 Thank you for staying with us. You're still watching The Breakfast on Plus TV Africa. It's time to look at what the national dailies are saying this morning. And we have a guest to review the papers for us. We have Ezekiel, Inia Etok, a public affairs analyst, joining us from a choir room this morning. Good morning, Seth. Thank you for joining us. Good morning and thanks for having me. Always a pleasure. Yes, yes. Merry Christmas, compliments of the season. Merry Christmas to the Plus TV family and everybody. You too, you too, you too. Okay, let's go right into the papers this morning. The major headline, we're starting with the punch, the major headline here, and on most of all the papers that we have, says Aida Tewa takes over. That's on punch. Tinibu governor, say Akira Dulu's death, big loss. The writer on this one is Aida Tewa-Lis. Akira Dulu's achievement, this says governor's aides resign, workers mourn. Akira Dulu, a great fighter, says Tinibu governor's others and on though declares a three-day mourning. So this, this is coming from understates. Most of the papers we have this morning are talking about the death of governor. Are Rotimi Akira Dulu. What do you have to say on all of this? It's quite a big spot. I wanna hear from you. Okay, first my condolences to the immediate family. Yes. Those states and Nigeria at large, generally. And a lot has been said about Mr. Akira Dulu on account of how he was a man that believed in certain ideologies and lived those ideologies. A man that was very bold. A man that was very audacious. As a former president of NVA and when you know how NVA is structured, it means a man, he's a man of substance and then eventually came to become the governor of those states. And somewhere along the line, what happens to virtually every mortal happened to him, talking about his health. And he ended yesterday, yes, I think it was yesterday, when he passed. And so that much I would say. But for me, the takeaways are very many. One is that for us to progress as a people because this has happened too many times. The people of all those states have lost quality governance because we have over-personalized governance. And the governor becomes the owner of the state. It's an ideology that we must radically depart from. We must come to a point where the state is not the governor and the governor, the state. I believe that whenever the time comes that a governor is seemingly incapacitated, we must put certain log in place where he transmits power and then such transmission is not subject to his whims and caprices. What he thinks he doesn't think. No, there should be something extremely decisive about it. For instance, if for any reason you cannot assume normal official duties for a period not exceeding one month, you must, or for a period exceeding one month, you must by constitution hand over power because the state cannot be run by proxy. Number two, the place of the deputy governor must be looked at decisively. And I'd like to take a little time here because I have contested the governorship and the processes of getting a deputy, people don't know. Number one is that the party wants to give you your deputy but there's a reason why the constitution asks you to choose your deputy. The deputy is never contested for. It's at the core of the governor because there is an intentment. The governor, if he means well, is supposed to like marry a wife, look for that lady that he is compatible with to look for that lady that he trusts. To look for that lady that he knows is the left hand of his right hand and that with the two arms, they will compliment each other and he will be able to deliver the mandate for which the people have entrusted him. Now, instead of that being the case, people foist on governor deputies for two reasons. They know that it's a space hire but they want, thank you for the lovely saloon, they want somebody that will succeed the governor. And as a result, instead of a deputy being a compliment, it becomes a threat. That is why most governors make their deputies as useless as dodo. So for me, I want to make a very, very, very decisive recommendation. No deputy should succeed a governor. What that means is that if you are a deputy governor, you cannot be part of the electoral process except the governor is going for a second term and he is bringing you along for the second term. But outside of that, you cannot be, you cannot contest an election in the next season. You must keep one season. Now the prognosis or what this prognosis is that as a deputy governor, you know that you cannot have an ambition of succeeding your boss. So you become your boss' companion and not competitor and sometimes somebody who even works against the interests of the governor. I think this is one point that the nation should look at very seriously. As a governor, as a deputy governor, you must, except you are carried along for a second term, you must keep the next electoral cycle before you can contest again. So you know that you are going in for something to work with your governor and not an eye on the seats of your governor. That is one thing. The second thing I want to look at, just one thing I want to look at in terms of on those things. One is a deputy governor, which I've said. The second is the health status. I'm not talking age, it was the mandatory obligatory that you publicly disclose your age status if you want to be a governor, a deputy governor, a vice president, a president. You must publicly declare your health status. I say this because by the grace of