Google Speech-to-Text API Automatic Transcription (Chirp). Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:01:28the world bank's reports as well, "there's the diversion story as
00:01:32well, which the minister of
00:01:33me works is
00:01:34in also been in the news and it's been trending, those who come from
00:01:38on those states in lager precisely are also wondering
00:01:41why this diversion
00:01:43of the lagos kalaba coastal highway, when it gets so on those states, it looks
00:01:47like those one um the coastline of that states as
00:01:51well are complaining uh to the minister and the federal government why
00:01:55they are not on uh why
00:01:59why the..." road or the coastal line or that highway
00:02:03is sort of having
00:02:04of a deviation from what the original plan is, so the people of that
00:02:08states, think in lager local
00:02:10of government area precisely, are not
00:02:12a totally
00:02:13of happy with the minister of works about why that deviation from the
00:02:17original plan or
00:02:18of map of that coastal highway, and then of course we mentioned the governor's
00:02:22list or the inex uh final list on governorship
00:02:26candidates, the big big omission there in gombest. It's
00:02:30where professor Isa, yes, Issa
00:02:33Pantami, the former minister, obviously missing
00:02:37uh from the governorship lists in Ogun states as well
00:02:41here, someone who has uh, one would say has
00:02:45always been running, lady adable to as well,
00:02:48also
00:02:49of obmitted from inex governorship candidates lists
00:02:53of final
00:02:54of list, I should say, and so there are questions asking why, um,
00:02:58I think in Kanu state. as well the governorship candidates
00:03:01in of of the NDC also missing from inex
00:03:04final final list, so there are many,
00:03:08of many, many questions, because because I'm not sure there's any
00:03:12any candidates
00:03:13of the APC missing any of those lists, so I don't
00:03:16in know why, it looks like
00:03:17it is NDC and PDP uh who perhaps are
00:03:21having to bear the brunt of that
00:03:24of um, that omission, um, but of course not
00:03:28to make excuses for the parties, because INEC is yet to do
00:03:32Nigerians an explanation or explainer
00:03:35of as to why these names are missing, but the are
00:03:38rules, the laws, which would have
00:03:42to speak to and explore in the course
00:03:44of the program, um, this this morning, so but for the parties
00:03:48involved, if the books are opened and checked, did
00:03:52you do the right thing,
00:03:53of where this members, registered members of your
00:03:57party, beyond media, members of your party,
00:04:01because I know that for instance, Isaac
00:04:03was member
00:04:03of the APC defected to the people's democratic party, has been
00:04:07very critical
00:04:08of the current administration, president as well,
00:04:11so when he defected, yes on on on on tv,
00:04:15yes we covered that defection, but did you
00:04:19go to the register in your world in
00:04:21of gombe
00:04:21of states, of of did you register is your name on the register
00:04:24list
00:04:26or submitted by your party to
00:04:30have come out
00:04:31to defend saying that
00:04:34you know what, all of this will be resolved because he's a member of our party, we
00:04:37can indeed uh, you
00:04:40of know, verify that indeed is member of a party, so we would like to
00:04:43see in the coming hours if inec will do us an explain an explainer to
00:04:48of nigerians an explanation as why this
00:04:52obmissions uh that we've saying in gombe in
00:04:55in Ogun
00:04:55of and in Knu states and then why indeed it looks like there's no member
00:04:59of the or no candidate
00:05:00of the APC who is missing on inex list, perhaps well, maybe the APC knows how to
00:05:04do the right things, one would uh wonder
00:05:08about,
00:05:09but so that's those are perhaps your top
00:05:10of stories and then the world bank reports.
