 Ipman opposes Tinobu's subsidy removal plan, queues return. Even as experts say it is a good move. It's Nigeria really ripe for the abrupt removal as it was done. We'll interrogate that on the show this morning. There was a huge cry that the last administration exceeded the limit in borrowing by ways and means. Instead of finding ways to correct it and make sure it doesn't happen again, the Senate has now increased federal government's borrowing from 5% to 15% through ways and means. Is that a boon or a bane for our economy? That also will be interrogated on the program this morning. And of course we'll have headlines from the newspaper Dailies and what is everyone talking about today? That's on Op the Press. A very good morning to you and thanks for joining us on The Breakfast on PLOS TV Africa. My name is Nyam Gul Agadji. Unfortunately today I'm home alone as it is. If you grew up and watched that movie you would know what I'm talking about. But I'm not alone actually. I might be alone here in the studio but I know that I have you there watching us right now and I'm so glad to have you join us this morning. As usual we are just going to talk about the things that are happening the things that are trending right now and also give you some updates on some of the things that we have already discussed. I'm sure wherever you are today the traffic situation is a little bit different from what it was yesterday but relatively it's very very free. What is the problem right now is not actually traffic congestion but the people congestion because a lot of people cannot find vehicles to board. Buses are applying not as many buses and vehicles are applying the roads because of what happened after the pronouncement that's fuel subsidy has been removed by the present administration. Fairs have gone up everything concerning commuting in Lagos and everywhere else that we've had the privilege of getting information from has gone up. Some fuel filling stations were selling fuel at 500 Naira per litre some at 600 Naira at least in Calabar we know that a few filling stations were selling as high as 600 Naira just from 180 Naira to 600 Naira within a space of maybe five hours it rose like that. So a lot of people were not prepared for that. The people who even went to Abuja for the ceremony for the swearing in ceremony the inauguration ceremony who had to go by road especially came back with double the fare that they paid to Abuja. So let's say you're paying 15,000 to take a car to Abuja when you're coming back you're paying nearly 30,000 Naira to come back because people are panic buying people are panic selling if that is allowed to be used because you do not know if subsidy is removed you do not even know what the price will be, the landing price will be and if you need to stay in business I'm trying to play devil's advocate now and understand with the sellers of this commodity. You do not even know if the next time it's being sold to you they will sell it at triple the price so which means if you're selling to the people at the approved pump price it may be that when the time comes when you need to restock you might have to borrow some money. So a lot of people may be just guarding against that and trying to save for the rainy day. I know that it's very tight on all of us but whoever gives the opportunity to criminals in court to do what they're not supposed to do is the one that we should hold responsible for whatever is happening. So if our government has come a proactive government that it is trying to show us that it is going to be maybe they should guard against some of the pronouncements until the things are right and everybody is sure. We hear that there's been some explanation that the subsidy will not be removed right away and all that but those that have heard that it has been removed have heard that it has been removed and we know already that it has been removed whatever palliative measures that were put in place for that to be done is what we were not told. If the president has just told us that fuel subsidy stands removed but in the meantime this is what is going to happen XYZ is going to happen and so nobody should panic whether the sellers or the buyers nobody should panic maybe it would have doused the tension a little bit but he didn't say that he just said according to what I was told there is no provision in the budget for the fuel subsidy so it stands removed. To a lot of people that was an excuse that is the previous administration that did this and he just supports them or that his hands are tight but you know this thing has been talked about for a very long time and before he was handed over to I'm sure they must have breathed him this is what is going to happen. We felt that he should have had a game plan he should have had a plan B to say okay fuel subsidy I have the political will to remove it but now that I've removed it or now that it has been removed these are the measures that Nigerians should look out for because we have put this in place to make sure that the effects is not felt that much. Okay but you know so whoever is going to work today I wish you well I wish you safe journey I wish you a bus or a car you know you can actually wish someone like that that you wake up and you get the transportation to come to work or to go to work you get the means to get to work some people have the money but they don't find the vehicles the crowd on the road is massive I don't know if it has thinned by now but when I was coming to work the crowd was massive so if you are in that crowd that means there will be a lot of fighting to get into cars some cars might be broken I've seen situations where people are struggling to enter cars and the rip of the doors or the side mirrors or something in the cars and all that so let this never happen it used to happen in those days where people were rushing to enter the Moliwe and all that up until 2005 where when I as a person came to Lagos for the first time there was that rush and you know it was too crazy for me it was too fast