 Welcome back. Time to look at the details of the stories and take analysis from them. I am glad to see we have joining us Chris Kane, the Wando, who is Executive Director of the African Governance and Leadership Initiative. Mr Wando, good morning to you. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you very much for having me. Alright, fantastic. This is Lagos. This is Lagos. You're welcome. You were meant to be stuck in traffic here. It's quite understandable. But hoping you will still come so we can see you right here in the studio. But the fear between the NNPC and CBN has been nothing short of embarrassing. Now we hear that the presidency is waiting into this whole fear regarding dollar remittances. That's the big one on the front page of the Daily Trust. If you recall, the CBN governor and former presidential aspirant of the All Progressives Congress, Godinim Mefili, had said that the reason the Naira is performing poorly is because CBN had failed to remit its dollar proceeds into the account. Only for the CBN to come up and show documents indicating they've been selling in money for six months now. So what are your thoughts on this move by the presidency? Well, to me, I would say it's coming too late or it's coming early. But for the Senate government to have allowed this to occur for such a long time is very embarrassing. That the NNPC is not remitting dollar into the CBN account is to me very embarrassing. But this is not new. You've learned that the NNPC now, more around NNPC as it were, over the years have been so consistent in its approach to remitting funds to the predation accounts. And there have been so many instances where ministers of finance, CBN governors and so many others have complained. Even the governors of the various states have very many complaints about this. And to also understand that for several years the account of the NNPC was not audited. That in itself is enough to show you the kind of frauds within the NNPC and the Ministry of the Children's Research. For it to take a call by the federal bank now to call that the NNPC for the federal government to wait into this problem to me is laughable. But on the other side and the other leg for me is the allegation that is one of the reasons why the Naira is jumping a galloping to where we are. As of last week I was able to have about 710 Naira extended for a dollar. To me, it's not here nor there for me because it's obvious that the NNPC, the CDA and the Covenants Centre bank have lost all initiative to be able to checkmate this Naira trade and the high rise in Naira compared to the dollar. Don't forget the recent CDA that came up to say that the problem we had was a bookie effect. You remember vividly that the CDA said this sometime ago and I say that that web preach should be brought down and that happened. At the point again the CDA decided to blame in the brutal charge, complaints, criticism that they were busy for this. Now they are chasing the blame to NNPC. I don't even know what is going on. But it's very unfortunate that we have a serious economic issues, especially when it relates to this. A few days ago the Emirates issued a statement that warned that they are going to reduce the number of flights coming to Nigeria from 11% because they cannot remit over $85 million ticket sales that were made in Nigeria to their country. That is how bad the situation is. This of course is going to be really bad for investment in Nigeria and of course for you have foreign direct investment and for the economy as a whole. In a time when we are trying to see how we can fix the economy, the economy itself is also now destroying the economy. I mean it's really scary and the signals that you've said, it's going to send signals to the entire investment and business world that their money will be trapped in Nigeria. It is because let me tell you, a lot of industries are dying. The companies that rely on certain equipment or whatever in terms of possession cannot even... So many companies are completely closing down. Most of them have been money but they can't get the dollar to buy. They can't. And that is the problem we are having. We've said this time and time again, we're having the issue of this importation of petroleum products and the rest of them. And we say that if we get to this point where we cannot even... Let me give you a class in the company. As of last week, the... What is it called now? S.S. Group Accounts. The unit of finance goes on that S.S. Group Accounts has been spending just $300,000, about $300,000. When this government came into place in 2015, it was about $2 billion. $2 billion. When Obatango was leaving, it was close to $20 billion. Now you're talking just less than $1 million, about a quarter of a quarter or a third of $1 million. That is what we have in our S.S. Group Accounts. The time is that even if they practically have nothing to share, they give. Because if there are so many companies that have more than $300,000 going to open up a country having less than $300,000 in the S.S. Group Accounts, that shows you the level and the problem we are in currently. Our students that are schooling abroad are finding the country's same money