 A very good morning to you. We're back with the breakfast on plus TV Africa. It's a beautiful, beautiful morning right here from our studios in Victor Allen Lagos. And we have a very interesting setup, a lineup of discussions for you this morning. Of course, the president of the Nigerian Labour Congress, Ayuba Uwaba, has said that the Nigerian workers union will impact on a three day nationwide strike. The federal government fails to recede to the demands of the academic staff union of universities after the ongoing two day warning protest organized by the NLC. We'll look at that as we go on with our discussions. So two days of protest by the Nigerian Labour Congress holding nationwide, but a federal over the federal government's handling of much long strike by the university lecturers also on the breakfast this morning. The Nigerian National Industrial Court has ordered the immediate upward review of the salaries of judges, but some lawyers think it's not a good idea. We seek to find out why and also the implications of the cut decision. We also have in depth analysis on the offer headlines on the front pages of today's national dailies. We can all this and more ahead on the breakfast this morning. All right, very good morning to you and we're back with a breakfast on Plus TV Advocates. A beautiful, beautiful Wednesday morning, reaching from our studios right here in Victoria Island Lagos. And of course we have all this wonderful discussions lined up for you right here on the programme. My name is Kofi Battels. As usual, we start with a trending segment to look at stories making the rounds in the country and around the world. We start off with the governor of Kavana State, Nassil Erofi declaring a three-day public holiday for voters registration. That of course is coming on the heels of the announcement by the Independent National Electoral Commission who have said that the continuous voter registration exercise for the permanent voter card will end on the 31st of July, 2022. And the governor of Kavana State has followed on the heels of his fellow governors. You look at the governor of Lagos State who has also declared a four-day public holiday for voter registration exercise. I'm talking about Babajideh Song Wolu and of course that one coming also to help negotiations go out and get registered to vote. What's been happening in Kavana State has been reports of insecurity, reports of bandits attacks, reports of terrorism activities in that state. It's not been an easy ride for the residents of Kavana State. But one can understand why the governor would say that, you know what, it's time for all of you just take some time off and take advantage of the voter registration exercise that's ongoing by INIC. The Independent National Electoral Commission has also been able to release weekly statistics as far as the voter registration exercise is concerned to let us know how many people are getting registered in each local government area of each state across the country. And I'm sure Governor El Rufi feels that Kavana State can do better as far as the registration is concerned. So for the next three days, the residents of Kavana State will be allowed, especially public workers to go get registered. You don't have to go to work. They don't have to report to the banks. They don't have to go to the government offices. They don't have to answer to anybody. All they have to do is to get registered. I just hope that some people will not be finding their way to the villages because of this. The Nigerian elections have experienced an increasingly higher number of registered voters over the years. From 1999, you had a certain number of voters to 2003, to 2007, to 2011, to 2015, to 2022. It's been an increasing progression of number of registered voters. But what the figures from the 2012 elections and previous elections show is that the number of those who have turned out to vote, the number of those who are registered on the voter's register, who turn out to vote in proportion or as a percentage of those who are registered, has continually declined in recent elections. So voter apathy is a big issue. And of course, a lot of organizations, civil side organizations in particular, those who work in the pro-democracy space have highlighted this voter apathy as one of the reasons why elections often produce the results expected. So the drive to ensure enough people as many as possible eligible to vote next year register is on, you know, from the private sector, civil society organizations, and the government. It remains to be seen if people will turn out to vote. Voter apathy is driven by a lot of factors. Some of the factors include the fact that they don't believe the election is free and fair. Some also pointed out to electoral violence as a reason for not wanting to leave their houses, you know, to go vote. So it remains to be seen if this will be a different election. The 2023 elections are very important for Nigeria and many believe, many believe that we're having an increased voter turnout as far as this election is concerned. So I'd like to see other state governments also do the same thing, declare public holidays and ensure that their residents and those who are citizens go out to get registered to vote. Also, we'd like to see the private sector jumping on this as well to ensure that they give their staff off days, they give their staff off days. The difference between what has been declared in Lagos State and Kaduna State is that the Kaduna State government is saying it's a public holiday, while the Lagos State government is saying these are work free days. And it remains to be seen if the private sector and Lagos State will jump on this as well. Let's move on to Kogi State, where there were reports of a government office in Kogi State in north central Nigeria, which reportedly being shaken by an explosion, a loud explosion which was heard in the premises housing the office of the secretary to the Kogi State government. He is Dr. Folasha Dei Ariki Ayoade. Indeed, it was some confusion, especially on social media. As some people rejected or denied these reports, some came out to say it wasn't true. Indeed, of course, the government put out a statement. But we told the offices next to Lugar Street housing the Kogi State Council of the Nigerian Union of Generalists. So this is the office of the secretary to the Kogi State government. Some reports were saying that the Kogi State government house had been attacked when there was an explosion. But this is not the case, as this happens to be the premises of the secretary to the Kogi State government, Dr. Folasha Dei Ariki Ayoade, the premises housing the office of the secretary to the government. But of course, the secretary to the government of any state is a very important office and one that is not to be toyed with. The loud explosion was heard at around 8.30 a.m. on Tuesday as journalists gathered to prepare for the day's assignments. Of course, such an occurrence which is