 We're glad that you're still there. It's still the breakfast and we sincerely apologize for the fact that the program is being a bit draggy this morning. It's because of some unforeseen circumstances that we are facing here in the house. But we do hope that you'll be patient enough with us until the end of this program. Right now we're taking our hot topic, which is on the rise of the dollar as against the Naira by day and by night. And how much pressure it is putting on the parents who have students abroad. And just as a small background, the Naira traded at 915 Naira against the United States dollar at the parallel market on Saturday while the pound sterling was sold for 1180 Naira. Now, as the investors and exporters forex window, the Naira commenced trading at 773 Naira 29 Cobble per dollar on Friday and hit a high of 799 Naira 9 Cobble per dollar before closing at 778.42 Naira per dollar. The currency lost by 0.87% compared to the 771.69 Naira. It exchanged for the dollar on Thursday. So this gives you a background of what the dollar has become or what the Naira has become. It is falling like there's a free fall of the Naira and that also is affecting the people who have students or children or wards abroad studying. But let's just try to make sense of what is happening here. We have a guest in the house. Mohammed Abdulahi is a public affairs analyst. Good morning and welcome to the program, Mohammed. Hello, Mohammed Abdulahi. Hello. Is either Mohammed is not hearing me or I am not hearing Mohammed. We do hope that we'll put that back in order and come back to you. Mohammed, as soon as you're able to join us, we'll go right ahead. But right now, we were told, we always start like that. We were told that if the I and E window is the only window and there is no disparity between the official rate and what we term a bookie rate, the Naira will be strengthened and all that. Now we are not seeing much of a difference. The official window is at 700 and something, almost 800. And then the bookie window, which, if you ask me, is the real official window because that's where people get the money. So it's going higher and higher and we don't have a timeline that it will stabilize which means we're just at the messy of is it market forces or whatever forces make the Naira to fall the way it is falling. Alright. I understand we have him back. Hello. Good morning. Mohammed Abdulahi, can you hear us now? Good morning. Hello. Okay. I can hear you now. Okay. We couldn't hear you. Well, I was just talking with Maureen here that we were told that if every other window is collapsed into the I and E window, the Naira will be strengthened. Instead, we are seeing a weaker and weaker Naira by every passing day. Is it that the supposed good policy was a hoax or something? What are your thoughts about this policy that the floating of the Naira that we've had and the effect on our economy generally, not just education that we are zeroing in on today? Thank you. Good morning, Nigerians. It's pretty simple. I am not an economist, but I'm sure I did the Economics 101 as an alternative course in the university. And I was told and I learned that the forces of demand and supply is germane and important to the price of a commodity or product. And in this case, you know, the exchange of Naira is simply the demand and supply of it. We have a demand for so much USD, you know, that is very high compared to what is supplied. I mean what we get as a nation from the sale of crude. In fact, even the sale of crude, we have to import CMS, you know, a very major component of crude. And that requires a whole lot of USD to be paid in exchange for us to get this CMS. So the very remnants that we have is unable to service our over-bloated economy that is so much dependent upon importation and foreign goods. This is a general problem from government to the ordinary citizens. I tell you, you go to the house of an ordinary qiaman of a local government, let's start from there. Almost everything you find in that house is foreign, from furniture to whatsoever. Everybody is foreign. So you don't want to even talk about governor, the presidency and so on and so forth. So this puts a whole lot of pressure on the Naira. And then you rightly talk about the issue of perhaps our educational system is really falling and everyone that can afford it feels his or her worth should be out there, probably in the UK, in the US, Canada and what have you. And this also requires a whole lot of USD. So, you know, like I mentioned earlier, it's a general problem. What we have to service all these things is actually not enough. So we are getting very little from COOL Oil Sales, which is our main export. And then we have a lot to pay for all other services that we want to enjoy, foreign goods and so on and so on, education. In fact, remember, even the airlines in Nigeria are complaining. They have almost $900 million talked in Nigeria that cannot be repatriated and it's all because of the shortfall of the USD. So it's a major problem. We have to reset our economy to be largely dependent on homemade goods. I tell you all other policies that the CBN or whatsoever, the CBN is going to make that will not deer us towards homemade goods. It's just going to be a cosmetic policy. It's just going to be a cosmetic thing that in the short and medium and long run will continue to have the same problem. Alright, Mohammed. Well, whether we like it or not, as you said, whether we like it or not, these problems will continue. Schools are not in the best of forms. Most of our public universities, you see them, you go there. You can't even call them glorified secondary schools because they're not even qualified to be secondary schools in the first place. And so these are situations that force parents to send their children abroad for better quality education. Now, what would you say to parents who are in such dilemma? You know, they have children abroad who are schooling abroad. They cannot access dollars. It was in the news a week ago, some Nigerian students in the UK whose school fees were delayed by just a few hours and they were told to leave the school. What would you say to parents who are going through this situation right now who cannot access dollars to pay? I think it's very simple. Now, that is why I always advocate for the fact that, you know, leaving the country or thinking of dumping the country is actually not the best option. The very best option is actually finding a way to contribute in our own little way to make the country work because the problems are just so enormous. There are so many. Okay, you have the means to pay, for instance. And then because of the exchange rate and so on and so forth, it's becoming challenging. So the simple thing is to bring your work back home and perhaps find a way to make sure you're representative from the House of Assembly, to the local government chairman, to your governors and so on, to