what's happened in my party, sometimes you may not see yourself very well, no, I see very
00:18:57well, the mirror may not be telling you a true true picture of
00:19:01of how you look, but and let me put context to you sir, you have problem in
00:19:04channels, I want to you have many problems." as every private
00:19:08organization do the same thing with the party
00:19:11so
00:19:11no political party
00:19:12and i'll point this out to you sir yes um you said you've done the
00:19:16retreat the internal ranker within your party
00:19:20what mechanism have you put in place to reserving
00:19:23them now let me just um put it
00:19:26up to you first we put up there are the
00:19:29fault um approach that we've done
00:19:33so we analyze them we look at the risk factor we look at
00:19:37the actors in each the states and we
00:19:41set up different committees to reach out to people
00:19:44based on where the risk
00:19:47factor, the people actors involved and the
00:19:50people they can listen to, and he also say we don't even have major
00:19:54issues, mean major issues like
00:19:57cattina, katina will not have any major issue, masari and the
00:20:01governor, it has been resolved, was family
00:20:03issue,
00:20:07no major issue, really? yes a lot the
00:20:11members of your party have left and they said
00:20:13that now sitting senator the APC has gotten a
00:20:17ticket in the pdp, they said we work for at the
00:20:21center, but for
00:20:23the other position is against the APC. now when you
00:20:27said somebody has left the
00:20:30party, the first question as are we engaging him as
00:20:34a party? are you the people are engaging them? are you of
00:20:38course and there are specifically on kwara mater on how are you reserving
00:20:42it? we we have we have mechanism the people the feeling out there in
00:20:46qu is that there is no way APC can win governorship or any?
00:20:50That's your own feeling, no, no, I said the feeler on the ground, that's own
00:20:53feeler, that's your own feeler, now let me just you know
00:20:57the is people like you make assumption, the people have
00:21:00assumption that only kara central can produce a governor, and I
00:21:04think that's what your belief is to, and because
00:21:08statistically believe that kara central bring the highest number of votes to the
00:21:11table, and that's why you can always be the table to win the
00:21:15election, quarta south produces the
00:21:19least number of. votes in the state, quada south has produced a
00:21:23governor, quada north is second in terms of
00:21:26voting strength of of
00:21:30state, they not produce a governor, they have actually, but not in
00:21:34this republic, not this republic, that was
00:21:3791, and he did finish his term, all the governors that
00:21:41have come in from Lawal in 1999 till till
00:21:45date, only one person is from quadra south, all the rest are from quadra
00:21:48central. so the party in his own wisdom
00:21:51felt that they should be inclusion and they moved
00:21:55the uh seat to the kara note, the para
00:21:59center people are not happy because they fail they should have
00:22:02it, but the par not are very
00:22:06happy, mean very happy that for the first
00:22:10time a part political party is given
00:22:14in the first right of denial, so
00:22:17even when the governor at the first and...
00:22:24now you see a governor is as an
00:22:27individual, the party is
00:22:29institution, so the institution is greater than any
00:22:33individual in the party, so it was your leadership that prevailed on the
00:22:37governor for you to have not s not
00:22:40a northern candidate from karara, they have the
00:22:44stakeholders and there are no, there's institution the party at the
00:22:48state level so... don't actually make a choice to people choice
00:22:52to to the state who they want to make, their governor or their
00:22:55candidate, but there are stakeholders that are engaged, so he wasn't the
00:22:59president or your office, never, it was kara
00:23:02people
00:23:03that decision, but that engagement is costing the
00:23:06party, is is is a threat to your party in, there's no
00:23:10way that you can take a decision on um when you have
00:23:13contest, you have 16 contestant to one position, sarakid's popularity is
00:23:17swaring now, no APC is that's your thinking that's
00:23:21that's your thinking you are in
00:23:24Abuja
00:23:25you have i'm a journalist i have my
00:23:29states your ears are based on sentiment
00:23:33take you from away from karara i take you to yes
00:23:36bichi and the deputy senate president you're late that's a problem
00:23:40you're late i saw the meeting with the
00:23:42governor but those who say
00:23:46those are photorops who told you that the real problem has not
00:23:50being resolved, well now who is supposed to resolve this problem is not the
00:23:53party and we're here and we say we resolved
00:23:57it, now let me just tell
00:24:00you, there's no political
00:24:03party, there's no political party that you're bringing
00:24:07millions of people in only one roof and
00:24:11you said you don't have little frictions, but you not look at the
00:24:15overall threat to the system and the
00:24:17party.
