 The invasion of Justice Mary O'Dealy's home in a Gestapo manner. And the arrests made by the police have got Nigerians talking. Those who showed their displeasure include the Nigerian Bar Association, Governor Yasam Wike of River State and the human rights lawyer Femi Fallon among others. Pandemics usually are not known to be noticed before the strike. But how well are we prepared to combat the outbreak? And as always, we will be reviewing the newspapers of the press with our guest this Friday morning. Thank God it's Friday and you're welcome to the breakfast on Class TV Africa. That's a very beautiful morning event and it's really great to have you on screen. And also knowing that you are there watching. All right, good morning. Tricia, you had a great night, right? Yes, I did. Yes, I did. Good morning. Thanks for joining us. It's Plus TV Africa and of course we have the next two hours to have very interesting conversations. We're going to be moving from talking about COVID-19 and also talking about the invasion of Justice Mary O'Dealy's home. And of course, latest developments from the police and what they are saying, which a lot of Nigerians are not buying. We'll be talking about that this morning. But of course, as always, we go through the papers, share with you the major stories making headlines across Nigeria this morning, hoping that we can have very interesting conversations with GD Johnson. But before that, let's talk about trending stories and some of the biggest conversations across the country in the last 24 hours. The Minister of Labor and Employment, Chris Sengige, former governor of Anambara State for a while, has of course made headlines after he, in a budget defense when he was speaking about the brain drain in the country, said that they need to find ways to make doctors trained by the Nigerian government to sign that they will not leave the country for at least nine years to practice outside Nigeria. And this has gotten a lot of people talking and laughing actually. I've seen a lot of people laughing at this. And his point really is that as long as the Nigerian government trains you, that you must be dedicated to the workspace and Nigerian service for at least nine years before you're allowed to leave the country. He's reacting mostly to doctors who immediately they graduate, find ways to write the IELTS, write their professional exams for the UK or for Canada or whichever country, and disappear, go to those countries to practice. And this has greatly increased in 2020, 2021. I'm not sure we've had these numbers ever. The number of doctors that are leaving Nigeria, mostly because they are seeking better working environment, better working experience and better pay, which you can't blame them for wanting to get because of what you see here in the country and the investment in healthcare here in Nigeria. Remember that over and over we've spoken to doctors when they were on their strike, resident doctor strike, and we're complaining about some of the most basic things and how they seriously receive 5,000 hour hazard allowance and some of all of that. And so you can't blame them. I have a friend who is a doctor in Saudi Arabia and he says that they have WhatsApp group chats in batches. So they have about 2,000 doctors in each batch and they are all in Saudi Arabia, batch A, batch B, batch C and some of all of that. And every single week, every single month there is a new set of doctors arriving in Saudi Arabia. From Nigeria. Yes, from Nigeria and they eventually add them to that WhatsApp group and it keeps growing. So it's thousands of doctors that are in that country and then you can imagine the ones that are in the UK and the ones that are in Canada. So I posted a picture a few weeks ago, a few months ago of a hospital in the UK where he went to receive treatment and I think five or six of the nurses that were working in the hospital were Nigerian nurses were Nigerians. They all took a group picture together. It was really, really beautiful to see. But it basically tells that there's a lot of Nigerian healthcare workers, doctors, nurses, dentists, whoever that are looking for better working experience, better working environment and better pay and they would obviously be run away from Nigeria. But the minister is trying to stop that. He doesn't think. So it brings me, it worries me a lot and it just shows that there's a disconnect with those who are calling the affairs of the nation, I mean those who are governing the affairs of the nation and the people that seem to be a disconnect. You are not understanding why the people are leaving. The people are leaving because the working environment is not conducive. And Nigerian doctors are on the page really. There's no blabbing about that. Just go to the public domain. You see all of the figures and statistics. And then we're still talking about 5,000 Naira's hazard allowance in 2021. Let's begin to look at the inflation rate among all the issues. It doesn't really make sense and you want to begin to compare the fact that some persons are receiving 5,000 Naira's hazard allowance and orders are actually another group of persons or some of the group of persons are receiving 1.2 billion Naira from maybe for allowance or reading newspaper and what have you. I doubt they even read that because if they do, I'm sure they'll understand all of this. So having to say, okay, we have to put them together. We have to stop them from moving. It doesn't even make a justice that you're not even listening to the people. And it calls for a little consent. Let's also look at how much it's been allocated to the health sector year in, year out. We have the Abuja declaration 15%. We have never met it. I mean, you want to begin to compare. You say Ghana. Look at how much Ghana is allocating to the health sector. 