 Thank you for staying with us you're still watching the breakfast on plus TV Africa it's time to see what the national dailies are saying in today's headlines we're going to be looking at off the press but joining us to review the papers this morning is G.D. Johnson he's a chief lecturer Nigerian Institute of Journalism and he'll be joining us here in Lagos State good morning mr. Johnson thank you for joining us good morning good morning good morning happy new year to you hello sir yeah good morning good morning for having me and happy new year to all of us all over the world it's a pleasure to be with you again yes thank you so much all right let's go into the papers and today we'll be starting with the Guardian now there is a major headline that's screaming at everyone and it says EFCC probes NSIPA beneficiaries in alleged forex allocation abuse now we know that they've even actually freeze about 40 private accounts with these monies but I want to know what your thoughts are on this one NSIPA we've heard of how they have siphoned monies that are meant for projects but here EFCC is already probing them and trying to investigate in this matter what are your take what's your thoughts on this my my take is just very simple there are due diligence process before you take money out of public office the question your axis and how those that are meant to raise red flag or those that are meant to ensure that there is compliance with laydowns rule and procedure what did they do and how do people circumvent these processes and then why do we even have the economic financial crimes commission in the first place in it is to prevent that it's not about it's not about the investigation and prosecution after the crime has has happened it's it's also meant to to to ensure that this does not even happen in the first in the first instance and you know like like the EFCC like the spectrogener in the American system which is independent of any of the body that can look into the covers of any government agencies or even individual individual individual individual accounts to ensure that there are compliance with financial regulations and duty there and then our sensitivity will be insulted every day to suitcase if he's investigating investigating with and then they keep investigating and then we'll see the light of the day concerning the investigation and that will be swept under the carpet another person will comment another crime it will be investigated and our feelings will be will be assaulted with with both deadlines on pieces of newspaper to justify whether EFCC is doing something is not doing something but if it's for them to run after those that are committed financial crimes in terms of in terms of breaking the 419 code it's easier for them to do that it's easier for them to parade them it's easier for the EFCC man to say 95% of of university students are yow yow boys but it's not easy for him to say that 99.9% of the political class are corrupt so it's it's it's unfortunate you just wonder what what people have done to the commonwealth of this country you just wonder if we fully manage our resources where this country will be in the committee of nations unfortunate is it's when any anytime I see such a line and I see the brava do of EFCC and I see them trying to to to to to to to to portray themselves as walking in the interest of like I see them walking in against the interest of like that because in the first instance you are put in place to ensure that this does not happen why do you always allow this to happen is what I can't come to terms with yeah I think I think you raise some value valid points because I want to believe that if monies are being transferred to a certain account even before we get to this stage of stealing millions and billions the banks should actually be alerted they should see the fund sometimes you're just transferring about one million era and then they freeze your account for about maybe some minutes so if they're sending this huge chunks of money how come EFCC doesn't see that even before we get to the point of sending out billions from government Treasury fund from government Treasury so that is a that is a very value point but now let's circle it back to the fact that okay Nigerian students or people who are doing the yeah we are in quotes are being paraded by EFCC would you say that they probably protect the politicians and then does this even impact like affect the credibility of EFCC as a whole but what do you think the public perception of EFCC is the public perception of EFCC what do you think do people take EFCC as serious as it used to be when the president national security advisor was the chairman of EFCC the fear of EFCC is the beginning of wisdom for every political class then compare compare the vibrancy compare the actions of EFCC then with EFCC now you just wonder we are EFCC just for drug and then they do a lot of prosecution on the pages of newspaper without any account with respect to the prosecution of the investigations they've carried out now this is just one one this is just one one one one sector one sector of the hello sir company sector of the economy let's look at this you through their spotlight on transportation on what happened during transportation concerning the railway construction or the truth they are sport Nigerian goose you know more than multi multi agencies that you through their spotlight on and they come out with with their result you cry for this country I wonder how this country is still standing on his two feet with all of the bleeding and memory the country suffering from I just I just can't imagine I just as far as I'm concerned you asked me from our opinion how do I take EFCC I take EFCC as a serious organization because the common bit of EFCC is not to prosecute after the crime has been committed is to ensure that this does not happen and that the major reason why we enjoyed the forgiveness it was one of the condition that was given then by by the World Bank the IMF that the idea needs to put in place is system that for stall corruption that's why the fact that we have put that system in place and then you even have due process passed into law in 2006 I wonder why I can't remember this lady's name they call her mother and due process because she's parted over obi obi yeah obi is a quasi-legit now you can imagine that despite all the safety guard put in place in the any every operative every director including they should be ashamed of themselves they should because this can't be happening under your watch it can be happening like you said they have access to every account even if if there's if there's suspected movement of funding to my account or your own account before you say jack promise you the account is free once you come honestly and then people will be moving billions billions billions billions and yes it's not in any flag it's sad so that means the banks also are complicit because these they should report as well yes they do not report is it that the system is such a way that the banks themselves do not understand or the banks are culpable in what about corruption quote unquote is an organized crime network it's an organized crime network because you see there is a deed is he that is like a syndicate because it's not possible for you to even move the money into the banks to move the money out of