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00:00:00'I of think it might be demolished okay so and
00:00:04reconstructed and reconstructed yes let let me
00:00:07um break this question down cuuse you know uh on
00:00:11paper we see
00:00:12of that the president is doing well uh the macro level we've discussed
00:00:16it over and over on the stable we see that things are working out businesses are
00:00:20coming in from outside the country people are
00:00:22investing and it seems like our economy is stable
00:00:26but the majority of nigerians are still feeling the harshness'. the
00:00:30economy, majority of Nigerians, their purchasing power has
00:00:34dropped drastically, they are not able to really fend
00:00:37in for themselves, to feed, transportation is high, cost of food is
00:00:41high, healthcare and all of that. How do you think what
00:00:45the president is doing can reflect so that Nigerians at the
00:00:49grassroot level can feel the positive
00:00:52impact of what we say the president is doing? yeah,
00:00:56people
00:00:57of had of asked me that um, things are hard, I also
00:01:00acknowledge that fact and then I hope that it
00:01:04can be better and then the truth
00:01:07of the matter is that there is lot of intervention by the federal
00:01:11government and um look at nail fund
00:01:15if somebody is
00:01:17of paying giving your awards the tution
00:01:20fee giving him money to feed and what are you
00:01:24and you can imagine the number of student we have in
00:01:28Nigeria and that is a
00:01:30direct direct help to the
00:01:34parents
00:01:35of so to speak, because otherwise the money will come from the parents
00:01:39and the money will come from the parent, so when he
00:01:43is doing something like that is a direct um
00:01:46help to the students and because
00:01:49of naturally um the population can also
00:01:53of be uh 18 for worries, but
00:01:56when the young ones are being educated.
00:02:00giving opportunities, those are the one that will develop
00:02:03Nigeria in the future, investment in them is investment in
00:02:07the future
00:02:09of the nation, and there are other
00:02:11other other intervention given all
00:02:15these basis um the CNG CNG
00:02:19bussings and you will know that earlier
00:02:22of the there was free
00:02:25a
00:02:25of confusion from petrol to gas and all what are you
00:02:29and and the and the stations are still functional as we speak
00:02:33right now, i think that um also we need to even
00:02:36speak um to ourselves, especially the
00:02:39middleman, middleman,
00:02:42um, my friend
00:02:44of told me that um, he bought some five tubs of yams
00:02:48in sura market in the local
00:02:50of government for 65, 65, and it
00:02:54was able to buy the same set of yar
00:02:56at mile 12 for less than 20
00:03:01of n yeah five tubs of year for less than
00:03:04of 20,000 and um i don't think that the
00:03:07transportation course um could be responsible
00:03:11for the large um
00:03:14of differential in prices, i think our people needs to be talk to they should not make
00:03:18kill um during these hard time they should
00:03:22be able to also be compassion it minimal profit minimal
00:03:27of profit that keep everybody going and then i
00:03:31think we need to speak to ourselves and
00:03:34um because the petrol had gone up a little
00:03:37of why triple uh fears of transportation
00:03:41fears because that i is
00:03:45to be spread shared amongst like 16
00:03:4915
00:03:50a passengers not one people should carry should carry the
00:03:54burden of it so everybody needs to be spoken to nobody should
00:03:57of make kill and
00:03:58you think that to develop is not for government alone, the government should
00:04:02do is, but it's for everybody to contribute their quotas
00:04:06to the development of our nation, i have a car i've converted to
00:04:10of CNG and buy cng, i agree with you
00:04:14sir that um Nigerians should not make kill, lot
00:04:17of the commercial buses have converted, but they charge on petrol
00:04:21price uh range, so that is fact
00:04:25out there, but
00:04:26the there's also the fact that the CNG stations are empty, they are locked up right?
