Google Speech-to-Text API Automatic Transcription (Chirp). Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:00with tvc news tvc news first with
00:00:04breaking
00:00:04news
00:00:08at tvs and news wherever the big news stories happening
00:00:12we're get up to agreg it tvs and news first
00:00:16with
00:00:18in britain.
00:00:31Hello and thank you for joining us on the midweek edition of journalist hangout.
00:00:35I'm being today on the program CBN declares
00:00:39stable forex says $52.5 billion
00:00:42dollars reserves show that economy is
00:00:46improving. defense minister
00:00:48a expresses joy as president to nubu approves salary
00:00:51increases for armed forces personnel. later on
00:00:55the show businessman rates to house of representatives
00:00:59of panel how he's was scammed 400
00:01:02millionar by fake agency dg at
00:01:05dme. well i'll be hanging out with
00:01:09b who joins us from our buja studios and
00:01:12mayor, journal
00:01:14starts right
00:01:16now.
00:01:28now let's begin the conversation. every positive economic report
00:01:32raises hope for better tomorrow, the central bank of
00:01:35Nigeria, CBN says recent gains including
00:01:39a more stable foreign
00:01:41of exchange market,
00:01:42of stronger external reserves and slight drop in
00:01:45inflation reflects the positive impact of its monetary
00:01:49reforms, tighter policies and improved
00:01:52market transparency. All right, bq, so good to have
00:01:56you join us on the show, bq uh, the CBN... has declared
00:02:00uh stable forex, but talk to me, what is
00:02:04responsible for
00:02:05this? yeah,
00:02:09i'm really impressed about uh the
00:02:13consistent growth of our foreign
00:02:16in reserves, um, governor
00:02:19cardoso has been really, really intentional
00:02:23about um growing the foreign reserves,
00:02:27because what... This does for us
00:02:31is that we can save
00:02:33off lot of volatility
00:02:37that we are grown
00:02:41of of accustomed with in that sector, when
00:02:45you have as much as we
00:02:48of have,
00:02:49of you of can defend your currency when it is
00:02:53absolutely necessary to do
00:02:55so, you can
00:02:59sustain. liquidity,
00:03:03because whether we like it or not, there will be occasions when
00:03:07there will be tremendous demand which can
00:03:11actually cause
00:03:13problems. we are
00:03:16approaching an election
00:03:19year, during that period, demand for forex is
00:03:23usually huge, but the buffers we
00:03:26have now we enable
00:03:28of us of to be able to to defend the currency when it is
00:03:32necessary, what we oppose
00:03:34is subsidizing the foreign exchange
00:03:38markets,
00:03:40of because you can only do that a huge cost, are
00:03:44doing that during previous
00:03:45administrations, but this
00:03:48administration decided to not do
00:03:52that, and have money saved
00:03:56from forex for
00:03:57of subsidy devoted to... uh other
00:04:01uses, so I agree with him that the
00:04:04reforms that we has introduced in the past 34
00:04:07of months of have of supported economic growth
00:04:12of and uh
00:04:16of of are ultimately going to create jobs and reduce
00:04:17a poverty. The unification
00:04:19of of the foreign exchange market is one
00:04:20of the best things ever happen to our government, because all
00:04:24of the people who used to simply sit down
00:04:27of in their guardians and... do
00:04:30arbitrage, collect foreign
00:04:34of exchange from the official markets and then go
00:04:38and sell in the black market during the period
00:04:41of multiple exchange rates, they can no longer do
00:04:45that. in fact i've seen occasions when the black
00:04:49market rate was even better than
00:04:52of the official rate, we've seen that, yes,
00:04:56so is kind of a paradox, but it is what is good. for
00:05:00Nigeria, I want to believe that we have a Nigeria that
00:05:04is finally working, and the question
00:05:07is, how will the
00:05:11opposition? con to is because they continue to tell us
00:05:15that this government has not achieved anything, but this government
00:05:18inherited foreign reserves at about 4
00:05:22billion dollars and now we are talking about 52
00:05:25billion dollars and it's going to
00:05:27grow into even more than
00:05:3160 billion at the rate that we are
00:05:35going and the way we were
00:05:38printing our currency