God, I just turned 60. But I want to say publicly that the last time I spent one night in a hospital was in 1985. One night in a hospital was in 1985. So you can be 60, you can be 65 and you are very fit and you are very fine and you can be certified. And your body functions are not in place. You are obese, you don't take care of yourself, you are not fit. So I'm not talking age now. I'm talking health status. You must declare it publicly. When we have those two things in place, we may start to have a system that we don't get into what we have to deal with the hour to hour or without Keredulu or with so many other people in the party. Okay, well, we just wish him, we pray for the repose of his soul. And we also pray that Ayuzet Tewa will do the right thing because he is under pressure, he's going to be under pressure. And a lot of people say that the shoes of Akeredulu are very, very large for him to feel, but let him do his best for the interests of Undo people and for posterity sake. Still on the punch newspaper, we have a story that is saying real-wave debt servicing exceeds. Your permission, I will say something. Okay, just briefly. Okay. I wanted to be known that the people of Undo state went to the polls to vote for the program, the manifesto of the governor that has just passed and that it was a joint ticket for the manifesto that the people voted for as a result. Though he has become, Mr. Lucky has become a governor, he cannot get to see the program that the people voted for. He is brought in to conclude the program that the people voted for. I'm talking this constitutionally and foundationally. The people of Undo state had several people that provided manifesto to them. They looked at all and said, we like the manifesto of Mr. Adkeru to me. So they have brought two people, the governor and the deputy governor for that program. Now, in the absence of the governor, the deputy governor is mandated. It is obligatory, it is incumbent upon him to continue the program that the people voted for. He cannot have an independent program. Yeah, he has said so that he's going to complete all those projects that were started. I do hope that in this interregnum, in this little time where we didn't know what was going on in Undo state, I hope that some things were not approved without the approval of the governor because we've seen the forging of signatures and all those kind of things. There are some things that may have been done that are outside that manifesto that the governor will come and not do and then the people will say, okay, you are digressing from what was agreed. But he has promised to complete everything they had started with his principal who is now deceased and we hope that he will continue in that trajectory. So the next top headline is federal government, no, not that. The railway debt. The railway debt servicing exceeds revenue by 1,200%. That is according to the report that we have seen. And then the same railway is the one that has been asked to carry people for free for the period from now till 4th of January. And they were complaining before now that what they had done before this time when the government told them to do such a thing, they had not been refunded. So I don't know how they're going to survive or how that sector is going to be. You see, we have a governor that we really don't appreciate the fundamentals of governor. We can do all this analysis for as long as we wish. But the fact remains that unless we come to no government for what it is and appreciate it for what it is, we don't be being governor on the line for the most. You cannot make a policy statement without first thinking through it. Thinking through it does not mean, if you, you know, I don't know how to put this. Any phone that you have was researched upon about 10 years ago before it comes out, ask anybody. Almost the same thing with any medicine that we take. There is a bathroom that's done the research and it comes out as several tests and scenarios. As we are today, the government should have a bathroom that says, what happens if Cameroon opens the dam? What will happen? What happens if they cook in Cameroon? What happens if the Americans come to say to the business they have so many two-part issues that they have scenarios, A, B, C. That's a bathroom, that is government. It think ahead for what's taking. Now we are here. By the time a government for a president makes a statement, the bathroom has already done a synthesis of that scenario, done the cost analysis. It becomes a project when you have a timeline, you have the cost, you have the deliverables. These are the basics. So before a policy is made, there is already the solution laid. It's like a real life. If all you buy the coaches, the tracks have already been laid. That we have a situation where government makes a statement and then goes back to think. You are keeping people to write free. The class for you, context is there for goodness sake. When you look at the way you're praised, you have one, two, three amp. One amp in salaries and wages, one amp is maintenance, one amp is other overheads, and then you're now thinking in terms of profit. Before profit, all these, what is the aggregate monthly cost of all these? And what provision have you made for them in the next two months, like you projected? When you do that, you call the management, you give them your position on it and give them the instruction. You call the military and central bank to make these provisions available to them so that there is a seamless operation and