 Today is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. We take a look at the importance of this day and how women and girls in Africa are faring in this field. Also Nigeria's House of Representatives is waiting into what can now be called fuel gate. We'll go the latest in the bad fuel saga for the guest analyst. We have analysis of the headlines in today's national dailies, these and more ahead of the breakfast. A very good morning to you, it's breakfast on Plus TV Africa. Welcome, my name is Kofi Barjaes. And I am messy vocal as G.D. Johnson will say thank you on this Friday. I promise this would be a fantastic, great time, two hours of amazing conversation right here. And as always we will set off with top trending. Now these are conversations generating a lot of reactions across board in different spaces. Interesting. It's been a whirlwind few days. I cannot wait for the second topic. But also the first one very important because science and technology and women are important. Lots of stories trending in Nigeria yesterday, even up to this morning people talking about them. Let's start with the first one. Yes indeed. The fuel, the bullion van attack. And I don't know if you saw the responses but we're having on social media as well regarding that. The fact that it's not something we're used to. It's been a while since I heard about the bullion van being attacked in this country. Because you expect that there's always security. We're used to seeing the bullion vans that move money from bank to bank or from bank to house. Let's not go into bank to house for now because you know we don't roughly any feathers. But we're used to seeing police and security guarding the bullion vans. But this is what happened in your state. Two policemen and a civilian were confirmed dead. And we told that armed robbers attacked that bullion van. You can see images of cracked windshields and windows and bullet holes in riddled cars. Two armed robbers attacked the bullion van conveying money from a bank in Iwo Road, in the Ede Acperia of Ibadon, your state. This is in the heart of Ibadon. And that's Iwo Road in Ede Acperia of Ibadon, your state. It was one of the hoodlums who was also killed during a shootout with the police. It's really sad that two policemen had to lose their lives in the course of duty, in the line of duty. It was in the afternoon, broad daylight you can see, at about 1.35pm yesterday, where the robbers reportedly were laid. They were laid the bullion van. You can see that security vehicle there. And this looks like a bulletproof car because the shots should have, you know, punched some holes in the windshield or the windshield and the windows. So probably the policemen came out to engage, you know, the attackers. And two policemen died. It's really, really, really sad. The bullion van was heading towards the gate area of Ibadon. When the armed hoodlums who were in a Toyota Sienna overtook the van and opened fire on the occupants and the police escorts. And one of the victims reportedly killed was an Okada rider. Really sad. Who was oblivious of the mission of the occupants of that Sienna. Really sad. The commercial motorist, motorist or motorcyclist was said to be in a hurry and reportedly attempted to overtake the hoodlums vehicle when he was shot dead by the robbers. Really sad. Now the eyewitnesses, those residents who stay around the area, also said that the escorts engaged, this is police escorts now, engaged the robbers in the shootout. So I just said, you know, adding that the hoodlums outnumbered the operatives and killed two of them, you know. So it's unfortunate, I remember the video that was trending online of a South African bullion van heist. And these guys were in the bullion van driving and they refused to come down to the drove, because they knew it was a bulletproof, to the drove to the destination place more secure where they could have backup to attack the robbers. It's really sad, really sad. You know, mostly we have two policemen dying in the course of duty. I know Nigerians always have criticism for the police when they go out of line but I don't think there's any Nigerian who will be happy to hear that a policeman has died. No, but contrary to all of that now, you also have some persons saying that this actually happened very close to a very big, that's the word I would say, close to police station. It was just few meters, that's the argument right now and people are saying that this, you know, robbery incident, the attack on the bullion van happened very close to, you know, police station, a prison that talked about also a testing ground. And so some people are saying, what's going on? Should we begin to question the police? How come we didn't have, you know, efforts? I mean, see efforts from the police station. So you want to expect that if you have a police station that's very around and then you should have police officers who would intervene but another question you want to ask yourself again is where they are armed. It's also another thing, did they have what it takes to attack them? The argument is on, one of the arguments, some people are saying that oh, these are human beings and we should make an excuse for them and others are saying no, they are trained for these and they cannot take cover while you have civilians. I mean, just ordinary civilians taking cover that should actually be, but it's really sad. It just brings us back to the conversation. The main conversation and the right, I mean, the gist here is that security is still top on the list and there's a lot that we need to do. We cannot fold our hands and say, oh, this is not actually happening to me right now at this point in time and therefore let's overlook it. Like we always know, like we know, the top on the list is that security and protection of lives and properties of citizens should be a priority of every government. Now, you have security challenges in Nigeria because if you look at the country in Nigeria, the security challenges are