 regain freedom. 46 days after they were abducted. Parents say ransom was paid but about 60 more are still in captivity. Ninja Delta Youth voice opposition to the Petroleum Industry Act pushed for awkward review of 3% equity share to host communities. We'll be finding out how the disagreements over the act can be best handled. An a 22 year old is detained for more than 60 days without trial on suspicion of being a spy for IPOV. A family claims they have been extorted by the police. Good morning and glad to have you here on the breakfast on Plus TV Africa. It's another very beautiful Monday morning. I am the Saudi of God. And I am Anato Felix. Good morning. Welcoming you to a bright and beautiful Monday the 23rd of August 2021. Sorry Geh, good morning especially to you. We're both wearing blue this morning. How are you to me? We're both wearing black gloves, you know. It's been really good. Yes, so our top trending story today starts off, you know, from the weekend. And in fact we can even stretch this back all to 2015 with the whole controversy surrounding the Oluwawari. But bringing it back, you know, closer the timeline. We know that the coronation of the Oluwawari happened over the weekend. It was a very big celebration, widely celebrated across Nigeria, specifically in Delta state. And it was an event that attracted wide attention. And one of the reasons why there was such a buzz around it was the fact that people saw an Oluwawari that praised God in the Christian way, you know, singing songs to God, you know, and his speech that, you know, made people say, this is a king that should, you know, that people should notice. This is a king that people should definitely look up to. This is someone who seems like a role model. This is someone who seems intelligent, who knows what he wants, who is a ticolate. So all these great adjectives that people have used to describe him. And you really can't see why when you listen to him speak. You know, so, but the top trending story here is about respectful authority because we saw Nigeria's former president, Lucia Gwo Basinger, kneel down before the Oluwawari. That's a video of him there walking towards him. He approaches the king and he takes a knee. He kneels down and he taps him on the leg repeatedly. I mean, that video really has made the rounds, gone viral on social media, people making statements, people have criticized him for that. I really would not want to speak about his motives because people have said this and that about his motives. I really am not in his mind and I wouldn't be able to speak about that. But what I can comment based on what I've seen really is about the respect for the authority, the respect for the throne, regardless of who sits on it, regardless of age, regardless of personality, regardless of status. And that really is what the conversation is about. Yeah, I'm not even sure why anybody's criticizing if they are, you know, or let me not say what I want to say. I'm trying to figure out what exactly there is to criticize there. If you don't have personal issues with Obasanjo or you don't have, you know, problems at home, there's absolutely nothing there to criticize. It makes absolutely no sense. But yeah, so the weekend was, so the whole of the coronation for me felt like it felt like the best part of, I mean, how do I say this? You know, it felt like for a very, very long time, I had not really had that level of good feeling with regards to anything concerning Nigeria until this weekend. It was such a memorable occasion, it was such a beautiful occasion from the day that it started until the end, every single detail of it, the tradition, the things that he had to, you know, the rights that he had to also, you know, pass through before he was eventually crowned king, his story, he's just at a seven years old. You know, how all of this came together, you know, for this day. There's different angles, like you've mentioned, the part where, you know, he's a Christian and he had to also worship, sang, you know, some gospel songs, some, you know, Christian songs, made some statements also. I hope that I will have time to quote. But it was just a very, very rich and beautiful event. And you can see from everybody whose attention was focused on worry over the weekend that it was celebration all through. There was nothing else but people just being entirely excited about what was happening on that day. Politically it was a weekend where Nigeria's political elite had to choose between candle and worry. For those who had to go to Canada and do. To the wedding of the president's son. Exactly, and I was saying it to myself yesterday that you can never place both on the same level of importance. You know, one of them is a wedding. The other one is a coronation of a traditional ruler in Nigeria. And for those who made a decision of which to go to, you can really almost tell what their interests are with regards to Nigeria's journey forward. And so when you see the video of a passenger going down to Neil, it really has told you what his own interest is in the bigger picture. Going for a wedding to go shake hands and, you know, you're not the emcee neither, you know, seven drinks at a wedding. And so, you know, it's also very, very important that you use, basically states, you know, where your political interests really, really lie. Neiline before the king also told the story of a person who understands political power, but still also understands traditional power. And where, you know, and understands, you know, that there is a balance between both and knows that no matter how much of a political warlord you are, you should still understand and, you know, respect the power of the next person. And that's what a passenger really showed here. It wasn't necessarily Neiline before the man himself. It was Neiline before the throne. But of course, it's that 37-year-old man who currently sits on that throne. And so it was respect to that traditional authority that it really showed. And I posted it on my Instagram and I said that this is, for me, was one of the best pictures from the whole of the weekend. And maybe one of the best pictures we've seen in 2021, out of anything concerning Nigeria, there was other things that happened over the weekend. There were people who were