Google Speech-to-Text API Automatic Transcription (Chirp). Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:00we buy in the petrol we buy into i better pass my
00:00:03generator to barb here to grind pepper to do
00:00:07in volcanizer uh pumping of tire all
00:00:12of
00:00:12of of the minial jobs that we do to get by a
00:00:13of daily basis for our daily bread are fully dependent
00:00:17on everything tied to fuel prices so the
00:00:21administration can beat his chest becala was saying earlier that oh
00:00:25um for 2027 they now have campaign
00:00:28of ammunition i think that this report gives your opposition
00:00:32equal ammunition in terms
00:00:33of the downside
00:00:36of the reforms, so yes, remember
00:00:39of that
00:00:39of saying the statistics we go job, all those numbers i realled out now
00:00:43have no meaning in real terms on the dining table
00:00:47of the working class Nigerian, so the challenge for the
00:00:51of administration is that between now and 2027 election, they must
00:00:55find a way, beyond 66 n petrol discount, they must
00:00:59find a way, to begin to help Nigerians see the
00:01:02gains
00:01:03of these reforms in our pockets, in our buying
00:01:07power, in in food
00:01:10of inflation, in
00:01:12of of energy prices, all the things that are making life difficult and complicated for
00:01:16us, they need to work hard at it. Mr. Kitoby,
00:01:20you have actually giving the opposition uh a campaign
00:01:23of
00:01:24of uh one campaign slogan today, macro
00:01:27stabilization must become micro.
00:01:38and by the way, i think it's it's a 50 or 55
00:01:41nair petrol discount, it's not up to 66
00:01:45n 1,400 naira in
00:01:49um you know some states far flong, but uh here it's
00:01:521,300 in some states about
00:01:5566 it's up to 66 yes it
00:01:58a is okay yeah well uh Uh, we can confirm that, our viewers can
00:02:02confirm that, and by
00:02:03the way, I haven't seen any price
00:02:05of display reduction on NNPCL retail stations, it's
00:02:09important
00:02:09of to point that out. Let's get to the Vangard newspaper
00:02:13now,
00:02:13of uh,
00:02:14of which you know trails the
00:02:15of election, of of
00:02:17of
00:02:18of of
00:02:19in a 2027, parties candidates kick over omission inex final list to engage
00:02:23commission today, and number
00:02:26of them are waiting
00:02:27in
00:02:28of inex um explanation. on the omission of certain
00:02:32of names, particularly of names
00:02:33of of those who say they
00:02:35of haven't any time defected from their
00:02:37of political party
00:02:38of and they couldn't have missed any timeline for
00:02:41of submission of
00:02:43of of membership register. mr. what are your thoughts on this? particularly what
00:02:47of led of us here,
00:02:48you know the suit instituted by some political parties against INEc
00:02:52on
00:02:52of um,
00:02:53of its powers of registration of membership against
00:02:57the backdrop of what the constitution act. please spells
00:03:00out to where we are today? yes,
00:03:04it's really
00:03:05of curious, this this - reports that came out over the
00:03:09weekend and that's showing that various names are, especially some
00:03:13prominent names like we measure the beginning
00:03:16of the show, isa pantami
00:03:17of and state, pantami in gombe state,
00:03:21some
00:03:21of them are really curious and you know learn credence to the
00:03:25speculation that it may be political that perhaps these are
00:03:29of places where the... party in power believes it may lose or it may have very
00:03:32strong uh competition and as
00:03:35a result is using his powers of incombency
00:03:39to restrain the competition
00:03:43in areas where it thinks it may have
00:03:45in it may have tough time uh winning because when you look at it
00:03:49yes the
00:03:49of supreme court put the whole electoral process in
00:03:55of of a cry at the last minute with his ruling saying that essentially INEc has the power to make certain
00:03:59determinations but the constitution guarantees anybody the
00:04:02right to join any party any time, so the millionaireira
00:04:07of question of of then becomes on the
00:04:08of deadline dates when the
00:04:10a party registers were submitted, whose names were on it, whose names were not on
00:04:14it? okay, so INEc has done a unilateral
00:04:17measure of posting the names, it
00:04:21of believes where in the registers in his custody as
00:04:24of of the deadline date, which is I think so many days to the
00:04:28of election, I'm not sure how many, so is now
00:04:30of for the parties to prove, they say he who alleges or he assess
00:04:34must must prove, I'm
00:04:35not a lawyer, but that saying is out there, and so it's
