 Thank you for staying with us. You're still watching The Breakfast on Plus TV Africa. Right now it's time to look at the stories making headlines in our national dailies. And joining me to review this paper is Etiquial Iña Etok, a public health analyst. Good morning sir. Thank you for joining us. Good morning and thank you for having me. Good morning sir. Good morning. Good to have you here. So we're going to start with the punch this morning and the major headline on this one says, Tinnable Governors Meet Over Food Crisis as Emma's NBA Lament Hardships. I'll take that again. Tinnable Governors Meet Over Food Crisis as Emma's NBA Lament Hardship. And the writers on this one says, precedents, governors meeting to prefer solutions, monarch, NBA Lament, economic crunch and insecurity. Also another one here says, federal government distributes 342,000 empty grains and Ogun governor rolls out five billion Naira intervention plans. What are your thoughts on all of this? Tinnable who is the president of the federal republic of Nigeria, the governors, they're all meeting over this food crisis but Emma's I'm sure other kings as well. And the NBA, they're lamenting over the hardship in Nigeria. What's your take on this? Okay. Let me start with the president and the governor's meeting over food security or insecurity in the country. My first question is, what are they meeting to discuss? Are they asking themselves why things are the way they are? Do they not know? We will continue to have food insecurity on account of the insecurity in the land where farmers cannot go to the farm. That's no rocket science. So the question is, how do we tackle insecurity? I have almost at the risk of sounding like a broken record, said one, two, three things. Number one is, there's nothing that deters criminals more than fear of being caught. Today, there is technology that you can scale up that fear and not just the fear but produce results. I've said this before and I will say it again today. When I wanted to be the governor of a Kwaibong state, I mapped the state into concentric circles where any information I got in any part of the state, a drone will give me an aerial view of that particular place within five minutes. Nigeria has 774 local governments. If you have 10 drones, that is 7,774 centers. Multiply that by two, say about 15,020 drone centers. That will give you about 30,000. Now I ask a question, what is the cost of technology for drones at that level, special drones, not ordinary? Multiply that figure by 30,000. Multiply it by 50,000. What does it come to? Now that will also employ a certain number of young people who handle this thing remotely. You don't know where they are. There's a certain contract, there's a certain training, there's a certain understanding that you have with them. You can cross, you know, move. Some drones can do a kilometer, some drones can do five kilometers. This is no rocket science. What that means is that you deploy the police based on specific verifiable information. When you have these things and just a talk of it, you can hype it such that they know that and you find a way of establishing one and putting it online. That is one way as a deterrent. All these contracts and buying, they put on ground, things like that. You can stop it. I know the budget that you have for the defense ministry. Break that budget into two major subheads, equipment and then the human capital of human resources. Make the people happy and then go technology-wise. Even the army themselves can be trained and repositioned in ways that they can become useful because I'm sick and tired of us coming here every day and discussing this thing and it sounds like we're helpless. We're not helpless. If they don't want to do it, let it be on record that they do not want. So when they meet with Mr. President, it's a question of deploying this technology, localizing it and what I kept multiplying is that there are two types of situations you must deal with because I had experts to drill me on this. One is that there's what you call ungoverned spaces. Some states are really large and there are lots of areas where they are not covered. You feel those areas with different drones and the second is the metropolitan cities, the state capitals. You also saturate them with a lot more. So you've done a mapping of the state. You do the concentric cycles and then you deploy the drones and you put them there. That is, I want somebody to tell me, I'm still waiting for somebody to come and tell me that that doesn't make sense because then you have real-time information. You have real location information so you don't have people print plants on the police. Oh, we are here as a decoy. You go there, meanwhile, they are at the other place and then the police will tell you, oh, we're not familiar with the territory or the territory is difficult to access or one thing or the other. The moment you know where they are, you just follow, they are brothers and we call them and say, oh boy, watch this channel. They are following you with the people that you and wherever you go to, they will follow you to the end. They will see you. Yeah. How many drones can you shoot down? Try that at least something outside the box, something a little unconventional. That is one thing. All right. The price, yes. Okay, so there's something I just want to highlight here. If you look at daily trust, I mean, still on this whole food security stuff. Anyways, daily trust, major headline here says hardship, Nigeria's sitting on a keg of gunpowder and that's being said by this whole town. But here is my question. Federal government says we'll distribute 42,000 metric tons of grains for free. That's what the federal government is telling the citizen and, you know, other riders here are saying, no, crashing food prices is better. And another one says, can NBA demand for concrete action and Zulom Abiyadu so on unveil measures. But here we're talking about 42,000 metric tons of grain for free by the federal government. Do