What if Nigeria gets better? What if a graduate can easily get a job after graduation? What if the cost of living is affordable? What if the politicians starts getting their medical care in Nigeria? What if our security forces are well paid and equipped? What if INEC is truly transparent? What if an office holder resigns when they're underperforming? What if our education is improved? What if there was no tribalism? What if politicians stop looting? What if our head of president goes to Gembu in Taraba State for his leave instead of flying to Europe. What if our solid and liquid minerals are accounted for and used for our own good? JUST WHAT IF🤔

PETER AMEH: INEC has not been able to conduct an election that Nigerians can be very comfortable with, and see that this INEC really means well. If it’s for talk, I don’t think… Professor Mahmood Yakubu has the capacity, the talking character. Yakubu did. You have to make a lot of promises. Yakubu was everywhere telling everything, even in a private conversation that I had with him, the kind of promises he made.

Buba Galadima: If you go to Carlton Hotel in Asokoro, there is a lady from Zamfara who is sharing money. She is paying. And this is proving me right, because I have said on several occasions that President Tinubu and all his comrades are afraid of a contest, and they want to win unopposed. That is why they accumulated such an enormous amount of money to be used in buying people.

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Journalist: I’ve gone through your ideas in there. But then we have someone who says they have a coalition in the state. How do you want to break through this coalition and emerge successful? The agenda of the coalition seems to say that, look, we’ve captured the state, and nobody else can win anything outside of this coalition. How do you hope to break through? Lulu-Briggs: Well, you know, I’m not bothered about oppositions. I have absolute confidence in the capacity of the Rivers people to take informed decisions. And in the past, too, they’ve done these things, you know, that the votes haven’t counted. But this time around, we will have a population of people who have insisted that they will protect their own votes. Everybody is an agent of his party, to ensure that our votes will count.

Prince Adebayo (SDP Presidential candidate): Tinubu, if you allow him just four more years, if you allow him just one more year, four things are going to happen. You will buy fuel, petrol, at ₦5,000 per litre. Because I predicted four years ago that you will buy it at ₦2,000 per litre. It is getting there. The second thing that will happen, your economy will grind to a halt. You will see millionaires who cannot buy bread. All of you will become Manchester millionaires when Tinubu goes back, because you will need one million naira to buy one loaf of bread. So you will be a millionaire in poverty.

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Shitu Kabir: I’m telling you, after President Babangida, who built Abuja to his taste, the next person that has done us well is the President. If you look at Life Camp, Gwagwa, that road was dead. In fact, we were telling ourselves that they would close that road. But they finished it. Look at the industrial zone. That road is done. You can move any minute. So Wike was not bluffing. It is not Wike that delivers. It is the President that delivers.

Babachir Lawal: I left ADC because of the way Atiku manipulated the primaries. It was clear.

Donald Duke: Bola Tinubu is not an average politician. You don’t go to fight a lion who also has horns. Can you imagine a lion with a horn? Yes, right? It’s already a dangerous animal. Then you now give it a horn and you say go and fight it with knife and fork. You’ll be the dinner. So let’s get real.

Afegbua: The ADC, as it is today, is undergoing some financial strain. So they are looking for every opportunity to rake in money and all of that, because there are people who also use this business of campaign to make money. And so they will say all kinds of things.

Morka: The removal of subsidy is already bearing fruit that will, by gestation, by time, yield microeconomic drastic improvements that our people will ultimately see and benefit from.

Abdullahi: I’d like to tell you what I’m telling you. If I become president of Nigeria, I will bring back subsidy. And he’s not the only one saying so. Other presidential candidates are pivoting in the same direction, in opposition. Host: Are they copying you? Abdullahi: I’m not saying anybody is copying anybody. It’s that Peter Obi, before, was saying, I’m not bringing back subsidy. Then he came back and said, I will bring subsidy. Another candidate, because he played in that sector, said, look, I can deliver it at ₦500, because I know. And he gave the figures. I think the SDP also. So we are saying that it is not about saying, tell us when, tell us now, tell us the date. That doesn’t make sense. The principle is whether we agree that it is possible, whether Nigeria deserves to be subsidised or not. And the principle is very clear. Nations all over the world… countries all over the world are giving their people subsidies. Who subsidises more than the United States of America? You know how much they give in subsidy? This year alone, subsidies on fuel would have cost $3.1 trillion all over the world, globally. China is giving subsidy. The US is giving subsidy. Since this oil crisis, this energy crisis happened, Germany has capped the fuel pump. That is intervention in the market. So why is it that it is only Nigeria that is telling us that, oh, if we give subsidy, the economy will collapse? They are scaring us. Host: You probably don’t want to say… don’t you think they are also constrained by certain factors, being a ruling party? When President Bola Tinubu was talking to Jonathan, that he was wicked and callous for removing subsidy in 2012, did he consider that Jonathan may know more than he does? Did he consider that? So why are we applying a different standard to the position now? So he shouldn’t be forgiven for… Abdullahi: No, he cannot be. How can he be forgiven? And we say that what you have even done is not based on any evidence. It was recklessness. Because by May 29, that he was saying I will remove subsidy, what evidence was available to him? What clearance level, or what knowledge, did he have at the point that he was saying that? So he just came and said, subsidy is gone. A policy administrator will take his time. He will get into the office and he will see the books. He will see the numbers. And you say, look, this is no longer sustainable. If we continue in this direction, the economy will collapse. And the next thing you do, you come back to Nigerians. Fellow Nigerians, I’ve looked at the numbers. If we continue at this, the economy will collapse. These are the options we have. This is what we will do. Communication is everything in public policy. But when you think that the people cannot do anything, that you can get away with anything, and you don’t care the implication of what you are doing to the people, this is the outcome.

