Three Years After: Has President Tinubu Fulfilled His Campaign Promises? Hon Babajimi Benson Speaks

Ajouté : 2026-06-01

[00:00:08]This is politics tonight. Welcome and thank you for joining me on the program.

[00:00:12]I am Ola Lati. Today marks exactly 3 years since the administration of presidents Ba Amitu came into office with the promise of renewed hope, revive the economy and confront some of Nigeria's deepest structural problems.

[00:00:26]The president today had said a lot and tonight let's examine how far the president has gone in three years.

[00:00:31]Joining me on the program tonight is honorable Babafi Babaj Benson representing Ekro federal constituency also chairman house committee on defense. Thank you very much for joining me on the program. Good to see you.

[00:00:44]Thank you very much. So no one can deny uh that the president inherited a damaged economy and a broken security infrastructure. But interestingly also he took over from an APC government. But the truth is the fact is the numbers were very very bad. Today the president had said a lot but opposition parties opposition figures would insist the Niger are worse off today. Three years later what do you consider as the biggest single achievement Nigerians are in?

[00:01:11]>> Uh I would say the removal of subsidy it's a landmark. I would also knowing going crunching the figures if they hadn't removed subsidy in 2023 the quantum of subsidy payment uh would have been about 58 trillion naira. If you look at today's budget the budget is valued at 68 trillion. So it means we would have been paying everything we have 58 trillion as subsidy uh payments which is uh unproductive.

[00:01:46]>> Mhm.

[00:01:46]>> Now those monies are chneled uh through >> the governors. They have three times they have more money to to provide for the welfare and security of the people.

[00:02:00]>> But the president is still begging them appealing to them to do more for their people.

[00:02:03]>> Yes. I think that's where the problem is. Yeah. The government, the the federal government has done the macro work. They've done the big heavy lifting job, right? So trickling down has to be ruthlessly done by the governors. So if they do it more ruthlessly um it will alleviate a lot of poverty.

[00:02:25]There will be more security and Nigeria will attain the eminence that is true qualities offer. You know, I asked that question because beyond the president speaking and reassuring Nigerians, I mean, I've also speak spoken with economists and policy makers, policy analysis. You say it, it got to a time that we began to talk to ourselves because if we' continued or if you had continued the way we were living before this president came in, Niger was going to get to a point where we would all regret um as as as citizens. But does it bother you that the president is paying the political price for doing what others before him could not do? Yes. Uh that's why I always say in the Bible, the Bible and the Quran tells us to pray for our leaders, right? So we need to pray for them for mental fortitude, mental magnitude, strength uh to lead us. All right. Uh the president has done a yman's job. He's taking the hard decisions and if you see what is happening in Sagal now uh the Seneagalles president rose into power based on a populist uh agenda instead of him to tighten the belts and take the hard decisions removal of subsidy and stuff like that he didn't do it sagal is in a turmoil if you fast forward that to Nigeria hard tough decisions have been taken if you look at the rating agencies Nigeria is on a B+ which means our economy is stable. If you look at the feature poor rating, it rates Nigeria high. If you look at our external reserves, uh when this administration got in, it was three $3 billion.

[00:04:11]Now I'm sure we're close to 40 billion if not more. So we're baby steps, building blocks to prosperity. So I don't think any other president would have done anything different. I looked at >> some stakeholders maintained that uh the president is reforming too aggressively.

[00:04:29]Do you think the APC government has done enough to communicate these achievements?

[00:04:33]>> No. Strategic communication can be a lot better.

[00:04:36]>> It's poor.

[00:04:37]>> Yes. I said can be a lot better. I mean I was at a forum today and um I heard somebody say that the Legos Calaba road is being built by Dangote.

[00:04:50]>> You know that shows you the level or lack of strategic communication in government. It can be it can be a lot better. I'll tell you another I'll give you another example. I looked at the tax bill. The tax bill, the Nigerian tax tax law was made in 1908 or something under this administration. It was um re re uh reenacted. Yeah. So, we have a brand new tax bill that allows um corporations who employ Nigeria and that are registered in Nigeria to get non- taxed. Prior to that, in Ghana, for instance, if Google employs a Nigerian, the Ghanaian authorities will only tax the employed.

[00:05:47]Right? Prior to the new tax bill, the Nigerian tax law will tax both Google and the Nigerian employee. So if you were an employer, would you employ a Ghanaian or would you employ a Nigerian?

[00:05:58]So the new tax bill has made the taxable person only the Nigerian employee. So that frees up it's a $45 billion industry outsourcing. So you know Nigerian use very enterprising, very uh social media enabled. So it frees up a whole lot of dollar making opportunities for them. It was done by this administration understated. Nobody talks about it.