encompassing from the fact that you have almost 10 million out-of-school children and social vices, you cannot take that away to the fact that we need to pay attention. I mean, when you have a police station very close to where this incident is happening then you expect that there would be, you know, that particular attack. But another question is, what is, I mean, the police station is close by are they properly equipped? Do they have what it takes? Were they armed, you know, to attack these armed robbers and all of that? But this is what I am hoping and a lot of Nigerians are also anticipating that the law would actually take its course and those who were responsible, those behind this criminal act would be brought to book without any missing or mighting of words. That's the expectation, you know, and of course we expect that they'll be brought to book but, you know, it's easier said than done. The facilities and the technology and the the competence of our security agencies to flow through with cases, get to the bottom of cases and and fish out corporates, usually is hampered by some of the things that they don't have, you know, and they are overburdened and saddled with the responsibility of so many cases. I mean, if we want to take a look at the unexplained, uninvestigated or incomplete cases that the police have, you know, they are not able to get to the bottom of things because of the limitations that they face. It's a lot, it's a lot, you know, I call them unsolved cases. We don't hope they can get to the bottom of this and that the corporates can be brought to book. I know that the Surgeon of Police is also on top of this as well but it is sad, sad that we have three people being needlessly killed. I mean, in such a manner, you know, a motorcyclist who was going around his business went left the house and, you know, expected to make his daily income to go back home to his family, just his life snuffed out like that. You know, and then two police officers also went to work expecting to go back home to their family, also have their lives snuffed out like that. But it's clear from the footage that the police vehicle, I don't know which was the bullion van, well, it's the one that has the siren on top but that vehicle looks like it has a bulletproof windscreen. No, it does. Yes, and bulletproof. So it may have been maybe wiser to some are saying to keep going, you know, to keep going and to drive all the way to the point of where they can have, you know, maybe anti-station, for instance, but I'm not aware of the full details because it's a bit sketchy right now. You have the policeman in maybe another van, you know, because sometimes you have another van and looking out and all that. And maybe the police can now look at how to bring about some reform and changes, otherwise to have the policeman scoring these amounts of money in an open pickup truck, basically that's what it is. Or should it also be in a bulletproof vehicle to make sure they're safe because you can just say, okay, four or five policemen, they could be outnumbered at some time. Look at now, they were outfired, you know, outgun. So it's really sad, really sad. So like you rightly mentioned and like I have also stated and Nigerian terms are speaking that those responsible for this crime will be brought to book and that's what it is. If you want to begin to look at the how this actually happened, even though you're not there, you would definitely tell that there probably would have been an intel and having intel is one thing that we haven't been, I mean, you have a lot of security experts saying that we haven't been very great with intel in terms of security. So yes, I'm sure that there probably would have been an information from within, you know, to get to that particular point, but fingers have really crossed and we'll see how all of this pan out. We're hoping that the police here and every security agency would bring those behind us to book and the law and justice would actually have its place and our heart actually goes out to those who have lost their lives in the course of this, including, you know, the men of the Nigerian police force, our heart really goes out to them and we pray that justice actually be meted out. So we have some more trending stories. Yes, looking at also another trending story is the fact that the central bank of Nigeria has put our deficit money banks on notice that they will not, they will stop selling forex to them by the end of 2022 and this has also generated a lot of controversy. So some people are asking that if you have the CBN saying we're not going to be selling forex to the deposit, I mean all of these banks now, how do you expect them, where do they source from? The question is, so where are they going to be sourcing forex from? So it's a question right now and I really do not know what the CBN governor, I don't know what would be the reason for all of this policy or this policy at this point in time but fingers across and we hope that we get more of the conversation as we proceed. Yeah, it's a lot that is unclear as of now. I mean even if you go through all the sources, we've still not gotten the exact entire information but Nigerians and people in this country, even foreigners, go to the deposit money banks to obtain this forex but not all Nigerians can obtain the foreign exchange or foreign currency or hard currency like they call it from the deposit money banks. The majority of us go to the streets, the black market to get this, you understand and what the CBN has tried to do to protect the Naira because it's been, the Naira has been battered, really seriously battered. What the CBN has tried to do before now was to try different strategies to try and protect the Naira and the first thing I can remember was to chase away some so-called abokis who were selling, hold on, who were selling USD and doing the black market thing in Abuja. What happened? We were told, we were told, I read one of the papers that they had to hack down some trees on