 The academic staff union of universities threatens to start another strike today of a federal government's failure to meet its demands. The president of the union will be speaking with us this morning. And the Borno State government and elders agree to accept hundreds of Boko Haram members who have renounced the group. Also, away from insecurity challenges, let's talk movies now. Of course, Kemi Aditypa produced King of Boys' debuts and, of course, has created loads of conversations across social media here in Nigeria. A lot of excitement also. And with that, we say good morning and welcome to a Tuesday morning's edition of the Breakfast here on PLOS TV Africa. I am Osao Gie. Oh, good morning. Great to have you join me. And of course, I'm a lone ranger again today until Annetta is fully back to work. Thanks for joining me. I'll start with the top trending stories across Nigeria that we're sharing with you today. I'll start, first of all, with the ASU strike. It's another conversation that we're getting into and very likely we will be joined this morning by the ASU president who will be joining us to share his views on the threats to once again go on strike. The association has given the Nigerian government today, Tuesday, the 31st of August, to, of course, address their demands or go back on strike. The message from the ASU chairman basically says that the federal government has stopped taking their calls and has completely ignored their demands that were signed in the memorandum of action, the memorandum of understanding. If you remember not long ago, you know, they had one of the longest strikes on record and that was eventually called off when they signed some memorandum of action with the federal government, about about $22 billion that was meant to be paid revitalization fund and some of all of that, and also the controversy concerning the IPPIS and UTAS. But the ASU chairman says that the federal government since that agreement was signed has ignored the body and, of course, hasn't gone through and played its part in the agreement that was signed. And so they are threatening that they might once again return to the strike from today. Hopefully we get some clarity on what the situation is and, you know, if there have been, you know, somehow, somewhere any conversations between the federal government and ASU in the last few months. It's really, really frightening for a lot of Nigerians and that's some of the comments that I've seen. A lot of people begging ASU to please let them, you know, go to the next level in their universities. Please let us graduate. Please, you know, hold on so we can at least finish, you know, our 300 level or, you know, 200 level or whichever one that they are in. And those are some of the comments, you know, that I've seen in reaction to this. There's those who have completely just, you know, given up hope concerning, you know, schooling in Nigeria, going to university in Nigeria. And you can't blame them. A four-year course in Nigeria, you know, what people would say is that if you're taking a four-year course, expect to finish it in six years because of the strikes here and there. We've spoken extensively about the government's investment in education and the interest really of the Nigerian government in education. There are certain things that should be top priorities for every government. Education definitely is one of them, healthcare, infrastructure. And if you're thinking about what the country hopes to achieve in the next five years, in the next 10 years, what is its developmental plan, what is its plan for its young people, education should be one of those things that should never be joked with. Do you think that ASU is asking for too much? Do you think that they're maybe being too, you know, stop un-headed? You know, that's a totally different conversation. But it's once again another, you know, discussion on how the Nigerian government same with what we talked about yesterday concerning the Nigerian Medical Association. Pretty much the same, you know, thing. How the Nigerian government's science agreements gets into memorandum of understanding what a strike can be called of and then just completely goes to sleep. There is no action taken after that agreement is signed. There is no further discussions and some of all of that. And eventually you hear about a new strike. The NMA, the N-A-R-D, you know, pretty much the same situation. And that's really one of the things that we're very likely to be talking about today. Why does that happen? Why does the government sign this memorandum of action? What is the bureaucracy around this? What exactly makes it difficult for them to be able to fulfill the promises made to these bodies? And then we can also dig deeper and see how ASU itself and the N-A-R-D and some of the other bodies across the country that might be threatening strike can also find a way to balance things out, to find a way to understand that this is where Nigeria is, maybe the country can't afford some of all these things. Maybe they need to give the government more time. It's really, really tiring for a lot of Nigerians. We're currently dealing with a health system where a lot of people can't get proper healthcare in the hospitals because doctors are on strike, while resident doctors are on strike. How are we going to add that to students being sent home because, well, ASU is on strike? How much of this torture is mentally draining for a lot of Nigerians who really just want to make it to the next level in life? And that's really what it is. They just want to make it to the next level in life. They just want to be able to go to the hospital and get treatment. They just want to go to university and get a degree after four or five years and continue with their lives. But when you take two years, you take a whole year out of a person's educational journey because of one strike or the other, it makes it harder for the average Nigerian. There's a lot of people who are emigrating, moving to a different country entirely, struggling, borrowing money so that they can be able to afford school fees in a totally different country or in a private university. You can imagine what parents have to deal with to be able to fund their children, three, four kids through private universities simply because they don't want to deal with some of all the strikes that Nigerian government universities experience. So it's tiring. And I'm sure every single Nigerian feels this way. Both, you know, ASU and people in the federal government's side and of course the students and parents, it is tiring that we have to keep dealing with this. But hopefully there is no strike. Hopefully these calls for strike could be averted. Let's see what the conversation is like today when we speak with ASU chairman sometime on the breakfast this morning. Also something else that is trending and I'll go to a little bit of entertainment now that is Kemi Adetiba's King of Boys that is currently the most talked about movie across Nigeria and nothing else, you know, beats that. I don't think there's any other conversation concerning movies that isn't King of Boys. Also because of the first one that came out and then sequel that was released a few days ago it is phenomenal according to what everyone has described. The cast, the acting, every single detail of it. There have of course been criticism here and there but it cannot overweigh or be more than the praises that the movie has gotten. Kemi Adetiba has also spoken with regards piracy and how she fears that the movie might also be pirated and Nigerian actors and movie producers may not get every single penny that they should get because of pirates. Which