 to kind of aircraft arrive in Nigeria for use in the war on tarot. Nigerians in Diaspora also arrive in Nigeria for a week in for Nigeria, but we're finding out what it is all about and how life abroad as a Nigerian is. The Olympic Games begin today triumphing over a COVID-19 threat. Just how well will Nigeria do, while it's got to be on ground to give us an answer? Welcome to the Breakfast and Plot TV Africa. Good morning. Thank you for joining us. I am Annette Felix. And I am Usaugi Ogbawan. Thank God it's Friday. And of course thanks for staying with us all through the week. Good to see you this morning. How are you? I am great, how are you? Fantastic. Okay let's begin the morning with some great news. So Nigeria has been battling the Burkama insurgency since 2009 and it's been a challenge fighting all these insurgents, all the war on tarot. And since 2020 we heard about a new deal that Nigeria will be getting the Super Tucano aircraft and that's to fight this insurgents. We heard that the Super Tucano aircraft are very effective in bombarding terrorist settlements and all of that and that Nigeria had this agreement to ship them in to the country. This was as far back as 2020 and this was going to come in 2019. So we know that on the 15th of June, we heard from the Nigerian military that the aircraft had just left the U.S. and will pass through about five other countries to come to Nigeria. And yesterday we heard the good news that we have taken delivery of six Tucano aircraft and that this will help Nigeria go a lot further in her anti-terrorism rule. Yeah, my students confirm if they actually have arrived Nigeria or we've only just taken delivery. I think they still have a couple of places to stop before they eventually get into Nigeria proper. Sometime at the end of the month I believe. But yes, I guess we'll say congratulations. The President had mentioned that they were meant to be arriving since 2018. There was some delay and eventually now we're talking about receiving them. But there also is some talk and some criticism and the response that I've seen also to this. A side celebrating the fact that we now have six super Tucano aircraft. There's also people who have asked if really it was our lack of aircraft that has prevented us from winning the war against terrorism. And there's a strong argument that it really isn't lack of proper aircraft. The ones that we've had have been shut down lately. I think it was last week we heard of another aircraft that was shut down. Another fighter jet that was shut down. We've had about four or five, about four Nigerian Air Force planes crash in the last five, six months. So yes, we do need better equipment. We do need more planes, I believe. But the question really is, is it the lack of aircraft that has prevented us from winning the war? And I personally don't think so. I think there's a lot more that we have not been able to do. There's a lot more that we have still not done that has prevented us from actually winning the war against Boko Haram and Aiswap and now the bandits. There's still kidnappings going on every now and then. And aircraft are not going to be the answers to those kidnappings. The banditry and the killing of citizens in different parts of Nigeria in Baranui, in Katzina, in Southern Katunan, some of all those places have been way inclusive. Aircraft are not the answer. It's about two kinds of jets are not the answer to those questions. And so when we get these aircraft, are we going to start doing what is necessary? Are we going to start actually arresting sponsors and financiers? Are we going to do better with our borders and ensure that weapons are not being moved into Nigeria for these terrorists? Are we going to put men on ground that actually can't gather information and know who the leaders of these bandits are? Those who are boasting on camera that they killed Nigerian soldiers, are we going to actually find them and arrest them? So while we will clap and say, oh yeah, we now have six super to kind of jets, there's still the perspective that, you know, that really was never the problem. It's not the lack of jets that, you know, it was a problem. I also saw someone say that, you know, the $500 million or how the amount of money that was spent on those aircraft could have been spent on many other things. You know, that will have been more beneficial to Nigerians in the long run and not just jets. There's education, there's infrastructure, there's healthcare, there's so much more that we could have spent that money on and actually been serious with the fighter gangs' insurgency and the fighter gangs' terror. And, you know, do the groundwork that is necessary. Every time that these questions are asked, there, you know, there's excuses that, oh, you know, when you're fighting guerrilla warfare, you know, it's pretty difficult to tackle and that's why it's been difficult to handle in Afghanistan and in Pakistan, some of all those other countries. Well, it's guerrilla warfare, so you don't need aircraft to fight that. But that basically is just, you know, a different perspective from celebrating. Yeah, I understand your angle, but when you're talking about fighting terrorism, there definitely is the need for infrastructure and there are some aircrafts that can do what others can't. For example, that's a kind of aircraft to look at all the improved features. It has higher flying capabilities. It's faster, it's lighter. So all these things just give us an edge in some way. It just is better in fighting insurgency. That really is why it was built, specifically modeled for combat. So that's exactly why they're investing in that. Four more would arrive the country in September and that's all heard from the federal government and about six more would arrive in September and a four more before the end of the year. Hopefully on Monday we would have security experts to have a large conversation about this and understand if the battle against insurgency, yes, like I said, yes, aircrafts would be good. Yes, more equipment are good, but is that really the reason we've not been able to win the war? Absolutely not. Would they help? Yes, would they maybe be more difficult to shoot down like the other ones are the ones that were shot down last week? Maybe, yes. But is that what we really have lacked and is that the reason we haven't won the war against insurgency and banditry and the rest of these groups springing up here and then kidnapping? Absolutely not. But congratulations Nigeria. All right, our next top trend this morning is about the live and faith church, Winner's Chapel. We heard the story earlier in the week about how a pastor of the church was sat, actually about 40 pastors, because in that video where he was ranting about the fact that his appointment was terminated, he mentioned that there were about 40 other pastors who received letters of termination as well. So we know that pastors of that church were laid off and in the rants that they mentioned, they said that they had certain deliverables that they didn't meet up with and that pastor made claims about money and that conversation also came up online. People were saying, why should the church be seen as a business or money making venture? But