Google Speech-to-Text API Automatic Transcription (Chirp). Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:05of
00:00:27of me
00:00:35It's October 12,
00:00:36of 2026, it's 28 degrees here in Lagos,
00:00:40good morning and welcome to your daily dose of sunshine a
00:00:44Monday
00:00:57uh dimension that we got from this uh the ND. this
00:01:00morning, so that wouldn't you say, I mean it was reported
00:01:04um yesterday that the NDLA has arrested an
00:01:0883 year old woman over drugs,
00:01:12possession of drugs, and it leads to so many questions, I'm
00:01:16pretty sure you would want to say, buse the bigger question for
00:01:19me, is what would
00:01:23of it, what would inform an 83 year old
00:01:26woman uh being caught?
00:01:30metafetamine around her waist to feed
00:01:33you know some neighborhood drug d. there are those
00:01:37who would say it reveals a societal failure. criminal syndicates don't
00:01:40just recruit octogenans out of
00:01:43of respect, they exploit them as invisible
00:01:46of camouflage gambling that law enforcement will see a fragile
00:01:50matr rather than a high volume mule and
00:01:53relying on lenant sentencing to keep their
00:01:57of distribution hubs intact. i think we should find a way to
00:02:00insulate them because I don't know what would inform this. One
00:02:04of the ways that I think this can happen, I don't know what you have in mind to say
00:02:08about its lie, but it's first
00:02:10a of all we need to strip away the leverage of desperation by
00:02:14targeting social security for them, accessible
00:02:18of health care, community welfare programs and all of that.
00:02:21Secondly, I think law enforcement and social service agencies need to
00:02:25find a way to disrupt family run crime
00:02:28loops. at elder
00:02:32in exploitation within
00:02:32of households as both a criminal offense and
00:02:36critical safeguarding issue.
00:02:46of today, because this is not the first time we get it to see uh
00:02:50in octogenans or some very senior citizens being fingered by the
00:02:54NDLA at 83. i would imagine that life should
00:02:58be about rest. family, grandchildren and the
00:03:02stories of a long life lived, but for Mrs.
00:03:06in Uloma Uchechi Sunday, the headlines tell a very different
00:03:09story, I saw that uh on the news
00:03:12at 10 last night,
00:03:13the NDLA says the octogenarian has been
00:03:17re-arrested, that's why has is quite different, it's not a case
00:03:20of a first timer, this is
00:03:23of case of of
00:03:24a rearrest in Abbia state for alleged drug related
00:03:27offenses, barely guess what, year after
00:03:31she
00:03:31of and her daughter were convicted of similar offenses, and this is
00:03:35of not an isolated case. In August, the agency announced the
00:03:39arrest of a
00:03:42of 101-year-old great grandmother, Io for allegedly
00:03:46selling cannabis. In May, two men, aged
00:03:50of 83 and 78, they also arrested in separate drug
00:03:53related operations, so these cases rais some
00:03:57uncomfortable questions, what could... drive people in
00:04:01their twilight years into the illicit drug trade.
00:04:05is this about economic desperation of
00:04:08easy money or a calculated criminal enterprise that
00:04:11happens to involve elderly
00:04:15me people? and while age must never be excuse for
00:04:18crime, io uh, should it
00:04:21of change how we approach rehabilitation, which you highlighted earlier on
00:04:25counseling, which you also pointed out and social support,
00:04:29which is very... important, but if you ask me more importantly are
00:04:33these isolated cases or are they revealing a
00:04:37deeper social problem that deserves
00:04:40closer examination, it bits me, maybe the
00:04:44the deeper issue, social issue you are looking at there, sulai, is
00:04:48that of poverty? i can't find any other
00:04:52of thing rooted here,
00:04:54and on the one hand this has happened before, on the other hand is happening
00:04:57again, definitely there is lot of ' lot more deeper
00:05:01issues and this calls to attention not just what the federal government can
00:05:04do, but what the states also can contribute in
00:05:08ensuring that senior
00:05:10a citizens, especially senior citizens who... are supposed to
00:05:13be the the moral compass so to speak of our
00:05:17nation, of our various communities are caught doing
00:05:37today here in Nigeria stands one the world's largest
00:05:41modern refineries. The Dungote petroleum Refinery and
00:05:45Petrochemicals FZE initial public offer is
00:05:49now open, offering 4.1 billion
00:05:52ordinary shares to the public. Where can you subscribe through
00:05:56approved subscription channels? However you choose to
00:05:59subscribe. The journey is simple: one, enter your
00:06:03BVN, two, choose your shares and pay.