you think this is going to happen? And is this even the way forward, distributing this 42,000? Is that enough for the whole citizenry? Or is crashing the price is not better? Or ensuring that we have more food, you know, more supply at a cheaper rate? So is 42,000 metric tons going to do justice for everyone? Let me tell you this. And I will say it with every sense of responsibility. One of the worst things that have happened to us is the peak is election period. We run a constitutional democracy. So there is a way it operates. For four years, you are going to give a mandate to a certain person called Mr. President, a certain person called Mr. Governor, before you don't have National Assembly and then the State House of Assembly. These people will take policies that will run the system. That is what government and governance is all about. Consequent upon this, the man that you sent to the National Assembly, the man that you sent as your president, the man that you sent as your governor, if they do not have in mind to work for the people you are doing. Now what we have, with all due respect, an exception to a very, very small few. These are people who get into government. They can kill. They can do anything. And you think it is to go and serve you. They pay you. You collect their money. These guys are not interested in your welfare. It's an enterprise for them. They pay you to get into government and make money. That is why when some governors are told, when they get the budgetary allocation, the first thing they do is bring all the security votes, bring all this money they have, and then head to the bureau to change them into dollars and keep. And we continue to have a lot of wahala on our head with respect to the dollar, you know, Nigeria exchange rate, which directly impacts on everything including fuel, importation, every single thing. But come down to the drains you asked about. That is what I believe that Nigerians should go for. And that is cerebral governance. Cerebral governance. Why would you not having resources, having a system that is very porous, is unaccountable. Nobody can tell you like trading money, how you are going to do it, and all these humanitarian things. Now you want to tell me that 42,000 tons of grain, you want to distribute it free. Who believes you first? Nobody believes you. Secondly, fraud will come inside corruption. Third, 42,000 tons will just piece into thin air. Why don't we say something like, let's look at certain people, you know, the more the demand, the higher the prices. So if you exclude certain people from the market demand, what you end up having is that the demand becomes lower and the price is lower. Why don't we say every teacher, let's assume that this for the 2,000 goes into 1,000 per state and the FCT, which is 37,000. And then the differential, you can think of what to do. Every teacher, you are going to get the grains at 50% subsidy. Let us have the profile of every teacher. Let's start from somewhere. Why don't you say every civil servant, you are going to have these at this rate, not free, not free. Sir, isn't that why you start to see ghost walkers coming? I mean, that's... Yes, you see, thank you. There is, there are many ways to catch a rat, that is a rat. You see, bring me into the room, sit me down for just one hour and I'll tell you something that will make you to clog city holes. All this wanting to please everybody, it is only lazy brain that believes he can solve all the problems, make everybody happy. No, if we had a government before today, like President Opas and John, took education and then maybe President Yaradua came in and took healthcare and then maybe President, you know, just like that, taking one sector at a time and doing something. Like today, a lot of our problems, but you want the president to solve all the problems and common sense tells he doesn't, he's not possible. You understand me? Today, I'm in the housing committee of Mr. President, the renewed hope agenda and I've told him something. After Shagari housing, we've not heard anything. Can the president just make a name in this area of housing? We tell them the job creation, we tell them this, we tell them everything. You understand me? Can you make a name there? So coming back to the brain, brains again, I want to hang up because I don't want to make a point. Just look at teachers, look at civil servants below a certain level. Do you understand me? Share it per state, make it open, make it 50% so that the money that don't make it free, the money you collect, you see how you can reinvent that, reinvest that money. Yeah, maybe concerned about ghost workers anyway, because we see that happening a lot in, especially in the civil service, there's so many people. Let me tell you, but the moment you say that, right? People would come and get a little secret. I have worked very, very well with NLC, very, very, very well with NLC. The moment that you leave it in the hands of NLC in the state, because they don't want to lose, forget Governor, no. NLC, bring out your people. Nobody wants to be shortchanged. It is the workers in each of the departments that will tell you, no, this man does not work with us because there's a template that is shared to go to all the different sections and departments. So those people for preservation of self-interest, I'm going to tell you, no, no, no, no, because instead of giving me have a bag, you want to give me a quarter bag because they'll say, no, no, no, no, these guys are nothing. They will generate the list themselves because they don't want to be shortchanged. They will be not one ghost worker anywhere. So long as you bring this step, these are things that I sat down with. That's why people said I did not campaign because I didn't do that loud noise. But I sat down, I sat down with NLC for about three hours. Me and them in a special chamber, we sat down for about three hours and we brainstormed on ghost workers, on worker welfare, on packages, on possibilities. And they