[00:06:25]>> Uh >> who should talk about it? Because the other question I would love to ask is I know you're a lawmaker but you're also close to the presidency.

[00:06:32]>> Why do you think most of the ministers in this cabinet are afraid or shy to come out and talk about their own achievements in their own ministries and ultimately the president's achievements?

[00:06:42]I I don't think they're shy, but I just feel that there's also a lot of disconnection between Yeah. Yeah. So, in my constituency, I'm sure in my constituency, I'm in about 300 WhatsApp groups.

[00:06:59]>> Yes. They fire me on a daily basis. Yes.

[00:07:02]I try to aggressively explain what is going on in government with them, right?

[00:07:08]And I feed into the social media. So they have to go back to their level and be able to connect to what they read, uh, drink, sleep with, which is social media. I'm not sure we've been able to critically do that.

[00:07:25]>> But sadly for >> but the achievements are huge, >> but sadly for uh this administration, I mean, the opposition seems to be dominating the narrative. And what's the narrative? The narrative is that Niger are suffering. How does it feel seeing that his opposition uh I mean is trying to you know politicize hardship without offering alternatives to Nigeria? Yes, like I said, that's the that's the u this is the time the opposition need to be able to sell a narrative to Nigerians and what narrative will they sell to Nigerians? They're not going to say the APC is performing. I don't expect >> Does it not bother you as an APC member?

[00:08:02]>> It bothers me. So, where we charged ourselves to do more strategic uh communication? My federal constituency, I do town hall meetings. I brief them on a regular basis. Like I said earlier, we um on over 300 um social media um platforms, WhatsApp groups, you know, so we use that to disseminate as much information as possible. So, and I think this should be above board. We still have about 6 months to the general election. So, I think the good side should be be be um put into the system so that they know three tiers of government. Federal, state, local government.

[00:08:50]>> I'll always give the federal government a pass mark because macroeconomic stability. This is the first time that election is in 6 months. You're not seeing a run on the naira. In previous years, you will see that elections are coming or the dollar rate is spiking.

[00:09:07]It's even going lower. So something is being done and nobody is really communicating that to to Nigerians you know so I worry about that the president has >> So you think the exchange rate reform has achieved his intended >> it has predict predictability and things like that you know so uh investors are coming in um if you look at the portfolio um investors they're coming in so we're building blocks to prosperity >> all right the presidency says these reforms are necessary to save the economy from uh from collapse. And you've also reiterated that statement tonight. But for Nigerians, we're still saying we're suffering. You're telling us the economy is good. You're telling us these reforms, these bold reforms are courageous and good. We're suffering.

[00:09:53]We're buying foil at over 1,300 naira. How often does the presidency, you know, reassess the human cost of of some of these reforms? And I ask because you know, stakeholders would say, "Yes, the policies are necessary. These policies are courageous." At the same time they are saying courage without cushioning becomes punishment for Nigerians.

[00:10:10]>> I agree with you and what I always say we live in a vaua world volatile uncertain complex ambiguous. If you look at the price of oil in Nigeria it's probably still the cheapest in the world. It's I think it's 0.08 cents, right? The one closest to it is 12 cents. So it's still cheap, right? But relatively I get you. How many people can afford that you know? So that is why I always say that if a state government is getting three times the amount it used to get based on the reform instituted by Mr. President. We need to interrogate the state governments more.

[00:10:53]>> We should do that.

[00:10:54]>> Yep. the citizens, the office of the citizens, the shoot. Are the local are the state governments sending money the appropriate amount of monies to local governments? Yes. I always say to Nigerians that Lagos is safe today. Lagos is probably the safest state in Nigeria because our president created 37 additional LCDAS making a total of 57. Those 57 LCAS are alive to their responsibility. The governor of Lagos state Babaj Solo ensures that every penny goes to them right so their life is a responsibility they know that a geographical space is allotted to them they recruit people they recruit um JTF to protect they hire people they do LPOS's they they clean >> Isn't that an indictment on on the APC on your party I The APC as of today controls 31 states.

[00:11:56]>> Yes. So I'm just saying that the political will from the governors as well. Nigerians should wholeheartedly appeal to them. Yes. To even to the presidency to make sure that the good works trickles down to everybody. I always use this analogy. The late um um chief of army staff uh Lagbaja said to me that the happiest day in his life was when the Supreme Court granted a judgment saying that local government should get their money. So I asked him why. He said yes that it the best non-kinetic way to kill insecurity is to ensure that local government administrations function appropriately that they go and win territories from bandits and instead of them to hand over those terrorists to a local government chairman they have to travel hundred of miles to the city center to hand over right whereas in Los State if army. Maybe there's a border area that blah blah blah. They're going to hand it over to the local government chairman.

