 Its World Breastfeeding Week will look at the significance and aim of this global observance spearheaded by the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action, the World Health Organization and UNICEF, amongst others. We're privatizing Nigeria's public hospitals with a solution to the issues in its health system. The Nigerian Medical Association says so. Its national president joins us this morning on breakfast to talk about this. And of course we have in-depth analysis on the headlines contained in today's national dailies in the press. Good morning to you. It's a brand new edition of the breakfast. A beautiful Tuesday morning reaching in life. I'm with Studios on Victoria Island. My name is Kofi Bartels. Let's dive straight into the action right here on the program where I look at the top training stories that we have for you. We have three in particular. I must have been monitoring the conversations on the social space. The first one up, Bello Yabbo praying for the abduction of President Mohammed Buhari, a governor of Kaduna State, Al-Rufa, as well as the presidential aide, Agarba Shehu. Who is Bello Yabbo? I mean, the name has been going around with lots of responses and reactions to this. He happens to be an Islamic cleric. Now, of course, he is a Sukkota-based Islamic cleric and he prayed for the abduction of President Buhari, like we said earlier. Now, if you remember, some terrorists had, quote, kidnapped the passengers on that Kaduna-bound train, released a video last week showing them metting out corporal punishment on victims and also threatening to kidnap the president of Nigeria, the governor of Kaduna State, as you can see on your screen as well. Now, also they also threatened to kidnap some of the Nigerian lawmakers if they did not comply with their, the terrorists, demands. And of course, in response to this video, presidential spokesman, Agarba Shehu had said that the terrorist activity using propaganda and the use of violence to force governments to accept or submit to political demands is not new all over the world. That is what he said. But the cleric was responding to the statement by Agarba Shehu, who is seeing that in a picture with the president. He flayed the presidential spokesman for describing this terrorist or terrorist video as propaganda. He now went on to say, to accuse Agarba Shehu of being insensitive to the plight of captives by releasing such a statement and went on to pray that Agarba Shehu himself will fall into the hands of the kidnappers. So this is the point he's coming from. He thinks that Agarba Shehu, through his statement, by his statement in reaction to the terrorist threat to kidnap the president is being insensitive to the plight of the captives. Now he said, quote, this is what the cleric Yabbo said, quote, I pray they kidnap you, Agarba Shehu, and demonstrate as propaganda. These are his words, all right? But he appealed to terrorists to release the innocent victims in captivity but went on to wish the terrorist success in their threats to kidnap those, the threat, and this is quite bizarre. It's a bit ironical. Now these were his words, quote, we're praying for you, kidnappers may God grant you success in carrying out your threats to kidnap those people but please release the innocent people in captivity. If this were the kind of people you've been abducting all this while wouldn't have bothered ourselves, we would instead pray and bless you because they have become a disaster to us. This is what the clerical machine on your screen said. He said these are people who promised heaven and earth and now they have the opportunity but became incompetent. Take them to the bush and flog them instead of humiliating innocent citizens who are striving to make ends meet. The cleric goes on to say, and please make good your threats and we will support you with our prayers. He's visibly angry there. He was a starting supporter of the president before he became a cleric and this is sort of mirroring the sentiments and the views, the reactions seen in different parts of the north even from the bandits who were saying they wished they could lay their hands on the president. It shows that the long held view that Northern Nigeria is just supporting everything that the administration is doing is not really true. If you're looking at the price of gas or fuel, it's the same in the north as it is in the south. The inflation in the economy is the same in the south as it is in the north. If you're looking at the falling narrow, it's the same in the north as it is in the south. If you look at insecurity, it's more affecting more the north than the south. That's why you have a lot of refugees on the streets of Lagos from the northern part of the country. These are the issues. If you watch videos, interviews, documentaries flying around, you see the people up north are really going through hell and they are angry with the current administration. In this matter, there's no brother here. They are angry. I mean, if you remember, it was a surprise to some when Northern Elders for one came out a year or two ago to criticize the president. So it's clear that it's gone beyond the issue of my brother or my brother, as I would say. It's not going to be a time of my brother. This time, people are saying, you know what, we want to talk to the issues. If it's affecting us, then it doesn't matter who is there, we will criticize and we will speak out. So I think it's a sarcastic one from the gentleman, cleric, who is saying, go ahead and kidnap those who have made like elective cover us, let go those who are struggling to make ends meet. Another problem will help you, will pray for you, will support you. We want to see you flog these people is what it's saying. And of course, this seems to be from the responses I've seen by