12th November , 2021 With the Anambra State off-cycle gubernatorial election now concluded, IDEAs radio returned to examine the IDEAs issues that were exposed as Ayo Obe interviewed Ene Obi, the Convener of the Civil Society Situation Room (CSSR), a coalition of over 70 civil society organisations, which was fully on the ground before and…
Read More
With just over a week to go before the Anambra State off-cycle governorship election, Ayo Obe interviewed Cynthia Mbamalu, Director of Programs at YIAGA Africa who is leading the organisation’s ‘Watching the Vote’ project in Anambra State. Such an election clearly answers to Democracy, the ‘D’ in IDEAs, but what was Cynthia’s assessment of the Integrity of the electoral process: was the Independent National Electoral Commission prepared for the poll? She referred to YIAGA’s Pre-Election Observation Report which raised certain concerns, including the failure of INEC to commence the collection of Permanent Voter Cards for the over 70,000 newly-registered Anambra State voters.
Read More
Nigerians have reacted to the scandal of the Pandora Papers, but what IDEAs issues do they raise? In today’s episode, Ayo Obe spoke with Nicholas Ibekwe – the award-winning journalist who leads the investigative journalism section of Premium Times, one of Nigeria’s leading online media outlets. Premium Times is part of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists which spent a year examining the 11.9 records known as the Pandora Papers.
Read More
President Muhammadu Buhari gave a long and wide-ranging speech to mark Nigeria’s 61. Independence anniversary; But what issues relating to Integrity, Democracy, Ethics and Accountability did his speech raise? In this week’s programme Ayo Obe was in conversation with Aghogho Oboh to examine this question.
Read More
IDEAs Radio Show Episode 89 Accountability: The role BudgIT has played for 10 years.17 September 2021. Accountability: The role BudgIT has played for 10 years. For its return to the Public Square on Nigeria Info 99.3FM, IDEAs Radio had Oluseun Onigbinde of BudgIT (which is marking its tenth anniversary) as its guest. He spoke with…
Read More
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.
Read More
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.
Read More
“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 …
Read More
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.
Read More
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…
Read More