00:06:06Three, get confirmation that your subscription has been
00:06:10received, buy a share. visit
00:06:12ipo.dongote.com for the full list of
00:06:16sec approved receiving agents and offer
00:06:19information. as the
00:06:232027 general election they near us like this, independent national
00:06:27electoral commission inex talk say from Friday night reach Thursday 15th of
00:06:31October 2026, then go display the national register of voters
00:06:35where they go use conduct elections for 2027. this display
00:06:38go help people where don't register to check to their name day for the register.
00:06:42and make them know their polling unit before election day. inside that period,
00:06:46people where register for 2025 will feed collect their pvc, people we transfer
00:06:50their registration, replace pvc where don't lost or damage during the first phase,
00:06:54we still feed collect their pvc from the INEC office way did their local government from
00:06:5816th of October 2026. all the PVCs where people never
00:07:02collect from before before registration exercises,
00:07:06but still they available for collection. i like the call on everybody where registered during this
00:07:09period say make them waste time to collect their people.
00:07:46As Nigeria inches towards the 2027 general
00:07:49elections, the ch administration's renewed hope agenda is coming
00:07:53under increasing scrutiny with questions about his
00:07:57impact, the state the opposition and the space
00:08:01available for descent a democracy. Now
00:08:04that conversation has taken a new turn following the reported
00:08:08cancellation of venue booked for the presentation of a
00:08:12book. titled Tinov from renewed hope to
00:08:15despair by the center for democratic development, research and training
00:08:19in Zaia. Now the center alleges attempts to frustrate the
00:08:23launch and says it has relocated the event. Now beyond
00:08:27the controversy, what is the scorecard of renewed hope, what
00:08:31role should opposition voices play in the democracy and what
00:08:34do the challenges surrounding this book presentation mean for freedom of
00:08:38expression, as
00:08:40the 2027 elections approach. Now to examine these issues, we now
00:08:44being joined by Dr. Abubakar Siddiq Mohammed, he is executive director
00:08:48the Center for democratic development reset and train in
00:08:51Zararia. Well, Dr. Mohammed, good to see and thank you for your time, you
00:08:55raised concerns about possible interference with the security
00:08:59agencies, first let us understand the concept
00:09:03of that book that is to be presented
00:09:07to the Nigerian
00:09:08public, our
00:09:12center. is a research
00:09:14center, we investigate
00:09:17issues in Nigeria, for
00:09:21example, when this rural bandy
00:09:24started, we went to all the villages
00:09:28affected to interview people, to see things for
00:09:31ourselves. At the end the investigation, we
00:09:35we wrote our report and presented it publicly in
00:09:39Arrow House, the Guna for the... public to know that
00:09:43the situation is very serious, we predicted at
00:09:47that time that if more
00:09:50efforts, more efforts are not
00:09:53put into solving the problem, it will actually
00:09:57metastasize the way cancer spreads
00:10:01and that this
00:10:02the situation is very very serious, something
00:10:05has to be done immediately, we do that
00:10:07now on this
00:10:11book, when president was
00:10:15inaugurated on the podium, i'll read
00:10:18what he said only, i'll read what he
00:10:21said, he said that: "we
00:10:25are here to further men and heal this
00:10:29nation, not tear and enjoy
00:10:32it. he went further to say that the
00:10:36south must not only
00:10:39seek good for itself, but understand
00:10:43that its interest are saved when good comes
00:10:47to the north. now victory does
00:10:51not render any more Nigerian than my opponent."
