>> a new president for nigeria after an election with a turnout of only 27%. many in the country face poverty and hunger. so, what are bola tinubu's key policies? this is "inside story." ♪ welcome to the program. nigeria has a new president, bola tinubu.

he won a close election in february but with a record low turnout and accusations of irregularities. the result is being challenged in court. the case will be decided next month. that was not of the minds of the thousands of people who turned up for the new president's inauguration on monday. nigeria's elites were joined by dignitaries from abroad. his message was one of unity to a country that is deeply politically divided. >> [indiscernible] >> tinubu takes over a country facing serious challenges

despite nigeria's abundant natural resources. many of its people suffer from hunger and poverty. we have more on what awaits the new president. reporter: the task before a lot of new -- before bola tinubu is daunting. high inflation rates, and security from the northeast, attacks in the northwest, attacks by kidnappers and bandits to the north, and in the southeast, we are talking about a secessionist movement. these are problems bola tinubu is facing on his first day in office. in his inaugural speech, he admitted that the regime in nigeria that has cost the country billions of dollars every year is no longer sustainable. this could mean higher petroleum products at the pump -- higher petroleum product prices at the pump. on top of that, bola tinubu must deal with a deeply divided nation. because of that election, this

country is divided among secular, religious, and many other lines in this country. he needs to address these issues for his government to succeed, which he promised to do, but analysts say the composition of his cabinet speak to what direction his government and this country will be on in the next few months. people are watching closely to see who gets what, especially in the areas of defense, economic policy, and other key areas of this government. >> lets bringing our guests for today's discussion. we are joined by hamzat lawal, founder of connected development, and organization hoping africa achieve sustainable development goals. from washington, d.c., we are joined by aisha yesufu, founder of citizens hub, a nigerian organization focusing on in

using women and youth participation in politics. -- on increasing women and youth participation in politics. also, ovigwe eguegu. let's start with you. 25 million votes were cast in an election of 220 million people. a turnout of 27%, meaning that two thirds of the 87 million people who registered to vote failed to do so. would you agree that something does not smell right here? was bola tinubu fairly elected? is he nigeria's legitimate president? ovigwe: those numbers only paint a picture of what the nigerian republic is saying. if you have 3 million people registered to vote, 21% turn out, then the person who has the majority of the votes is

declared winner. but you also have to look at the fact that only 9 million people voted for the president. that is a very low number if we look at the general population. yes, it was a very contested election. a lot of people are disappointed . overall, the constitutional process has been followed. there are still cases in court. we will have to wait three weeks from now to find out what the outcome will be. one case was dismissed by the supreme court that was aiming to disqualify the vice president from a double nomination, but that was thrown out. i think the big part is what the opponents party will do to overturn the election. there are a lot of questions regarding the process and the

outcome. >> the going had staked his candidacy on a clean contest. or the people right to be concerned, and what does the result of this election say to the people that your organization represents? aisha: the outcome of the election is not a reflection of the way people voted. that is what is in contention right now. you mentioned the percentage of people that came out. there is a need to look at that register, make sure the people that claim to be registered -- that there are 20 million who are registered and not just for dishes -- not just fictitious numbers. there are allegations of a lot of rigging, violence.

people rigging their way into power is a political coup. if they would not tolerate a military coup, they should not tolerate a political coup. a lot of nigerians, myself included, and president. we are waiting for justice to be done. we are waiting to see the person that people gave their money to be declared, not the one we have seen so far. >> we cannot speculate on what the courts will decide. this question i think is designed more to get to the legitimacy of nigeria's judiciary. tinubu has already been sworn in. what happens if the courts decide the election has to be rerun, or will they opt for

acknowledging irregularities while allowing the result to stand? is it possible the result did in fact reflect the will of the people? how independent is nigeria's judiciary? hamzat: a lot of people will say the judiciary is on trial, but as a society, each and every one of us is on trial. how are we going to ensure we enshrine the principles of democracy? if the court says the election should be able turn, they would undertake another election, but then there would debate over whether we can afford another election. but nigeria must continue to move forward. but as we move forward, there must be justice, because if there is justice, there could be peace and prosperity in the country. we might argue that tinubu does