00:05:41you know deceiving ourself, living a lie as nation,
00:05:45that has come to an end, what we pile on, the
00:05:49debt that we pied on by ways and means, nobody is
00:05:53talking about that, that's a big achievement on the part of this
00:05:56government that they have resear, they have reversed
00:06:00some of those unholesome practices,
00:06:04so it's a happy day as a Nigerian, I'm happy because I can
00:06:07see that we are headed in the right direction, and
00:06:11all the people say: in it, they can't all be
00:06:14liars, the
00:06:18world bank, the IMF, they have told us
00:06:22that the reforms that this government has
00:06:24introduced are finally
00:06:28setting us in the right direction,
00:06:30yes, people are
00:06:33hungry, reforms
00:06:36naturally come with
00:06:39pains, most economic reforms. usually come with pains,
00:06:43we've seen it in other countries, people even resorting to riots
00:06:47and all that, but ultimately things will stabilize,
00:06:51people need to go back in time and read the story the Asian
00:06:55tigers, it wasn't rosy from the
00:06:59beginning, but these are great countries that we are talking about,
00:07:02and I'm sure that Nigeria's
00:07:05greatness will come
00:07:08sooner than than later after the
00:07:11storm, there will be great joy and I've
00:07:15seen those clear signs that our country
00:07:19is headed in the right direction okay then now
00:07:23um mayor the CBN has declared that um there's a stable foreign exchange
00:07:27market and um with this huge amount it shows
00:07:31that the economy is improving but I want to know does this mean that
00:07:35ordinary Nigerians will feel the benefits um let
00:07:39me let me stress that not not not not really.
00:07:43one thing you have to give this government is that
00:07:47they've done very well when it comes to the
00:07:49economy, people may
00:07:52not, critics may say otherwise, but
00:07:56this government yes they've done, they've not done
00:07:59accidently when it comes to
00:08:02security or corporate governance, but when you look at
00:08:06the economy, education, infrastructure, they've
00:08:10done very well, okay, in the terms of economy. the reforms that they
00:08:13introduce, yes, as be able to stabilize the
00:08:16economy, and if you understand
00:08:20anything about economics and growth, you need to stabilize the
00:08:23economy first, before you can now talk about growth,
00:08:27okay, so what is happening now is that we have
00:08:30been able to stabilize the economy, so the worst is behind
00:08:34us, on the macro level, yes, we be able to stabilize the
00:08:38economy, and then we'll put bricks in
00:08:41place, have laid solid foundation for us to have
00:08:45growth, okay? in that initial
00:08:48period, it does not speculate down to the
00:08:52people, okay? the people will not, you will say that the
00:08:55economy is growing, everybody is saying that uh, the economy is growing,
00:08:59IMF, world bank, um, all the agencies that
00:09:03talks about banking and all that, everybody is saying that Nigeria is doing very well,
00:09:07but average man is still will complain and say, oh, things are still
00:09:10difficult, that's the way. this
00:09:13because when you when you are laying that
00:09:16foundation to stabilize the economy, it will
00:09:20not faculate to the people, it will not get down to
00:09:23them, but by the time you start, by the time you now
00:09:27start experiencing the growth as result of
00:09:30stabilization the economy, then the people will start reaping the
00:09:34benefits, okay,
00:09:35so that's just the different, but what is important where you have to
00:09:39commend this government is that they seems... to
00:09:42understand the economic dynamics,
00:09:46unlike the previous government that depends on ways and means,
00:09:49which is um, which is which is
00:09:52a suicidal way of running your economy, because you just sit down
00:09:55and then print money and deceive yourself that you can just spend
00:09:59money by printing money, that's not the way economic
00:10:02works, but we were doing that before, we were doing dual
00:10:06foreign exchange, which does don't make sense, because some
00:10:10people were gaming the system. Yeah, around tripping, you understand? We were
00:10:14doing, we were doing, we were doing fire subsidy, which