forward for the city for me but Lagos is gradually having some kind of order let us continue with this order by making sure the policies that are brought to the people will not be such that it takes us back 10, 20 years ago from what we are enjoying right now well yesterday or the day before a few hours away from here we heard where there was a scuffle between the DSS and the EFCC and the DSS came out and said that there was no contest between them and the EFCC so it was about the office that they had blocked the EFCC officials from entering the office and a lot of things were said and the DSS came out and said that office belongs to them it has always been their office and they have no problems with the EFCC so they just went to work in their office and we were asking ourselves I was asking myself if the office has been yours from a long time ago till now how come it's on the news that there was a problem there's no smoke without fire and then we woke up to the realization according to the news that the president has asked the DSS to vacate that premises so if the premises belong to the DSS like they claimed and now they have been asked to go actually the question is where are they going to the president made any alternative arrangements for the DSS to move and leave the EFCC office as they have put it in the news because if it belonged to the DSS and now they are the ones to move which means they had no plan but if it belonged to the DSS and he had asked the EFCC to move maybe we will understand that they may have been having some plans that one day this might come or what plans do the present administration have to accommodate DSS are they going to look for accommodation now did they provide any other accommodation and all that there are some of the details that even though we have them but they are still not very clear so we are as good as saying that we do not have those kind of details but we do hope that a very critical agency of government like the DSS must not be homeless even for a day so whatever the measures are that is the news now that Tinubu, the president I nearly said Mohammed Buhari it is just a few days away President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has ordered DSS to vacate the EFCC office immediately not in a matter of months not in a matter of weeks but immediately and when it is said immediately that means immediately so even if there are appointments made and they say it takes immediate effect that means that day that the appointments were made it takes effect from that day to start work that day so immediately means there is urgency they have to leave wherever they are going to is what we do not understand if they have an alternative accommodation we also have another thing that is happening or has happened the National Industrial Court has upheld federal governments no work no pay policy no work no pay policy means that for the months that ASU for instance went on strike they will not earn a salary yeah well maybe the law says that I don't know how the law really operates if it has a human face or it doesn't well we see from the statue that the face is covered so it has no regard for anybody it is equal before the law but I'm just asking I'm wondering as a layman that doesn't know the law that much and I'm not in the corridors of power that if ASU goes on strike for like 8 months and they come back from that strike and you don't pay them for the strike the period of the strike if they decide that they will not visit anything in the curriculum for those 8 months that were lost will they also be held responsible or accountable will they also be held to pay for that time because if I didn't work for 8 months and I come back from the 8 months strike and I cover the work that I was supposed to do for all those 8 months will you still say that I didn't work for 8 months I'm just trying to make sense out of it but even then having said this the courts have held this because the federal government had dragged ASU before the NIC National Industrial Court over the demand of the union for the payment of their salaries from February 14 to October 7, 2022 when the strike was called off the policy is tantamount to breach of labour rights that's according to the NLC Nigerian Labour Congress also another opinion says that it breaches the spirit of collective bargaining the power of labour unions to negotiate on behalf of other members there's another third opinion which says that calling for strike is a part of negotiation strategy and all those opinions have come up but the court still held that it is a violation of university autonomy on the other hand that it's a violation of the university autonomy for the federal government to impose the integrated payroll and personnel information system the IPPIS platform on members of ASU who reserve the right to determine how their salaries should be paid that's the only thing that the courts have held that ASU the striking lecturers should never be forced to be on the integrated payroll that they were kicking against they said they had their own model that they were comfortable with and the federal government was saying no, you must belong to the IPPIS because that is the universal one we have chosen for everybody so you must have to be on it but the court said no you can't compel them to be part of that IPPIS so you let them choose their method of payment that they are comfortable with but they went ahead and said that they should not be paid because that's what the law says so I just put out the question that whoever is a lawyer whoever is of a legal mind should try to explain to us maybe today or by calling also sending to our social media platform so that we can also tell the public because we stand confused because I was given a portion to clear and I went away, I didn't clear it I come back you say you're not going to pay me and then I still go ahead and clear that portion of grass and then you say that because I went away I violated the rule and the rule was if I don't work, I don't pay but I've done