00:04:30now most
00:04:30of them do not have products, yeah, that's from a consumer point of
00:04:34view, um, but you are chairman house committee on
00:04:38marine transport and I would like to know what reforms you have
00:04:41worked on, what you are pushing on the floor
00:04:43of the senate to see that our ports work and our
00:04:47a maritime sector create more jobs for Nigerians, uh, well, I think that the
00:04:50federal government are taking the b step
00:04:54to initiate
00:04:56of the
00:04:58of total rehabilitation of our port you. the ports, Legos Port
00:05:01especially, is more than 100 years that it was
00:05:04constructed, and the debt is like
00:05:09of 13 of meters and the new... um
00:05:13ships um now they have about 16
00:05:16um 16 meters in uh draft and then that means
00:05:20they cannot bt in legal sport so we are losing
00:05:24as it were businesses to other other
00:05:28countries along the west coast but you recall that the federal
00:05:32government had signed um an
00:05:35mou and agreement with foreign
00:05:38investors um to totally rehabilitate.
00:05:42say the nigerian ports and it will take like two years
00:05:45and then also the not only legos port
00:05:49other eastern ports will be developed however while this
00:05:53is going on they are going to divert as it were traffic
00:05:57to the instant ports to take all
00:06:00the vessels that were supposed to come to Lagos where
00:06:04Lagos take minimal um number of ships
00:06:07for them to be ready lot of things is been done the boat
00:06:11to so that there can be transportation during night and
00:06:15then they also increase their capacity as ligos is been
00:06:19done they will revert to um the
00:06:23eastern ports and make lot of development and new
00:06:27ports are also being built and then you will see
00:06:31the dangote trying to do
00:06:32the olokula you also see that the the legos and
00:06:36government had also signed
00:06:39another another mou for another. port to be
00:06:43develop, developed in August 8th, not
00:06:46forgetting the APM is also going to
00:06:50redevelop or expand, no they have a
00:06:53private port in Legos, they are going to expand that, and they are also
00:06:57interested as it were in developing badagre port,
00:07:00the ebom port is also there for development,
00:07:03is a port that will have natural
00:07:07debt of about 17, 16
00:07:11meters ' is on the
00:07:14ocean and then the sapel airport is also going
00:07:18to be developed and then whole lot of things is
00:07:22happening in the maritime sector and then there
00:07:26are bills various bills like we have like 10 different
00:07:30bills in the national uh assembly especially the
00:07:33senate for the reinvention as
00:07:37it were the maritime sector okay
00:07:40in Nigeria we just passed the... for regulation reform
00:07:44bill for the Nigerian shipers council has been assented
00:07:48to by the president and then the
00:07:52Nigerian port um reenactment
00:07:55bill is on cost in the
00:07:58maza um reenacted
00:08:01reenactment bill is also on course Nigerian inland waterways bill
00:08:05is there
00:11:53feel national assembly is too close to. to executive, how do you respond and
00:11:57where has senate shown
00:11:58independence? i
00:12:01think um, what is
00:12:05best for the country is a symbiotic
00:12:08relationship between the executive and the legislature? i've been,
00:12:11i've been in the legislature for
00:12:15uh right now more than um 15 years, so i should know
00:12:18the difference, was a member of legos house of assembly for like 12
00:12:22years before good. to the national
00:12:26assembly a symbiotic where both can draw from each
00:12:29other strength um the way the const
00:12:33constitution is developed is not for
00:12:36a an arm of government to do it all when
00:12:40you look at the constitution says that the
00:12:43executive will execute and projects but they
00:12:47don't make the legislation uh
00:12:51for for for for themselves that should be done by
00:12:55the legislators and the legislature also
00:12:59cannot write and finish legislation by
00:13:03itself, even after all consideration, after the third reading, you
00:13:07still have to give it back to the executive to
00:13:10assent, so the the way the it is develop,
00:13:14it is for them to have a symbiotic relationship where
00:13:17you the complement each
00:13:21other, but can you question, can the legislature question, can they refuse can? they
00:13:25call to order because they are calling the legislature right now uh a rubber
00:13:29stamp the executive, the
00:13:32legislature always call to other