00:10:18was huge scam because some people just sat down somewhere, and they were just
00:10:22filing everybody, taking our patrimony. among
00:10:25themselves, they've be able to do the needful, this government have not things
00:10:29that they should do to be able to stabilize the economy that the economy has been stabilized,
00:10:33that is why you can have that 52 million billion, we
00:10:37use but at the time this government came in there was only 4 billion, in fact
00:10:41everybody thought we had 20 something, but they said no, this thing have been
00:10:44used to as collateral and all that and that the actual money that we
00:10:48have was actually 4 billion, so but now we be able to that do
00:10:52that, don't forget that that was a... term that inata we had
00:10:56problems because we the the the
00:10:59travel the
00:11:00airlines, the airlines could
00:11:04not repatr their profits and it became problem,
00:11:08but they be able to solve all that, so the economy has stabilized and you have to give
00:11:12it to this that they've done well, when it comes to doing the running the economy,
00:11:16they've done well, they've done well, what
00:11:19what is needed now is the growth, but as we move forward as we get
00:11:23growth the masses be able to now enjoy the
00:11:26benefit of that growth. b, you heard uh, mayor
00:11:30king pelu, now i want to look at it from the side of businesses now, what
00:11:34benefits would um should business owners you know
00:11:38expect from stronger reserves? let's say in the next maybe 6x to
00:11:4112 months.
00:11:45yeah, even um exchange rate
00:11:48stability is something that will benefit
00:11:51businesses. okay, we are in import dependent.
00:11:55nation, that is the reality, we cannot deceive
00:11:59ourselves about that, and um, a situation in
00:12:02which you have exchange rate
00:12:05stability, enables people to plan, enable
00:12:09businesses to plan, so that is
00:12:12one big advantage, you can imagine
00:12:16if the buffers were not
00:12:18there, because most election
00:12:22years, you go into an election year, after that, what you
00:12:26experience is recession,
00:12:30I am confident that we will not have that now,
00:12:33because the CBN
00:12:36governor has really, really worked hard to put
00:12:40us a good position
00:12:44in terms of foreign exchange
00:12:48market, and this is what everyone is talking about, no doubt
00:12:52about it, reform is painful. change is
00:12:55uncomfortable, this is something that we have
00:12:59to live with, but we can't return to a system that
00:13:03blead us dry, all the hypocris talking about subsidy now
00:13:07among these politicians, i can bet you that if
00:13:10president bolatinu is not reelected, none
00:13:13them, none them will roll
00:13:15back
00:13:24back to the subs. regime and that's why when you ask
00:13:27them, would you have removed
00:13:31subsidy? they find it difficult to say they
00:13:34wouldn't have, because they are on record as having said
00:13:38that they will remove subsidy, but everyone should
00:13:42know that when you remove subsidy it will generate
00:13:45pain, and that is what we are saying now, and that was
00:13:49why somebody said some time ago that we had lived the
00:13:52lie for so long. It is
00:13:56now that we are beginning
00:13:58to um achieve some level of
00:14:02stability and even growth, so all the people
00:14:06talking about it, they they
00:14:09know what they are talking about,
00:14:11the and the are people, the are people who understand the system, okay,
00:14:15investments are coming into our country, more investment, thanks
00:14:19to the diplomatic shots that the president has consistently
00:14:23done, these investment. will translate
00:14:26to job creation, will translate economic
00:14:30growth and we will then continue to get
00:14:33better, even in the area of um attacking poverty, because once
00:14:37we can create jobs, more people will be taken out of
00:14:41poverty, more people will be provided for,
00:14:45so we are confident that with
00:14:48time things will continue to get better, the sort
00:14:51of reform that president came
00:14:55up with in his first time, most lily liver politicians will not try
00:14:59during their first time, they will not try it, but
00:15:03i've known this man for taking big