2022 budget, we're looking at 4.3%. It's not even up to 7%. It's not up to 10%. And if you want to go down the line. So it just shows you, we don't put our money where our heart is. You put your money where your heart is. And that's why, I mean, you can see that wherever you invest your money just shows that that's where your heart is. Absolutely. But for us, we haven't been putting our money where our heart is. What do you expect? I think we've been putting our money where our heart is. It's just not in healthcare or education. That's obvious. Okay, you're very correct. We've been putting it where it is. And sometimes it is in security. Sometimes it is in pain banded. Sometimes it is in, you know, building, you know, white elephant projects that really don't exist. It's sometimes also in, you know, school feeding program where you hear that they've spent a gazillion amount of money that you can't even see, you know, the benefits of all of that. So we've been putting our money where our mouth is. It is just not in education. Neither is it in healthcare. Neither is it in security. And it's really... No, no, you know, so some people would actually argue that, you know, security seemed to take, you know, a huge trunk of the allocation year in year out. Even though some persons would say, okay, there's difference between defense and, you know, security, however. It's not improved. But of course... That's the point. It's not improving. No improvement. I saw a video yesterday, I saw a video, another video yesterday of policemen harassing, you know, young man on the Express. I personally didn't watch it. And there are certain things that I choose to not watch because I don't like the way that they would affect my mental, you know, space, my mental health. And so I saw it, but I moved past it because I didn't want to want to gain fuel myself with that. No, no, it's not working. I'm sorry. So at the end of the day, you know, you just see an opportunity where the government shoots it back and say, why do we have the doctors? Because that's how you address issues. You begin to look at what is the cost for all of this. And then because we don't see it as an importance, and then government is suggesting that we need to find a way to bond, bounding the people from moving, you know, because... And then you begin to say the fact that it's free. This is what the Nigerian government always does. And I mentioned this yesterday that when you embarrass the Nigerian government, they take action. Unfortunately, they don't take action, well, they don't take the right action. They haven't started to ask themselves why doctors live in Nigeria, what are the things we need to do to ensure that the people that we train here in Nigeria work here in Nigeria and are beneficial to Nigeria's, you know, space. Instead, they're looking for ways to tie you here. And it's the same thing. It's the same way they react to everything. They don't look for the root causes. They look for ways to muscle, you know, the problem and ensure that they use either the police or they use laws or they use whatever... So everything has to be forced because that's forced. Yes. So they force you to stay. Some person responded and said, it would be great also that we find laws. And it was said, it was explained to the minister. Find laws that make every single Nigerian politician stay here and be treated by a Nigerian doctor in a Nigerian hospital. Including the president. Yes. For nine years. The same nine years you want them to stay. As long as you're in politics, you would be treated for nine years in a Nigerian hospital. And that includes every single member of your family. Including the president, governors, every single person. In fact, you should be treated for a lifetime in a Nigerian hospital. Those are the laws that they should be making, you know, they should be put in place. Not, you know, try to force Nigerian doctors to stay. And by the way, it's not just Nigerian doctors that are leaving. Everybody is leaving. Of course. Everybody is leaving. I mean, it's just a natural instinct of survival. You definitely just go for where you've been treated fairly. I mean, the working conditions are proper and every other thing. But again, my point is the Nigerian government again failed at solving the problem. And then you come up with some funny, you know, you want to restrict people for nine years because you're saying that they have been treated. I mean, you know, they've been trained for free. Are you really serious? I know how it is that you want to make a point and then you begin to exaggerate. You just begin to go over. It's entirely not free. If you say you want to begin to compare how much, you know, the training has been gotten for compared to other countries. Now, the law of comparison does not even allow you to compare things that are not on like poles. So you can't begin to compare yourself with these countries because they have already made some basic things available. And so that law of comparison cannot work. It's important that you compare things in, you know, that are on the same level. The quality of training is different also. So I'm thinking that we can go back to the drawing board. I really don't know. It feels very frustrating if it's tiring that we have to talk about these every other time, the opportunity that you have to solve the problem, then you blow it out of proportion. Once again, the Nigerian government doesn't fix the problem. They instead muscle everyone into, you know, in line. They don't in any way try to