₦airaland Forum

Buhari said that he would not have been able to campaign and go round so many stadiums if he was not healthy.


Kadaria asked what if he loses?

Buhari said that it would not be the first time that he would lose.

He gave examples of 2003, 2007 and 2011 when he lost and went to court.


He said he has been rigged out before (giving examples of how results were written without people voting) and said "Thank God and thank the PVC" that he eventually won. He said that his opponents probably underrated the PVC

Kadaria: There has been a lot of speculation about your health. Are you ok? Are you healthy?

2) To both of them: Will you accept the result if you lose the election?

There was previously a question about the disability bill. Someone in the audience said that it has been passed and transmitted to the president to sign.

Buhari was not aware of that.

Osinbajo said that it has not been transmitted and in fact people were protesting at the national assembly to get them to pass the bill

Question to Osinbajo.

He is the chairman of the economic council.

How can he explain inheriting a buoyant economy and then going into recession

Kadaria said that Buhari has been seen lifting up Ganduje's hands at campaign rallies.

Buhari said that he hasn't been to Kano.

He said that, on the subject of Ganduje, the matter is before the court and the state assembly, so he'll wait for the report from the court and state assembly.

Kadaria asked for Buhari's personal views on the video.

Osinbajo said that the matter is before the court, but Kadaria said that Buhari can answer for himself.

Buhari said that he watched the video. That he couldn't imagine that Ganduje would personally receive money from someone. He said he was overwhelmed. He said luckily, the system has given him relief through the courts and the state assembly, so he'll wait for the report of the court and the state assembly

They asked if he is getting frustrated by the slow pace of the anti corruption fight.

He said that he can't afford to get frustrated

Kadaria asked if he will change his anti-corruption strategy.

Buhari didn't get the question, so she had to repeat herself twice

Buhari said that they are working with the US and the UK to recover funds. He said that the problem might be that they are not telling the people what they are doing and that he will ask the EFCC to make a detailed briefing to the people about what they are doing

Questions from home about:

1) Ganduje

2) Infrastructure

I didn't get the 3rd point.

Kadaria emphasises that the questions are directed at Mr President (probably so that Osinbajo won't answer them).

jamace:
Wow, Kadaria is good. She asks questions which ordinary Nigerians would have asked. Kudos to her.

She was excellent when she was at the BBC in the late 1990s and early 2000s. She was excellent at 234Next Newspaper and she was excellent when she moderated the 2011 presidential debate

Kadaria says that people in government are always talking about 16 years of PDP, but people say PDP and APC are the same because many people that were in PDP have moved to APC and vice versa.

Osinbajo says they're not the same. Despite the fact that people have come into the APC, they still have their manifesto at their core and this is what differentiates them

Osinbajo says that India had a plan to get itself out of poverty.

He refers to corruption in the previous administration and says that they didn't have a plan to get Nigeria out of poverty. He says that this government has a plan to get Nigeria out of poverty.

They are discussing the report that Nigeria has overtaken India as the capital of corruption in the world.

Ayo Oyalowo (a known Buhari supporter on Twitter) says that the videos that Kadaria was referring to are fake news.

Kadaria is asking about welfare of soldiers.

Some soldiers protested at Maiduguri airport and some people are saying that there might be financial issues


Buhari that soldiers are not supposed to protest and that there's usually a court martial when there's a protest, but that they are reabsorbed if they are found to be innocent.

Kadaria brought up the issue of allegations of corruption and fraud in the military. Buhari details measures that they've taken to checkmate corruption in the military in the north east.


Kadaria then asks if that means that the president does not believe that there are financial shenanigans in the military in the north east. She says that there are videos of soldiers protesting. She also says that some soldiers say that Nigeria is not worth dying for.

Osinbajo says that's not true. He says that we just celebrated remembrance day and Nigerian soldiers are among the most committed in the world

Kadaria: But you have to admit, people are dying and there have been attacks especially against the military.


Buhari: Thank God I have a background in the military. When they resort to bombings, you have to be mobile, have good communications and intelligence to counter the new strategy

Kadaria: Government says that Boko Haram has been technically defeated, yet they are killing people. What has gone wrong with the fight against Boko Haram.