00:15:07decisions, he risized the legal civil service during
00:15:11his first time, and many people thought he was crazy, because they thought
00:15:15he would not be reelected, yes, at the end the day he
00:15:19got reelected, he didn't want to wait for his second time, he
00:15:23didn't want to be politically correct and is the same thing that we've seen
00:15:26him do as president of Nigeria, okay,
00:15:30yes, pain has come with it, but it's
00:15:33inevitable, child bad is wonderful
00:15:37thing, what we all wish to see, but it comes with so much pain
00:15:40if you've never been into a maternity world, you will
00:15:44not know what you are talking about, if you are not married or you have no plan
00:15:48to get married, you will not know what we are talking about, but that is the
00:15:52reality. all right, i'm confident that we are we are a good place and
00:15:56we will continue to make progress. okay, uh, just in just 30
00:16:00seconds, the CBN has said that um, the economy is stable, forex is
00:16:04stable, maybe they should begin easing interest. wait right
00:16:08now, what do you think? no, no, no, interest is depends a lot of
00:16:11variables that has nothing to do with whether you are
00:16:15growing your your foreign exchange and all that, so the interest is
00:16:19another matter entirely, it depends a lot of variables, what inflation
00:16:22is the state of things, so that is different thing,
00:16:26the the the CBA and and the other bankers will they
00:16:30meet regularly, look at it and determine what
00:16:34what should influence it, so that's the...
00:16:37even even
00:16:39in US, remember that discipline that we have now in the
00:16:41economy, there's no way things will not
00:16:45get better. okay, all right, gentlemen, straight to
00:16:49our next conversation, for the armed forces personnel who
00:16:53dedicates their lives to protecting the nation,
00:16:56knowing that their services are valued, is deserving. the minister of
00:17:00defense, which general Christopher Musa has thanked
00:17:03presidentubu for proving a historic
00:17:0730 to 80% salary increase for armed forces personnel,
00:17:11the president said the pay rise recognizes the courage and
00:17:15sacrifices of military personnel in the fight against
00:17:19banditry, kidnapping and terrorism while reaffirming the
00:17:22government's commitment to their welfare,
00:17:26and good news, the president has approved
00:17:30salary increase for defense forces. this is
00:17:34moral booster, isn't it?
00:17:38Yes, it's a big shot in the arm for our arm
00:17:42forces, it's something we've always
00:17:45demanded to see, because those
00:17:49who toil day and night, those who risk their
00:17:53lives, those who lose their limbs
00:17:57for you and I to be saved, they deserve to
00:18:00be better taken care of, they
00:18:04deserve to be venerated, they deserve to be treated.
00:18:08as the real heroes that they are, and they
00:18:12deserve good
00:18:14pay.
00:18:16Nigeria must do it best
00:18:19to get into the league of
00:18:23those African countries that pay
00:18:27good wages to the arm forces, countries like
00:18:31South Africa countries like
00:18:34Boswana, even k
00:18:38so we need to get into that league and I think that um
00:18:42this is a step in the right direction and I like the
00:18:46incremental way that this has been done under
00:18:50this new arrangement officers above the rank of conel will
00:18:53enjoy 30% salary increase and this
00:18:57applies to brigadier generals, major generals, lieutenant generals
00:19:01and generals 30% salary increase, personnel
00:19:05ranking from cornel down. to warrant
00:19:08officer will receive a 50%
00:19:12increase, while those from private to staff sergeant
00:19:15we get an 80% in 80%,
00:19:19so it's just is
00:19:22just um similar
00:19:26to what the president has done with the tax
00:19:29reform, whereby the
00:19:32lowest worker does
00:19:35not need to pay
00:19:38and uh pay as you've seen in the in the
00:19:41past, so this
00:19:44government has done so much to improve, mean
00:19:48to focus on the welfare the ordinary nigerian
00:19:51and the lowely
00:19:55workers in the public service, you can see those who
00:19:59will get 80% pays and what this also
00:20:02means is the wage bill
00:20:05for um for the arm forces
00:20:09has gone up significantly from 660