00:05:14Okay, so the world bank reports, um, I was just reading the
00:05:18executive summary, maybe during the week we have some time to
00:05:22bring in um an expert for us to dissect that
00:05:25reports properly, but the presidency is
00:05:29already already magnifying the reports,
00:05:32because it looks like the from the reports the world bank is saying you know
00:05:35what, um, our economy grew, I think by
00:05:394%, our gross domestic product grew by about 4% of. there
00:05:42about and so it looks like good news b non mean obviously
00:05:46picking up the reports and saying
00:05:48you know what the economic reforms of mr president seems to be
00:05:52yielding some results and and all of that so that's
00:05:56what the report is, it's project projects that growth and it's also
00:06:00projecting that somewhere around 2020 between now and 2028 as
00:06:03well there will be some sort of relieve in terms of uh disflation, it
00:06:07says that inflation is projected to or well
00:06:11disflation is that term to come down to somewhere around
00:06:1512% between now and 2028, i think we are somewhere around
00:06:1815.5 or there about 15.2
00:06:21i believe 15.2 okay so by between 2028 the
00:06:25world world report says that we should be somewhere around
00:06:2712%
00:06:29and but again but the reports acknowledges the fact that you
00:06:32know there's been some sort of hardship in the country mean people
00:06:36have had to go through these economic headwings here in the country because of those
00:06:40reforms it also mean puts the subnationals in
00:06:44the spotl because you subnationals and governors, you've
00:06:48had to receive more moneys, but the question now is
00:06:52what have you done with these moneies? yes, the argument is also to the fact
00:06:56that oh yes the volume of money may be increased, but the
00:07:00value, that's the arguments from the governors and subnationals, but
00:07:04uh that report says that we have made more moneies,
00:07:07more money have been disbursed to the subnationals, i think we have to hold
00:07:11them uh to account for what these moneys have been
00:07:15used for? see I can just pick pick few lines for that report in the course
00:07:19of uh commentary bukala yeah quite a lot to chew on there
00:07:22from
00:07:23you know um the diversion the ligos kalaba coastal
00:07:27road to inec inex the omission of certain
00:07:30names from inex list and
00:07:32to the world bank report uh beginning with
00:07:35the the diversion the minister has been explaining has been defending government's
00:07:39decision uh saying that you
00:07:41know second revealed that um,
00:07:44you know, if it passed through that particular uh area in
00:07:48those state it would the government will incur
00:07:52extra cost on um
00:07:55rehabilitation rather construction, it's a new road construction, the question
00:07:59is did the government carry out
00:08:03environmental impact assessment report throughout
00:08:06all the roots that the uh construction would pass
00:08:10and if you heard the minister are speaking in different
00:08:14fora, the minister has been saying that you know these
00:08:17assessments were done uh by the funders the project,
00:08:21remember it's an um you know pr public
00:08:25private partnership model, i forget the particular nomenclature that he
00:08:29uses now, but if we could get the minister's sound
00:08:33bite would played, but in the meantime he says, and
00:08:37i quote, i am aware of petitions against me saying diverted the undu
00:08:41section, i welcome come that, that is how it
00:08:44is supposed to be, because we're serving the public, you are supp, you are
00:08:48subject to public scrutiny. he goes to say, the original
00:08:52alignment passed through terrain with pits exceeding 100
00:08:56meters in depth and lack suitable sharp sand for
00:08:59up to 300 meters, making
00:09:02construction along the corridor considerably more
00:09:06expensive, and any way that government can cut
00:09:09costs on construction, on rehabilitation I believe that the
00:09:13administration will take that route because of that very big challenge
00:09:17of funding, but the questions remain as to
00:09:20you know this discovery this late in the day and uh perhaps
00:09:24you know the people of state will be reacting to this
00:09:28subsequently because it then excludes them from the
00:09:31potential commercial viability the Lagos Calaba Coastal
00:09:35road. Let's get to the omission of certain names from
00:09:39inex list. When the court rule.