transition. That is the way it ought to have been. That you'll be shocked, you'll be shocked, and I tend to be corrected, to hear that the head of the Nigerian railway heard this in the news, like everybody heard that, and he's like, oh my goodness, what am I gonna do? So I think that we should start to run companies that have a serious business and not have quality. Quality and governance are two lines that don't fit their oil line. That's what I can say about that. All right, let's go into something else which talks about insecurity, economic hardship to Watson in six states, and this is coming from the World Bank, I'm sure you, you live here in Nigeria, you know what's happening, you've heard of the killings that happen in Plattus State, so we're talking about insecurity and we're also talking about economic hardship to Watson in six states, and if they're saying to Watson, I would think we're already in the deep at the moment. So if they say to Watson, does it mean this is... That's scary. That's scary, does it mean it's going to get worse than what we are currently facing at this point, but I just wanna get your thoughts quickly on this one. So the World Bank has said insecurity, economic hardship to Watson in six states. Okay, unfortunately for me, I don't know what's happened. I didn't get some of the things, a lot of the things to say, right? Your account is low. Let me just take that again. Can you hear me? Can you hear me, sir? Okay, so I think there's a little bit of a technical glitch, but yeah, what are your thoughts on that? I'm scared, I'm scared at this point. I don't know why the World Bank will say six states out of 36, so 30 states will be comfortable or what? Because I think if it's going to affect six states, it's going to affect like everybody. Maybe not the insecurity at the same scale, but the economic hardship is going to be everywhere. You would expect somewhere like Abuja or Lagos not to experience this, but we're experiencing these even more. I think everybody in Nigeria is experiencing economic hardship. I am, I can tell you my bank account is experiencing economic hardship, but if this thing's to worsen, I think that's the one that's scary for me. It's really scary. Because everybody's facing the same thing. I want to believe. But sometimes, sometimes the projections of the World Bank and other people may not be true. It's more like a wish anyway. I think architect has been able to rejoin us. Architect, can you hear us? Yes, I can hear you. I hope you can hear me as well. So briefly, your thoughts on the fact that they're saying six states will experience, will worsen the situation, the economic situation will worsen and insecurity also will worsen in six states out of 36 in Nigeria by next year. I don't think we need the World Bank to tell us that. I think it goes without saying. I want to ask one question. Since today in this program, I want to be able to make one, two, three very decisive comments. Insecurity, while I give credit today on the soldiers in the field, we must interrogate the statement of the Sultan of Sokoto when he said, why are these insurgents, these people always ahead of the military? Now, this is coming from somebody who's got a nobody. Check his background in the military. And question number one is, can these terrorists have better intel than the military of the Federal Republic of Nigeria? Can they have more sophisticated weapons than the military of the Federal Republic of Nigeria? What is our intel situation like that? Is there any part of Nigeria that we cannot access within two hours from strategic locations that have been mapped in the country and placed by technology and drones that within an hour as a state policy of anything happening anywhere, a drone must be able to get there. Let that drone at the very least monitor the movement and there's a program I did for the last National Assembly. I called it the National Eye. The Nigerian state security should be able to see any and every part, every inch of this country. I must have somebody wanted to be the governor of the state. I mapped that quite well myself and I can make that available. Within 30 minutes, there is a drone in any location. Now these evil people are the most fearful people on Earth. When they know they can be seen, they can be trapped, they will cool down. So the number one, let the Nigerian state, the military set up the National Eye and can give them the template so that any part of this state in this country can be monitored, can be trapped. I'm not talking of clouds now, I'm talking physically within Nigeria, can be trapped within two hours. Now an hour of flight takes me from Uyo to Abuja. Less than an hour from Abuja takes me to Lagos. Less than an hour takes me from Lagos to Kano. So why can't I have a base that nobody knows and it tells me strictly ICC, at least in every senatorial district, that is only 109, 109. Even if it takes me a billion, which is horrendous, to set up that institution in every senatorial district, that is 109 billion. That is nothing to what we lose on a daily basis. Mr. President is going to look for investors. He should stop going to look for investors. He should come home, lock down and make sure that every way is secure. When that is done and people outside know Nigeria is so secure they will start coming. So for me, that National Eye product or project is the most important. When we do that, people will start to know that if they go to a raid anywhere, they will be seen, they will be tracked to where they are going to end and