00:20:13billion monthly to 924
00:20:17billion monthly, which is increase of
00:20:21264 billion naira, so
00:20:25this is a tremendous outlay, if you do not care for
00:20:29the welfare of service men and women, you
00:20:33are not going to commit this kind of money you know to their
00:20:36welfare, so is a good thing and I i
00:20:39know I'm not surprised that
00:20:43the the minister of defense is this excited because
00:20:46he was saying that when he was chief of defense staff. ers were
00:20:50receiving 49 about two
00:20:54years ago he then push for the salary
00:20:58to go to 100 thousand per month and
00:21:02that has been achieved so we say big
00:21:06thank you to the president this will definitely raise the morail of our
00:21:09soldiers if you go to 44
00:21:13hospital in kaduna
00:21:16you appreciate the sacrifices that the arm forces
00:21:21make for us, many people without limbs, they've
00:21:25lost their limbs to explosive
00:21:28devices, some have lost their
00:21:31site, some have lost their
00:21:34lives, so even when they are alive, we need
00:21:38to celebrate them, we need to do our best to make them happy, and i think
00:21:42this is what the president has done, again for those who say this
00:21:46president has not done anything that has
00:21:50nothing that i can point to during the
00:21:52campaigns, i wonder whether they will say this is not
00:21:56something good, because the
00:22:00noises that they make cannot
00:22:03obliterate reality,
00:22:07this is a good step, just like nail font, this is a good step
00:22:11and i'm really, really impressed, this is a good step, but higher
00:22:15salaries, it should definitely translate to better performance on the
00:22:18battle, start by saying
00:22:21that history will
00:22:25appreciate the fact that despite the
00:22:27challenges as to insecurity in this
00:22:31country, but
00:22:33that was one president that kept coming up with
00:22:36different ideas and how to be able to solve the
00:22:40insecurity problem. okay, it started
00:22:44by changing the service chips so as to
00:22:48bring new new people. with new
00:22:50ideas, then he created divisions in the
00:22:54army, okay, he sanctioned that more
00:22:58people, more, more bulls should be
00:23:00hired, he went
00:23:03into into partnership with
00:23:06us, where they were able to bring in people that
00:23:10trained our soldiers and then give logistics, give
00:23:13intelligence, and they even get involved in in actual
00:23:17combat, yes, killing that. the forces and
00:23:21all that, now he has the game changer
00:23:24is this, you see because when
00:23:28you when you, that is why in when when
00:23:32warfare started, that is where they
00:23:36introduce the idea of giving menders or v to people,
00:23:40okay, when you are, when somebody wants to make a
00:23:44supreme sacrifice to fight for his country, you
00:23:47have to tell the person that we appreciate what you are
00:23:51doing and we want to show you that we appreciate what you're
00:23:55doing, when you do that, it's increase
00:23:58morale, it makes them to know that there is need
00:24:02for what they are doing and that what they are doing
00:24:06is not in vein, we've always complained that the
00:24:10salaries that soldiers have been paid, you cannot look
00:24:12at um minimum wage and
00:24:16put them on kind of that kind of general salary. that must be
00:24:20different salary, he did that for the lecturers, yes, and that's
00:24:24why we don't have this problem of assal and all the things will be
00:24:28hearing, because our professors were not hearing well, he did
00:24:32that, now he has done that for the arm forces,
00:24:35to to to had 200 billion to your wage bill
00:24:39is lot of thing every month, but it shows a president
00:24:43who has vision who understands that look we have
00:24:47problem with insecurity and we have to come continue to come up
00:24:51with different ideas to be able to fight this insecurity
00:24:54and one the one the pillars of one the being blocks of
00:24:58fighting this to security is to encourage
00:25:02members the arm forces, inspire them, take care
00:25:06them so that they can have living
00:25:09wage, not just what we used to pay them, i don't know who
00:25:13convince him to be able to do that, but to me is one the
00:25:17best thing he has done, and i also believe that this could also help curve these of