00:09:43restoring inex power to regulate party membership
00:09:47based on sections uh the different portion of section
00:09:5077 and i believe 84 the electoral act, it would
00:09:54seem that
00:09:54you know the court cleared the road for
00:09:58INEC uh to exercise its powers ahead the election, but the
00:10:02big constitutional question remains around
00:10:05section 77 and I believe that portion the 1999
00:10:09constitution that gives right of... to political
00:10:13parties, everyone without any
00:10:16exclusion, and so that constitutional question remains,
00:10:20so we seeking clarity, particularly on that portion the
00:10:231999 constitution. because as they say, the
00:10:27constitution is the grounnum of our laws
00:10:30and every other law is supposed to bow to the constitution, but
00:10:34Kelly, one thing that I find peculiar to the
00:10:37names that have been excluded is the
00:10:40might or if you like the
00:10:43electoral value that these individuals bring to the
00:10:46election, and you'l be wondering if there is more to
00:10:50their exclusion than meets the eye, for instance, the
00:10:54governorship can't the state
00:10:57honorable
00:10:59by the way his a money
00:11:01run been by
00:11:04been for he's urging the way he's urging for to remain calm a
00:11:07saying committed member the PDP he has never left the
00:11:11PDP for any time and that
00:11:14you know this will be resolved you and that optimism is
00:11:18remarkable and so if you look at the margin of lead
00:11:21the APC candidate the incumbant state and the
00:11:25results pulled by honorable aladybutu was very very
00:11:28slim if from there let's go to know state where the
00:11:32name the deputy governorship candidate
00:11:36that that's the um former minister and former
00:11:39governor you wonder if
00:11:42you know um that candidate also is a threat
00:11:45any way shape of form to the now ruling
00:11:48APC in Kun state so those are the things that
00:11:52I'm looking out for and one if the
00:11:56electoral value is in um any way a threat
00:12:00to the ruling APC, but that is also to suggest that INEC is
00:12:04under any form of pressure, perhaps would have gotten
00:12:07clarity from INEC on these issues, if Inec
00:12:11comes clean to defend itself on so many issues and we've said
00:12:15it time and again that INEC under this current leadership has been
00:12:19closed, there is seemingly open
00:12:22door policy for engagement with. the media on the many
00:12:26questions about its regulation
00:12:29the uh electoral space and of course you know
00:12:33questions around the leadership uh the electoral
00:12:36body and so uh it's not too late in the day for
00:12:40INEC to relate with the media and have some these
00:12:44questions answered such that they can be clarity such that perhaps
00:12:48this huge confidence deficit uh can be resolved
00:12:52and Nigeria can look at INEc as perhaps
00:12:56um able to deliver free and fair election, but is that the case at
00:13:00this particular point in time? uh, certainly not.
00:13:04finally, on the world bank report, trust me, kelly, the
00:13:07government is going to use this as a very effective
00:13:11campaign tool ahead of 2027. the president has
00:13:14loaded the report, the report acknowledged disinflation
00:13:18between january 2025, and now where we are, uh, the
00:13:22economic growth that uh the world bank report. has
00:13:25acknowledged and I believe that the presidency is also saying something
00:13:29about the world bank report pointing out that the poverty
00:13:32figures have declined now some would
00:13:36question no if if if um the world
00:13:39bank had
00:13:40you know pointed out any way yeah that poverty figures had
00:13:44increased then the administration would frown it of
00:13:46on course absolutely and not accepted you had that conversation time
00:13:50and again about data
00:13:52you know from different organizations and favor the government, they
00:13:56criticize it, they criticize it, they question
00:13:59the spokes persons the administration question, political undertone, we
00:14:03need our own data, we we must come up with our own
00:14:07data, but because this looks very good on the
00:14:10administration uh, it is a campaign tool uh,
00:14:13but more importantly there is also the UNDP report
00:14:17that is talking about uh new poverty data across the
00:14:21globe, which is putting total poverty figure.
00:14:25across the globe at 1.2 uh billion
00:14:28and those living in acute poverty in the in the
00:14:32world is putting it at 51. i believe 2
00:14:35million. now that you sign post certain countries where uh
00:14:39poverty figures have reduced. now haven't seen
00:14:43the de the full picture of that report, but some the
00:14:47reports uh put up by uh certain um
00:14:50mainstream media doesn't site Nigeria as one of those
00:14:54countries. where poverty numbers have reduced
00:14:58over the last couple of years, but I believe Egypt is there,
00:15:01Tajikistan is there, even Zambia is there
00:15:05and uh some countries in Asia, and so I'm
00:15:09wondering if that we can tie both together, but we
00:15:12need, the the the why this is important is because we need
00:15:16credible data from our own institutions as
00:15:20well, uh, credible data that holds no pressure from
00:15:24the... registration whatsoever done by independent bodies so that
00:15:28we can hold our own data side by side
00:15:32and compare if indeed what international
00:15:35organizations present to us is something that we should run with, I totally agree
00:15:39with you,
00:15:40we we are nation not really big on data, the last census was
00:15:44conducted when was that again now, 2006, I'm not
00:15:48sure or 2011 2005 or 2006, yeah, so it's it's
00:15:52it's it's it's really been a long time, so I think that's one area we really need to work
00:15:56on, by the way, that report is called Nigeria's developmental updates, the world
00:16:00bank report, ndu, and the world bank
00:16:03tagged it beyond the federal purse, how higher?