00:10:58last year he
00:11:00said the west is
00:11:03over, i
00:11:07say yesterday spins are giving
00:11:10way to relief, that was yesterday, that
00:11:14was what he said last
00:11:15year, then as a research
00:11:19center we said okay, is the pain over as the president has
00:11:22said, we went out,
00:11:25investigate and the
00:11:28results overwelingly is
00:11:31that the country is in
00:11:33despair,
00:11:38poverty is on the increase, but all
00:11:41statistics that we we saw, we
00:11:45also influenced by what professor Edosian said some
00:11:49time back, in in his address to the Nigerian economic
00:11:52society, if you want know whether your
00:11:56economic activity, whether your economic policies are
00:11:59working, don't sit in the office, go to the
00:12:02market, follow the
00:12:04aliways, go around the villages, go
00:12:08around the towns and see the effect these
00:12:12policies on the people, this what we
00:12:14did, in fact
00:12:17in all the places we
00:12:19visited, the conditions the people we
00:12:23interviewed, are extremely
00:12:27bad, people cannot pay their
00:12:30hospital
00:12:31bills, food
00:12:35prices have
00:12:36skyrocketed, school
00:12:39fees have doubled since then
00:12:43insecurity has wasened, in fact the
00:12:47president is even confused, in one of his speeches he
00:12:51said they are overcoming
00:12:53uh the the security. challenges facing this
00:12:56country and so few months
00:12:59back when he sent
00:13:03governor to a book
00:13:06launch, he said the security situation is
00:13:09getting bad because those his enemies, those are opposed
00:13:13to his policies are actually encouraging
00:13:17it, from
00:13:19triphalism, he has now come to
00:13:22accuse his enemies. or his opponent
00:13:26for pomenting crisis and instigating or
00:13:29encouraging the insecurity in the country. now
00:13:33if the president knows who are
00:13:37encouraging this insecurity which is raveging the
00:13:41country, he has all the powers to
00:13:45get them arrested or to get them investigated, arrested and
00:13:48and and prosecuted. let me let me let me comment quickly here, dr. siddiq
00:13:52mohammed and again is... also possible without holding brief
00:13:56the presidency that at that point in time when he said that things will take
00:14:00in shape uh things may have also changed
00:14:03before Mr shober went for that book
00:14:06launch. I know that I house is
00:14:10not a direct equivalent to Chatham House, but they both
00:14:13present platforms for such debate, robust debate
00:14:17as you have uh
00:14:20intended to. With this stoppage are we
00:14:24witness. pattern of political intolerance i
00:14:28could this uh or could this particular incident have
00:14:32explanations that are not necessarily
00:14:35political? no, before before
00:14:38this, when we started writing this book, let tell you, there are so
00:14:41many things happening, small things happening across the states, but when
00:14:45you add them together, it gives you picture of what is happening in
00:14:49Nigeria, intolerance by our political
00:14:53leaders. "they are
00:14:56intolerance of any view of descenting views
00:15:00across the states, take the case of a girl in
00:15:04Sokotu who said that the
00:15:07security situation in the country, in the state was getting
00:15:10worse, that girl was arrested, humiliated
00:15:14and subjected to all sort of indignities. take
00:15:18the case
00:15:19of those who are opposed
00:15:23to. they were
00:15:27arrested for wearing vest saying that must
00:15:31go, yesterday in
00:15:33Cana, similar group was prevented
00:15:37from actually meeting now, even
00:15:40before we came out with this book, we those
00:15:44who came to our office and saw us preparing the book, told us
00:15:48that we will be arrested for doing it, for writing
00:15:51it, when we finished, those
00:15:55who saw it were saying, you people must be courageous, given the level of
00:15:59intolerance in this country today, they will either not
00:16:03allow you to present it or you will be
00:16:06arrested. We continued, we finished
00:16:10the book and we decided to present it to the public, and this is what we've
00:16:14done with all the research work, works we have
00:16:17done. I have mentioned the fact that when we first investigated this
00:16:21rural bandity in the northwest, we presented our
00:16:24report to the crowd to invited guests
00:16:28at house, in fact we invited
00:16:32people from all the towns we visited, all the villages we
00:16:35visited, we invited them to... to our house where we made the
00:16:39presentation so that they could say whether what
00:16:42we were saying was correct or not, so it has been our
00:16:45tradition, so when we finish this book we decided to also go back to Ariwa
00:16:49house and present it to invited guest,
00:16:53everybody is welcome, we invited all the political parties, all
00:16:57the political parties, we sent invitation letters to them,