00:04:39for the parties to now, like Mr. Buutu for example, saying
00:04:43he's always been in the PDP, he's never defected, he's never for a minute
00:04:47stop being a member
00:04:48of the party, and as such there's no way his name will not be any
00:04:52register of that party in
00:04:54a Ogun a state going as far back as probably maybe when he first joined politics,
00:04:58so how come his name is missing, so... important to now come
00:05:01out today to come and give his reasoning and what i would like to
00:05:05do is to be open to correction because it could very well have made
00:05:09of mistakes so i don't want it to be that that
00:05:11of list is fin then we have to go and start litigating back in court again because
00:05:15that's where you for me the judiciary is too vested in the electoral
00:05:19process in most recent times we've had judges choosing
00:05:23leaders for us i don't
00:05:24i think that subverts the will the people so the less the courts are involved in the
00:05:28process the better yes judiciary is the last hope of
00:05:32common man and wop the boop the whoop to do all that
00:05:35fantastic uh you know high faloting
00:05:38rhetoric but at the end the day if
00:05:42you to subjugate your rights to
00:05:46choose your leaders to few men and
00:05:49women in clock and gown, at the end the day the whole purpose
00:05:53of democracy is defeated, so for me the less the judiciary is involved the
00:05:57better, so
00:05:58annec should meet, should meet with the party people, explain his
00:06:02reasoning for why it left out those it left out and let the
00:06:06parties now prove that that
00:06:09omission was wrong, then we take it from there.
00:06:13we have about three more papers uh to binch with you quickly as as
00:06:17possible before our first conversation uh we have the new telegraph daily
00:06:21trusts and the abuja inquire but let's begin with the abuja
00:06:24inquirer uh here which uh leads
00:06:28with right tilab hills world bank report says reform on
00:06:32track but let's uh switch to the main rider there teachers
00:06:35strike tuc uh asus
00:06:39ub nlc union's issue count.
00:06:43orders, so we hear that the teachers are
00:06:46divided, some are ready to protest or strike, well
00:06:50others are saying, this another directive saying do not
00:06:54proceed on that strike, and the those who say that
00:06:57house divided against itself cannot stand,
00:07:01is that why the NLC perhaps has also lost her
00:07:05voice? the labor union in Nigeria today is a
00:07:09shadow of his former self, I remember in the days of Michael. do
00:07:13the days of even adams of
00:07:15as as labor leader, they run tight ship, very tight
00:07:19ship, and they made sure that everybody under the
00:07:22umbrella was loyal to the cause, you wouldn't see this kind of
00:07:26um, well let me call it betrayal, but you wouldn't find this kind of divided house where some are
00:07:30subscribing and others are saying they are not doing, you wouldn't ever see that back in the past
00:07:34in the labor union, they were very unified, they
00:07:37were a homogenous glob where
00:07:40everybody had heard to the same principles and they all turn their head in
00:07:44the same direction, but the current NLC labor labor
00:07:47leadership, the general perception is that
00:07:51they are out for their own own self-interest more than the interest
00:07:55the larger group, so there's no loyalty, people don't have that kind
00:07:59of fears
00:08:00you know commitment and dedication to to the to
00:08:04unionism anymore, because it looks like their
00:08:08leaders are not fighting for the overall welfare of all the workers, so what are they
00:08:12been? royal to them for,
00:08:13you know, the purpose of this strike was supposed to be
00:08:17noble that teachers in Apuja down t
00:08:21simply because they are not being paid, their terms and conditions of
00:08:24service are not adequate, and the right to strike, the right to protest
00:08:28is is is isent
00:08:30in the constitution and is the right of every single worker to be able to hear their
00:08:33aggrediance, so it looked in the beginning like it was a good
00:08:36cause, but this sudden division
00:08:40of loyalties has d fish the whole the whole purpose, because
00:08:44by time you have three or four union say we are not participating, the
00:08:48action loses his momentum, loses his force, and that's a real
00:08:52pity,
00:08:53you know, hope that labor will get is act together, because you
00:08:56know addition to people like the media, the labor union
00:09:00is very key partner in democracy
00:09:04to hold government accountable, and when labor is not
00:09:08doing that role, a government has more impetus to ride rough.