as a result. It's difficult for it to carry out such a massive operation within an hour or two. It's difficult. In that of plateau, it took them two days of operation and the Nigerians said what we are doing now is going to give it to the families of the people and that has become a ritual. Not okay. Well, okay. Let's move to another paper. Let's move over to the Guardian. The Guardian is here. There's one I'd like to take here. This is coming from the Rivers State and it says Rivers Elders write to Nibu Fubara on illegality of peace pact. I'm sure you've seen about an eight-point agenda on the peace pact where, well, they said Fubara, you know, the 27 people who had decamped from PDP to APC, they still have to remain. There are lots in that. Now, the Rivers Elders are talking about the illegality of the peace pact. What are your thoughts on that? Do you think it's a threat to democracy? Do you think it's illegal? Yes, go on. The Rivers people and Elders are over-embarrassing their government. One of their Elders came up to call him a political neophyte. Others are coming up to tell him that what he wrote in sign was nonsense. That's not the way to treat a king. It's not. You know, even when the king dances naked, you have two options. One is to tell him how stupid and foolish he is. The second is to one dance around him with rapper, where it seems that we are all dancing that you are covering the king until the king is clothed. Mr. Fubara has signed a document. I said it before on this session, and I say it again. Mr. Fubara needs strategic thinkers. Why is men and women a handful of them to bring politicians? I don't want to use because sometimes I'm called a politician myself. Do I call myself a professional in politics and not a politician? The politicians need to understand their mindset. They don't care about you. They don't care about you. So what they are doing is grandstanding and hoping that they are impressing you. That they are actually, in Secondary School, we used to say, dishinging. They are actually dishinging you. They are actually embarrassing you. They are actually making you feel, you know, in case not taking, Mr. Fubara loses confidence in himself. It's going to be terrible for Riverside. So let this elder go to him privately and hold meetings. We are, you know, they say it is where it is, what it is. We are here. How do we move from here? It is them that will set up a strategy, think-sans and committee on how to execute this. They can go ahead and bring one small boy, you know, in force and say, go to court. Say, I don't agree. This and that. And then when it comes up that way, then the man will say, well, it's a court decision and we must be law-abiding. The demand you is to get the court decision from the beginning in a way that you don't look bad. Please, strategy is what we agree back to. And please, let us buy into me and stop going to attack the federal governor. We are doing too much of politics with governor and he's not helping. Okay, we'll move to the daily trust now. There's a headline there, also political. Adult 2024, Basaki slashes Shraibu's budget. Deputy governor insists on competency. You touched a little bit about issues like these on the principal and his deputy all the time. And there should be definite things that should be in the constitution and all that. But low-hanging fruits. What is happening in a two-state? What are your comments? You see, let me tell you all these things. If I had opportunity to sit down with Mr. Bakriki, he's making himself to start to look weak. So this is doing, let me tell you something. If you slash somebody's budget, it becomes public knowledge. And you make demand to gain public sympathy. The public always goes for the weak. Increase his budget and then don't release it. So the body, I'm sorry I'm saying this publicly, but you know, the first thing is that, ah, I'm asking you the trial, see man, you don't increase your budget. Uh-uh, why does man see the talk like this? See, do you want me to try for him? Uh-uh, what do you mean? But you notice the difference between what is in the budget and what is cash-fired and what is released. You know what I mean? It's simple thinking. Mr. Bakriki is a very, very brown man. If somebody has a lot of respect for, including the person that he has chosen to succeed him, people may not like his politics-wise, but have sat down and studied at the risk of campaigning for anybody. He got a lot, he got a lot. Like, like, like after time, after time is a nice guy, they just have people that are drinking something to govern them. So what he should do is allow his deputy to compete with what is called, you know, superior, you know, argument. Let the campaign in the adult state be a campaign of ideas, capacity. Let the professionals come in and put Mr. Udalo, put Mr. Aspata, put the current deputy governor, put three of them on the pedestal. Let them start to argue governors and, you know, at the same, you discover that somebody will discover that the process. This is not the policies of the governor, so maybe I should cool down. But all these ones of trying to fight your deputy publicly, you are only making the sky to become, you know, more popular. And when the campaign starts to sweep on his side, you can leave your party, go to Angela's party, you have to leave now, and you would have given him, you know, you can take the wind off his sails. Mr. Bakriki should say it for me. Let me spend what he's been with me at the end. Whatever he wants as a governor, you get me. You'll be