 Mainways thank governor Samuel Ottum advocates a larger share of Nigeria's revenue to states. This comes at a time of shrinking federal earnings and great debt. We're discussing Nigeria's federal education system this morning. Also coming up is a discussion on the latest global ranking of universities that places Nigeria's best institutions outside the top 1000. How do we make our universities more competitive? And don't forget the regulars. Pipe off the press on a look at the top trending stories of the day. Welcome to the Breakfast on Plus TV Africa. Good morning. I am Annetta Hillings. And I am Osaugi Ogmawan. Thanks for joining us and welcome to a Tuesday mornings edition of the Breakfast on Plus TV Africa. Good morning once again. Okay, forget about the smile on my face. I am shocked as many other Nigerians. That's because of the news we've seen. It's the United Nations reports that exposed a secret program by the federal government for repentant Boko Haram members. We've been talking about repentant Boko Haram members for a while now and how they seem to be treated with kids gloves. But the United Nations reports really has just revealed how much of a situation this is. So it says that as part of this program former Boko Haram commanders are provided with rent-free accommodation. They're provided with monthly stipend by the SSS. They're given a business license for them to go on and establish enterprises across the country. And something also shocking that I saw that the original plan of this is to de-radicalize them and reintegrate them into Nigeria's secret service. I really don't know how this comes across to you but that's what we're hearing here, that this program is called a Suhu program and it dates back to 2014 when kids were abducted from the northern part of Nigeria from Chibok. And that when we know that 270 Chibok girls were abducted and even more and 150 terrorists had allegedly surrendered. So these terrorists were basically part of the first set of the Suhu program aimed at de-radicalizing terrorists and integrating them into Nigeria's secret security program. And the UN report went on to say that it's also like 150 Mohajideen have surrendered their weapons and that they have crossed over from the Boko Haram terrorist side to the good side since 2019. And that's according to people who are familiar with the program. And it also says that this program, you know, I mentioned the business license thing. It mentions the monthly stipend that they would get. And the people, you know, that are participants of this program are commanders of Boko Haram or repentance commanders of Boko Haram that they had actually met its representatives of President Mohamedu Buhari when they repented. So that really is what we're seeing. It's quite shocking to see this because we've seen news about people who were in intelligible displaced persons camps saying the federal government claims to have forgiven these bandits and terrorists. But we haven't. We are, you know, experiencing the hurt, the trauma of losing our family of losing our loved ones have been displaced of, you know, not having a source of income anymore. This is where we are at this level we have to make do with. But these people get rents free accommodation. They get monthly stipends. You know, I don't know really how this comes across to you, Osaree Gaye. Well, so, you know, the way that the story is told, you know, and from what you've described, it's not very different from, you know, it's pretty similar to the Amnesty for Niger Delta militants that was approved by from President Umar Sayyar Adwa. You know, some people might argue that it's not very different, but the only difference here is the fact that the Nigerian government has not openly, you know, stated that that's what's going on. And the Nigerian people have also not agreed, you know, that there will be Amnesty for former terrorists and Bokoara members and commanders. And that defeats the argument that, you know, these are some of the people who were kidnapped and forced to join. You know, that we had some time last week, late last week, with one of the guests who we had interviewed. They faced that argument because these are top commanders according to the UN report. They weren't forced to join in any way. They have carried out numerous atrocities against the Nigerian state and all of that. So you can draw those similarities between this and the Niger Delta Amnesty program. I'm also going to say that, you know, there is also the possibility that the Nigerian government has decided to, instead of using, you know, force, you know, to use the carrot and stick approach, and that means that instead of continuing to bombard and to kill and, you know, do whatever is necessary and imprison, they would rather, you know, pet some of all these people who have decided to repent, you know, and, you know, give them accommodation, give them homes and hope that they don't return to, you know, being terrorists again. The fears that Nigerians would always state is, you know, how really possible is it that you don't, that you change a person's ideology with regards to terrorism. But it's also important to know the reason they became terrorists in the first place if it was because of unemployment or because they believed in a particular, you know, Islamic ideology, extremist ideology. So maybe the federal government has decided to use the carrot and stick approach, but at the same time not, you know, be open about it to Nigerians. One of the things I was stated in this report is about a particular person, a guy called Malamaliu who was a former Boko Haram member and was part of the Bama massacre that killed, you know, hundreds or thousands of Nigerians in 2014. He is one of the people who was mentioned here that is currently living rent-free and receiving stipends from the DSS, you know, according to this program. And the same way, not the same way, the pretty tough way to say this is maybe the Nigerian government has, you know, a totally different approach