understand what the challenge is with that problem. They instead will find ways to bully you into line. And it's pretty much the same thing with every single, you know, move that they've made. These same knee-jerk reactions, these same ideas that are so archaic that you can't even imagine that this is a minister that is saying these type of things. You cannot imagine that this is a person, you know, that has been elected to represent the people that is making these type of statements. But these are the type of things that you see from the Nigerian government. They muscle you instead of actually looking for what the problem is. Same thing they're doing with the IPOB and the agitations in the Southeast. Same thing they will do to every other person who tries to agitate for a better Nigeria. And once again, it is not just doctors who are leaving. Everybody is leaving. I've never in my life seen the number of pictures of people who have left Nigeria in 2021 alone. It feels like every single day that I go on social media there is at least 10, 12 new pictures, random faces of people saying goodbye Nigeria. And it has never been this bad. So it's not just doctors. It's every single, you know, space. People are learning tech because they need to leave. People are learning public health because they need to leave. People are learning any, you know, trade that they can because they need to leave Nigeria. IELTS, I'm sure, has made a gazillion amount of money from just Nigerians because they need to leave the country. So Chris Ngige needs to understand what exactly is going on. And you cannot force people to stay. And the likes of Chris Ngige. Are you going to tell the UK not to employ them? No, I'm just saying that Chris Ngige just won. I'm not sure how long he practiced as a doctor before he moved into politics. I'm disappointed, totally disappointed. But however, we just hope and pray as usual for us as a country. We hope and pray that things would actually change. Also on top trend this morning, the Lagos State Commission of Police, of course, in the video yesterday was quoted as, you know, advising negotiations and people who would be accosted by men of the Nigerian police force and was basically saying that the citizens have, or the police have no right to ask you for your phone or try to look into your phone without a warrant. And it was, you know, advising Legosians to ensure that they do not give their phones to policemen who, you know, approach them without a warrant. Sounds very, very interesting. Let's get you to watch this and we'll talk about it. No, don't. It sounds like a very beautiful thing to say every time. It's pretty much the same thing when they talk about roadblocks. You know, every new Inspector General of Police comes and says, you know, roadblocks have been dismantled and some of all of that. They always make these statements. But I think what he's failing to do is realize that the challenge is not with, you know, the citizens. It's not the people who willingly wake up in the morning and look for a policeman to give their phone. He should be sending this message to the police officers. Oh, so you took the words out of my mouth. He should be sending this message to police officers, not to the people. And once again, I mentioned the video that I saw yesterday that really, really broke my heart. Really, really broke my heart because this person, there's a point that I stopped watching. Who was begging? You know, that that's his international passport. That's his phone. They need to let him go. He's on his way to the airport. But what did he get back? He was being slapped by men of the Nigerian police force. We live in such a country that breaks your heart in a million pieces. And I do not understand why Chris and Giga doesn't know the reason why people are living in Nigeria. I don't think he is that clueless to not understand why people are living in Nigeria. And so this message should be sent to police officers. They should be the ones told that they have no right to touch anyone's phone. They have no right to arrest anyone unlawfully. They have no right to search anybody without their warrant, not to the citizens. Nobody is looking for police officers to give his phone every morning. I did work up this morning for a police officer. They won't give my phone too. You know, but what you have actually mentioned is very correct. We kind of need a lot of training. Training and retraining and training and retraining. Because a lot of times I'm not sure they are aware of what the law says what they should do or not to do. No, I'm not really sure. You don't know my police officers now? Yes, I'm talking about the police officers. They are very much aware. I'm not sure. I doubt it. Because if you understand what you ought to do, then I'm not sure you would be engaging in what you ought to do. We've had a similar conversation before and I said they are aware. They just have no regard for the law, no regard for the constitution, no regard for the human rights of Nigeria, the basic rights of every Nigerian. They have no regard for it. It's not like they're not aware. So let's see how that pans out. So it's not enough to say yes, Nigeria should know that police officers have no right to actually search your phone and whatever until they get a court warrant. Let's also ensure that there is enforcement. People would comply. And if a police officer is found breaking that particular law, there should be some sort of punishment. What would happen? So we're tired of hearing, oh, you need to know this and you don't need to know this and people need to do this. What happens? Because if people constantly see that, people who break laws