should say that this IDEAS segment has been funded through the MacArthur Foundation’s anti-corruption programme, and I was invited by CITAD (the Centre for Information Technology and Development which is based in Kano) to come up with a project that would emphasize the issues of anti-corruption. And I have to say that my philosophy is (and I discovered recently that it’s actually an ancient Chinese philosophy) that you become what … you act as if you are what you want to be. And so my feeling was that by constantly harping on corruption and corruption … it was as though we Nigerians had decided to say that: No, no, nobody else should be considered in the corruption stakes it’s only Nigerians. And it was as if we were talking ourselves into it.

Well, as you know Aghogho, at IDEAS radio … I mean you know IDEAS stands for Integrity, Democracy, Ethics and Accountability, and we are often having to speak about the Accountability component in these matters. And Accountability is really about the obligation of government to provide security for Nigerians … at the most basic level that means securing their lives and property, but it also covers issues relating to health, education, employment and shelter, by which I mean that government has an obligation, and is Accountable for providing those things or the means to obtain them if they are absent.

“many people didn’t know we were doing any thing with Constituency Projects until we published our report.  They didn’t know we were watching the Ministries, Departments and Agencies and their practices until we published our report.  So when we have something to say [that’s the ICPC], because the public has a right to know, then we will say it.  But the media also needs to help, by understanding that you cannot just talk to the media every second about what you are doing.  It also undermines the integrity of the process and ultimately could defeat it because the people you are trying to investigate will then go and prepare for you.”

So, I think that’s … the two different styles that we’re seeing of the different agencies of the government, both of them have their …

AgO: Okay, you were knocking at an online door last week and apparently it did not open.  So, for all the good stories we’ve heard about the election for the NBA’s President, it appears that the sore ones apparently, we’re just beginning to hear about just now.

AO: Well, I don’t know about sore, I mean it’s true Aghogho, that even though I’m a fully paid up member of the NBA and my branch, and even though I verified my registration through the NBA portal, and even though during the course of the day I made three telephone calls to the NBA help line and sent two emails, I was still unable to vote.  I mean I must say that the NBA help lines were very efficient in that they answered the calls without any delay, but essentially, all they could do was say: Send an email, and unfortunately when I did so, that was where the process ended.

IDEAS Radio 24 July 2020 Legislators and IDEAS  Aghogho Oboh: Alright, here we go.  Fine, fine afternoon in the city of Lagos, hot and humid if you ask me, and I’m looking at my weather gizmo.  And Shaku maku everybody.  It’s red hot, and those of you heading to the Mainland … because of the…

“A member of the Senate or … the House of Representatives shall vacate his seat in the House of which he is a member if … being a [party] whose election to the House was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected.”

IDEAS Radio 10 July 2020 Impact of COVID-19 and IDEAS issues Aghogho Oboh: Hey, shaku maku everybody!  A fine, fine afternoon in the city of Lagos!  One of the afternoons that the rain hasn’t fallen.  Remember that on Public Square we talk about the big and significant development in the country.  Remember, you can follow…

Now, when you look at the NCDC figures released yesterday they showed that they’ve tested 122,155 … or they’ve carried out that number of tests, but actually, the National Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, in his press briefing yesterday that you referred to, he said that for every COVID-19 case, there are a handful of missing cases, because the health authorities aren’t able to test everybody. Now, to be frank Aghogho, I’d say that Mr. Aliyu is being a little bit conservative when he talks about only a “handful” … especially when he goes on to talk about “thousands of people”. So yes, it absolutely is the right time to ask whether we can rely on the Integrity of the official figures. And in fact, I’m sorry to say that the answer to that question, even from his own mouth, seems to be ‘No’.

Well, Aghogho, the first thing is to remind ourselves as you said, that some of the context … the … the components of IDEAS are Integrity and Accountability, and certainly, obviously if there are atrocities perpetrated by our own government’s security agencies, definitely they have to … there has to be Accountability for that; it’s not a matter of the Police or the Army being accused of atrocities such as killings or torture and so on, and then nobody is held to account.