[00:13:08]He's ready. He has capacity.

[00:13:10]>> It's functioning.

[00:13:12]>> So, how come we don't have that? If we had that in 36 states or 35 states in Nigeria, we'll be okay. So I think they we need to sit down maybe lawmakers or the president we need to sit down with 35 governors minus governor of Lego state and speak to these guys that governors is from the grassroots it's the bottoms up approach >> because you've gone there honorable let's talk about security um as the chairman house committee on defense has a tonu administration done enough differently from previous governments on in security >> yes you know earlier Yeah, I spoke about the VUA world. Um, there are a lot of complex things that are happening in this world that are the black swan events. For instance, in the Sahel area, the French people left, you know, so there's a thoroughare from that area into Nigeria. you know the jihadist the bad guys used to be uh cailed by the French uh benaso nij mali s region but it's a bit porous now so it could be an influx of those guys coming into into Nigeria but the armed forces of Nigeria aly led by uh the minister of defense and the NSA are doing a yman's job right uh the security pack we have the with the US is working.

[00:14:44]Um as we speak over 100 um commanders of the bad guys have been eliminated. A couple of weeks ago Donald Trump tweeted something about the deputy chairman of ISIS being um taken out.

[00:15:00]>> So the work is hard. It's ongoing. It reflects the vaua world that we're in. But we're doing a lot of work to ensure that Nigeria is safe and under the administration of uh President Bulameu a lot is being done. One of the understated landmark achievements is the signing of the Daikon bill which I sponsored.

[00:15:27]Um a lot of our arms and ammunition are imported. So we are trying to do a backward integration thing like was done uh under OBJ and the cement industry. So there's a lot of um demand for hardware, software, military um equipment which we import. So we're trying to localize it.

[00:15:50]>> Yeah. But but some opposition figures say insecurity has simply evolved >> uh rather than reduced. Is that a fair assessment?

[00:15:58]It it's a fair assessment and I explain why. Um the terrorism has been almost cailed now. So people are resorting to kidnapping because it seems a bit attractive. There's some money inducement and blah blah blah. So we need to also reject the architecture to ensure that we cail the payment of ransom to the bars minimum. One of the ideas we proposed is I remember during the um um bhari days when the was um the CBN governor, we try to introduce a cashless policy whereby nobody can nobody has access to cash. So you pay using your ATM card. So we realized that there was an exhaust because the insecurity reduced drastically because if you kidnap they understand that there's no cash to be paid or to be brought to a bush or somewhere you have to pray using your your your card you know so and that makes you traceable you know so it reduced radically so maybe we should try and revisit that it's part of our recommendations so that uh >> so honorable I And sometimes on social media, especially Tik Tok, we've seen these guys, you know, doing giveaways.

[00:17:20]I'm sure you must have seen some of these videos. Why has it been hard for uh the agencies like proper agencies to, you know, trace these guys?

[00:17:27]>> Yes. Uh so we do trace them at times uh working with the Tik Tok, the social media platform owners. Yes. You know, at times security issues are things you don't throw up in in the public. So they still try as much as possible to trace and catch them.

[00:17:46]>> But I think it's worse when these achievements are recorded but Nigerians don't know about them.

[00:17:50]>> Yes. Because it's part of it's it's a security uh >> is intentional.

[00:17:55]>> Pardon?

[00:17:55]>> Is it intentional?

[00:17:57]>> At times it should be intentional so that you have time to do your investigation and catch up with them wherever they are.

[00:18:04]>> But we do work with the owners of those uh platforms.

[00:18:07]>> Okay. So, Governor Shimaki says President Bolatin who is delaying the creation of state police and for Niger who have always been wondering how do you defend that? What exactly is delaying uh state police is constitutional a bottleneck? What exactly is the problem?

[00:18:20]>> No, I don't think that is so inappropriate and inelegant if he says it's the president delaying it. Uh the state police um bill is presently in the house or it's in the parliament the national delaying it. We're resuming on the 2nd and the state police bill amongst others is on the front burner. Um Nigeria will very very soon have uh state police everybody honorable Nigerians have always heard very soon very soon very soon must end but you know state police started from the days of your >> finally we have it on our desk.

[00:19:03]Finally, we are at the last mile. Uh in the fullest of time, maybe within two, three months, we should be able to at least two three months.

[00:19:12]>> Yeah. Two months.

[00:19:13]>> The last time I had a conversation with um honorable and that was late David that was late um late last year around November. He says before the end of the year. You're here today saying in 2 3 months.

