 Another school abduction in Zanfarah State. Gone men take at least 18 people and kill no fewer than three. But we hear three of the abductees have escaped. President Mohamed Abouhari signs a Petroleum Industry Bill. The Senate applauds the action, but the Pan-90 Delta Forum criticizes its provisions. And chaotic scenes from Afghanistan as citizens chase airplanes in a bid to leave the country. President Joe Biden insists military withdrawal was the right thing. And thank you for joining us on the breakfast on Plus TV Africa. I am Annette Felix. And I am Usaugi O'Born. Yes, we do apologize for bringing the show a few minutes behind schedule. But the great thing is that we're ready to unpack all the events that have occurred in the past few hours in Nigeria. Let's begin with the biggest story in the country right now. That's that the president has ascended to the Petroleum Industry Bill. Now we know that this is a legislative document that has been stolen for about 20 years. Eventually it was good news to see that the House of Reps, the Senate had gone ahead to pass that July 16th and 17th respectively. The next question was, what was the president going to do? Was he going to ascend to this? Because we know that there were other groups who had issues with this PIB. They felt that, first of all, the money for host communities, the fund for them was too small. They had gone back and forth between 5%, 3% and 10%. They wanted host communities to get more funds. They also had an issue with the money that was going to be given for oil exploration in the north and in the basin regions. And they said that why would the government give 30% for the exploration of oil in the north? So these were issues that he had and it was a question of if the president was going to make further adjustment to that, or go ahead and give his assent. But yesterday, a family additional announced that the president has finally ascended to the Petroleum Industry Bill, but that they now is the protest against this. The Panhandja Delta Forum, PANDEF, released a statement yesterday criticising this, even though the senator lauded the president for it, criticising this saying this is basically using southern money to fund the north. And it's just been a process that hasn't yet seen the end of in the country. Yeah. First of all, I personally wasn't shocked that it was ascended to, with the speed with which the Senate and House of Reps had passed the bill. I expected the president to sign it immediately. So I was only shocked because they said it was an isolation. So when there was still news that he's still signed documents, they're probably passed the papers to him while in isolation. There is that. But I think the challenge with all of this conversation is really with the interpretation of some of these things. And that's mostly with the 30% for frontier states, oil exploration in frontier states and the 3% to host communities. We've many times spoken about how much the host communities deserve to be treated better, no doubt. But it would never end the conversation with regards how these funds are truly used. Because there have been agencies that have been set up for these host communities and for the Panhandja Delta communities for a long time that have not really been effective. And that also includes their state governments and how they've also been able to use state funds effectively to ensure that these communities are treated better. NDDC has also been in conversation for a while now. And how much, you know, billions of now have been allocated to the NDDC that don't seem to be doing any good for these communities or for the Panhandja Delta communities. So they would need to look deeper into that. I feel like that needs to be a bigger conversation to question how the state and local governments of these communities and the NDDC has been functioning a lot as well. There's also the interpretation of the 30% for frontier states, which has been interpreted as 30% for oil exploration in the north. Like you also just mentioned, the way Panhandja have described it, it is using money from the south to the north. The 3% of course, there needs to be proper explanation for that. I hope that we'll be able to have a longer conversation about that today. The 3%, you know, if it is where it is really coming from, there is, I think there is some clarity that needs to be put out with regards where the 3% for oil communities, for host communities is coming from and also where the 30% that has been mentioned is coming from and what exactly are these frontier states? Are they northern states or are they, you know, the river basins across Nigeria? I watched an interview yesterday where someone from KPMG tried to explain that there's many river basins across Nigeria that Nigeria also needs to move away from just oil exploration in the Niger Delta alone to be able to explore oil in other parts of the country. There's the Ominar River Basin, there's Oshun Basin, there's Niger Basin, I believe there's many other places that possibly have oil reserves that we should be able to tap from to increase our production capacity in the country. So if you put that out, you know, that way, it then, you know, starts to make a little more sense. But if the narrative is that, oh, it's just moving money to the north for oil exploration, then, you know, it might seem a little fraudulent. Bear in mind that Lake Chad also, you remember that they discovered that there was, you know, some oil in Lake Chad Basin that had been mentioned by the current administration. If it is oil that can be explored or can be, you know, brought out or not, we still don't have clarity on that. So that's where the conversation is, you know, and sometimes, you know, you really need to look a little deeper and see whether these complaints are, you know, just politics or selfish interests or they truly have a basis. Yeah, exactly. So that's what I would quickly just tip in. Okay, so yes, you know, these documents can be lengthy, you know, involving lots of considerations and one of them addresses, where exactly your question, you know, you asked where, these money's becoming from the 10% that should, the 10%, which has now become 3% that should go to host communities as well as the 30% that would go for the exploration of oil. Now, in section nine, sub-four of the PIB, it reads that the Frontier Exploration Fund shall be 10% of rents on petroleum prospecting licenses and 10% on petroleum mining licenses. The PIB section nine also reads that the 30% of the NMPC's limited profit oil and profit