00:09:13over all of us ordinary
00:09:14Nigerians, interesting,
00:09:18let's hope that um the
00:09:20NLC different path from what we're already
00:09:24seeing, but it was quite interesting to watch
00:09:28the senator representing Edo north on an interview
00:09:32over the weekend and
00:09:35his you know his leadership the congress many years
00:09:39back became a subject of interrogation. gets backdrop of
00:09:43his support for this current uh price
00:09:46regime and he he totally avoided that
00:09:50question, i wonder if you you saw that
00:09:58um another paper which shows a completely different part
00:10:02from uh petrol price and the rest, yes i was
00:10:06looking at the new telegraph, yes the new
00:10:09telegraph also follows up on the world bank report. but let's go
00:10:13to the bottom strip for some interesting political stories,
00:10:17hamzat, dohati, roads viver, 14
00:10:21others, make inec list for lagos and then
00:10:25right beside it there you see 2027
00:10:28opposition optimistic despite
00:10:32fragmentation optimist the question is optimistic about
00:10:35what, what alignments can possibly happen
00:10:39before January and have the opposition handed
00:10:42over the election election victory
00:10:46to the APC by this current fragmentation and then you may also
00:10:50want to speak to the Lagos politics which is also an interesting
00:10:54one. go ahead is a long time in politics and
00:10:58we still have 100 days to the election, so anything can still happen with the
00:11:02opposition, and yeah, we know that the are outside egos and
00:11:06personal ambitions involved, but you never know uh, common
00:11:10sense prevail, because I believe is
00:11:13not, it's not rocket science for any them to
00:11:16recognize the fact that standing alone, they likely cannot
00:11:20win, and that the quickest path, the surest path
00:11:24to victory. for them is collaboration,
00:11:27so um, there are various factors as to who should,
00:11:31there are various factors supporting why who one should step down for the
00:11:35other, why the other should step down for the one, but it looks
00:11:39like it may not ever happen based on all the prevailing
00:11:43individual interests, so opposition is optimistic,
00:11:46ask myself optimistic about what if in
00:11:502023 the very same players who are putting themselves forward
00:11:54now, were the same ones who put themselves forward
00:11:57in 2023 and we saw the outcome,
00:12:01if the second runner up and the third runner up, if their votes were
00:12:04combined, they beat the winner, so I think it's a
00:12:08no brainer right from 2023 that they should have been working out
00:12:12how to amagamate those two voting
00:12:16blocks, but they've had four years to do it, they haven't
00:12:19succeeded, what I would really, what I think would really have made
00:12:23difference is if the electoral act or
00:12:26constitutionally we could have changed
00:12:28it to say whoever is going to win election must
00:12:32get 50% or more the votes
00:12:35then what would happen 2023 would have gone to a runoff with the first and
00:12:39the second then one them would had
00:12:42have to have 50% more the votes cast a runoff
00:12:45election
00:12:46i think that is something that people should really consider for the future is the
00:12:50idea and i think it's been conversed by some people
00:12:51including and some other people that "we
00:12:55we should make sure that the people who are ruling us or who
00:12:59are who are running our affairs have the will the majority
00:13:03the people. now in terms of lagos, it's interesting that it will come up
00:13:07today, there's actually debate today where all the
00:13:10candidates are scheduled to be a platform
00:13:14together today to debate the issues of
00:13:18lego state, all
00:13:19the ones you mentioned, dualty, rose vival,
00:13:23they're all scheduled to debate today." and you we've seen we've seen
00:13:26what a debate can look like
00:13:28you know amongst this candidates with the exception the new uh APC
00:13:32governorship candidate in lagos so we're looking forward to how that
00:15:09uh get after that conversation this morning, the obmission
00:15:13on inex final list of governorship candidates,
00:15:17three states particularly gets attention kanu, gombe
00:15:21and ogun states, but remember in September seven member panel.