00:16:07revenues shaped state priorities, you want to check it out,
00:16:11it's a 65 page documents, there's an executive
00:16:15summary there, so you can go look at it and just see what that report is saying
00:16:19about Nigeria and economy and the projections by the world
00:18:15get to the Nigerian tribune now, and i love this follow-up from the Nigerian
00:18:18tribune on the big story from the end of last week,
00:18:22discounted few prices, nigerians decry
00:18:25NNPCL's sale of fuel at
00:18:281,405 per liter. i'm
00:18:31sure uh, the offered discount of about 50 or
00:18:3555, announced last
00:18:38week,
00:18:39was not lost on you, Mr. Kitobi, but there are reports now, you
00:18:43know, and I was quite, curious about that report from
00:18:46yesterday that you have to uh do some form of um
00:18:50registration or so before you able to access that discount, there's an
00:18:54app, there's an app, I don't,
00:18:56I don't know if
00:18:57you got that, Mr. Kitobi, but let me go, let me go, let me go
00:19:00through two the riders, there are a host here, only customers
00:19:04who access our fuel app will pay one.
00:19:071,339 n per liter, that's subscribed to the
00:19:11NNPC spokesman and administration
00:19:15clever by half NLC that subscribe to the NLC,
00:19:18it's mess no scream that's subscribed to a group
00:19:22called Katoby over
00:19:25to you, well it's interesting if you want to give sop, you want
00:19:29to give a benefit to people, you shouldn't make
00:19:33it any more complicated than it needs
00:19:35to be, this introduction of an app before you can access
00:19:39already the process was complicated because there's 22,000 fuel stations
00:19:43across Nigeria, there's only about 900 NMPC
00:19:46stations, so even access it to begin with,
00:19:49the the the the outlets are scanty, you see
00:19:53few in some major urban centers, but in the rural areas the are
00:19:57few and far between, so it was already going to be a challenge getting to access
00:20:01it, then secondy even in the cities there will be cues because that's
00:20:0565, 66 n per l makes a big difference
00:20:08when you're filling your tank, so everybody is going to make a b-line for the nearest NMPC
00:20:12and there'll be astronomical cues um in the process of trying to access
00:20:16the fuel. now they now add another layer of complication by
00:20:20demanding that you have to have this app, i'm trying to imagine the average downfo
00:20:24driver, one probably even has uh a
00:20:27smartphone trying to download an app and begin
00:20:31to feedle with it a way to be able to get access to
00:20:35be able to to buy this fuel '.