to them to pay their school fees. You don't have transactions to do. In fact, if you have gotten so bad that some banks, even your card, you cannot be able to transfer or make any purchase up to $50 with your card. That is how bad it is. If you are traveling now and you go to the bank to get dollars, you will be on the tube. You will be asked to apply online. And you will take you about three or four weeks. Because you will not get to use that travel before they even find something for you. That is how the situation is. Indeed. One of my banks, I think a week or two ago, sent me a flash message to say that they suspended withdrawals, dollar withdrawals, or foreign use of an ATM card. Absolutely. I am a practical example. About two weeks ago, I qualified as a credit administrator in the UK. I qualified as a credit administrator. I was asked to pay my membership fee in pounds. Just about everything, about 75 pounds. Do you know that all my cards that I have, I couldn't transfer that money. I couldn't transfer them on just for 75 pounds to pay for my membership. I have to call somebody in the UK to make a payment for me. That is how terrible it is. mere 75 pounds, I cannot make a transfer to pay for my professional fee. It's sad. It's sad. And of course it means that there will be an economic slowdown. I've been thinking about this, Chris. I remember, I recall a few recalls as well, that the protests in Sri Lanka, were hastened by the fact that people could not find a US dollar in the country. They ran out of dollars, ran out of foreign currency. It's true. It is. In Sri Lanka. We are talking about dollar now, the way we are going, I can tell you that people will stop protesting even for bread. Bread prices have got a separate requirement in most countries. The prices of bread, of bread breads are raising to about 1000 Naira per loaf. I'm sure you are aware of that. That slice bread. Yes. Not a gigi bread though. No, I guess you know which one. And you said a gigi bread. I know you like a gigi bread and that one. You know. I'm not talking about a bread bread. That is a stable food in Nigeria. You see, the price of chupa of Myanmar has moved close to 3000 Naira, just a chupa. One. One chupa. That is locally produced. So, one of the people I see talking about is people that are not in the nation. Even locally, people are finding it much more difficult to even eat now. Even the clients ask how much a pint of this is. So, you might not even know some of this. Don't be too sure. Don't be too sure. All right. Let's move on. Whilst we're looking at the CBN and NNPCS trying to agree on who is telling the truth and who is not, ASU held a meeting on Sunday and of course came out with a decision by the NEC to extend the strike by further four weeks starting a minute after midnight yesterday, Monday. Four weeks strike. And they say they want to give the federal government time to consider negotiating and implementing the agreement that ASU has and all that. You think this would, four weeks would lead to something different from what we've been seeing for the last few months since February 2022? So, we always talk about this about two weeks ago. I told you that I don't want to be a prophet of doom. But I told you that the two weeks ultimately given by the president for the Minister of Education to sort out the issue with ASU, we now come to a conclusion because I know that that two weeks ultimately is not possible. If you're not able to solve a problem for years, how come that you're able to do that within two weeks? How can that two weeks last? We have not had from the Minister of Education, we have not had from the presidency. We have not had from any party or the director to give it by the president. If the president gave it two weeks or two weeks and after two weeks and he was supposed to give an extension, he would come out with an idea and say, okay, this is the report I brought in from the minister. This is where we are. Can we still give them another few weeks to be able to do it? Nobody is talking until ASU came up and said that they are giving another four-week extension, one month. But don't forget that also this government in the past have also raised very similar committees. There was one headed by the chief of staff to the president, Professor Gambari himself. And they were given a section of people thought to be able to get this sorted. Nothing happened to that in every report. The president kept quiet on it. Professor Gambari on it. So he didn't come out to tell us how far they went with the negotiation and the rest of them. Now ASU have given an extra promise. These two days are practically lost about going to two sessions. Because the last time, a lot about nine months goes to a year. Now this Saturday they are about February and they are about to end up with another six months have been lost. And everybody's behavior is still not happening. Why these students continue to stay at home and their future in mortgage. Also this also is affecting them because most of these students that participated in jam, I think they are about two sets now, cannot gain admission to the university. So what is happening? Nobody is saying anything. Nobody