so close to the secretary of the Nigerian Union of journalists cannot go on cover. Now, when contacted the state police commissioner, Edward Igbuka confirmed the explosion. He said what happened was that they were informed of a package that looked like a bomb that was left on the premises. And the police commissioner said he immediately deployed the bomb disposal unit there to assess the object. He says the object was immediately detonated. He said the explosion you heard, he said was the handwork, I'm using his words now, was the handwork of a bomb disposal unit brought about by the efforts to blow up the object. That's what he says. An investigation we told has already commenced to ascertain what the object was. I think one lesson that I've learned from this is we need to be careful what kind of stories we, you know, we follow on social media, especially from the news sites. Because it was seen that some of the newspaper, news websites rather, you know, said there was a bomb explosion at the Kogi State Government House. And, you know, people started saying, oh, the terrorists have come again. Oh, it's happening again. But this is clear. It was a safe detonation of a parcel or an object, an item that was found there. However, it's not something that people should not complain about or take another look at. Because we need to find out from the investigation what exactly led to that. What was that parcel about? Was it an improvised explosive device? Was it, you know, a letter bomb? Was it something that wasn't meant to be exploded? I don't know. So we need to know what happened. Who put it there? Why was it taken there, et cetera, et cetera? We had a couple of days ago that some repentant bandits, you know, who were scavenging for scrap metal, picked up an improvised explosive device. You know, they thought it was a scrap metal. And what happened was that it blew up and some of them died. So we need to know what exactly was detonated. I think the word that should have been used by the police commissioner was detonation. Probably when people hear the word blow up, they might not understand what's going on. Let's move on to our next trending story. The president of Nigeria, Mahmoud Bohari, has requested the Nigerian Senate to confirm 19 INA commissioners. He wrote a letter to the Senate on the 25th of July and the Senate president read it yesterday, Tuesday at Plenary. That letter was not just about the 19 INA commissioners. The letter was also about the acting chief justice of Nigeria whom the president would like to see confirmed by the Nigerian Senate as a substantive chief justice of Nigeria. This follows the retirement of the former justice, chief justice of the Federation. So this is what the president wrote as a letter, a containing letter he wrote to the Senate president. And the letter read in part, quote, pursuant to section 23 sub-1 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended, I forward for confirmation by the Senate, the appointment of Honorable Justice Olukayadeh Arriola as the chief justice of Nigeria. While I hope that the submission will be considered in the usual expeditious manner, please accept distinguished Senate president the assurances of my highest regard. All right, so that's what the president wrote in that letter. In another letter to the Senate, Buhari also requested the upper chamber to confirm the nomination of Dr. Suleiman Aga Afiko as a commissioner representing the southeast zone of the National Heart Commission. He also wrote to the Senate to confirm 19 nominees as a resident electoral commissioners for the Independent National Electoral Commission. This also, of course, is in accordance with the provisions of section 154 sub-1, section 154 sub-1 of the 1999 Constitution as amended. It was explained that the nomination of five resident electoral commissioners are for renewal, while 14 out of the 19 are fresh appointments. All right, so it seems that some of the resident electoral commissioners, 14 of them will not be returning, will not be returning. And it's interesting at this time because there's been a sort of a debate. Faisal Zakoye, who is usually on this program, who is a national commissioner information and public of voter education, has been defending the moves by the Nigerian Independent National Electoral Commission, where they've sent supervising or supervisory national commissioners to the states around the country, and they've been making statements and all that. Some have tried to read into it. Indeed, there was an article in the vanguard a couple of days ago. Some have tried to read into it to say that maybe some of these visits by the supervising national commissioners in Nainek meant to put a spanner in the wheel of what's been some very, very interesting decisions by the resident electoral commissioners. For instance, Mikey Guinea, who is a resident electoral commissioner in Acquireboom State. Mikey Guinea has been there for some time. Himself and some other resident electoral commissioners have sent in reports of the supervision and observation of these party primaries. And you have the likes of former governor of Acquireboom State, Gotsilakpabiu. You have the likes of the current senate president, who read this letter, not being able to return to the senate because they were not part of original primaries held by their political parties. You have the likes of David Umahi, governor of Eboni State, who is also having some issues. President Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State was part of the APC presidential contest and later popped up as a senate nominee of his party. So some of the resident electoral commissioners have been given these officials, these gentlemen, these individuals, a tough time and a tough ride in their states. Now, the INEC official of Fesokoi had to say that the resident electoral commissioners are not members of INEC. That is the commission and he based this on the Nigerian constitution. So he says there's nothing going on between them, but this is statutory. The 19 of them have the attendance expired, that's what we told. Five of them are returning and 14 are not returning. The nominees include those for Damoa State, Cross River State, Taraba State, Ogu State, Kogi State, Imo State, Sokoto State, Oyo State, Katsina State, Eboni State, Ben State, Delta State, Kaduna State, Kano State, Inugu State, the FCT, Bauchi, Anambra, and Yubina. These are not the states they are representing or where they work, but these are the states that nominated them on account of federal character. For instance, Oboe Fanga, who is from Cross River State, is a Cross Riverian, but he is a resident electoral commissioner of River State. So remains to be seen if the likes of Maki Gini still going to be there or not. We'll have time to discuss this later on the program. That's it for the trending segment on the breakfast. We'll take a look at what the papers are saying today when we come back from a short break. Please stay with us.