the bank to move the money from from government account into into the banks and you move the money from from government account in the banks into your own bank or into private banks or you move the money outside of Nigeria you got the director that was suspended that said she moved the money because she suspected that the minister will use the money for something different and she has already spent some certain amount and I put my hand on my head how is this possible are these people talking about money or do people not even have any fear okay let's move to the political matters now as it is we go to river state for Baras ally we draw suit against 25 rivers lawmakers this just gives us the impression that the implementation of that agreement which Nigerians were crying over is is beginning we've seen he is who was legitimately given the mandate to be the speaker of the River State House of Assembly resigning and now he has become the chief of staff of the governor they suit against the people who left the party to another party that should have been removed from office according to the Constitution has been withdrawn so little by little the provisions of that agreement have been being implemented what does that say about the democracy of Nigeria and the rule of law and respect for the rule of law the fact that you conduct elections and you have periodic elections and then you have successions of government and then you have augusts of government collect controlled by elected or selected or read or judicia lean post and it does not mean that you you have a democracy democracy itself does not equate constitutional republic what you are talking about is a is having a constitutional republic when your democracy is not guided by the constitution of your land then you can call that democracy is is is no longer democracy as every republic is going by consumption but as far as I'm concerned it's only people that have bothered about the acts and the actions of these players and the diverse case shouldn't surprise anybody in the sense that you have a party that worked against his presidential candidate true and true and then work for the presidential candidate lead eventually won the election and then so in rivers rivers is neither PDP in PDP it's the actors and the players in rivers are all are all in tandem in good with the APC that's was the reality and the leader of the APC is the president and the president has called his members of his party put on quote based on my own interpretation of the events he has called them and they have gone to sign whatever agreement he has given them directive with respect to what they need to do and they are trying to implement that but even if anyone is thinking that well you abide by the constitution we comply with what the provisions of the concern is I think that we are just playing to the girl you be short that this year a lot of PDP members even gov. elect would become to APC as we are approaching 2027 we might likely have close to about 30 28 to 30 of the gov. in the APC that's the way the political class is if you study the trend you look at the trend in 2003 you look at the trend in 2007 and then you look at the trend in in 2014 so you begin to see and then you also look at the trend in 2019 if you remember into prior to 20 shortly after 2019 election the president minister of works the camp the former governor as governor of a Boeing state the governor of cross river state also become matawale to become so if you don't surprise anybody this the political class what they care about is not about you are nice about power is about power is about their interest and their interest is only served when they are in position of power if I begin to mention the names of those that were that were quote unquote in the spotlight in the last eight years that are not in any position of power actually the question we are the so without access to power they are insignificant so as a result of that the political class always look for ways and means to protect their own interest do you know whether in that agreement the governor has been assured of a second term that you will get the second term that you should don't worry will not be in picture it's you want the root of people and the shared with us they want the shared in the secret nobody seems to know anything about it because if you see when the fight started and our Nigerians of different divide what were taking sites in that fight if you take sites with the political class you just they are chameleon so they change the color of their skin according to whatever they are close to so for me I'm not surprised just grab your popcorn like I said that time I said grab your popcorn sit by the ring side don't put your stick in any in any of the ring just watch the the fight as it unfolds all right so there's a small headline here that says man that's the manufacturing association of Nigeria predicts challenging business year arches federal government to prioritize the manufacturing so the manufacturing institution of Nigeria has even said that there's a lean possibility of recovery in the third quarter however the first two quarters of the year would be quite challenging for Nigerians and now they are asking us to ensure that we prioritize manufacturing but we're seeing companies move away from Nigeria so their companies like the Jubilee syringe company now that he's moving away we also have JSK that has moved away as well we're seeing all of these manufacturing companies leaving Nigeria how can we start to prioritize manufacturing and not just you know put all our eggs in one basket off the crude we're investing in power serious investment in power if you want to run a business even as an SME you understand the override cost that you incur as a result of power the money is spent on energy and then these companies we want they don't have the national grid keep collapsing and the prices of petroleum products PMS and diesel keeps keeps rising so and what we're up on at the end of the day they had to we had to add that to their production cost and production cost will lead to expensive goods and services and invariably these goods and services cannot compete with cheaper is even cheaper for you to import these things to come and sell it in Nigeria and for you to produce it in Nigeria that's why these companies are leaving so it's important for government to prioritize that because we don't go a manufacturing sector it is the growth of a manufacturing sector that strengthens the Naira because we some we save a lot of money we use for foreign exchange because we don't have to import most of the things that we need but here even food we are importing food so once you make serious investment in the agricultural sector you are food sufficient and you make available power your industry begins to grow and as your industry begins to grow the economy begins to boom and as economy is booming the strength of your Naira keeps improving comparable to the dollar the cost of living is reduced the standard of living is improved and then the economy becomes it's it's it's the ABC of economics is the ABC of economics but we keep saying it over and over and over again there are three value chains there are three value chains and I've said it what government needs to do is to adopt this model if you see that the model has worked