is negotiating with ASU. ASU seems to be on his own. The government said they will find a solution to it. And practically just that they have pushed forward a broken negotiation as they have to do with ASU city. I will tell you for free that this government will continue to push this narrative until next year. And that is where we are heading to. Because this government has been harming us about eight months or so. We have about six months to the election in February. And after the election, the government is practically on its way out. So let the fact be made that those in charge are not with elitia. But the better is that any business with social media, we are ministers, we are governors, we are legislators, our senators, House of Remembers and people in the House of Remembers who are brought to go to the convocation of their troops and put these figures online. All right. A very sad one indeed. Chris, can you do one? I would have wanted us to stick with the digital problem. We have limited time. So let's move on to the punch. The big one there, the punch is devoting its banner headline to coverage of the planned attacks. You know, the NSCDC warning as terrorists infiltrate south. The paper says the police is strategizing. What are your thoughts on this? We told the Lagos Commissioner of Police area and tactical commanders held an emergency meeting and have called for vigilance. FRAC is declaring war on unregistered motorcycles, you know, ROI youth are demanding the NSC's sacking. So what are your thoughts on the ongoing situation with these NSCDC frequent security reports in recent times? NSCDC will give reports. DHS also came up with their own reports. Police also, a few days ago, issued statements that we didn't report in Lagos and we have personally impaired for this report. What I want to say is concrete actions. What I'm trying to say is we're doing the needful. Just a few days ago, not about within the last 24 hours or 48 hours, a family of six were killed in just a family of six. Six family of six were eliminated in just. People just went to their home and killed them. I learned that additional two were also making the total of eight. Just used to be one of the safest cities in Nigeria. It has always been, when we are growing up, we always have that nostalgic feeling to go to just because of the story we have been hearing about just, if you can't go to London, you can't go to America, just go to just the same weather and the rest of it. Just used to be one of the most peaceful cities in Nigeria. Now, what do we have? Now, there are instances where we are getting reports that people around us have taken over, particularly all the forests within the southwest. The leader of OPC came a few days ago to give a dummy report on that and there have been constant reports coming in from the various agencies of government that something may happen within the southwest. A few days ago also, a leader of Boko Haram was arrested in Abel Kuta in Auguste where he disguised as a security man. I was using that opportunity to gather intelligence. So we are in real deep trouble. What we thought was just limited to not east, west and north-central has not moved down to every part of the country and is about to take food in the southwest. What I can only say is that let us be as vigilant as we can be. The secret agencies will always continue to assure us that things are being done, but in the daily basis they continue raising this security a lot. You saw what happened in Abuja a few days ago. We are about eight students. We are in the Ibuari area of Abuja, which is in the heart of Abuja. We just presumed was attacked and business were allowed to go. Most tutorials of leaders of Boko Haram basically were out of this. No one had been arrested so far. So that is the problem we are having and he continued to gather this security. The security report for me, people, should make people to panic. I personally would just advise the secret agencies to do their work without necessarily raising the tension and trying to raise some kind of hypertension among the people because the more you give this report, there is a possibility that people will start getting afraid and also to monitor what things will just continue to happen. They will do their duty. That is what is called serious intent. They then do their intelligence guidance and make sure that these people are arrested and this issue of attack and netting before it happens. You saw what happened in the war. They had to move into a church and kill several people and just let them... We brought two abstracts. They are trying to send them away again. All right. Chris, we have to leave it at that and your interest analysis. I mean, the headlines don't give too much share but you've done justice to each and every one that we've raised for you to comment on so far. I want to thank you so much for your time. Thank you very much for having me. Have a nice day ahead. All right. All right. That's the other press segment on the breakfast right here on Plus TV Africa. We'll be back to talk breastfeeding. Quite interesting to look at such a topic on a beautiful day. It's World Breastfeeding Week. Stay with us.