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Seun: He’s of the opinion that there are a lot of mysteries around President Bola Tinubu, including his age. And there are those who are asking, who are his classmates? There are those who are asking so many questions. What do you know about the president? Because you are here tonight speaking for him, some of the things that he may not be able to say about himself, which you are privy to, and you are able to say. How do you clarify some of these mysteries about the man who is our president, Ahmed Tinubu? Omokri: Well, here’s the thing. There are no mysteries. When Atiku said the president was 91 years old, what did I do? I immediately released a picture taken in 1993 of the president. At that time he was a senator, and the publisher of Ovation magazine, Dele Momodu, who is now a supporter of Atiku. And I put the picture clearly. I’m sure you saw that picture. And I said to Nigerians at that time, if the president is 91, then this was 33 years ago. Does he look like somebody in his late 50s, or in his 60s? Obviously Dele Momodu is alive. Dele Momodu can testify. I also published another picture where the president was in his 40s and he was a governor. I produced a video where he gave, you know, during Ramadan they have the tafsir lectures. I produced that video and that video went viral, and you could see the president. Listen, this is campaign season. Some persons are desperate, and so instead of focusing on issues, because probably they don’t have any issues, they’re just casting aspersions. Look, even if the president is not 91 I mean, obviously we’ve established that he’s not 91. The FBI has also established that his date of birth, according to the FBI, is 29 March 1952. They’ve established that. But even if the president was 91 years old, is that the issue right now? What about the economy? What about security? What about health? Those are the things that we should be talking about in Nigeria, not age-shaming the president. Seun: And I’m very sure that you must have heard the questions around which primary school, which secondary school. You said you confirmed that he went to Chicago State University, but can you tell us what primary school he attended, what secondary school he attended, perhaps? Do you know any of his..

Umahi: I will not blame the South-East in the last election because, virtually, we were not fairly treated by the past administration. Service chiefs, we got none. Major ministerial portfolios, we got none. And so the marginalisation continued, and they even increased at that point. And so you will not totally blame them for that.

Host: Now, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar is proposing targeted support for locally refined fuel as a way to ease the pressure of rising transport and food costs on Nigerians. Atiku, through his campaign council, cited Germany’s temporary cut in petrol and diesel tax, saying similar measures could help reduce the cost of transportation and essential goods in Nigeria. He proposed that any support should be properly budgeted, audited, and tied to fuel refined in Nigeria, with the aim of lowering pump prices, creating local jobs, and putting more money back in the pockets of families. Joining us is public affairs analyst Mr Joe Femi-Daguru. Good morning, sir. Thank you for joining us. Daguru: Good morning. Host: You were just teaching us how to speak German before we got on air. So how do I say welcome in German? Daguru: Willkommen. Host: Willkommen. Okay. All right. Now let’s get straight to the conversation. We’re talking about petrol prices. Oftentimes Nigerians have been crying, complaining about the amount they buy petrol. We see people lining up. We see people saying they cannot afford to buy petrol. But now Atiku Abubakar has come out and made the statement. He has compared what happened in Germany. He is saying we should incorporate it in Nigeria. And I’m happy you’ve been in Germany for quite a time, so you’ll be able to dissect what this really means. Nigeria and Germany, do they have the same economy? Do you think it is something we can also incorporate in Nigeria? And also, do you think Atiku is using the cry of the people as a campaign tool now, that he is just coming on the fact that fuel prices are high? Before, was he even talking about fuel prices? Daguru: Basically, you see, it is good for politicians to make comparisons, but sometimes they go off the track. In Germany, there is what you call tax on tax. For every litre of petrol that you buy, you pay about 50-something. Almost 58 percent of that is tax. So here in Nigeria, we are not doing that. And you see the taxes in Germany. You have what you call energy tax. You have CO2 tax. You have a couple of all this. Then before you now have the main VAT. The main VAT in Germany is 19 percent, compared to what we have in Nigeria. So when you look at all these things, these people have been paying so much. So this tax relief, which is good — if the government of Nigeria gives tax relief, there is no doubt about that, we all want that. But the point is not to make this comparison. This tax relief is a temporary thing, before they go back to what they have been paying before. So it is going to last between now and December. Host: December, December. Daguru: Yes. So now if you say that we should do that, consider the fact that Nigeria has not been paying up to what they even pay in Germany. Do we increase the price, and the taxes, before we give relief? No. So let’s manage what we are doing right now. Let’s manage it well. I think what the people want to know more is, what is the advantage? Where are we going thereafter?