evil genius. You are the governor. No, he'll be, Bakriki is evil genius. That will tell him all the things to be a political mordona with that eye on him. But I think I like what Mr. Ezekiel has said, talking about the deputy governor not being able to contest, because I think that's even the root cause of the whole issue happening in Edu state at the moment. Obas, Sharibo has his political ambition to become governor in the next cycle. You know, one of the things that happened here is that the deputy will see all the things that you have been doing, and there's always this fear that if it's not exactly in your camp, he might expose the kind of things that you, because he knows everything that you've been doing. So a lot of them are afraid. Which means, like he said, it's no longer like you choose the person you're comfortable with, they are, the people are imposed on you so that they can be the ones to succeed you. Because if I bring someone I trust, no matter what I do, there's no fear that when I leave, he's going to probe me and do all the things that are not very good to me. True. Well, do we drop it here? Well, I think we can take one more, and this is coming from the daily independent. It's a small headline here on the top. It says, we're working to turn around Nigeria's economic fortunes, and this is coming from Tinnable. We're seeing the World Bank saying that insecurity and economic hardship were worsening, but the president here is saying we're working to turn around Nigeria's economic fortunes. I mean, small borrowing. Small borrowing. That's right. Is this something that we're going to see in 2024? From your own standpoint, all that has happened here in the first few months of the Tinnable-led administration, is this something that you can confidently say, yes, might happen and the fortunes or our economy might just be shining brightly? Economy is not wishful thinking. Economy is being more productive based on peace and stability, based on macro-micro-economic policies of state, based on the rule of law, being the decider and the confidence giver to every investor. Please tell me, number one, your policy on the judiciary, to ensure that I, as an investor coming to your country, I know that if I have done, I will get justice. Tell me that. Number two, tell me the specific policy on the insecurity, very specific and definite so that I can tell in confidence that when I come, I will be safe. Number three, tell me the strategic move of the country to move into being productive in its economy. Very deliberate and very intentional. Number four, tell me the monetary policy of the state that tells me that I will exchange one Naira for this amount of money in the next 12 months, whatever it takes. That ability in your, I'm a real estate person. I'm developing a major estate. People are bringing foreign funds to me. I'm afraid to take because I take, say, $2 million today, expecting that even at 1,000, that I'm going to return 200 million Naira. I look at my sales profile and I know that I can raise that 200 million Naira within the sixth month that I've talked about. At the end of the sixth month, I raise the 200 million Naira, but guess what? The 200 million Naira does not give me $2 million. It only gives me $1.5 million because exchange rate has gone to 1,500. What do I do? I cannot increase my costs because I will not be able to sell. All my analysis has curtailed that if I know that I'm taking $2 million now and that in six months, if I raise the 200 million Naira, I'll be able to repay the $2 million I've got. I can now tell them, bring the funds, except I'm a speculator and I'm an adventurer and I'm too old to do that. This is not the time that I'm going to start running away from banks and then the investors in my property because the exchange rate has gone beyond what I anticipated. Look at when these people came into office about six months in real estate. You don't think of three months, you don't think of three months. Think of five years, ten years. Imagine what happened to my colleagues about five years ago when they collected with the Naira exchange for less than 600 Naira. Now the Naira has gone to 1,200. What do you think has happened to my colleagues? So don't tell me that the economy is going to be good. No, I don't want to hear that. Show me the fundamentals you have put in place and on the basis of that allow me to be the one to draw the conclusion. But as a president, you still owe the X factor, which is the inspiring factor. The later inspiration be an icing on the cake that is already there and not that the icing is what we look at. No, the cake is a substance. I think it's just what you can do without. Yeah, well, I agree. I mean, it's nice to inspire people and let them know that there's hope for Naira, but let it also be realistic as well. Let people be able to see it and say, this is where we are. This is where we're going to. And these are the plans that would get us to where we're going to. So I agree with you. Anyways, we want to thank you so much for joining the program this morning. Thank you for your valuable contributions. I have a lovely twenty-twenty-two. Yes, twenty-twenty-three, yes. Twenty-four, rather. He's there on the screen. Thank you so much. Wishing you a happy new year in advance and we'll see you next year. Thank you. All right, we've been speaking to Mr. Ezekiel Iyer, at Turkey's Public Affairs Analyst, joining us from Akwaibam State. We'll go on a short break and when we return we'll be looking at our hot topic. Please stay with us.