00:24:20all
00:24:21the all the election will be winning in those states they may have their
00:24:25little difference all those, but when it comes to the overall interest the
00:24:28party, what matters is how we can
00:24:32go and win the election, so we have the majority
00:24:36behind you, yes, i can mention, i can go on and on
00:24:39ogon, jigawa, balchi, sokoto, and
00:24:43everywhere there are problems in your party, but the question i'm asking you
00:24:46tonight is lot of your members who are watching now are
00:24:50worried that some these frictions that you're talking about
00:24:54and you have uh decided on on this interview to
00:24:57downggrade those
00:24:59uh those crisis that those who are thinking
00:25:01that is major threat
00:25:03and it will affect the chances of your party naturally when
00:25:07somebody is injured or when somebody is angry he
00:25:10expresses himself which you allow as a party is a fundamental human
00:25:14right to express themselves but the people
00:25:17who are comfortable the don't come out to express
00:25:21themselves, so maybe in Karno, you have about three four people have come out to
00:25:24express themselves, they come on camera on tv and express that they're
00:25:28angry, meanwile there are millions of people, members of party in
00:25:32kano who don't even have any problem with what's happening and they are
00:25:36comfortable with the party, they're happy with the party, then you
00:25:39used, of course if i going
00:25:41to do sentiment analysis based on what you hear on tv, you feel this huge
00:25:45mall in canal that you cannot even move,
00:25:53they say the APC is under intense pressure by his
00:25:57own policy, and the opposition is saying Nigerians are
00:26:00suffering and angry, article Abubakar believes that
00:26:04hanger is one unifying factor the voters
00:26:08and they will use it as a tool against the APC,
00:26:12their plans is to ensure that bolatinu and the
00:26:15APC does not have a place in the next election and
00:26:19I'll be asking the national chairman the APC, whether or
00:26:22not their party is in trouble and
00:26:262027 election is going to be a problem for them, we
00:26:30right back after the break everyone, join us again.
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00:27:56news.
00:28:22your parties campaign, we have the
00:28:25chairman, campaign council,
00:28:29let's begin for the
00:28:31vice chairman and myself also. vice chairman, two vice
00:28:34chairman, then we have the dg under us
00:28:37and all other people in the campaign
00:28:41council, as as
00:28:43it is now we've not inaugurated our campaign council, because there's confusion in your
00:28:47camp, no there's no confusion, when are you going to release the revised
00:28:51edition of your campaign list? no, you do
00:28:54um, the official list of a campaign list has been
00:28:58released, you can't begin to discuss about the campaign council without the council be
00:29:01inaugurated. as far as so the list we saw in
00:29:04public that was released by your party we should ignore it? no,
00:29:08you're not ignoring it, it's our list, so you will review it and you
00:29:12revis the list became the the the the list will have
00:29:16life only when it's not
00:29:19inaugurated, when you announce a committee, the committee
00:29:23cannot come to life without being inaugurated, so we have a list,
00:29:27yes, has been inaugurated, no, if
00:29:31if
00:29:32it has only uh inaugurated, it can be amended, so is it going through
00:29:35amendment now? of course, when are you likely to we going to
00:29:38reinforce the numbers where we have uh need for
00:29:42inclusion so that average everybody in Nigeria will look at the least and feel
00:29:46he has inclusion in it, that's what we are doing, one
00:29:48not in the list we released was wrong, no, but we want to build a more robust
00:29:52list that when you look it every nigerian will have feel will
00:29:56have belonging the least, that's what do when are you likely to release
00:29:59it? no, ask us, when are we
00:30:02going to? when are we likely going to inaugurate and give them
00:30:06life? when are you like next week? sir, most likely next
00:30:09week, next week, in the coming week, that those who argue and may be
00:30:13the style of your party, in the second republic, you will
00:30:17find out how supreme the party is, and those who say how can
00:30:21the candidate the party chair the campaign council and put the
00:30:25leadership the party benit it? now have a problem with that, this this
00:30:29this is difference in our party uh structure, the president the leader
00:30:32the party the
00:30:34so it places him in charge party in terms of
00:30:37uh management the party itself as a party leader and you
00:30:41default to him on all on all issues but the question is that and
00:30:45ask can ally support sunabu for president while
00:30:49supporting opponents of APC candidate elsewhere the big
00:30:53question is that your party seems to have assimilated
00:30:56rainbow coalition have you endorsed the rainbow coalition?