00:17:01asking them to come so that we exchange ideas, we don't
00:17:04have to follow charterm house, we have our own t
00:17:09and and and
00:17:09you know Dr. Dr. Muhammed, I was almost beg your
00:17:13pardon, let me throw this in now that you also giving us the soc
00:17:16example, Nigerians would heave a side of
00:17:20relief and say okay, this is not about push
00:17:23against someone from another region, because you know how how
00:17:27polarized politics can make us be uh in Nigeria,
00:17:31but again
00:17:32you know your statement argues that the
00:17:36proper response. to criticism is
00:17:39engagement uh, not suppression, I'm taking you
00:17:43uh,
00:17:43you know, line by line, what would you say to those who
00:17:47believe that critical book launch is being
00:17:51turned into a political
00:17:53confrontation, because the
00:17:57government is not happy with what we've written, they have
00:18:01access to the book, so they want to suppress it, but they cannot do
00:18:04so, they can't do it, they can... only stop us
00:18:08from presenting it a a particular place, but we
00:18:12can do it by zoom, after you are giving me an interview on zoom
00:18:16now, we could done, we could have done it, you
00:18:19know, but we are a
00:18:21democracy, we are free
00:18:25to actually express our views, write
00:18:29and and investigate, do research and present our
00:18:32findings in democracy, legally we are we
00:18:36are allowed to do so. "our center is a research
00:18:39center, what do they expect us to do if you engage
00:18:43a research and you've come out with your find is, do you shave the
00:18:47report in one corner in your in your office, you present
00:18:51it to the public, and this is what we try to to do, in
00:18:54fact there is no mention of any political party in the in the
00:18:58book, we only look at the policies the government the
00:19:01day and then gave our vedit on all
00:19:05the promises that we've made, that's all we did. "if they think what
00:19:09we bring is not correct, they also have their own intellectuals, let
00:19:12them take us on, let us, let them engage
00:19:16us, show where we've gone wrong, we are intellectuals, we will accept
00:19:20if you are wrong, that is what intellectual exchange is
00:19:24all about, that's why we hold seminars, you
00:19:28do your research, you write your paper, you present it to your
00:19:31colleagues, to look at it, to critique it, to
00:19:35accept or reject some of your findings." That's what they should do,
00:19:39but they shouldn't deny us, the right to use
00:19:42government premises and house does not belong to
00:19:46one%, it belongs to the people of Nigeria, it was built with the
00:19:50resources of people of Nigeria, and we are, many
00:19:54of us are lecturers in ABU, it is a unit under
00:19:58university,
00:20:00you know, an intellectual outfit,
00:20:04so we are free to go there and actually present our findings, the result of
00:20:08our research, that's what we do, and that is what is done all over the
00:20:11world, we are, we are now ruled by people,
00:20:15you know, but especially in the northwest,
00:20:17you know, those appointed by president who are semilliterate, who do not
00:20:21accept that you can have useful
00:20:25intellectual engagements and and this, this is this is where it
00:20:28gets quite interesting, now you've just said that some people who
00:20:32are appointed by the presidency, he tells you that this uh, is this
00:20:36safe to say this? is not on president tenable that many have
00:20:40called a democrat because you express concern about
00:20:44the reported that this is happening under because he was member
00:20:48of absolutely. "who claim to have fought for democracy in
00:20:52Nigeria and under him, all democratic practices are taking root
00:20:56in our country, and before I bring in I, because you also expressed concern
00:21:00about the reported pressure on the ahmadubil
00:21:03university to withdraw the use of a w house, what
00:21:07should what should be the responsibility of a
00:21:11university uh, in being
00:21:14a part of such public event when
00:21:18government is being als heavily
00:21:20criticized, the university
00:21:24should protect the rights the intellectuals working in
00:21:28the university, even outside the university to engage in research,
00:21:31present their report and also debate the the
00:21:35the report with other intellectuals who were not part the
00:21:39research, that is how you you, that's how it is done to
00:21:43protect you, universities in
00:21:47Nigeria always d' the bell
00:21:50university until recently lagos
00:21:53if the abussion of intellectual
00:21:57activity in the 60s
00:22:00in,
00:22:11well you know it's very interesting sir that you know this
00:22:14conversation is coming up again and especially
00:22:17because as sulai said it is
00:22:20seeming a little, it's tendering a little closer to
00:22:24a question of intolerance and all of that, but the
00:22:27issue, i like