00:20:37we don't need to complicate any processes, i think the intention
00:20:41was for me, what matters most is let government do
00:20:45something, so when i heard this, i thought it was a good start
00:20:49okay, so they put an amount and they put a 30-day ceiling, let
00:20:53them at least start it, they want we begin to see the impact, who
00:20:57knows what to happen at the end of 30 days, they may extend it, they may
00:21:01increase the number from 669 to 200 or 300,
00:21:05who knows, the most important thing is we must always start some kind
00:21:08of intervention, so I was quite happy when they started this, but
00:21:12I'm starting to have second thoughts when I'm now seeing all the complications
00:21:16that are company it, and I'm beginning to ask myself, okay, is this
00:21:20genuine or is it just simply posturing
00:21:24for uh the 2027 election and trying to make it look like we
00:21:28care, it was already a long time coming, it goes to
00:21:32show that government did not adequately consider the fall
00:21:36out of subsidy removal, and despite his position
00:21:40that we are not changing subsidy, we're not bringing it back, we're not going back on
00:21:44this notion the fact that you must pay market
00:21:47rates at the pump, well... they suddenly discovered three
00:21:51years too late, when they could have done this right from the first day, they are
00:21:55thought it through, so it looks like it's a nejak reaction that is
00:21:59based on the fact that the subsidy removal has
00:22:03engendered massive poverty in the country, maybe they
00:22:06underestimated the actual impact of that subsidy
00:22:09removal and now they are beginning to see the fallout and seeing
00:22:13that it could very well have an impact on their electoral fortunes in
00:22:172027 when you have a person like vice president
00:22:20article happing on the fact that he will bring subsidy back uh from a
00:22:24production level, he will do things at the
00:22:27pump
00:22:28that will make the price come down astronomically
00:22:31and then you see the government making this move, for me it's better better
00:22:35by 66 n so what we now need to do is to sustain
00:22:38pressure, first of all ease ease the process and
00:22:42secondly to improve the benefit, if you've done 66 n
00:22:46for the first month, maybe next month you can improve the amount. maybe you can
00:22:50extend the period of time is isn't it
00:22:54humorous? mean
00:22:55you you um subscribe to data perhaps about
00:22:593ous n to access a a
00:23:02reduction offer of about 30 or 15 and
00:23:06then who gives you a gift and then says you have to do something to access a gift?
00:23:10is it still a gift then? no, no, no, let's not believe that people
00:23:14will will will access will buy data just
00:23:18for the specific purpose. of buying the fuel, no, let us
00:23:22look, when MTN declared his profit last month or whenever it
00:23:26did, the larger proportion of his profit came from data
00:23:29sales, not even voice calls anymore, in the past it used to be voice calls were
00:23:33the cash cap for the mobile telephone operators, but today
00:23:37data sales is more than half their profit, so I want to
00:23:41assume that anybody who is already going to pursue
00:23:45this already is accessing data for that purpose, they are not buying
00:23:48it just because the app. but yeah, it's a great gift a way, because
00:23:52on the one hand you are saying you are giving us 66 n, but the
00:23:55cost, not necessarily the cost of data, but the cost of
00:23:59you, the time value of money, you cuwing up for however long it takes
00:24:03you to access, the time you will take fidling with the app in your
00:24:07phone,
00:24:08you know, the time it will take you to drive, even the fuel, it will cost you to drive to find an
00:24:12NMPC Fuel station, does not justify the 66
00:24:15d increase, but I reiterate, it's a good start, the...
00:24:20thing you can do is not do anything, at least they've done something, let's give them credit for
00:24:24that. what we should now do is continue to sustain the pressure
00:24:27that they should improve on what they've put forward to the people. all
00:24:31right, mean, you said nigerians,
00:24:35mean we are 66 n better than we were some
00:24:39days ago in terms of b field, so mean at this
00:24:43point whatever is thrown at us, we just embrace it,
00:24:46mean, because right now we need it, um, and that's what the... perhaps
00:24:50the guardian stays with as well, it stays with um uh the
00:24:54oil and gas sector, high energy cost,
00:24:57shrinking, formal jobs, worse in
00:25:00plight of working poor, the guardian newspaper this
00:25:04morning, high energy cost, shrinking formal
00:25:08jobs, worsing plight of
00:25:11working poor, and then it does uh more like an explainer then
00:25:15says the macro uh windfall
00:25:1815.8 trillion nara saved from