finally, we have a word from the pastor of the church, Bishop David Oedipo. He spoke recently to his congregation addressing that matter, saying that churches cost money to build and he explained that some of the churches cost as much as 35 million naira and that they never owe workers, that they employ so many workers across all the branches of the church nationwide, they never owe them, they have to pay them with money and that when he's talking about laying off workers, it's not necessarily about money. In his words, money is nonsense. We've never lacked it, yet we've never asked for it. Those were his words. He went on to then say that it's a matter of footfulness and when you check the comments section, when people reacted to this, they went on to say, oh yes, still the Bible verse I mentioned the other time in the book of Luke where there was an analogy there of a tree that wasn't bearing fruit and Jesus ordering it to be cut down since it wasn't fruitful. So they went on to say yes, these pastors weren't being fruitful because they should be willing souls for God and they wasn't about money. Let's actually take a listen to Bishop David Oedipal say those words himself. Social media was dead, dead. We have more employees in this organization than most of the state. No one is owed a damn salary and we don't borrow, we don't beg, ask our bank whether we take over a draft. We are covenant, bond people, walking in the light of God's world and enjoying an open heaven. We are fully delivered the first face of 1,000 plus buildings in the rural churches. None of those churches can generate that fund in the next 30 years. No, we are haunting after souls. Money nonsense. Money. We've never lacked it and yet we have never prayed for it. We're just simply obeying God and he's backing up what he's asking us to do. Awesome God. You don't need so much mathematics to know 1,000 buildings that is no 1,000 error each. There's no 10 million each. There's no 12 million each. There's no 14 million each. Some are touched by those who said, you know... Well, we should avoid it up there. Of course, clearing the air on why pastors were sacked. And like I said, when we had this conversation earlier in the week, I think I was saying that it's important that the church lets us understand what they mean by unfruitful. When you say you're not bearing fruit, what exactly does that mean? Is it with increasing numbers of church members or is it with increasing finances? And what is the trick for increasing church members if that's what the target is? If it is by winning souls for God, then what exactly is the trick that these pastors do not have that have gotten them fired? And I'm also not very, very... And that's one of the things that I'm still very, very uncomfortable with, the fact that you get an employment letter as a pastor. Since when did it become a job that you employ someone as a pastor? Do people get employed as imams? Do you have an employment letter when you go to a mosque and say, okay, I'm now the Imam of this church. I'm going to get paid salary every month. And when they were recruiting these pastors, didn't they put them through any training? Didn't they go through any process that makes them believe that, yes, these ones will be fruitful? Wasn't the pastor position a calling from God or not? Do people then apply for these things the same way they apply to be bankers or to be lawyers? And that's really where I'm confused. I can't speak on if, you know, the last point you mentioned, if people apply to be pastors. But what I can say is that even in the word itself, religious organization, it's implied that this is an organization. People are paid to work there. I don't attend the church. I can't speak for them. But I can say that the fact is it's an organization. For them to have branches all over, they have to have an organized system of work. If not, I mean, everything would just be in disarray. So I can understand where he's coming from regarding paying salaries and that those who are not meeting up. Church workers are all free. I've never said church workers go there for free. That's obviously going to be paid. You get paid for the work that you do, even if you're in the music team, you're in the choir, you know. So if you get paid, you don't expect to get paid forever. You can be let go. You can be employed, so to speak. Yes, but when you are asking for fruitfulness and you are paid as a pastor to be fruitful, the idea, the Christ-like idea, the biblical idea is to win souls for Christ. How do you win souls for Christ? Yeah, so that's the question you should be asking these people. I mean, when you... Where's the challenge with not being able to win souls for Christ? I can't really explain their metrics, but I do know that you need money to run. So even live as a human being in Nigeria, you definitely need money to survive. Talk less of building an organization that is, you know, that has a goal, which is winning souls and expanding. I can't really begin to defend them to say, oh, you need money to print your pamphlets or to buy fuel in your generators. My challenge here is not with money or not. Maybe he needs to give my explanation. But all I'm saying is that a religious organization is an organization at the end of the day, and it needs structures to work. So you've gone back to that point and I've said, I understand that. And the challenge I have is not with, you know, the fact that the church needs money to run. Of course, it does need money to run. And I said that last couple of days ago on Monday or Tuesday when we talked about this, it does need money to run. These churches need to be built, and they're not built with prayers. They're built with money. People need to be paid salaries. Churches need to be painted, need to be swept. They are paid with money. But when you say that a pastor has been sacked for being unfruitful, that's where my challenge is, why wasn't he winning souls for Christ? You know, and what do they go through before? You might need to ask him himself. I don't know. So what do they go through before they get to that state where you then employ them and say, okay, you would make a good pastor for this branch, go and win souls for Christ? Do they at some point stop doing the things that they were taught in biblical school? That's where I'm confused. And so when you sack them, do you then look out for new people and then train them also and then say, okay, yes, you seem to have gone through the pastor class. Now you can go handle this branch here and there. And hopefully you can win souls for Christ. And winning souls for Christ, what does that mean also? Does that mean an increasing congregation number? Seems implied. Okay. Okay. Obviously religious debates are long running. It doesn't seem like something that will end anytime soon. But anyway, here's where we are. Bishop David Oedipal came out to say, it's not about money, it's about winning souls for Christ. How exactly he meant and how they intend to do that. We really don't have the details. But that's our top trending stories for you this morning. Thank you very much for starting your very beautiful Friday morning with us. I will take a break here to join Mr. Gideh Johnson for Off The Press.