make, probably, you know, join a pressure group that will pressurize these government entities and government institutions to do the right thing. That is just a simple way. But again, I would agree with you when you make a blind-catch generalization of our educational system to say most of our universities are global private-circuit schools. I understand they're probably public schools but we have some fantastic private universities as well at home. Yeah, I did say public schools. Which are far more affordable. Yeah, I did say public schools. I said public schools. Okay, yeah. So we have some fantastic private schools, universities as well. We are making headways in Africa and even globally and they are more affordable. I don't have any reports or any news where they charge ULT. So they still charge it in Niagara. So those are some of the things we also look at. We have to look inwards. And it beholds on every one of us, every one of the citizens, the government, the citizens to do that. Looking inwards in this extent is also bringing back your words and then at most having them in private schools if you don't want them to go to government funded universities. So this is also the parent's contribution in making sure that we have less pressure on the Niagara. So I think that is just the major thing that we can do as Nigerians. And like I said, we can continue to pressurize government. For instance, a little diversion but I think it's important. I was reading over the news two, three days ago that majority of the Nigerian governor's forum were in Tigali, Rwanda for 83. And I was laughing. What do you need to go to Tigali for 83? All of them. This is also another pressure on the USA. Because this guy will go with extra costs. They will have to pay for hotels. They will have to pay for transportation. A whole lot of oil and sundries and so on. So things that are not necessary. Why do you have to do it? So it is important that we contribute our quotas. And it's like I said, it behoves on everyone of us to make sure that homemade products and services are what we promote at this moment. Okay, well, just a point you raised. A lot of people have argued that even the private institutions that we have except for very, very few of them every other one is just having the advantage of not going on strike. Otherwise, they may not necessarily be turning out or turning out better graduates than we have in the public institutions. The curriculum is basically the same. It doesn't really train you to face the world like you find in other climes. A lot of parents still resort to going overseas to put their words because it's more practical. There are very many things that they are exposed to and all that. And if you put a public school graduate in Nigeria alongside a private school graduate in Nigeria, I'm not sure you'll see that marked difference. I don't know what your thoughts are on what the private institutions even are doing apart from the fact that they don't go on strike. They have everything that they need to make their students that they graduate from those schools to measure up to students, let's say from Yale, let's say from other institutions in America and the UK and all that. Do you think so? Because when we are doing a revamp of educational institutions it's not just the public schools. Yes, I think so. You know, even less than the public schools we have so many Nigerians who've graduated from public schools and go on to excel in the same Oxford, Yale, Harvard and so on and so forth. So I don't think it's a problem of perhaps even the curriculum as much it's not the problem of really adapting to modern world technologies in teaching. And yes, perhaps a bit of curriculum as well because seriously, even from our public schools we've had students go out there and compete. I remember even last year we have students from Amadoubello University who went on to mention brand name now for the popular brand name in China to win innovation awards and so on. So we are not really doing too badly. You understand? But what we are not doing right is the fact that we are not empowering these universities whether public or universities to do more. You understand? So if I come back to your question specifically there are a few of the private universities that I really do well. I mean we have private universities in Nigeria who are ranked in the first 50 in Africa who have in the past 10 years been able to be very innovative. There are students all over Nigeria doing so well and perhaps even globally contributing to innovations, technology and so on and so forth. Yes, our founders for instance founders of multi-billion dollars what's it called? Ventures across the world. I don't want to keep mentioning brand like I said but these guys gravitated on Nigeria and they are doing so well. So I think it's just a little bit of push from everyone, from government particularly and from citizenry and so on and we will do far better than what we are doing at the moment and that is why I keep saying the contribution is beholding on everyone of us. We can't just leave it alone to government. Because if you look at the amount Nigeria is contributing to the economy of the UK alone US, Canada in the areas of education is alarming. If we plow those monies back into our economy and education system I tell you we will be right up there with any nation globally. So we need to do more. We need to satisfy more and we need to like I said make sure that home-made products and services including our universities whether public or private are negated more. Well, I'm afraid that's the much we can take for this morning. Thank you so much Mohammed for coming on the show. Thank you very much. Okay that was Mohammed Abdulahi a public affairs analyst talking to us about the pressure that the crisis the Forex crisis has put on the parents now and he said something very instructive make sure that the home-made products whether education or anything else are enticing enough for people to patronize them and we should do more to fund our education and our educational system educational institutions and everything and bring it up to standard bring them up to standard that's the thing unless of strikes because like I said if you put a private a person from a private university and a public university you may not see the difference and sometimes you even see the public university graduate doing better but you know they spend five years for a three-year course seven years for a three-year course Let's leave you with our quote of the day you can achieve anything you want in life if you have the courage to dream it the intelligence to make a realistic plan and the will to see that plan through to the end that's from Sidney Freitman I am Maureen Menonwes you've been thanking me for being a part of the show join us tomorrow I am Nyam Gul Agad you have a wonderful first day of the working week bye on behalf of the team see you tomorrow