00:25:22subsidy removal uh over
00:25:2560.75 trillion nara pulled
00:25:28in fac yet windfall yields little
00:25:31relief for citizens then there's a household to switch
00:25:35to that the household squeeze petrol prices
00:25:39surged by 570% to
00:25:431,350 n per liter mean very
00:25:46interesting the guardian knows how to you just break this down
00:25:50as an explain expos for millions of nigerians, what do
00:25:54you say mr kit? 15.8 trillion a
00:25:58guardian is talking about, yes, it's been
00:26:01a saving. to the country and it has reflected in the fac allocations
00:26:05a bunch of it went to the subnationals and that's what the federal is telling you is don't hold
00:26:09us accountable go and pursue your governor when you go to the governors what they are
00:26:13saying is well we spent a whole bunch of it on infrastructure you can see
00:26:16flyovers never mind if there
00:26:18are no cars on the flyovers but you can see flyovers you can see roads you can
00:26:22see stuff we're building but in terms of social welfare programs
00:26:26they are not doing enough at all we're not going eat
00:26:30infrastructure so yes bridges and roads and flyovers have their
00:26:34place in our daily lives, but there should be other things that take higher
00:26:38priority, education, health, the amounts the
00:26:41subnationals are allocating to critical sectors is too
00:26:45infinitesimal when you just stapose it with their
00:26:49increase in all in revenue allocation,
00:26:53so essentially what Guard, this whole thing goes back to what we're talking about
00:26:56earlier, the removal of fuel subsidy, that was the
00:27:00beginning the crisis. the working poor in Nigeria
00:27:03and this report is saying that about 92%
00:27:07of Nigerians work in the informal economy, the only
00:27:108% working government jobs in 4500
00:27:14companies, the 92% of us are all freelance,
00:27:18independent daily paid contractors who are
00:27:22just doing a hard scrabble job earn daily
00:27:25pay, 92%, and all those people are impacted
00:27:29by the cost of fuel which affects transportation which affects the cost of
00:27:33food and
00:27:34i looked
00:27:34at the world bank report, let me i i
00:27:38mean of course this is not the primary topic, but it's related, pull some numbers from that
00:27:42world bank report and it says growth is up
00:27:454.2%, 81, 2026, versus 3.9
00:27:49h1 2025 and 4.4% projected
00:27:53in 2026 to 2028. federation revenues are
00:27:57up 69% in real terms between
00:28:012023 and 2025 and capital spend
00:28:05by the states is up
00:28:06151%.
00:28:10reserves have moved from 45.5 billion at
00:28:13the end of 2025 to 53.8
00:28:16billion, so any which way you look at it,
00:28:20the numbers, the world bank is confirming that the
00:28:23numbers are stabilized, the macro has stabilized,
00:28:27poverty rate for example, they are saying is not reducing for the first time
00:28:31since 2019. "the poverty rate is um
00:28:35stagnant, it's not continuing to increase, we're not adding more and more
00:28:39poor people, we have the same number of poor people since
00:28:412019. now for me that is significant because it is the
00:28:45first time since subsidy removal that an external
00:28:48validator has said the flaw has
00:28:52stopped falling, however poverty
00:28:56has stabilized, it has not reduced. stabilization
00:29:00is different from reduction." world bank says it
00:29:03expects poverty to decline gradually only if
00:29:07GDP grows faster than the population, so what we need to
00:29:11keep in mind simply is that while the president
00:29:15may be correct that the World Bank has validated macro
00:29:18stabilization, stabilization on the
00:29:21balance sheet is not lower food
00:29:25prices, is not decent jobs, it's not
00:29:29classrooms that see 151%. in
00:29:32capital expenditure increase, so
00:29:36macrostabilization has to
00:29:39become micro relief in our
00:29:43homes, in the food we buy, in the petrol we buy
00:29:47into
00:29:47- better pass my generator to barb hair, to grind
00:29:51paper, to do vulcanizer, pumping of
00:29:55tire, all the mineral jobs that we do to get by a daily
00:29:58basis for our daily bread are fully dependent,
00:30:02on everything tied to fuel prices, so the
00:30:06administration can beat his chest, becala was saying earlier that,
00:30:09oh for 2027 they now have campaign
00:30:13ammunition, i think that this report gives your
00:30:16position equal ammunition in terms the
00:30:20downside the reforms, so yes
00:30:24remember that saying the statistics we go job, all those numbers
00:30:27i realled out now have no meaning in real terms on the dining
00:30:31table of the working class Nigerian, so the challenge for the
00:30:35administration is that between now and 2027
00:30:38election, they must find the way, beyond 66 n
00:30:42petrol discounts, they must find a way.