some people, especially in social space, a popular view because the average man on the street in this country feels the government is his or her problem. You know, they feel that the president is the one responsible for all the problems in their lives. So, I mean, this view will fly. But especially on a serious note, though, you know, with the state of affairs, people wouldn't complain if anybody in government, no matter what office it is, is kidnapped. They'll say, yeah, at least you have a taste of medicine. I mean, look at a queer model, which is our deals in the UK. A number of persons online were happy and said, well, he deserves it because he's in government in a way. So people feel that, you know, those in government should have a taste of what, you know, the citizens are going through. So no surprises that he's received some support for his view. All right. Let's move on. The next one, of course, when it came out that I was having a meeting, let's call it a marathon meeting. We kept watching to see what was the statement will put out by the organization, especially on their social media accounts, which have become one of the means of mediums through which they communicate to the public. And indeed, they came out to announce this is the National Executive Council of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Nigeria's university's lectures union, that a four-week extension to the ongoing strike will commence. They're commencing a four-week extension to the ongoing strike in public universities. Now, they made a statement shared in social media, but it was a statement, you know, released by the union, which read in part, quote, following the extensive deliberations and taking into cognizance governments passed failures to abide by its own timelines in addressing issues raised in the 2020 FJN ASU MOU or MOA rather that's a memorandum of action. Neck-resolved strike be rolled over for four weeks to give government more time to satisfactorily resolve all outstanding issues. That's a very nice way of saying we can do that strike, you know, so that's the role of a strike, they say, is with effect from 12.01 a.m. That's yesterday, August 1. So this is where we are as far as the strike is concerned. And then, of course, we're not just now grappling with the strike itself. We're also having to think about a national industrial action by the Nigeria Liberal Congress. And if Kerry's not taking the trade union congress, who was saying that they will embark on a strike, a three-day strike, this is not a protest. The one that happened last week was a protest. The one that is coming next is a strike. That's the down tools in the entire country for three days if the federal government does not give us what they want. So ASU is simply saying, I think it's a diplomatic way of putting things, that they want to give the federal government more time. I mean, they could have easily given the government more time, you know, by going back to the classroom. I mean, you still give them time, but they are simply saying we are not going to resume until you give us what we want. So the suffering of Nigerian students continues. I think the private universities will be smiling to the bank. Of course, the foreign university will be smiling to the bank. The Naira will keep struggling because you have to get these monies, US dollars to pay for and pounds to pay for those who want to go to school abroad. A lot of people now, for them, the only option for their children is to fly them out of the country to school. You know, just fly them anywhere. Or you get a private university admission for your child. But what happens to the indigenous children, the ones who can't afford, you know, to go to private universities? Parents can take them to private institutions. What happens to them? I mean, many of these people in authority today, I mean, positions of power in the country benefited from one scholarship or the other, which were very quite common in their day. This time you have to pay even to go to a public institution. All right. But to even attend the public institution is a problem because of the inconsistencies. And it's a sad one. The president of Nigeria had made a statement when he went to his country home for the Sala holidays to, you know, say he understands what the parents are going through. Try and paint, he tried to paint a picture of what parents and teachers are going, students are going through. Somehow I've been speaking for them, you know, but you begin to wonder if you're speaking for them. You're the one who has a solution. So what are you saying? But another question, you know, the Minister of Labor and Productivity, Senator Dr. Kresingigi, last week, again, came out to say the federal government is broke and cannot afford to pay us the nearly one trillion they're demanding. Should I still take a step back? Should I still look at the way of giving the federal government some alternatives? You know, you can't have everything sometimes in negotiations. You look for a way to find a compromise or will I still stick its ground and say give us nearly one trillion there and then we will go back to the classroom. The federal government is broke is what they're saying. They cannot afford this money. Interestingly, the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria had told the Minister of Education to take over the negotiations with the union. And of course, this was spread by the Minister of Labor and implement all this while it hasn't yielded any result. Let's see what happens in the next four weeks if ASU will go back to the classroom with this situation can be resolved. That's the size of a top trending segment right here on the breakfast. We'll be back and when we return we'll look at what the newspapers are saying today. Please stay with us.