and violate the constitution and do not obey what it ought to be, I mean, the laws that have been stipulated, the punishment for them. I'm sure all those were set up. So we constantly encourage and embolden lawlessness and impunity across board. And especially when we say, at the time, you remember when the IG was summoned by the president at the time to report at a zone where it was a war zone or trouble zone and he didn't show up. All of this, people are watching. So we need to, those who occupy public space and office, we need to leave by example. We can constantly, you know, violate the constitution. We don't obey the law and then we expect others to happen. What happens is it constantly encouraged lawlessness and impunity and gradually what you just tilt into anarchy because it looks like we don't have any law. And the essence of the social contract is that both of us, we will submit, you know, our will to the government and in turn the government also would be responsible for saying we will protect your rights. We would provide the basic amenities and in turn we say we're paying taxes, we're going to obey this, we're going to obey that. But at the end of the day, the same to be, that agreement has not been respected. Okay, so let's get back to the drawing board. Like I said earlier on, it is really tiring and very, very frustrating that we keep going in circles. We keep talking about these issues and then you just see, what is, is it that we don't understand what we should do? Once again, I think they understand well enough. It is just lack of interest. I don't think the Nigerian police force needs training and retraining. No, maybe they need to be. I think they need to, no. No, you know sometimes it's possible that you forget. You need to, you need to just be reminded of the fact that it is what you need to do. No, there's a reminder. I totally, I mean sometimes it's possible that they have been fatigued and all of that. I don't like it when you give me the facial expression. I mean, I'm trying to be as realistic as possible. It is not a refresher cause that they need. They do not need any retraining. They did not forget. They forgot. No, they did not. I think the whole, my personal opinion, I think the whole of the Nigerian police force, whatever it is, everything that it entails, everything that has to, that uniform, every single thing needs to be wiped away completely. And they need to start afresh with whatever they, what Nigeria needs to see as policing. Cause what Nigeria currently runs as a policing system is the most annoying and frustrated and disgusting thing that you would ever imagine. I would chip in a little, let's give kudos to those policemen who actually try. Let's give kudos to the likes of Tunji Disu, who did a very, very great job as RRS commander here in Lagos. There are those ones every now and then. But policing is not a type of job that you can have bad eggs. Same way pilots, you cannot have a few bad eggs. No, but do you know because I don't believe in, not I don't even believe in, whether or not I do believe in it, you can have, they're no absolutes. They're related. And so you can't just say that. In every police system, they always have bad eggs. On the summer point. I mean, that's what I'm trying to say. There would always be bad eggs. You can't have the perfect system. Great. This is my point. When you have bad eggs, when you spot bad eggs and you immediately take out those bad eggs because you need some level of perfection with policing, some level of perfection with being a doctor, level of perfection with being a pilot, you take out those bad eggs, you ensure that your system runs with the least amount of bad eggs as possible. That's how it should work. And it's not because, of course, it's impossible to not have bad eggs. But it's how you approach those bad eggs that is important. But when you have a system that has 85% bad eggs and 15% of reasonable officers, that is no longer a system. That is no longer a, oh, there will be bad eggs. No, this is now bad eggs and a few good men. It is very, very painful. Very painful. And that is once again to Chris and Gige. The reason Nigerians are leaving the country, it is not because they prefer the weather over there. It's not because they prefer the loneliness that hits them over there when they get there and there's no family and there's nothing, you know, that they're used to over there. It is because of the way that the system has affected Nigerians. People would argue that a lot of Nigerians are mentally sick. They just don't know it. There's a lot of trauma that Nigerians are dealing with from these type of experiences that you just don't even know because it's what you're used to. It's the system that you live in and so you don't even see it as trauma until you get to experience something different. The Nigerian police, he should tell his officers and the same thing with the Inspector General of Police and the AIGs and the DIGs and everybody should tell the officers that they have no right to stop anybody randomly because we smell this one. It looks like a yellow boy. It should never happen. You know what? It hurts me. It really, really hurts me. I'm trying not to laugh but it's really funny. But we're hoping also that as much as that information has been put out, let's also be ready to punish those who would, from today, go ahead and such people would have a warrant. No, you're wrong. Is that how it's said? No, you're wrong. We need to move away now. Anyway, there's also a story. I hope we have video clips to share with you about the flawed ravaging parts of river state and of course this once again calls for emergency response from