say, sir, if you can come in and implement this, we know the details and I'll tell you, you'll be the best governor that we've ever had. What am I trying to say? Ghost workers come when they allowed your gas to make the money. But when you move it to the people and say, this is for you, they will make sure that it's like in political money. You keep the policy, but they'll say, no, no, no, no, this guy is here. We're only 10 here. How about the other guy that said, no, no, no, no, we're 10 here. We'll share it but the 10 people don't bring anybody that was not in the meeting. That is how it works. Okay. Well, let's move to Daily Trust. Even though on punch, I wanted us to look at the fact that federal government would borrow over two trillion naira via bonds. But the interesting story on Daily Trust is 60 reps proposed bill to return Nigeria to parliamentary system. And I'd like to know what you think about that. I think that those reps, their names should be made public and their people should hail them. And on account of the public accolade that they have, others will want to join the bandwagon. We are spending too much on our legislature and we're spending too much on our executive. We are running a system of governance that shares money and does not believe in good governance. So I really look forward to the list of those 60 people. I will publish them on my page and I will find a way of getting across to their constituencies to say that these are people who mean well for you because the amount we are spending on the national assembly is absolutely preposterous and the returns on such investment does not make a businessman like myself to be happy. We've gone by each of them SUV at a hundred and sixty million for goodness sake. What is that? How does that affect the price of that in the market? So I think that I completely agree with the 60 legislators and I want them to be made public and I want their constituencies to hail them and I want the others to join them, follow suit and let us know those who object to it and their reason. Let's have a very, very robust engagement and deliberations and let us put the pros and the cons and then eventually take a decision that puts governance at the root of the essence as captured in chapter 2, section 14, subsection 2b that states that the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of governance. Okay, another headline is a very small headline down there. Power supply threatened as federal government owes gas companies, discos, three trillion Naira. So the federal government has even said that they will stop subsidizing power and you know there's no subsidy in power. There's no subsidy in education. There's no subsidy in food. There's no health and nothing. There's no subsidy. Now in power they want to remove subsidy as well because they say they cannot keep paying the huge amount of money that they are paying. I don't know what you think. Let me tell you something. I came in one day to my house and discovered that I had light but my meter was blank. Now that would have been sweet and it continued for about a year. My meter was blank and I had power. Now it means for a year I had had power without payment because without when your meter is blank you cannot pay for it. It's all about my budget house that I don't stay there. Nobody is there. But my wife said we cannot take this risk. So we went and repeatedly, repeatedly, you know, complained. We can't really charge because but we have power. We wrote it down, got them to stamp it and we'll get back to you. We'll get back to you. In Nigeria you must know that a day will come. This country, we have data, we have statistics, so we have everything. A day will come. Then about a week, two weeks back they came. They gave me the exact consumption of that meter that was not working. They had it at the back. I don't know how they did it. They gave me the exact, they brought out the printout. But my saving grace was that we showed them all the letters that we did. Consequent up on which they were now able to calculate the time. First they did a little fraud. They used the current rate to calculate everything. I said no, I'm too intelligent for that. Break it down to a regime. They broke it down to a regime. Calculated it. I paid and I came home. I was happy. Now by next week or within this week they'll bring me a new meter because that old one I don't want again. What am I trying to say? When you know that as a Nigerian have the mindset that you pay for what you consume, you'll be careful to know what you can and what you can't. What's the relevance? It is that we are extremely wasteful because we believe we can beat the system. The power that we consume, when you know that you pay, the metering to be very, very, whatever the rate is, it's like petrol subsidies we are doing. We are burning fuel, doing a lot of things that we have no business doing. Federal government does not have the money for these subsidies. It has a simple truth because they are subsidizing wrong things, their lifestyle, the next election. So the money that is there, the Bible says that he that has more will be given. He that has not, even that which you have will be taken from you and given. So what should come to the poor man? They are still taking from the poor man and giving to the rich person. So let us calm down, have an honest conversation. Tell ourselves that we don't have money as a country and that our resources are not being exploited. For instance, there's so much resources from each of the states, but the state governors are just, many of them are just blank on what to do other than to share money. So let us reject the system and bring it such that all the subsidy, they don't have the money, they are owing too much. So I think that they should play down on subsidy. Look at targeted subsidies that will benefit the poor exclusively. Whatever that costs like social housing, they should go ahead, bring a template where the poor man becomes a beneficiary. Once that is