Igwe Ezeoba Alex Nwokedi, a former Press Secretary to the Head of State during President Olusegun Obasanjo’s military regime and erstwhile Chairman, Eastern Nigerian Traditional Rulers Council and Anambra State Council of Traditional Rulers, says it is unthinkable for a one-time Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Ghali Na’Abba, to want to denigrate Obasanjo to score political goal. According to the Igwe of Uthakoneze Achalla in Awka North LGA, Anambra State, his former boss remains one of the best few fit to advise President Muhammadu Buhari on matters of state. He also speaks on the pro-Biafran campaign. Excerpts:

Hearing Governor Aminu Masari speak about his state, Katsina, you will not miss, in his voice, the passion to uplift his people from under-development and abject poverty. That was the situation, last week, when Masari spoke on how his administration is delivering democracy dividends in Katsina, the first time a party, All Progressives Congress (APC), which used to be in the opposition, will take the mantle of leadership in the state, after 16 years of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) being in power.

Chief Osarowese Amehor is the Owenso of Benin Kingdom. In this chat, he calls on President Muhammadu Buhari to focus on reviving Nigeria’s crashing economy among other issues. Excerpts:

Mr Ahmed Ogembe is United State-trained Business Administrator who has been spurred by his humble beginning to always strive to give back to the society.

They should come and see what is happening in the country now. These were young people, who came out of the university and went into the army. They had been indoctrinated. They came out of school wanting to see an ideal society. They had their mindset on the right things they felt the country should do. Any other way would not be tolerated. And they swallowed all they read and learnt. They were looking for perfection. It is not that they came out wanting to kill because they wanted positions. They came out to do what they did because they were indoctrinated and they wanted a country that is perfect. But I think also that they may have been used by some greedy politicians.

Senator Adamu Aliero was governor of Kebbi State between 1999 and 2007. He was later appointed as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. He is presently the Senate Committee Chairman on Customs. He explains, in this interview, why he supports the pro-Biafra protesters but disapproves of their break-away plan. Aliero says importation of rice must remain banned and describes the present revenue sharing formula as unconstitutional.

The issue of Nigeria has changed. Of course, Buhari brought this bandwagon, the change initiative which he told God that he wants to implement and Nigerians decided to follow him. But Buhari should be very careful because some people do not want him to go into the implementation stage of the change mantra. Change has many stages. You cannot remain a good egg forever. You either hatch as a chicken or you get eaten as a good egg. So, Buhari’s change has to be implemented and he should note that there is a bloc within the National Assembly that wants to undo him and they can go to any length because they do not want Buhari to continue.

Third what are we as Africans doing to solve the problem? I announced that AfDB will increase our support for climate financing to $5 billion a year by 2020. That will make us one of the largest financiers of climate change among the development banks in the world. So climate finance in the AfDB by 2020 will represent 40 percent of all of our portfolio as I want greener Africa and the Bank is ready to support that.

Professor Femi Odekunle, an expert in criminology, was an aide to Lt. General Oladipo Diya as Chief of General Staff (CGS) under the Sani Abacha regime and one of those held for the 1997 alleged coup against the then Nigerian leader. Odekunle is currently a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-Corruption set up by President Muhammadu Buhari and headed by Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN). In this interview, he speaks on the mandate of the committee with particular reference to the $2.1billion arms purchase case against former National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki, among others.

This has been largely misunderstood by the people. I think that we have met the deadline. This is because the understanding of our December deadline was that by the end of December 31, we would have reclaimed from Boko Haram the areas that were in their control, and we would have decimated their capacities and that they will not have a unified force. I want to say that, to a large extent, we have met that deadline. I have also said that meeting the deadline will not be the same as that there will no longer be any attack on the soft targets, or it will mean the end of suicide bombing or any surprise attack from the insurgents.