the river state government and the Nigerian government to help those people who are currently dealing with the humanitarian crisis. I think we can share this, yes, exactly. It's a really, really terrible situation and I think we've spoken a few times about what the response should be from government. You just spoke about social contract at a time like this. I think the government's responsibility is to pay their taxes and their law abiding citizens and it is the government's responsibility to play its own role and assist people who will be dealing with challenges like this. It raises a lot of questions with regards to drainage systems, with regards to infrastructure in every single part of the country and when government fails like this and when you see situations like this, you would begin to question what level of assistance government really gives its people. I don't think we're responding as much as we'd also expect that government should respond but I think that have you ever wondered if we experience natural disaster as all the countries do experience? Now if you look at the floor, the issue of floating in some parts of the country, almost all parts of the country is man-made, it's created by the activities of humans. If you look at the water channels being blocked that's because the culture of disposing of waste is horrible. People get to toss things in the gauntas and not dispose properly. We find out that illegal structures are erected where this should be a water channel so all of this is contributing. I'm thinking that we should, as much as we expect that the government should weigh in and be responsible for some of these issues, we should also take responsibility. It starts from us, how do you dispose of your waste? I mean the fact that it's raining and then you have a drainage in front of you is not the reason that you should tossing what's it called, your waste. So what I would carry on, carry on, go where? What I would always find is waste. It would take it, and you think it would take it somewhere. It would take it to the next door. The point is all of our actions, in-actions, I mean there's always what you call a reaction at the end of the day. We would always have an effect of what we do, whatever we do, there will always be an outcome whether good or bad. So this is what's actually happening because you can't just say it's just a natural disaster. If you look at it right now and a lot of persons I have friends who have been complaining that it's been raining cats and dogs and then everywhere is flooded and people go find out the channels are being blocked. Illegal structures. It boils down to the fact that yes, government cannot be left out of the equation. I'm not saying the government should be left out of the equation. And that includes the drainage you're talking about. Yes. Because at the end of the day, if we talk about education, what is the level of awareness? I think that we need to understand that there's need for us to, we need to be educated. That's why you have the Ministry of Information and Orientation across every state has it. At the national level, you have that. But even at state level, you also have. So what are we doing? We constantly need to put out information, you know, create the awareness. People need to understand that, hey, you can toss things into the gutter because if you do that, it would actually cause there would be an outcome. I mean, it might happen to anyone. I mean, you might just have flooding. Maybe your brother is on the way. The flood could take them and all of that. So what I'm actually advocating is that let's all take responsibility. Government should take the bulk of the blame. I mean, 70, 30% is a good deal. I'll do 80, 20, 90, 10. And this is why. In places where systems work, from what you're saying, it's pretty much the same thing with telling people, don't do amrobrina. Now, wow, don't be an amrober. No. You should know that you should not be an amrober because there's security agencies that will apprehend you, that you will go to jail. There's no question about it. No, so I'm just saying, so when you tell someone, don't be throwing, you know, reference in gutter now. It's simply because you know that you will be caught or you will be apprehended and you will be punished for it. Systems, systems. And I keep mentioning systems. Refuse disposal systems in other climes that you would expect that you simply need to put your refuse outside your, outside, you know, in a bin, the ones that should be recycled, the ones that should be recycled, whatever, put them in a bin and then there's a company. There is some process with which they clear all those things and throw them away. But we don't have those things around us. And it's not an excuse for Nigerian to throw away such as of, you know, of pure water as they're popularly called or can, or bottles, you know, on the road. There's no excuse. But we still lack a lot of these systems. And so when you see these things happen, it's simply because of the environment that we live in. There is no proper systems that government should put in place. The gutters are blocked. Government doesn't clear them. They call these guys, they use shovel and packet, put it on the side and go away. And then two days later it rains and puts it back in the gutter again. And so it is a complete failure of everything. I understand your point, but still it's a failure of a system, a failure of government, failure of an environment that should function in a proper way. Anyway, we'll take a short break. Julie Johnson joins us next. This is a chief lecturer at the Niger Institute of Journalism and we'll be reviewing the papers after the show.