in one sector adopt that model in other sector the model of completely is in off total control over the telecom sector happened in 2001 and you see what has happened to the telecom sector now why can't we bring that entire the entirety of that model to the power sector so that the power sector can power economy if you don't power the manufacturing sector your economy can never be powered so you have the the genco's the T-Schools and the Disco's it's only the Disco's that have been completely liberalized there's a need for government to hands off the genco's and the Disco's let private individual and the amendment made by the Naira assembly has given back let private individual make investment in the energy sector once we get the energy sector right I can assure you that even the food we produce in the farm there are cultural products we produce but we can preserve it we can process it and we can we can we can export it if you don't process it will not in the way so it is processing you need to add additional value to it when you have scaled the value it makes it easier for you to to to escort to escort to to to to to other to other countries and then you make money from it and it makes it easier for you to move the goods to the length and breadth of this country so it's it's not rocket science it's not it's not rocket science but if you look at all this money that they are stealing all this money that they about the allegedly accused people of stealing from from government you'll be shitting your head that if only we have invested this money in the power sector if only we have invested this money in making sure that we have good transportation system we have good road network between I can go to buy extra go to buy extra now I've missed them I've missed I've missed free fish and come and sell it package it and come and sell it in the girls and come and sell it in the girls sell it sell it in no go sell it in sell it in in a kitty and the rest and the rest and the rest of it are usually waterways so it's it's it's not rocket science but is there the political way to do that are those going to public office interested in building legacies or they are interested in building mansions for themselves mansions that will not last okay let's move to the punch newspaper I'm not starting with the leading headline I'm starting with a smaller headline at the top of punch newspaper customs generate 3 trillion Naira I 5 trillion Naira in 2024 it gives me concern I don't know how how it works anyway but when customs is a higher revenue every year they want to get higher and higher revenue does that not affect the climate the business climate of a country because things to be cleared at the borders things to be cleared from the wharf and all that keep getting higher and higher and they charge in dollars in most cases so is that not a problem for business in Nigeria can we try that kind of a decision where customs are expected to generate more and more money it tells you the focus the direction with which government business has been done that the focus on revenue generation it's not about growing the revenue generation from foreign foreign exchange and in true imports into your country government is not even trying to look at money that it can generate from export of goods and service outside of the country so it tells you the focus when your custom is meant to protect your local businesses and when the focus of that custom the central focus becomes revenue generation it tells you what is really wrong with with with your with your with your economic model of building your economy it tells you what has been wrong not with this person at this time but what has been wrong because the focus has been on generating more revenue from from the last the last eight nine years the the the head of custom always try themselves at the beginning of the year they usually give us figures figures and about what they've generated and on it keeps increasing yearly the question you ask where does this revenue grow to what were these revenue used for who validated the claims of what cost should we have come from custom or should we have come from the accountant general of the federation but surely have come from the minister of finance in a in a regular briefing providing us with a brief but we have the situation in idea we have had every agency revenue generating agency works independent of one another and there is no coordination with respect to if our rest will come they will give you the on figure and MP will come they will give you the on figure and the customers come now to give you the figure that of NNPC you don't even know the figure of NNPC they won't even give you anything so you wonder what does ministry of finance what does what do they do what does what does what does minister of finance what does it do with respect to coordinating ensuring that every money that is generated goes into the national treasury but was that not the aim of the single treasury account but is that is that do you believe that works all the you truly believe that works you talk about a single treasury account you saw them they saw the money for the SIP and then the the director the suspended director said I move the money from one account to another account how many ministries have single treasury you see there are so many political statements made on that under various administration there are so many policy statement that were not fully implemented for a fact and the system exploited them the let me put it them quote-unquote the laid-back approach of the president in terms of not seem to be interested in interfering once he has appointed you into office you believe you have the capacity to do whatever you want to do and it was a free it was a free for all approach under that particular administration that everybody does exploited that loop or that anything of command and structure in the presidency with respect to vaccine what was going on the minister of finance as well as I'm concerned here this is bordering and what you should have done is to have invited in the insta-finance and to them to come and account for some of the things we're not seeing then publish it on the pages of newspaper and doing media trial but those that have missed manage the commonwealth of this nation to be heard accounting if you have made the minister of finance for example in this president administration you have the minister of finance and the coordinating me has been made the coordinating minister of the economy I hope mr. Walidon will leave to that we quote beyond the coordination what we have lacked is coordination and organization of how resources are sourced are generated and how these resources are kept and how these resources are disbursed all right that's how we have to wrap it up on this segment thank you so much for joining us mr. Johnson thank you for reviewing the papers with us this morning this is a pleasure to start this the first Friday of the year listening to your beautiful voice thank you and I'm looking forward to that but because I want to be that no problem no problem we got you covered all right we've been seeking to mr. Gday Johnson is a chief lecturer Nigerian Institute of journalism and he was joining us here in Lagos state we'll go on a short break and when we turn we'll be looking at our hot topic listening with us