00:15:25the Supreme Court upheld an appeal filed by the electoral umpire
00:15:29INEC and restored section 77 subsection
00:15:335, six and seven and 84 2
00:15:36the. Acts and that section particularly 77
00:15:40subsection 5 provides that only members whose
00:15:44names appear a political parties membership
00:15:48register submitted to INEC at least 21
00:15:52days before a primary congress or convention
00:15:55can participate in the exercise so what happened to this
00:15:59three leading candidates particularly why are they missing on
00:16:03INEX final governorship
00:16:16explore the legal options and perhaps what would have
00:16:19played out here? what's your reading? it is
00:16:23quite an interesting
00:16:25development, sequel to the judgement delivered
00:16:29on the 24th day of September
00:16:332026, in the appeal before
00:16:37the... court betweenec and designed
00:16:40labor party where the apex courts was
00:16:44invited to determine whether the
00:16:48pronouncement the court of appeal
00:16:50nollifying certain provisions of electoral
00:16:54act, particularly sections 77,
00:16:58sub5ive, subsection 6 and subsection 7 the
00:17:01electoral act and the
00:17:04provisions the
00:17:07guidelines, the manual for the election, certain provisions,
00:17:11which, as you read out, by
00:17:13implication,
00:17:18has prescribed the consequence
00:17:22of failure by political party
00:17:26to submit to INEc not later than 21 days
00:17:30a digital register of his
00:17:33members before the date, not later than
00:17:3621 days. for the dates prescribe or
00:17:40schedule for the holding the parties
00:17:43primaries congresses and
00:17:46convention. now
00:17:50I've read though the judgment the Supreme Court
00:17:53in light the
00:17:57decision to exclude certain
00:18:00candidates, namely
00:18:04the candidate the ADC in Kanu.
00:18:08"I believe the candidate the PDP in Ogun state and some
00:18:12others from the election in gombe in gombe.
00:18:16So yes, professor Isami, the question is
00:18:20that acted in line with the law, on the
00:18:23basis the judgement the Supreme Court, it is
00:18:27said clear that a political
00:18:31party that does not comply with that
00:18:35statutory. obligation
00:18:38procedure is ineligible to fill a
00:18:42candidate for that election.
00:18:46this is the point that the Supreme Court
00:18:49made, drawing a distinction
00:18:53between the constitutional demands, the
00:18:56constitutional requirements of
00:18:59qualification and this
00:19:02qualification as opposed to the
00:19:05eligibility the pol political party, in other words a
00:19:09candidate may be qualified to run for
00:19:13example for the office of governor of a
00:19:15state, but in so far as the political party that
00:19:19is fielding that candidate did not submit to
00:19:23ineck the digital register
00:19:27of his registered members, not later than 21 days before the
00:19:31date the primary that produce that candidate, that political
00:19:34party will now be on able to feel candidate, so it
00:19:38does appear that in the states that you have
00:19:42cited, this the parties did
00:19:46not comply with that provision, so to that extent,
00:19:50I believe what I neck is doing is to
00:19:54in their own sense, give effects
00:19:58to the judgment the Supreme Court delivered, as I said on the 24th of
00:20:01September 2026, including ogon
00:20:04state, that that seems to be...
00:20:08the interpretation, what i do not
00:20:11have complete
00:20:14clarity on is this, because read the
00:20:18judgments and as i said,
00:20:22my lord
00:20:24particularly explain
00:20:27that there is a distinction in law, there is
00:20:31distinction under jurisprudence, electoral jurisprudence
00:20:35between
00:20:35the candidate being qualified. that is candidate that fulfilled the constitutional
00:20:39requirements to seek the office of governor of a state for
00:20:43example and a political party being ineligible
00:20:47now what happens where?