[00:19:28]>> Yes. When we resume, read my lips. when we resume >> the state police is on the front burner.

[00:19:35]>> But when a sitting governor uses uses the word deceiving um that's >> a sitting governor who is a presidential >> aspirant >> aspirant in a funny party >> will say anything to grab the headlines.

[00:19:51]>> Do you so you think Nigerians should not take that seriously?

[00:19:53]>> No shouldn't take them seriously. Do you also think he's deflecting responsibility?

[00:19:56]>> And I and I also say that it's the responsibility of the parliament to send that bill to Mr. President and we put it on the front burner. So it's cheap >> political u um vibe to say it's delayed by the president. He's not.

[00:20:16]>> I just >> it's not an executive bill that it's not a sorry it's not a uh what do you call that thing that president signed >> just signing him. I get that.

[00:20:24]>> So it has to go through the mail.

[00:20:25]>> Let's talk about the kudu federal constituency. I mean this recent result >> Miami of Losu federal constituency. The Miami of Lagos >> indeed. You know this recent results at um they just completed prime election.

[00:20:38]You have just endorsed your fourth term in the house of reps meaning you've represented for since 2015.

[00:20:45]Tell us how have you been able to you know complement the effort of the federal government and the state government. Ah don't let me start on that because the federal government has been very good to us in the ku federal constituency um they appreciate our leaders prince builder um allumi bashoru and so on and so forth they've been they've contributed to the growth and development of Lagos and they've been titans in the cro so they're the compass they tell us what to do we've been able to build attract federal projects uh close to 100 roads Um some roads link several communities. Official road is about 14 kilometers.

[00:21:29]It links a lot of communities and there's a jetty that was um built by the governor governor Julius that makes travel time from VI 10 minutes. Yes, there are roads that nobody thought could ever be rebuilt.

[00:21:49]And so in we've created our own badri tookto expressway. We've created our own Legos to calabai expressway because we believe that infrastructure makes people rich. So when you have infrastructure, your travel time is reduced. Um you're not stuck on traffic.

[00:22:12]uh time value of money because you can move from A to B and the Crou people are known to be merry making they're known to be very industrious we have a lot of markets you know so it's made life this administration has made life more meaningful to >> I think that's why they should trust you with another term >> yes that's why >> instead of fresh leadership >> that no that's why so I you flow with what the people want right so the people say oh Can you please go again?

[00:22:42]>> They ask you to go again or you think no 12 years is not enough. I need to >> No, they they've asked me to go again. I don't >> think they worship you too much.

[00:22:51]>> No, they don't worship me.

[00:22:52]>> They do. All right.

[00:22:53]>> I want you I want to ask you about you know your intervention in areas like Casolo and um Bara where they've been you know several SOS calls. Uh residents of those communities have reported increased rate of you know kidnapping in those communities. uh residents of IA for instance say there are swampy areas used as hideouts by these kidnappers and I see some of them commenting tweeting at you to help them clear some of the swampy areas. How have you intervened?

[00:23:20]>> Okay, so the last time my intervention was geared to was we have a 174 battalion there. So, and we've called on them to put a station there so that it would be preventive. So, the bad guys will see that there's a forward operating base there. So, we we did that for a few months, but I think they've relaxed, but they're going to move back there pretty soon. Uh I also facilitated street lights so that the place is open and you can see what's coming.

[00:23:54]>> What what feedback have you gotten from your people? Yeah, but they've it went quiet, but now in recent times they've started coming again. So, but the local government chairman is very proactive and we're all working together to ensure that. So, they've deployed their civilian JTF there.

[00:24:12]>> Thank you. Thank you for speaking with me tonight. It's a good to leave this conversation. Thank you. I mean, ultimately Nigerians are hopeful especially because clearly Mr. President is not sleeping ensuring that Nigeria Nigerians are safe wherever they are across the country. Thank you very much for speaking with me tonight. Honorable Jimmy Benson representing a federal constituency chairman house committee on defense. Thank you so much for your time.

[00:24:34]>> Thank you.

[00:24:34]>> Thank you.

[00:24:35]>> Thank you for watching everyone. That marks the end of today's episode of politics tonight. But before we go, let's tell you that the views and reactions of our resource persons are theirs and have no connection with TVC News. Meanwhile, you can watch the repeats broadcast of this episode at 12:30 a.m. Get in touch with us on our social media handles, Facebook, Instagram, and X at TVC NewsNG. And at KW using the hashtag politics, we're also on YouTube at youtube.com/tvcnewsng.

[00:25:03]I'm Lat. Good night everyone and please have a great weekend.