is a sincere concern and it's something that we've heard about for a very very long time concerning movies. Movie producers even in the music industry and that really is one of the reasons that we've seen a shift in the way that music sales are carried out here in Nigeria. We don't have the regular format that you might see in a different country where albums are released and they can swear that they've sold 500,000 copies or they've sold a million copies or 5 million copies. In Nigeria it's a totally different picture and the same thing with movies and I feel it's a walk in progress. There's still a lot of tightening loose ends here and there in the industry and as long as we continue to put out great works like The King of Boys then in some time, hopefully in the next year, hopefully in the next 3, 4, 5 years we'll get to a place where piracy is no longer an issue. But congratulations to the cast, congratulations to Kemi Adetiba and we hope that she continues to make great, great blockbuster movies just like The King of Boys. If you haven't seen it, you probably should go check it out. Alright, also on our top trending stories for today and this one, back to politics. Aisha Yusuf, one of the conveners of the Bring Back Our Girls group two days ago, I believe, once again put out her statements concerning the similarities between the APC and the PDP. It's not the first time that we've seen her make such statements and she's not the only one. A few other people have also made such similarities but in the last two days, it has come with a lot of response, a lot of backlash from people who have basically said, stop, mostly because they don't agree that these two political parties are one and the same. Some of the analysts that we've also interviewed, who have spoken with on this platform, have mentioned that. It's simply two political parties that have been used as platforms for politicians to jump from one to the other and, of course, achieve their political goals, which, yes, a lot of people would agree with. They've also said that if you look at the current APC or the current PDP, you can basically see a lot of people who were in this party two years ago and now in this one and it basically means that it's the same thing. And that, I believe, is Aisha Yusuf's argument. But the response that I've seen from lots of people have basically said, stop it, because it's obviously not true. And the reasons they give is because the times, yes, you might say the two political parties, you know, people basically jump from one to the other, but the energy, the governance, the respect for the rule of law, the respect for leadership and some of all those little details here and there since 1999 until 2015 were completely different from what we're currently experiencing in Nigeria. They say to Aisha Yusuf, you are currently sharing this message with a VPN, not even freely. Some of the campaign that, you know, made you popular as a person and that mostly is the Bring Back Our Girls campaign on the former president, Gulag Jonathan, when the Chiba Girls were kidnapped. Some of all those campaigns have gone under. You never, you know, when is the last time any of you was out in the streets freely protesting? Those are some of the things that they've pointed out. And of course also pointed out the ban on Twitter, the, you know, government's move concerning cryptocurrency and some of all the, you know, other moves and said, do you imagine that if we were, if the same government rather was in power since 1999, do you think we would have gotten to where we are today with regards, you know, information technology, telecoms and some of all those things? And they've argued completely against that and said that it's very likely that the current Nigerian government wouldn't have allowed the level of growth that we, that Nigeria witnessed since 1999 with regards to telecommunications and IT and of course some, you know, basic infrastructure. Those are some of the strong points. Someone also pointed out Deja Deonju and the difference in Deja Deonju and Dawisu. If you remember Dawisu used to work for the kind of state government, I believe Deja Deonju was one of the fiercest critics of former president Gulag Jonathan and he said that during that time Deja Deonju was still freely, you know, protesting and sharing his views, condemning the government every now and then. But Dawisu, who tried it in the current administration, was kicked out and eventually had to leave Nigeria. And there's many, many of these examples of people who tried to critic the current administration and didn't survive it. If you remember also, that's a particular guy who's missing for more than a year now somewhere in Kaduna. Can't remember his name. So these are some of the points that people have made in response to that argument that the two political parties are one and the same and they've said it's absolutely not true. Some other thing that I've seen that people mention is that this is a conversation and if you see most of the people making this conversation, you would see a lot of people countering it from the PDP side but you would, you know, see silence from the APC side and they've said that this is because in order to keep the APC in power beyond 2023 is important to draw similarities between the two parties so that Nigerians can say, well, there's really no need bringing back the PDP well, because they are one and the same. So why don't we just continue with the APC's candidate or continue with, you know, whatever it is, programs that the APC is bringing forth. And that is one of the things that I've seen people point out that that is a very, very sleek and tricky way to ensure that you basically convince Nigerians that they're one and the same party and there's no need to change. It's a lot of interesting political discussions. You probably need to look out for it on social media. The conversation concerning, you know, the APC and the PDP, are they one and the same? But, you know, one thing that I also, you know, read is someone saying, if you really feel, you know, if you're really being honest with yourself, think about governance from 1999 to 2007 all the way to 2015. Think about the way that the Nigerian government felt, the freedom to express yourself, the freedom to criticize, somehow, some way. Yes, there are things that should be pointed out also, the ODI massacre and some other, you know, places here and there that, you know, government basically went on to clamp down on what they felt were threats to the Nigerian state. But think about how the country basically was growing according to these people at that time and compared with what we're seeing today, compared with the price of goods in the market, compared with, you know, the government's high-handedness, compared with, you know, the recklessness with which security agencies carry out their activities. Now we hear about the EFCC barging into hotel rooms and arresting people, you know, randomly. Now, of course, we heard about SARS. We heard about, you know, there's so many of these issues that the government has failed to address. And those are some of the points that they've made to, you know, basically, you know, push their argument that the PDP is a completely different party from the APC, even if you might argue that, yes, the same politicians here and there, but the energy, the governance was totally different. That's our final top try this morning. We'll take a short break. And when we come back, Chris Wanda will be joining us. Without the press, we will, of course, go through the major news stories making headlines across Nigeria this morning and share with you. Stay with us.