00:20:50the party had submitted the digital register
00:20:54of its members, but the candidate sponsored by
00:20:57that party, his name is excluded, when you look at
00:21:01the provisions the electoral act, section 77, it
00:21:05says that
00:21:06it is only members whose namees are on that register shall be
00:21:10eligible to vote and be voted for, so when a members name
00:21:14is not on the register, but the party non delays cleared that member
00:21:18to run for office in the... primaries, the candidate was
00:21:22pronounced the winner, I next supervised and
00:21:25monitored the primaries, and there is no
00:21:28challenge before the federal high court, by an
00:21:32aspirant who participated in that primary, can
00:21:36I make now retroactively exclude that
00:21:40candidate from participating in that election, not withstanding
00:21:43that the party that sponsored that candidate has
00:21:47submitted is register and that, no prilation matter
00:21:51was fil, because it does appear
00:21:54that, and I stand to be corrected on this, I don't
00:21:57speak as I do not have the standing
00:22:00the noble justices the supreme court, but I'm just telling you
00:22:04what's my difficulty is with the position of
00:22:07INEC, where no pre-election matter is
00:22:10filed in line with section 285 the
00:22:141999 constitution as amended that says
00:22:17that any inquiry, any disc disputes pertaining to the
00:22:21conduct the primary of a political party must be
00:22:25litigated within 14 days. what the supreme court has
00:22:29said in liting of cases is that the
00:22:33moment you do not seek that remedy within the
00:22:36constitutional timeline you are for close from
00:22:40challenging or raising that issue so can i make now in
00:22:44october 2026
00:22:47retroactively give effect
00:22:51to candidates as I said who are constitutionally
00:22:54qualified but whose name were not on the party
00:22:57register and whose emergence as candidates will not
00:23:01challenge on the basis the omission their name or the non
00:23:05inclusion their name in the register of members, I believe that is matter
00:23:08that has have to go back to the courts for clarification, but
00:23:12once
00:23:12it is shown that the register was not
00:23:16submitted, INEc may not be faulted
00:23:19for acting. accordingly, well we'll have to wait and see or find out from the
00:23:23PDP if um, there was a challenge to the candidacy of
00:23:27its governorship candidate, prior to the
00:23:30dispute over, inex powers to regulate uh
00:23:34party membership,
00:23:41the candidacy of honorable adable to specifically, let's
00:23:44go to Ogun rather, let's go to Gombe,
00:23:48because we know that... he defected not too long
00:23:52after he couldn't secure the yes uh prime the ticket
00:23:56the ticket in APC, he defected to the PDP, his candidacy
00:23:59was challenged by those who were in the party prior to that time, somehow he
00:24:03won the election, the court ruled um against that
00:24:07election, then they obeyed the court order and conducted another
00:24:11primary which he won again, and now the other
00:24:15candidates are now challenging his reemergence, and I'm wondering
00:24:19why did you particip? paid in that election in the first place if you were going to
00:24:22challenge the victory so speak to the greay areas
00:24:27in that around case
00:24:27that in so that in instance the material question is not
00:24:31whether he took part or the party allowed
00:24:35him to participate in the fresh primary. the relevant
00:24:39question for determination i submit would be
00:24:42whether at all times material to the dispute
00:24:46the party as i said had submitted his name and in
00:24:50this name was in the register, if his name is
00:24:54was not on the digital register of members, the aspirants are within their
00:24:58rights to challenge his emergence and to have that process
00:25:02notified, so the party cannot cure
00:25:06that impayment, that legal impayment by simply saying, oh the
00:25:10court has nullified the primary on which you image,
00:25:13let us conduct a fresh one, come and participate and possibly em again
00:25:17in so far as his name is not or was
00:25:21not in the register of members submitted not later than
00:25:2521 days before the date of that primary, he cannot participate in the
00:25:29subsequent primary, so the party cannot
00:25:32avoid the consequence of his failure by
00:25:36simply conducting a fresh primary, so by allowing him to participate, the court, the party
00:25:40was disobeying the court order, absolutely, because it was a pre-election
00:25:44matter, recall that is the point made earlier that maybe I will have to
00:25:47offer clarification or... Maybe this matter has to go back to the
00:25:51court to clarify that what I consider to be a grey
00:25:55area that I am not able to come to clarity
00:25:58having read the judgment the supreme court which is I want to retrait again.