not have popular vents, but he has majority votes. what is important is to have reforms. let's reform the process, the fabric of society and the institutions that hold our fabric together and upholds democratic principles within the country. >> ovigwe, if the court decides tinubu is the rightful president, to what extent is he going to govern in the stead of his predecessor, given they both came from the same party, who first came to power promising so much but ultimately delivering so little, at least as far as improving the lives of ordinary nigerians? ovigwe: they worked on a

platform of creating jobs, providing security, the two major issues facing the country right now or economic growth in the insecurity crisis in many parts of the country. but in seeing how he is going to execute on that, a lot of people are concerned about his physical ability to carry out his duties. putting that aside, look at the policy platforms. flower subsidies have been a controversial issue. over 20% inflation as of march 2022. the argument he is giving now is that the subsidy allows him to divert such forms into infrastructure.

but that is a fraction of what you can receive from subsidies. overall, if the courts rule it in his favor, he has his job cut out for him because there are a lot of problems -- if you look at 22% inflation, on employment at 40%, and youth unemployment is even higher, even if we have all of these problems that a particular section of the population in which he is not particularly popular among them i think you will have to find a way to create jobs and create an economic environment for these people to thrive.

that is the only way he can survive given the protests and the economic challenges the country is facing. >> we will talk more about the challenges he faces in a moment. aisha, how important will it be for a president --for the new president to build a cabinet with people who are untainted by scandal or corruption, given the allegations that swirled around his own party? where will he find that team, the people of the caliber he needs exist within his own party? aisha: for me to come in, first of all, to briefly talk about the case that was mentioned a little bit earlier on the decision that was made by the supreme court on the nomination of the senator, it is to say that the court has ruled that the party that came to be -- it is not -- it is still on trial. for me, one of the things that

we must be consistent about is to understand that justice -- we've got justice. we cannot keep pushing things away. we can't just move on to say that a president has sworn in. we need to get to a place where we are not giving people an environment to get themselves into power and then delegitimize themselves. this is what has kept nigeria down. he did not get the highest number of votes, and that is in contention. we are cultivating environments for people to do heinous things when they get into power.

we must consider a political coup the same way we consider a military coup. >> hamzat, would you agree? hamzat: i think we need to be careful there, because nigeria has [indiscernible] for me, what is important is it shows stability, because we don't want to country that will go up in flames. i can understand that some people are not happy with the outcome of the election, but what is important is to put our country first. i live here, my family is here, and i think that, yes, let's trust and believe in the process, but we must continue to give the people hope. today, what does the president have to do for unemployment? he also needs to ensure that insecurity -- when you look at insecurity, since 1999, national

security advisors have always been retired military officers. i think right now we need to look at an intelligence officer to occupy the office of national security, and also invest more in intelligence. what can we do to mobilize resources? over 120 million people work for a dollar a day. we need to invest in the micro economy. how can small businesses access credit loans to finance the sector? i also think that we need stronger institutions. how does the national assembly hold the executive to account?

how does the judiciary depicted justice, fairness, and equity? the president talked about having a cabinet that has women and men, because you can take away gender disparity and also the role of young people in government and politics. this is important. as much as we agree, we need to be careful on how we move forward, and we need to work to get more institutions so that we are stronger and more sufficient . >> ovigwe, would you agree what you just -- with what you've just heard? why didn't his predecessor tackle that? ovigwe: in the air out of security, we have to look at it -- procured weapons from everywhere, from the russians,

the chinese, and the americans as well they are made available to him. however, even as he was making success in the northeast with regards to broken -- regards to boko haram, what we saw was an eruption of banditry, kidnapping for ransom. if you recall sometime in march of last year there was the bombing of a railway. we have serious problems with regards to security that even still exist today that the new president has inherited. like when i mentioned with the economy, you see a lot of problems. if he is going to tackle these issues, he would need to build a very high-powered cabinet that can bring together all of the necessary knowledge and expertise that can deal with

these problems. however, it is still not enough to have the right people. you need financing. currently have a debt to gdp ratio of about 97%, and the revenues are not doing well, so you can't until you -- you can think about borrowing more money. nigeria continues to borrow more and more. one of the main questions we would need to find an answer to very quickly is the element of finance and financing, but initiatives they are going to come up with. there are a lot of initiatives and the money just is not there. >> tinubu said our mission is to enrich our ways of life in a way that improves humanity and dearly rewards our collective efforts. hope is back for nigeria, he said. what about the nation's youth? they certainly did not vote for a 71-year-old to be their president. they feel alienated by the country's political system.