the streets of Abuja so that these guys can't stand there to exchange some money but I wouldn't be surprised if the CBN had denied it, I didn't see that. And secondly, the Aboki FX Saga where the website gives information on both parallel and official rates was blamed for the wars of the Naira and the site is normal. Then we had the CBN then said it wasn't going to give money to setting foreign expirues but we'll go ahead and start giving more of the money under US dollars or the foreign exchange to the commercial banks. So Nigerians being urged to go to the banks to transact business, either to get foreign exchange or to whatever they want to do. And also brought about an incentive where they give you I think about 100 Naira or so or 500 Naira for every certain amount of money that you receive into the country and you take from the banks, you know, they'll give you an amount of money as an incentive. So they've been trying to stay Nigerians away from the streets, you know, from the black market to the banks in a bid to protect the Naira. So I do not know what the intention of this policy is and how it's going to affect the Naira. So the big question here is as much as that might be the case you also need to, I mean we need to take into cognizant the fact that the CBN is the nation's, you know, the head of the nation's bank. And so if you're announcing you're not going to be supplying for X, you know, to those banks, the question will now be the CBN, where do you want them to source it from? Because at the end of the day, the pressure is going to be mounted on the battered economy and you will probably might just be looking at the dollar 2000, you know, 2000 Naira to a dollar. So that's a lot of pain for the common man, the average Nigerian. I mean there's a lot that we have to grapple with at this point in time. You look at the fact that the number of persons that are unemployed, unemployment is a big issue, insecurity that have made a lot of investors pull out. As much as we think that this is a joke, I really do not know across the entire country. There are businesses that have crippled because of the insecurity issues that were faced with. And so that's number one. You also have the fact that inflation also it's on the other side. I mean, it's stop on the charts with all of this. Now we were also grappling with the issue of fuel scarcity and, you know, the prices and every other thing going up. So it's a lot of pain right now. I'm also hoping that, you know, the CBN governor, we have a lot of intellectuals in this country. I mean, we're hoping that we would look at policies that would actually at this point reduce the pain of Nigerians and not really increase it as much as it is. Because sometimes you have policies that are very good. I mean, not to say there are some policies that are very, the intentions might be very genuine and it probably will lead us somewhere. But you also need to look at the timing and you begin to ask yourself at what point do you introduce it? Because if you have to introduce it, then you probably would have already put some measures in ground. But we hope that we speak with you. Yeah, I was just about to say that the central bank governor, gone in Mayfield, is saying that, you know, the decision is in line with the commitment of the APEX bank to boost the country's foreign reserves through proceeds from non-oil exports, you know, proceeds from non-oil exports. So sale of foreign exchange to deposit money banks by the end of the year, what is it going to cost? Because we know that from basic economics that prices will rise if you have much of something chasing a few of something. So if Nigerians, where Nigerians are going to go to get the US dollars? I don't think they don't know what they're doing, but I'm curious to know where Nigerians will go to get the US dollars. Sorry, if you have a lot of people going out for a few USD in circulation, then of course you expect that the dollar narrative is going to spike up. You know, so I don't know what the plan is, but I think they have something in mind. So the plan already is this, I mean, without having to get the MF, that's the CBN governor, Gaudwin MF Lee, to speak with us. The issue of revenue generation is very big for us. We haven't been faring very well with generating revenue. And of course every government will want to write down every means and anyhow to generate revenue without thinking would be top on the charts. And it might feel like that's what's going on. Because yes, it probably might just be a way of generating the foreign reserve and ensuring that the foreign reserve is on the high. But the point now is what's the implication of this action of the CBN on the economy. And so at the end of the day, governance is very important. We need to pay attention to the people that we're governing and understand the plight of the people. And that's what Nigerians are actually asking for. But fingers crossed, we see how all of this unfolds and we'll probably speak with an economist. But the foreign reserves have really taken the battering. You know, it dropped by 537. This is in February, this is the same month. It was reported to have dropped by 537.45 million dollars. That's the amount of money that left the nations foreign reserves between January 4th and February 4th, 2022, according to the latest data on the CBN's website. So what you had there, just between the month of January and February, it was a 537.45 million dollar reduction. You know, and it's been reduced or, you know, the reason for this could be that the CBN has been doing everything it can to support the Naira, you know, taking money from the reserves. Nigeria sells oil, makes some money, puts in those foreign reserves. And then it has to take those dollars, put it into the economy so that you can have more Naira in circulation and then probably the hopes are that it would boost the exchange rate, help the Naira rise, you know, if you have more dollars in circulation. But with this action, do you