00:25:21desertion and also improve recruitment into the and
00:25:24forces because they've said they should increase or
00:25:27more for example be able to join because you
00:25:31have to well yes the pay is good and then when
00:25:35you do when the pay is good like that other things allowances and other
00:25:39things will also come with it and then it will be better thing you
00:25:43see we because either we like it or
00:25:46not ISIS have chosen
00:25:50west africa as their base now, and when you had
00:25:53that to the Tuaregs and the Moreding gangs
00:25:57that moving along the west African coast
00:26:01Nigeria. has serious insecurity and on the
00:26:05steps, okay, and we have to know that it is
00:26:08important that we realize what we are facing, and part of it
00:26:12is to be able to have an arm forces that are mobile, that are
00:26:16well, well funded and have a good weight, living,
00:26:20absolutely, good, absolut, absolutely. all right, gentlemen, we need to go on
00:26:23this quick break, when we return the conversation continues, don't go
00:26:27away,
00:26:52all right, you're welcome back, it's still journalist hangout if you just joined us, i still have
00:26:56bko who is joining us from our buja studios and mayor at
00:27:00king pelu, now bko, this is in fact, good news for the armed forces,
00:27:04but b, before we went on that break, you mentioned two things, talking about the
00:27:07wage bill, the wage bill increased by over 200
00:27:11billion, this is huge, but can it be sustained,
00:27:15and secondly, should attention also shift to
00:27:18other security agents agencies like the
00:27:22police and other security agencies, this kind of increased wage bear, what
00:27:26do you think? yes, i
00:27:30think they will certainly come to
00:27:32that um the is listening
00:27:36government and they watch programs like this so they know
00:27:39that uh we represent the voice the
00:27:43Nigerian people untinted
00:27:46unstinted so we expect that
00:27:50the president will let this speculate to other
00:27:54services um but before we go on
00:27:58um let me make the point that the
00:28:01soldiers lose their lives the most, the soldiers on the
00:28:05frontline, they are the ones who have now have their
00:28:09salaries increased by 80%.
00:28:13okay, it's not often that you see generals on the wall
00:28:16front, no, even by their training at
00:28:20NDA, accent is not
00:28:24placed on generals going to the war front by
00:28:26themselves, so it is this
00:28:29junior soldiers, are populate the
00:28:33frontline and they deserve solid
00:28:37welfare, and the country has set machinery
00:28:41motion to take very good care them. now
00:28:45the good news that I have for Nigerians is that
00:28:49a combined team the army, police and the
00:28:52DSS has effected the
00:28:55release of
00:28:59people who are kidnapped in Warrock state.
00:29:03running into hundreds of people, woror,
00:29:07some people to were kidnapped in keby state as well
00:29:10as Niger state, their release has not been
00:29:14secured, I just got this information now,
00:29:17this is good news, I'm happy to tell Nigerians, it was
00:29:20fire fight between the
00:29:24arm forces and these good for nothing
00:29:28enemies the Nigerian state, at the end the day they took to
00:29:32their... hills just like the ori ray kidnappers took to
00:29:36their hills and we now have
00:29:39this um innocent people from karara
00:29:43from keby from niger uh freed so
00:29:47it's another good news and it also underlines the
00:29:50importance that Mr. President
00:29:54places on the welfare of our
00:29:57people we will defeat the enemies the Nigerian state I'm very confident
00:30:01about that. um the next says will be put to
00:30:05shame to say that the government is not doing
00:30:07anything is even mischivous,
00:30:11utterly mischivous, because we've seen a lot of people kidnapped
00:30:15rescued, yet you give the impression that they are not doing anything that
00:30:19Nigeria is bleeding, nothing is working in Nigeria, this
00:30:22is evidence that these people had not been
00:30:26forgotten, absolut and they been rescued, so let's see
00:30:30what they say next, maybe they are going to say that is Trump that did
00:30:33it or that uh they gave each them 1 billion
00:30:37dollars mayor.