they have hope? aisha: the first thing we need to address is this issue of stability that constantly there is a desperation to get stability over justice, over the justice of people. that has led yes to being one of the most on stabilized countries in west africa. there have been a lot of killings. we must come to a place where we are confronting the issues as they are. we all live in nigeria. my family is there. i am here temporarily but i am going to be back in nigeria very soon. the issue of sweeping this away has gotten us to where we are. this is someone who was not voted for by the majority of the people.

there was a sabotage that happened in terms of inflicting yourself to be duly elected and people being dead to go to the judiciary. this is the anger. the young people that have no confidence in the country, that had been killed repeatedly, that had been denied an environment for them to grow, to let within the law and go to the polls and vote for someone they wanted, that process needed to be allowed to happen fully and in a free, fair, and credible manner. a situation where you are seeing killing, maiming, there was no way you are telling people to move on and have confidence in such a system. let's not be too in a hurry to work for stability that has

turned out country into chaos. when somebody wants to be called insulin see the you must make sure the process that brings you into office is credible. that is where we are. for me, i am not moving away from that. it has gotten us to a worse place. i do not recognize him as president. he is not my president tinubu. that is when he remains. laura: what will the present -- >> what will the president's first 100 days look like, assuming the courts decide he is the legitimate president? he has a wealth of problems to deal with, poverty, deepening public discontent.

he certainly has to hit the ground running. does he have the political skills required for such a mammoth task? how long will they be giving before expressing their dissatisfaction? hamzat: i think first he must lead by example and declare his assets. how are we using savings -- health care, because that is when he said in his speech. he needs to create jobs. he needs to cultivate an environment for jobs to be created. it is not the role of government to create jobs, but it is the role of government to create an environment that attracts investment to ensure creation of wealth and jobs.

also, how is he engaging women? when you look at society, we don't have a lot of women in the corridors of power. the numbers of women they got reelected is on the decline. also, young people, what are the roles of young people? i think this could inform what the comes of this cash of his hundred days in office as the courts decide the outcome. he needs to commit to electoral reform. we know today i net did not deliver on promises. they failed to provide nigeria real-time information on the results. reform naturally allows it to be

independent and also ensures that there are consequences to inaction. leading by example. nigeria currently is a country without consequence, where everything. -- where everything goes. >> we have spent much of the discussion talking about nigeria's domestic problems. let's take a look, in the last few minutes of the program, externally, where does nigeria stand regionally? a country of its size and wealth should be wielding more clout than it does. what will foreign policy look like under the new president? ovigwe: there are clear objectives he has to pursue. one of them is security. we have one point 2 million people displaced in chad because of the war against boko haram.

there is a task force working together collaboratively to ensure that they win the war on terror. he also has to double down on that. that is a clear one. also, in the west african region, we have seen coups in recent times in mali, in burkina faso. nigeria has a role to play in the west african region, not just security in chad, but also other economic issues as well in the broader region.

nigeria needs to be seen as not just providing political leadership in the west african region and getting with the transition to democracy, but he also means to place security in the areas where there are piracy issues. he has to continue to do that. >> i got about a minute left on the program, hamzat. you want to tell me what you think the foreign policy priority should be under the new president? hamzat: [indiscernible] i think that nigeria needs to take a position in [indiscernible] we used to be called the giant of africa. in short that -- ensure that the

instability seen in mali gets addressed. and how to respond when the issues of africa being discussed. nigeria playing that role with the numbers we have as a people. >> there we must leave it. thank you for joining us for tonight's "inside story." thanks to has my love, aisha yesufu and ovigwe eguegu -- hazmat laval -- hamzat lawal, aisha yesufu, and ovigwe eguegu. visit our facebook page and join the conversation on twitter, how handle at @ajinsidestory. from the whole team indo hot, thanks for watching. goodbye -- in

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