00:13:35different um executive
00:13:38um be the presidency or the agency of
00:13:42government, if you want to know you can just
00:13:46google how many probe is on at the national
00:13:49assembly, how many how many agency of government are
00:13:52they looking at their? performance visas
00:13:56corruption or executing the
00:14:00manage for which they were established, when you look at that
00:14:03you will know that um the fact that there is no fight between
00:14:07aquabio and tinubu does not mean that there is
00:14:11nothing that is nothing going on under it, but for
00:14:15responsible legislature is not supposed to when you
00:14:19are doing things are supposed to before you even
00:14:22get um to the bottom of it it's is all over
00:14:26in the press and sometim when we have that kind of situation you do not
00:14:29get results, we do not get result,
00:14:32so we are the watch dog and we continue to do our job,
00:14:36but we also we continue to collaborate as it were with the
00:14:40federal executive
00:14:43council of so that we do not want to be an
00:14:46impediment or inndrances to development, especially at
00:14:50this critical um period in the national
00:14:54development. to where a lot is going on in the
00:14:57country and then the the was
00:15:01what will be worse is for us, the legislature and
00:15:05executive to be trading bars and working at cross
00:15:09purposes with each other, well we can call each
00:15:13other to action, we when we see things
00:15:17we don't not like, it's not like it must be a minister
00:15:21or a general manager of one the agen of government that will be responsible.
00:15:25so we have all the rights and privileges to call them to order and when
00:15:29they do not come we
00:15:32senate have the president or the the speaker the house of representatives
00:15:36to issue. arrest warrant and I'm not sure that is
00:15:40any general manager or a minister of government that
00:15:44want that kind of d to be arrested and then you
00:15:47know even after that there are other measures that can
00:15:51be deployed to to put a
00:15:54minister in check we may not even approved his budget
00:15:58we can refuse to we may still pass general budget and refuse to
00:16:02allocate resources to that minister
00:16:05unless we are. able to see that is going
00:16:09to work for the interest of nigerians and Nigeria,
00:16:12so we are a symbolic
00:16:16collaborative um relations for nation
00:16:19building, it does not serve any purpose for us to work at
00:16:23cross purpose, but we will not abdicate our
00:16:27responsibility that is bestowed on us by the
00:16:31constitution the federal um uh constitution the federal
00:16:35republic of Nigeria, All right sir,
00:16:38you know when MBC was introducing you, she talked about your town hall
00:16:41meetings and your 11th town hall meeting
00:16:45recently empowered 2,0 constituents and 300 students and
00:16:49distributed over 1 million exercise books to
00:16:52166 public schools, why would you
00:16:56say this model of directly touching them, why
00:17:00would why would you prefer to use that and how effective is
00:17:03it? uh well in terms of um
00:17:08um, whatever we want to do, we look at the
00:17:11desirability the program, it's
00:17:14desirable, if it's acceptable, and if it
00:17:18will bring the desired um results
00:17:22for the empowerment of like 2000
00:17:26and beneficiaries whereby we gave million each
00:17:29each the 93 was that we have
00:17:32another other institutions, it
00:17:36was because we felt that... um, you know that there are
00:17:39programs by the federal government whereby they give money to
00:17:43people pay into their accounts and
00:17:47then we call schemes and sometimes when they
00:17:51do all of this we do not get the desired result
00:17:54people would not readily acknowledge
00:17:58the receipt of such funds with other that
00:18:01by giving it different approach okay each word
00:18:05bring 10 people. yeah, so
00:18:09if you don't,
00:18:12you don't have that thing, it means that the chairman or the leader in that
00:18:16word is going to be held them responsib
00:18:20responsible, so that was why we did that, and then for
00:18:23the students, um, i think that was the second
00:18:27one, the first was 24, 25,
00:18:3126 session where we gave like
00:18:33a million size books, we we were
00:18:37given to the students directly in in my
00:18:40constituency right now we have like
00:18:44176 and secondary schools and then we gave each
00:18:48and we have like 18600 students and we gave
00:18:51each them six exercise books so when you do the
00:18:55arithmetic find that we have printed like over