gas as product sharing, profit sharing and all of that. So it went on to say that NMPC limited will transfer the 30% of frontier oil and profit gas to the Frontier Exploration Fund excrual account and it just went on and on, really explaining how, where these funds will come from and how they will be distributed. But the fact remains that the Pan-Ninja Delta Forum and other stakeholders and leaders in the, you know, these areas where oil is basically say that these controversial sections of the bill should have been discussed, should have been thrashed out before the president went on to assent it. And a question I really want to ask is, why do we have laws that do not really reflect the wishes of the people? Whether it's the law on the PIB, whether it's the VAT issue, whether it's the, what's the other camera? You know, I feel that, or not even what I feel, what it should be is that when you make laws, it should reflect, you know, everything that the people want. You know, the wishes of the people should be considered, stakeholders should be consulted before you go ahead and make a law. Because why do you make a law that people would oppose? You know, people should be able to obey it because this is something we all agree to. That's why we are a democracy, we all have voices and should be able to contribute to that process. But you know, you make laws, a camera, PIB, whatever it is, people believe that some sections are controversial, we do not agree with it. And rather than trash that out, you go ahead and just pass it. And then that's why you have so much opposition to those laws. I agree, I agree with that. Let's move on to our next story now. We know about the citizen order by the IPOB, the Nurse People of Biafra, the prescribed group that has been described as a terrorist organization by the Nigerian government. They had, you know, ordered a citizen at home because their leader, Namdikhanu, had been arrested, allegedly in Kaya, you know, returned to the country and all of that, the trial is set to hold later this month. So the agitation really was for Namdikhanu to be released and one of their aims to achieve that was ordering everybody in the Southeast to sit at home every Monday, you know, till he's released and they've contacted Ghost Mondays, they saw how that almost affected exams, you know, NECA exams in the country. But the issue here is we saw a fire incident in Shell, in Imus State, where at least six people have been confirmed dead. So trying to make sense of this, residents of Imus State said this is definitely unconnected or not unconnected to the citizen order. That the IPOB members were enraged that, you know, the staff of Shell Company had, you know, flagrantly refused to obey the citizen order and that sort of went in the answer to the blaze. And really lots of questions regarding security, what really is the government doing regarding to sit at home order? What's the role of the Orhanese Indigbo? How exactly is the general mood of the people in, you know, the Southeast and what really will be done about it? Because what we see is a proactive system where things happen and then the government go on to say that, oh, we'll do something about it or the police say, well, the truth of the suspects. But what could have been done to protect installations and facilities in those regions, you know, before things like this happen? So that, I just lost my thread of thought. The IPOB and the last time we had this discussion, you know, I think I remember that I asked, you know, what do they hope to achieve with, you know, asking everyone to sit at home and how in God's earth did they expect that the current administration would say, oh, you know, people are sitting at home in the Southeast so let's release them. It has zero effect, you know, on his case or on his trial. You know, he will go to court. He will, you know, go through the judiciary or the whole criminal justice system and if he's found guilty then, you know, it is what it is. I'm not sure how in any way anybody thought that that would be effective. But I think that is coming from the euphoria and the sweetness that they feel in their system, you know, whenever they ask for a seat at home and people obey. So they're taking advantage of that fact that, you know, it makes them feel good. I think it makes them feel good. They feel very, very powerful when they cannot, you know, order a seat at home. And this is coming from years ago when it started, maybe like 2017, you know, 2018 when they started the seat at home order. I remember I was on radio then and I was asking, you know, everybody, you know, I had the same conversations and what's really the use of this seat at home, you know, and when you also ask people to not vote what's to use and I realized, you know, from some of those, you know, comments that it's really just the sweet feeling they get that they can give an order and people will obey because this has no effect on them, the kind of trial. It has zero effect on federal governments you know, trying Namdi Kanu. So they would continue to, you know, do these things and enjoy. And if anything, it's just the detriments of the people of the country. Absolutely. Because they shouldn't suffer when they can't, for example. Businesses suffer. They will continue to enjoy that thing and that's, you know, one of the points that people would throw out when they say when you give a person who has been claiming freedom fighter for so long, you finally give him power, he becomes the oppressor, you know, that he has been complaining about and that's really what they're showing. If they continue on this path, they will lose every single drop of goodwill that they supposedly had in the past from people of the South East and from Nigeria. Everyone who was somehow, some were apologetic or sympathetic to their cause will get to see them or see beyond their cause and realize that these people are just, you know, criminals and clowns, masquerading as freedom fighters or, you know, secessionists or whatever they decide to call themselves. And once they lose that, they realize that they are on their own and people would rat them out. So I don't know who's speaking to them or who's advising them. We also don't know 100% if they are really the ones responsible for this killing in the most state or this incident in the most state. But if they are, well, they need better advisors. And that's it on Top Trending. Now, I've taken a look at the papers this morning and quite some stories there. Let's share them with you on Off the Press after the break.