from what the Nigerian people are expecting and they don't want to continue to use force. They want to see how they can also get intelligence from these people according to what the report says. You know, some of them are being recruited into the DSS, Nigeria Security Agencies. So you need to get information from them and whatnot. So, you know, there is also that approach that is possible. But there's also those who totally would disagree with that narrative and say that, no, if you really want to stamp out terrorism, you need to do all that is necessary and that is, you know, security-wise to ensure that everybody who is found guilty, there is the terrorism act, there is, you know, the Criminal Justice Act, you know, and anybody who is found guilty of associating or being, you know, a terrorist or, you know, assistant terrorist should be, you know, be arrested and should have to go through, you know, the law, face the law for their crimes against the Nigerian state and for, you know, all of that. You know, and also actually the same treatment will be given to the, you know, ESN members and the, you know, Sunday Glows followers and any other person who, you know, carries out atrocities against the Nigerian state. And there's also the angles of, you know, what exactly has created the avenue for terrorism to thrive on that level in Nigeria. Right now, we're no longer talking so much about Boko Haram or Aiswap, we're not talking about banditry and kidnapping and the killings of people in different parts of the country. What has created this avenue for that to thrive? You know, how is the federal government also addressing that? How are they sure that in the next five years there will not be a new group that, of course, wants to join, you know, the bandwagon? How are they addressing unemployment? How are they addressing the lack of schools in the north? How are they addressing poverty and hunger? How are they addressing those millions of imaginary kids that are roaming around the streets in the north? And if you don't address all these things, then you're really only given a temporary fix to, you know, the big problem. That really is it. So let me just quickly add this, you know, the part where you also mentioned that there is thousands of soldiers who are currently, you know, either amputated or have lost, you know, their lives completely, their families who have their thousands of families who have suffered, you know, from the trust of these persons that are now being, you know, given a free house and stipends, and those people would never one day decide, okay, well, let's, you know, agree with the carrot and sichab, a stick approach. There are people who are still mourning today that, you know, there are people who, you know, probably lost their lives, you know, last week. So it would never just sit well with, you know, a large percentage of Nigerians. And I'm not sure how to explain it to them that some of the people who carried out those atrocities who killed your family members are now living rent for and enjoying a good life, you know, funded by the Nigerian government, it would never make sense. And soldiers, family members, everybody. Totally, totally agree. So as a student of international history and relations, I've got to understand how states behave, right? And when I look through the length and breadth of how governments in Nigeria react and approach things, I ask myself, what really is our national policy? What really is our foreign policy on certain issues? And that seems to be lacking. What is Nigeria's foreign policy? You won't even find that on Google because I don't think it exists in practice. I don't think we have. What is our national policy on terrorism? You would see Benrey state to say, no open grazing. Ondo state to say, oh, we agree. You would see Zanfarah state to say, oh, pay money to terrorist. Kaduna state would say, we won't. Yes, it's good for states to have autonomy, but what's the national policy on issues? Whether government would, you would find, you know, bandits or rather students who were, who have been released and you hear sources from the family say they paid ransom. And another set of children would be abducted and you hear the state government say they bombarded them and killed the terrorists. So what really is our national policy on dealing with terrorists? The federal government needs to tell us exactly because it seems like nonexist. So we need to be able to find out and decide what really is the national policy of Nigeria on certain issues such as terrorism and security. So we'll know exactly how we can move forward because it doesn't make sense when, you know, like you mentioned, um, some people come together to protest at the leki tour gates, you know, wherever in Mokola market in Ibadon, wherever and then the police clamp down on them, you steer gas, you converge at the Unity Fountain in Abuja and they arrest you, but then you kill people in their numbers and you get rent-free accommodation in a country like this where things are so expensive. You get, is it that states are now being built for them to say oh, when you repent, we'll just plug you into one of those houses or they pay the rent. How really does it work? What's Nigeria's national policy on security? Um, makes absolutely no sense. You know, I totally agree with you know, with your narrative. There has to be a national policy that needs to be followed. Um, it cannot be you know, good for the goods and not good for the ganda. You cannot treat people different. You cannot have different, you know, applications of the justice system depending on how you feel. I think there's also a lot of religion here. Um, and you know, those who have also mentioned that, you know, the fact that the federal government may also be sympathetic based on, you know, the religions of these people, you know, and if they are from a different tribe, you know, they might be, or different religion, they might be treated different. Um, so there's a, there's numerous, you know, angles