the work why would you not pay me for the work I've done so I think it's dangerous for our children who are in school for ourselves who want to continue to be in school for the educational system where you say that if someone is agreed and he feels that he should come to the table and talk with you the grouse of us who was that they talked with the government and they failed to do what they were supposed to do for years maybe 1999 or 2009 or so for years it has gone on like that and their option was to go on strike which also is supposed to be their right so if there is no work, no pay what if they decide not to do the work for which they are not being paid how will that fare? how will the educational system fare? I'm just thinking aloud as an individual so the courts have already ruled maybe there's no going back on that but if we think about it it's either we'll have the political will or the discipline or whatever word you want to use it to make sure that we stand by our words as a government you make promises you have to fulfill or at least renegotiate and get a central ground or a middle ground as they say but if nothing is being done and then you come up with the sanctions because the law says XYZ if the law is interpreted by those same people who are now the victims and they want to do according to how the law says or how we will fare our educational system will fare and all that we should think about it so the new administration has come the new administration has promised that youths will be an integral part of this administration ICT will be a part of it the women also will be a part of this administration we are yet to see how that will play out but if you're talking youths you talk education as well if these youths that you think should be an integral part of this government a set of them are deprived of the education that will enable them be the drivers of our economy tomorrow the drivers of our political sphere tomorrow the drivers of everything that we need as a nation tomorrow then how good is this is that if you're taking that portion of our population that is ready now and saying I don't care about what happens to the next generation that is supposed to take over from this ones so this present administration to do something about it and think very hard before the slump sanctions on any aspect of our economy and please maybe when they're thinking about ministers and people to superintend over that minister of education they should think of people who already know something about the ministry or about the sector because the last minister said when he was appointed there was nothing he knew about the educational system so possibly some of the blunders that he made were because he knew nothing about it so this situation where we sent ministers a list of ministers to the senate or to the national assembly ministers that do not know what they will become you send a lawyer to become to be interviewed by the senate to be asked the questions by the senate and then they're asking him questions as a lawyer you come and give him a minister for agriculture you send someone who is supposed to be a businessman and you're thinking that he's going to be minister of finance or something close to that and then you're giving that person minister of education or something else that is not related to business or finances and all that so let's know people who are going to be heads of whatever ministries that we're going to have send them to the senate according to the kind of portfolios that they should have that's an opinion that a lot of people have expressed also as well anyway so let the senate know what is on their minds and then see if they're good enough for the positions for which they have been presented that day and also to the senate or the national assembly please stop making them take a bow let Nigerians hear what their minds are how their minds run what kind of policies that you think they can bring to bear when they actually get the portfolio that they are going to get or they're supposed to get let us know the kind of person that is going to lead what sector and know how we can help or whatever we can suggest as well because when the people know that these are your weaknesses these are your strengths we know already what is coming up and so when people are doing agitations when people are making suggestions when people are talking about your ministry they know what to talk about because this is a democracy and the beauty of a democracy is that everybody has a voice that is what should be called dividends of democracy not building a road not building a bridge not building a school that's part of governance that even a military administration can do when you go to Dubai places that are ruled by kings and queens they still do these things and even more than democratically elected people presidents and governors and all that so that is part of governance it's not anything to do with democracy but democracy the beauty of it is representation we are able to say something we are able to talk to the government we are able to tell them what we want we are able to tell them how we want to be governed we are able to suggest a lot of things and we are part of the government that is democracy government of the people by the people and for the people well we've been talking much about these and we don't know what your opinion is about what is happening we first of all talked about the fact that DSS has to vacate the premises of ESCC and all that and then we've talked about what the courts have said about no work no pay we also we also know that governors were sworn in on the 29th of May a lot of them have been very have shown that they were ready for the position Abia State Governor has appointed so many people and we know that he has hit the ground running but you know the program will continue with a lot of other things that we need to discuss of the press will be coming up next after the weather report that we are going to take right now so just stay with us and don't go away