killed, people who were abducted. There was so much else that went on. There was a wedding in Kanu. But most importantly, there was a very, very beautiful, rich traditional culture coronation that took place in Wari. One of the things that he said in Quotimises, I bring down the government of heaven into this land. I'm talking about Yolu now. He also spoke about uniting the Ishekiri people and the youths across the whole of the Niger Delta. He spoke also about, you know, he reversed the curse that was placed by, you know, the Yolo of Wari many hundreds of years ago. He also spoke comfort titles on his mom and his wife. There was so much. And you can see it from his composure, the way he carried himself, that this really was not just some riffraff that they threw into that position. He was ready for it. He was able to hold the power that really comes with being Yolo of Wari. It was too beautiful. There were so many other traditional, the Oni of Ife was also present type, I believe. There were also people from the Aba of Benin's palace. I didn't get to see the Aba Benin there, but I saw people from the palace also there. There's nothing, you know, really more to say, you know, concerning this, but it was a truly beautiful weekend for me. Yes. And after that event, it was an interview he grants us at the BBC in which he really detailed his life and journey up until that moment, talking about how he looked up to his father and, you know, just watched, you know. So some questions he was asked, you know, bordered around if he was trained for this, if he was groomed for this nurtured to be Olu one day. And he said it wasn't per se like an institutional thing, right? He, you know, there were people who would point this out and guide you. I mean, that was your role to do that. He said, no, that what happened in his own case was that he was able to observe what was happening and he caught things, especially from his father and that there would definitely be a traditional ruler who would say, I hope you're taking note of this. I hope you're observing that. And he was able to, you know, tune himself to the events of the palace and watch closely to learn. He also mentioned that he wasn't Olu of worry to wear the crown, sit on the throne and look pretty. That he was there really to market Ishaqiri before a board of business leaders, political leaders and to really milk the resources of the monarchy. There is a lot of resources that can be generated, you know, from that. And that he was looking to make Wari sovereign in a way in the sense of, you know, just making sure that all the resources that can be generated from Ishaqiri, from the Niger Delta, you know, is generated and that the people get to benefit from it. So lots of prospects for this Olu. And I can't wait to really see what's Wari becomes, what, you know, Delta State becomes with this new king. He also mentioned that the riches from the Niger Delta is not just oil and they need to stop focusing on this oil. They have a lot of young people, you know, there's so many. Human resources is always the priority. Absolutely. So he mentioned that he also, of course, spoke about peace, spoke about uniting, you know, all the parts of the Niger Delta and, you know, moving forward. So political elite, once again, I would never fail to mention that part, made a decision this weekend. And you can really just tell who went where and, you know, what their interests really are with regards, you know, where Niger is. It is regarding that I really wouldn't condemn anybody for choosing. I mean, that's the choice. But the issue is the coronation happened and it was a beautiful event to watch. Absolutely. Let's now go to Kaduna. Our next two top Chinese stories are from Kaduna. The first is a good news. The second is not so great. Let's begin with the good news. We know that students of Baptist High School in Kaduna were abducted. And 15 of them have, you know, regained freedom. When we saw pictures from that press conference in Kaduna, it really was a very hard-breaking one because even though we're happy to see these kids, you know, back and alive, you can tell how weak they are, how minorish they are, how shaking they are. I mean, look at that girl. Look at that boy. He had to, you know, he had to lean on the support of family and friends to even stand. I mean, it's just so sad looking at the faces of these people, though horrors they must have gone through. I mean, but the good thing is they're back to their family. They're back home, you know, back to receive love. You see the parents, they're praying, giving thanks to God, you know, for seeing their kids alive. And the questions we asked at the school, the Baptist High School in Kaduna, if 50 million era was paid as ransom, because there were reports about, you know, the bandits making demands of 50 million era, but the school denied comments, you know, or declined comments. And we know that 63 most students are in captivity. So hopefully those are the students also reunite with their family. For me, this wasn't the worst thing that happened over the weekend. There were still killings in Kaduna. There were still, of course, we're going to mention that there were still abductions. There were still killings in Plattus State, which of course have continued for weeks now. This for me, you know, and of course, it's pretty much the same thing with every other person who sees a story like this. Everybody is disconnected from kidnappings. Everybody emotionally has disconnected themselves. These things don't bring, you know, the sadness that, you know, they probably would bring a couple of years ago because it happened so many times. And we've seen pretty much the same reaction from the government. I want you to look at those parents and just bear in mind that a couple of those parents, maybe all of them, have run into serious debt if they truly had to pay ransom. You know, they've had to source funds. And about ransom, yes, you know, during that press conference, the family, the parents, you know, especially the school, declined comments regarding the paid ransom. But yet that reminds me that on the plus TV show yesterday on our news, they actually confirmed that they paid ransom. We don't know how much yet, but for them to have paid ransom, it just goes on