think that... It seems this is a change of strategy because it's been taking USD and giving to banks, taking USD and giving to... Just to make sure you have enough in circulation. And this seems to be a change in policy. But I think another thinking could be that if you have... Because nations, the strength of currency of nations can also be tied to how much the extent of the... the size of your foreign reserves, you understand? If you have a healthy foreign reserve, it can make your currency strong. So I do not know, but the extent of reserves is 2.40.518 billion dollars at the beginning of this year and declined to 39.98 billion dollars as of February 4, 2022. That may be a concern. So the concern here is as much as we want, we need to move away from this. We're talking about, like I rightly mentioned, the overall goal would be that the CBN and of course the Nigerian government thinking about how to regenerate revenue, have, you know, that foreign reserve. Does this particular action help in stabilizing the Naira and increasing a foreign reserve? It's, you know, a question that we have and we hope that we have an economist and a professional actually answer that. Away from that, you also have another top trending conversation. Really sad. I mean, I particularly had to look for this young man and his page. A man who sexualized a 14-year-old neighbor. And I don't know if time would permit. So I'd probably just go through his script even though he's actually put out another write-up. And so he said, oh, so he has a neighbor who's left a 14. So funny how this, our neighbor is trusting me with a 14-year-old, don't say it. And ma'am, with this thing, she's carrying front and back. Oh, ma'am. Oh, ma'am. Oh, ma'am, I don't trust myself. They are traveling to the village for one relative traditional wedding and probably they are going to come back on Sunday or Monday. And he also mentioned that they can't take their daughter along because of school. And me, I'm staying home throughout this weekend and because of some personal reason, it's got not wonderful, really. So this is, and she said, she was smiling up and down, and I just really, oh no. I don't even want to go through all of that because it's really sad. He said she didn't ox-late, ox-late. What does it mean if I shouldn't ox-late this girl? We can't take out the fact that we don't understand what that means. I mean, if you've been following the trend, we recently saw the sex tape of ox-late. I haven't seen the sex tape. He's actually on there. And so this is really pathetic. This is really sad. This is really a pedophile putting out a script. The good thing is that Nigerians actually, I like the fact that social media would have a strength and actually weakness. And he's come out to the bung and said, oh, his deleterity was just a joke. Well, how do you even joke about this? 14-year-old that we're talking about. And so moving forward, you look at this young man. Is it okay for you to entrust a minor around him? It's quite unfortunate that we see a lot of 14-year-olds and below 14 and above who are constantly being taken advantage of to those who should protect them from their teachers to their parents and to their uncles and aunties, family-related teachers, neighbors and what have you. It is really, really sad. But as parents, we have a role to play. I'm saying the family, we constantly cannot say because we're chasing money, we need to make a living. We need to pay the bills and we don't pay attention. We need to pay attention. The times are quite not favorable and you just can entrust your children. And even if you do, there's a lot of work to be done. So yes, I'm hoping that we get to that point. And everyone, you pay attention to the people you leave your kids with, including the teachers in school. I've had my own share of experience, but I'm sure that some of them would get to talk about all of this one. But it's really, really, really sad and that this is what society is about. And so the support system needs to be out there to ensure that we protect these minors. Absolutely. It's really disturbing. And you've said it's not a one-off mercy that even personal experience and all that a lot is happening that is not being addressed by society, the family, the religious circle, the government. We need to look into the welfare of children. You mentioned the Child Rights Act yesterday. And when I hear people talk about the Child Rights Act, I laugh because even for states that have passed it, not in a condescending way, but it's laughable for states that have passed it. It's just on paper. Of course. The things that that paper says, I don't even know if commissioners for women affairs and social welfare. Including the police. And the police and the governor. I don't even know about these words because it's just like the governor of Lagos State seeing three children and picking up their bills and all that. But there are kids everywhere. So the issue of children welfare and the welfare of the child in Africa, it's relegated. In our society, children are taught to keep quiet and taught to just shush and hush. It's unfortunate. Why has the police not said anything about this till now? Why have we not had, I don't know, maybe if they have, I haven't seen it. We don't need women rights groups to come and be saying things like this. It's not going to change anything. Before even the women rights groups come. Even men should say it. It's not even women's rights things. The police by now should have picked up and said, explain what you're saying. We see what's happening in the UK. Someone kicked the cart and is losing his sponsorship deals. We need to be hard on things like this. It has no place in our society. Well, we need to move away and hopefully we have this conversation some of the time and where we would look at issues very extensively. When we return off the press we'll be right in front of us. We'll look at all of the papers being made available by our newspaper vendor. Please stick around.