00:26:02what happens where the candidate is qualified
00:26:06constitutionally, the party actually submitted is
00:26:10digital register of members in line with the provisions of section
00:26:1477 the electoral act as mandated by the supreme court, but
00:26:17nonetheless the name of that candidate is not in the register
00:26:21and no case was filed within 21, 14 days
00:26:25in line with section 285, can I neck today
00:26:29retroactively say that not withstanding
00:26:32what i have said, you cannot participate in the election, it will be interesting
00:26:36to see
00:26:36what inec will say in the coming hours, because the spotlight is already
00:26:40on them even ahead the polls, but reactions have beginning
00:26:44to pourring, and yesterday distinguished senator she
00:26:47sani on x posted something which i would like
00:26:51you to respond to, he says affected candidates should
00:26:55not waste their money time and energy
00:26:58fighting lost battle, you are saying that perhaps we have to to
00:27:02court, he's advising and appealing, he says, I wish to appeal to
00:27:06those barristers and sans to quote
00:27:10pitity those candidates and allow them to
00:27:13rest and not mislead them into spending more
00:27:17money filing fresh suit, that's
00:27:20say they're speaking to you, they're speaking to you and your
00:27:22colleagues, to you and your colleagues,
00:27:26what do you say, what's the response? well, i i believe his points may be
00:27:30premise on the doctrine of west state votes. where the apex
00:27:34court has on the basis of that doctrine say
00:27:38said that even where a political party
00:27:42or candidate goes ahead to win the general
00:27:45election, once it is shown that there was
00:27:49a a fundamental verse, there was a
00:27:51fundamental dis issue disqualifying
00:27:55the participation of that party, whatever vote is
00:27:59cast for that party is wasted vote, i that there
00:28:03were some legislative efforts to address that
00:28:06doctrine in the electoral act
00:28:092026, but I believe that is what
00:28:11she is saying that look, because these candidates have been
00:28:15impacted by the judgement the Supreme Court, they may be no need
00:28:19for them to still go ahead and parade
00:28:22themselves as candidates. I believe the other aspect of
00:28:26this judgement is to restore some level of
00:28:29sanity a political system, we cannot... continue to run a
00:28:33system where on Monday somebody is member the APC, he works up
00:28:37on Tuesday is member the PDP, look at the case of River
00:28:40state, you have a minister who is the leader
00:28:44the APC, the leader the PDP in River state, you have a
00:28:48situation where he is running rainbow coalition and nobody is able to
00:28:52say by the way, what exactly the direction is, the name the candidate the
00:28:56APC in Rivers was not excluded and there's contention over when
00:28:59exactly he defected from the... again again that is
00:29:03the point I needed to make there's no APC candidate that is
00:29:07missing on list, yes that is
00:29:08the point I needed to make that this is a challenge on
00:29:12INEc to demonstrate to Nigerians that
00:29:16their enforcements or giving effect to the judgment the Supreme
00:29:20Court is not partisan, once evidence
00:29:23images, if evidence comes to
00:29:26light that any candidate has been allowed
00:29:30to run, withstanding that that candidates is in the
00:29:34same shoe with those that have been disqualified, it will further lane
00:29:38credence to the belief and a growing belief
00:29:42that this current d is partisan, so I am curious to
00:29:46know for example in riversate when Mr. Chinda, I believe that is his
00:29:49name, Kinsley chinder, Kinsley chinder became member the APC, I
00:29:53am also interested in knowing when the digital register of
00:29:57members the APC in River State was submitted, was it
00:30:00submitted not later than 21? days to the conduct the
00:30:04governatarial primaries the APC in River State, these are the issues that
00:30:08respect members the opposition in river state or members the other political parties
00:30:12in university to come forward and challenge and and
00:30:16disclose if does not act in manner that is
00:30:19neutral, it will make nonsense of whatever efforts they think they
00:30:23are undertaking to give effect to the judgment of let me also
00:30:26emphasize for the records that by virtue of section
00:30:29287 the constitution, every decision the Supreme
00:30:33Court has binding force on all courts in Nigeria,
00:30:37including the court of appeal and the federal court, and on all authorities and
00:30:41persons through the Federal Republic of Nigeria, so once the highest court in the
00:30:44land has given decision, whether you are persuaded by
00:30:48it, whether you agree with it, you are bound by to comply with that
00:30:52decision, so I believe that ultimately we have to find
00:30:56a way to see clarity on that greay area.