00:22:30to like us to focus on the core issue uh on
00:22:33the table, which is um the lived
00:22:37realities of nigerians, there are those who would argue and have
00:22:40argued that the challenge is not whether or not whatever it is that the
00:22:44federal government is doing, but
00:22:46that there is no commensurate policies or initiative from the
00:22:50state governments over time that they reference some people would
00:22:54reference what happened in 2020 when the federal government made some
00:22:57resources available to palliate some people some kind of
00:23:01pallatives and the states or some govern officials holded
00:23:05these things is this something that should also be considered that
00:23:08maybe you know there are some some initiatives
00:23:12yes going
00:23:13on in Nigeria cannot be limited to the federal government the state governments are
00:23:17also not doing their best at all if present tin used to
00:23:21say because the withdrawal of f subsidy state
00:23:25government have getting more money than they used to get, but
00:23:29go to the states, what do you see, where is this money
00:23:33going? every month they go to abuja and
00:23:36take collect federal
00:23:40lication, you don't see any serious tangible work in those
00:23:44states, and that is why in many of those states
00:23:47insecurity has become endemic.
00:23:51"they have turned the fight against insecurity to
00:23:54procurement, fighting insecurity is not just
00:23:57procurement, it depends on what you do, the people
00:24:01behind the procurement that the
00:24:05equipment that you bought, it depends upon what you do to
00:24:09ensure that people do are not tempted to join the bandit
00:24:12in the case of northwest,
00:24:15governors are are collecting the money and people are not seeing the
00:24:19benefits." "go around
00:24:21to our schools in
00:24:21the north,
00:24:22go to many schools in
00:24:23the north and see, go to the hospitals and see
00:24:27what and see for yourselves, look at
00:24:29the rows, they have collapsed in many the
00:24:32areas, you know hospitals don't have
00:24:35drugs, teachers are not properly paid
00:24:38in some the states, so
00:24:42and so
00:24:42the the mess is not actually uh limited to what is going
00:24:46on at the federal government, the corruption that we experience in this count."
00:24:50is at the at both the federal level and at the state
00:24:54level, and so you are right when you say that, we shouldn't
00:24:58only look at the federal government, of course we don't look at the federal government alone, we look
00:25:02at the states. president has to give
00:25:05leadership, he has to call these governors to
00:25:08order, after every month he releases money to
00:25:12them, inf
00:25:14some some months back he even said that they should stop building
00:25:18flyovers, to yola and see
00:25:22fly overs all over when there are no
00:25:24vehicles, so so
00:25:28there we we have leadership problem in this in this country and we have to
00:25:31face it squarely, the job of intellectual, the role of
00:25:35intellectual is look at leaders in the face and tell them that what they
00:25:39are doing is not good, it's not in the interest the people,
00:25:43and you do it with facts and figures, that is what we have been trained to do
00:25:47and that is what we do in our center, and that's
00:25:50why we take the risk of going to the field to collect data and
00:25:54give results, our findings and tell
00:25:58governments to its face that what you are doing is not enough,
00:26:02and this is what they don't want to hear and that is why we cannot
00:26:06progress in this country, many their policies are not evidence
00:26:09based at all, a governor wakes up, a friend of
00:26:13his wts some money, since got more money you can't just take like that, they
00:26:17create a job for him a contract a job for so that you can
00:26:21get contract, it is not part of any
00:26:23any plan, and that is what is also
00:26:27happening at the federal level, huge
00:26:31contracts are given. you ask the on what basis are these contract
00:26:34giving, what is it going to serve, what is it going to serve in this
00:26:38country? you have a plan, if you invest this
00:26:42money, you know what will be the what will be the effect on other sectors
00:26:46the economy or or part the country? they won't tell
00:26:49you, because these are projects that will earn them
00:26:53money, that's all. i was once member
00:26:57the national economic intelligence, i can tell you this, we used to
00:27:01go round. to inspect projects in this
00:27:04country, before we go, we will tell
00:27:08the ministry whose project we are going to inspect that will be
00:27:12going and we will give them the date or we
00:27:15agree on common date, we will go to the
00:27:19project, we found that nothing has been done
00:27:22done, in fact before you go there, you make sure that about half
00:27:25the the budget has been
00:27:28released, you go, nothing, nothing is...