00:18:58million yeah size books so there is it is easily
00:19:02track go to any secondary school and just ask any the student bring out
00:19:06your your notebooks size looks because nobody
00:19:09was left out and um so you cannot tell me that this one did
00:19:13not get or whatever for whatever reason so just do your and we
00:19:17have been doing that and find out that everybody has gotten
00:19:21ex we did for me the may the one we did in may was
00:19:25for 2026 2027 session because we
00:19:29knew as at that time that time by time they were resuming we will
00:19:33have gone into the electionaring period and we do not want electionaring
00:19:37to disturb what we wanted to do
00:19:39so we gave that and told this teachers hold it
00:19:42on as soon as it is september when they
00:19:45resume please distribute to all the student and they've done
00:19:49that for the scholarship to 300 students we've
00:19:53been doing that for like 18 years each session we
00:19:57give to uh we made the announcement put
00:20:01it in the prince media electronic media and we has people
00:20:05students from our district. to apply and they
00:20:08applied and we give to them and for this year we did not as
00:20:12it remove anybody, if you meet all the
00:20:16requirements you are given, you get it, no
00:20:19discrimination, nothing, and then
00:20:23the test testimony and then
00:20:26justify - continued
00:20:30scholarship and program of recent like two them were
00:20:34the best students in lasu - came to the office, they
00:20:38came by the office and to thank us and say that we
00:20:42also, and um, and then we get satisfaction, there was
00:20:45a time was coming to legos and
00:20:49then i was..." one the commitee shows and i think we were three
00:20:53then and then we were at radis in blue
00:20:57by the pool and then we were working me the chairman and one
00:21:00other person and then some the those were swimming came to us
00:21:04and like they greeted us frustrated and said
00:21:08do you know i don't know you guys i said we are
00:21:12those you were given scholarship so you felt
00:21:15elated you felt that is internal joy yes
00:21:20these and then we'll continue to do that because some other people have done
00:21:24that to us in the past,
00:21:27thank so is less than 100 days to the
00:21:30elections and i'd like to know what what you
00:21:34think inec should do, what political parties and citizens should do
00:21:38differently to ensure credible elections? ah
00:21:42well, credible election is for everybody from inec to
00:21:46those who fters and
00:21:48then to those who are um... contesting, but those who are
00:21:52contesting is to uh play a ball according to the
00:21:56electoral law, electoral guideline and
00:21:59then for for the uh
00:22:03enec is also to do their bit and for all of us to hold the
00:22:06sanctity the free and fair um elections
00:22:10and then also um the the
00:22:14voters should also be uh
00:22:18dispassionate. in them voting
00:22:22and then be able to assess and be able to look critically
00:22:26what they were expecting, what they've gotten and then
00:22:29what would they think can take them further? and
00:22:33i think that um everything
00:22:37seems to be right because i was one member the
00:22:40electoral committee for the senate and i know that we did a
00:22:44lot of good job to make sure that um the election
00:22:48holes peacefully. and for uh
00:22:52now we have even um
00:22:54adscribed fines to
00:22:58electoral offenses, finds and jail
00:23:01terms to electoral offenses in the
00:23:04new um electoral electoral law, the
00:23:08new electoral law and okay senator because of time we are almost at
00:23:12the end the show uh what's your message to ligutians and
00:23:16nigerians listening this morning, especially those who are anxious about
00:23:20future, especially with this uh elections that are around the
00:23:23corner? well, what I can tell uh,
00:23:27my people in the Lagos Central Senatorial district,
00:23:31so that the sheep the
00:23:34nation is being piloted by caffe Buans
00:23:38and by the president the nation, and those of us who are
00:23:42going to support him or who are going to play the roles in the
00:23:45legislature, will not remove our hands from the plow, we continue
00:23:49to to work for the progress the nation, they should
00:23:53hope for better things, as things are now, we knew that
00:23:57and we are hopeful and that um all these unintended
00:24:01consequences will be addressed um
00:24:04with passion and with everything that we have and
00:24:08then we hope Nigeria will be better place for
00:24:11it,