to tell us what we already know that definitely these family members would have contributed money together, like you mentioned, probably running to debt, selling farmlands and property, just to make sure that the kids are back. I'm also going to link this with some of the statements that were made, which were both, you know, they have very, very similar locations. During the, or when the Chibok kidnapping happened, there was a lot of people who criticized the former president, Gullah Jonathan, for going for a wedding. I'm not sure what wedding he went for, that weekend. Pretty much the same thing that's happened this weekend. Somebody's son got married that could have happened in a very, very small way, but of course they did it the big way. And while people are languishing in the kidnappers then that have been there for 60 days, 46 days, some of them even more, parents are struggling to pay ransom, there's a wedding. And you can see everybody going there to celebrate with Meo Kwan partying the weekend away, while people were in kidnappers then. And I'm not sure which other way to describe Nigeria for today, but just to really just show you what exactly we've had to deal with this weekend. So for me, yes, celebrate with those parents, 15 of them who have gotten back, there's still 60 plus still in captivity. The Kaduna State government still says that they don't know where they are or they can't rescue them. Then I'm not sure what else that we can possibly do, but good luck to those who are still there. We hope that they also come back home soon. And while we're getting news of 15 students being released from captivity in Kaduna State, still in Kaduna State, the Commissioner for Internal Security, Samuel Irwan confirmed yesterday that nine people were killed after a fresh bandits attack in Kaduna. This occurred in the Zangon Katafloko government area of the state. And when I went through the list of people who died, I was so sad because I saw three people who were members of the same family. They had the same surname, two other people who were the same members of the family, and then other people. Just a terrible event here. The story, and according to Samuel Irwan, we didn't know exactly what happened or what triggered that attack. You know, what exactly were the details surrounding that attack? But we know that the bandits attacked this village in the Zangon Katafloko government area in Kaduna State. And the usual response from the government, we saw, quote, Acting Governor Dr. Hadidza Balarabi received the report with sadness, condemned this recent spate of attacks in the area, prayed for the reports of the soul of the disease, sent condolences to the families, day in, day out. It's the typical copy-paste response we get from the government. And you really wonder what about proactivity, you know, rather than sending condolence messages every other weekend. But that really... I'm pretty sure by now they haven't already typed out. They just need to change the dates and change, you know, the names here and there or the names of local governments. They already have that condolence message in a format, you know, because they've given it out of the issue. They've shared it so many times, there's no need to, you know, type in new one next week. And about what triggered it, I would say that what triggered it really is the failure of the Nigerian government over the years to punish these persons, to catch these persons and punish them, send them to prison, if possible, for these crimes. That's really what has triggered this because, you know, some of the one, you know, saying he's not sure what triggered it, there's been... What triggered the last, the one that happened two months ago? What triggered the one that happened three weeks ago? There's been so many of them that you cannot figure out what triggered. But as long as we continue to live in a place where the government fails to catch these people, the government fails to completely destabilize these bandits, then nothing needs to trigger them besides the fact that government has failed to prosecute them. And if we continue to have these conversations about forgiving repentant terrorists, then there will continue to be these triggers. And people will continue to lose their lives. This is a sad reality. But there's really no other way to, you know, to explain these things. What exactly would you say triggers people moving into a village and killing dozens of people? I'm just going away. That's it. That case closed. What explanation would anybody need for that? Aside from the fact that these people aren't caught, their leaders aren't arrested. We remember the one about a month ago, we spoke about the one who was boasting about killing Nigerian soldiers. We still haven't heard that that person is on the DSS or any wanted list across Nigeria and has been found, has been captured and will be prosecuted. We haven't heard anything like that. And that's maybe the end of that case. Hopefully it's not. But that's the trigger for me. The fact that they know that they would continue to carry out these crimes without any actual response from the government. Nothing really to be afraid of from the government. Some state governors asking their residents to defend themselves. Man. So sad way to start up a Monday morning. But these are conversations that must be had. And, you know, we will not ignore these things because we want to have a bright and beautiful Monday. And just why you think- Because it's bright and beautiful for us here, but it's not the same thing for those people in Kaduna and in other places that have been, you know, dealt heavy blows of, you know, with the banditry and the abductions and the what not. And those parents who have had to have their children in kidnappers den for 60 days in the forest someplace while negotiating, while sending foodstuff while finding ways to get their children back. It's really not a happy Monday morning for them either. So these are just conversations that must be had. But welcome to the breakfast once again. Yes. And just while you think those stories are shocking, wait till you see the stories making headlines on the papers today that are not so shocking anymore, surprise me. And we'll take a break here and we'll be right back. Good morning.