00:27:33I used to tell my friends, if you don't have strong heart, don't
00:27:36engage in this job, well
00:27:39released by the federal billions have been released, but
00:27:43the work work has not been done, but that's one the
00:27:46challenges and that is abonding projects all over the
00:27:50country, yes, my my apologies for bting in, perhaps the
00:27:53challenge here uh two issues are coming uh to mind
00:27:57about this conversation that we are having, do you think that
00:28:01these governance issue? issues that you are raising now, do you
00:28:04think it's been looked at more as political
00:28:08conversation as opposed to governance
00:28:10realities, governance issues that
00:28:14should be speaking to the lived realities and lived experiences of
00:28:17Nigerians, it would seem like uh the some these things
00:28:21are being used for political, some kind of political
00:28:25assets, that's the problem of politicians, I
00:28:29am an intellectual, I am intellectual, I've been elector. for 40
00:28:33years, so I'm not engaged in politics, I want to play politics, I'll go and join
00:28:36political parties and contest for election, of course the contest for
00:28:40elections, we are telling them that things are very bad in the country, look
00:28:44at the cover the book, tell me that which is not correct, the cover the book
00:28:48is that we have insecurity in this country, we have uh
00:28:52dilapidated infrastructure, we have hunger in the country,
00:28:56we have higher medical bills,
00:28:58you know uh, the price of gari has gone up from 3,0 to
00:29:028, 500 at the time we did it, foil prices have gone up,
00:29:05inflation in the country, tell me what what is political about it, that is the
00:29:09leav reality of nigerians today, okay, mr. just a quick
00:29:13one, look at what is happening in Nigeria, sometimes when they
00:29:17even come out with policies which they defend, they cannot even implement
00:29:21them, look at what the president said recently, what the minister of finance
00:29:25said, they have reduce the price of fuelko to
00:29:291,300 or something like that, but it is going for 1 500,
00:29:331,600 in ab yesterday i was told those who went to the filling
00:29:37station to buy petrol as the so-called reduced price, they were asked
00:29:40to to download
00:29:44an app and pay money, danf drivers the one was asking in
00:29:48Euroba, what is the meaning of
00:29:49up, you how do you say
00:29:53it inf driver you asking him to download an
00:29:57application, an app in order to buy fool, which is
00:30:01not more than 20 thousand or 30 thousand, you see they come out with
00:30:05policies without thinking through it, they just announced
00:30:09it, go to NMPC filling stations and buy to buy a foil
00:30:13at reduced price, therefore drivers to the filling
00:30:17stations and then they ask uh have you downloaded an
00:30:20app, they did not educate people, they did not
00:30:24inform people, they panicked because people are
00:30:28saying things are getting out of control, but and so they quickly
00:30:31came out with what the call this palliative? it is not palliative, it
00:30:34deciits. this is the reality. go to the filling stations
00:30:38and see what is happening. this is what we do. as journalists
00:30:42you should also do that. we go out and find out what people are
00:30:46saying. are they getting the fool at the price? the government said they will
00:30:49get, why are they not getting