Buhari: The best people to answer this are people from the north east.

Boko Haram were controlling 17 local governments, but they are not anymore. Now they wrap bombs on small girls and ask them to go and explode it.

The people know the difference. They can now move about unlike before.

But I've said it before that journalists should conduct research. When you go to Borno, don't just stay in a hotel in Maiduguri (applause from the audience). Go to Mongonu (he lists other towns) and find out what's going on

Question to Osinbajo (since he's a lawyer).

What about people whose assets are temporarily forfeited.

Osinbajo says that the money is kept aside. He also notes that some of the funds are voluntarily returned by corrupt people

Question from a viewer at home:

What do you plan to do with monies that EFCC recovers from corrupt people.

Buhari: He says there's a plan to create a separate account. He says that it will be used for infrastructure and to fund the budget if there's a deficit.

He says, of course that has to go through the budgeting process

Another break.

The next edition will feature Omoyele Sowore.

Osinbajo says that state governments own land (the federal government are not in charge of land) and they will provide land for watering holes, etc. He says that he was the chairman of the committee that was set up to investigate and manage the problem. He says that the goal is to stop grazing in future, but it cannot be stopped at once. He said that the state governments have also realised that it can't be stopped at once, so some of them will provide land for grazing and watering.


Kadaria asks if there's a policy to tackle desertification and Osinbajo says that they are working with countries to the north of Nigeria (Niger, Chad, etc.) to tackle the problem.

Farmers/herders clashes.

Buhari says that he knows a lot about this and he mentions solutions that were proferred in the past, eg. grazing reserves.

Kadaria says that those solutions don't seem to have worked because the problem still exists.

Buhari said that he expected the state governments to enforce the law and do what is right (eg enforce the grazing routes). He says that the states are the ones that own the land. He refers to the situation in benue where the government said that they don't want the cows, but he said that's difficult to enforce. He also said that the cattles are moving to the extent that they've gotten to Bayelsa. What next? Will they end up in the ocean?

Question about disability.

Buhari says that the disability bill has been before the national assembly for a long time (so long that he can't remember exactly when it was sent), but they have not passed it.

Kadaria says that they'll find out what's happening with the bill.


Buhari says that they should because it's been at the national assembly for a long time

Osinbajo talks about the fact that UBEC provides counterpart funding to support the local and state governments and that it's the primary duty of the local governments to run primary school education.

Follow up question by Kadaria.

There's some confusion, because the constitution says that primary education is the duty of the local government, but you also have federal agencies like UBEC that are also involved in primary school education. Would you support restructuring to change the way that primary school education is run?

Buhari: The problem is that the state governments do not always release the funds that the local governments need to run primary schools. There's an example of a state where the local government chairmen were made to sign that they've received the finds, whereas they only got half that amount (applause).

The president is responding to the question about almajiris.

He said that, going by the constitution of Nigeria, the almajiri issue is meant to be handled by the local governments. They are in charge of primary school education.

If the state governments do not give the local governments enough money, then it is the duty of the local governments to scream and let Nigerians hear them.

This reminds me of Kadaria's time at the BBC. She doesn't take nonsense.

Buhari: Like I said, we have to be very careful and the public has to help us.

We can not just arrest people. We have to have evidence. We can ask the person to go, if there's strong allegation, like the former Secretary to the government, but we can't arrest unless there's evidence.

Kadaria: But if the allegations are strong enough to ask him to go, why has he not been charged to court.

Osinbajo: I think the matter is before the EFCC

Buhari tried to avoid the question of the chief justice.

Instead, Kadaria has brought up the issue of Babachir Lawal. Why hasn't he been tried?

Buhari: I'm not clear about that question. Can you mention the name?

Kadaria lists Babachir and Fashola

Buhari: What allegation?

Kadaria: The allegation that your corruption fight is only against the opposition

You talked about 3 things that you campaigned on and pick them one by one.

1) Corruption. Some say that your anti-corruption fight only focuses on the opposition and those that are against your administration.

Kadaria: Why do you want a second term?

Buhari: I made the announcement early to avoid intrigues in my party and those that felt strongly about it left the party. I also believe that the two issues that we campaigned on in our first term are still relevant.