done, I'm cool with subsidy. How can you be subsidizing petrol when I know the number of SUVs that I have? My villagers, the fuel I consume in a week, the whole of my village will not consume in a month. So who are you subsidizing? You are subsidizing me, not my villagers. I know the number V8 engine. I know what I have and I can say so because I've worked, I'm at retirement. I made provision for me to have a good life when I end. Do you understand that the poor man on the street does not understand that? I drive my SUV and they are saying, look at those thieves. Because of that, I can't even enjoy my life. You want to go somewhere, you can't, what you've worked and put together going to help you to save over the years, you can't even enjoy because they can't draw a line between an honest man and a corrupt politician. Drive a very good SUV, stop in a hold-up or in a traffic or something. The average man looks at you, when he passes, the look he gives you, you are one of them. You are my problem. And God who sees the honest man will continue to be there for him because the Bible says when a man's ways pleases God, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. So I want to say that we should play down on this using the poor. Okay. So I agree with you. I mean, you should pay for what you consume. That's fine, right? If that's the costs for the electricity, why not? I mean, just pay the tariff. But my question now is, are you going to see this electricity? Because we're talking about power. For the past two days, I've not had power in my house. I've had to be running on diesel, which is very expensive. I don't mind the fact that, you know, you should pay for what you consume, but am I going to, are you going to provide this? Because there's one thing to hike the price and there's another for me not to even say the power. So are we sure that we're going to get power constantly, even if it's not 24 hours, but at least a good number of hours? Two things. I spent the whole day at their office yesterday. A good part of my volunteering was spent with them because, you know, such times, it helps me to interact with the people, including the junior workers. It helped me to get in touch with the reality. You know, and I'll tell you two things. First off record, I'll tell you that don't run diesel again. That's a little secret. I have very big generators, but I discovered that there are some generators that run on petrol and they can carry three ACs. You understand? So even me I don't report small, small, you understand me? But doesn't that still make us a generator republic that they call us? Because South Africa has called us the generator republic. So what I'm saying is I don't want to even be running this. I don't want to run generator. The sound, the noise, noise pollution. Yes. Yes. Addressing the issue directly is, I mean, no matter the highest tariff is cheaper than diesel or petrol. I can tell you that for free. The highest tariff, which is about the 68 points, something as of today, is cheaper by far than diesel. So we need the light. Let us sit down, have honest conversation on what is the cost-reflective tariff? What makes sense? Enlightened Nigerians, they will now know how to run our systems. We don't know how to incorporate inverters. We now know how to turn off what we can't. And then we also find a way of doing a subsidy that will target the poor. I keep saying this, a subsidy that will target the poor. Substitizing certain things for me is not okay. Do you know how many cars that Daengote has? Do you know how many cars they have? The banks? You are subsidizing all of them. If you subsidize fuel that you take into your car, it will freeze some money for you to also do give away to the people. Now, even the rich can no longer... The rich also cry. Yeah, the rich also cry. So the people that they can do some give away to are suffering because that free money is no longer there anymore. Listen to me, brother. It is a lie. Take that mean. Okay. It is a blatant lie that there's a level you reach. And I'm not talking of Kote Dola level or Daengote level. Do you understand me? There's a level that you reach that additional 100,000 makes no difference to you at all. And we're talking of them in hundreds of thousands, if not millions in Nigeria today. Nigeria has two sectors, the rich and the poor. That's just what it is. Just find out where you fall in. Yeah, let's wrap it up on this segment. Let me end on this very important. Okay. No rich man should use this as a reason not to help the poor. You are lying. Put me, you are lying. Every rich man and they know the people I'm talking to, they have enough to take care of the poor. Look, going to Uyo from Abuja cost me $250,000. A return ticket cost me $500,000. I mean, I've reached that level. God has helped me. I've retired. Goodness. Do you understand me? Now, yesterday, I was to go back. I looked at the ticket, $250,000. Somewhere down the line, scroll down because usually agents or my people buy from grace. Once in a while, I buy it myself. I scroll down and I saw what? I saw $80,000 in economy. Now, if I fly economy, who will die? Nobody will die. So why don't I say I fly economy today? That gives me a differential of about $170,000. Brother, do you know what $150,000 will do? It will give 150 people $1111,000 because I decided to fly economy. Okay. This is where we have to wrap it up, sadly. But we always love having these conversations with you because there is banter and it's just good and intellectual conversations. Thank you so much, architect, for joining us. Thank you. Hello, you're so sound. Thank you. You have to say that. All right. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you so much. Have a good day. I'm going to be taking with ATK, Enya Etok is a public affairs analyst and we've just been reviewing the papers. Anyways, we'll go on a short break, look at what the weather is saying and when we return, we'll be speaking on our first hot topic. Please stay with us.