here and there, um, that need to be looked at. But once, you know, I totally agree that we need to have a national policy that cannot be different for every single, um, every single, um, incident. It has to be followed. It has to be what the Nigerian government's stance is, um, a thousand percent with regards to terrorism and threats to the Nigerian state. Indeed. And from security threats, we're moving over to threats in the health space. Um, let's take a listen to what, um, Governor Song-ul who has to say about that. Lagos State is the epicenter of COVID-19 in Nigeria. The Todd Wave has further put Lagos in the spotlight. The state governor reveals that the positivity rate of every 100 tests conducted currently stands at 12.1 percent compared to 1.1 percent at the end of June 2021. At the end of July 2021, it was 7 percent. The last time we had this, um, press conference where suspecting I was getting about 7 percent, now it's about 12.1 percent from a 1.1 percent in June of 2021. Meaning that for every 100 tests that we do, we get about 12 people that are infected. Governor Song-ul attributes the trend seeing the third wave to nonother ends to the health protocols designed to mitigate the pandemic. He reminds Lagos of individual responsibility to fight and defeat the virus. He plays with citizens who have themselves tested in any of the COVID-19 public test facilities and get vaccinated free of charge. We've received just a little over 300,000 right now and I'm happy to announce that from Wednesday on the 25th we'll start, we'll commence the vaccination at over 150 centres across the state. For inbound passengers, the governor discloses that since the commencement of isolation of passengers from redlisted countries, Lagos state's response has successfully quarantined 4,448 passengers. This figure was at 19th of August 2021. Also, 58 have been identified who tested positive to the virus despite a negative test on arrival. He warns that severe deaths are with anyone who flaws the protocol of the federal government and state's COVID-19 pandemic laws. As at 21st yesterday, Lagos had identified over 5,998 persons and who have successfully isolated about 4,500 of them from the redlisted countries. Meaning that, sadly, about 1,000 people have also absconded. With our collective desire to make joint efforts, we all can see the end of the virus. And it's confirmed we are in the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country and here in Lagos, 135 persons have died. Originally, the report we heard was about 500 but the governor debunked that saying what they have on the record is 135 persons who died due to the COVID-19 and the third wave. So positivity rate has increased to about 12%, but good thing vaccines are in Nigeria now about 299,000 COVID-19 vaccines. Vaccination exercise starting at August 26th. As the vaccines arrive, it's important for us to get vaccinated if you haven't. Continue to remind everyone that it's still out there and it's still very dangerous and it's more transmissible now according to what they're saying. I think I read somewhere that the FDA in the United States is about to give approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. We're still expecting more vaccines here. I think Moderna was meant to be in already and they're meant to also be for those who haven't taken their second shots expecting that there would still be more AstraZeneca vaccine sent to Nigeria for second shots to be taken. It's getting more scary than everyone had expected. Late 2028, a lot of people that thought maybe it's probably the end, but apparently it's not. Will there be another lockdown in Lagos? Will the state be able to handle another lockdown? Is it necessary that we even shut down the state again? You look at the economic concerns about that, but science economy is also very, very, very important. If you're not vaccinating as fast as possible and you don't see a lot of people adhering to COVID-19 rules, then you have to take drastic steps. 135 lives lost is no joke. And I understand how we currently have that fatigue concerning COVID already. The US has lost almost 700,000 people and there's no other place. You cannot imagine 700,000 lives lost and nobody seems to even blink when you read that figure. So 135 in Lagos is scary. Whatever needs to be done, those steps need to be taken now. I doubt that they would want to push for another lockdown because of how it will affect the state. But Nigeria needs to do what it can to vaccinate many, many, many more people to save lives. These numbers you're seeing, I believe, according to what scientific analysis is out there, it is mostly because there's not been that many people vaccinated. The whole of the country shared 3. something million vaccines, 200 million people which would never even be enough. And so if we don't hit at least 70% vaccination right then we will continue to deal with this. It's just a reminder to Lagosians to be very, very careful. If you can stay at home, if offices need to at least make people work from home more often please let that happen. You're never one who's still going clubbing their lives like it's golden. I don't know how you guys have the guts to do that. I personally move from office to home and that's basically I live a very, very almost a triangular life. It's office home market, office home market and the market is pretty rare. So once I get home I'm not stepping out of my house again till I have to be back at the office and I think everyone needs to try and at least protect themselves because there's still possibilities of people who are carriers of the virus but don't show their, you know, how to call it asymptomatic. Yes. So they don't show, you know, those signs. So whoever it is that you're interacting with that looks very, very healthy may not, you know, be entirely healthy and people just need to be more careful. Definitely and more updates on the COVID-19 pandemic and several other sectors in the country on off the press right after the break.