 Welcome back to the breakfast. It's a Friday flex edition and it's time for all the press and Mr. Judith Johnston Senior lecturer Nigerian Institute of journalism is joining us here in Lagos. Good morning to you Chief Judith Johnston Good morning. Good morning. Good morning to you. Good day to our viewers all over the world. It's a pleasure to be with you. Thank God it's Friday Thank God it's Friday. Pleasure to have you. Let's go straight to the punch newspaper which leads with Subsidy protests. FG labor talks collapse. NLC begins strike August 14. The right is there. Why labor made a U-turn on agreements reached with Tanubu on subsidy removal? And the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria LCCI demand more palliatives from FG. NLC gives reason for ending protests. Well details of that you can find on page two and twenty-two of the punch newspaper. Judith Johnson how would you describe the situation that's unfolding between FG and the organized labor? Well since they went on the protest you mean? I mean on the protest. It's important to know that we were putting the card before the horse with respect to petroleum subsidies instead of putting the horse before the car. There are a series of engagement the president shall have had before making that pronouncement on removal of fuel subsidy particularly petroleum subsidy. Those series of engagement these engagement we are having after that has been done the deed has been done. However no matter what you do you still come to the negotiating table. I think that it's important in the interest of the country in the interest of the people for both the government and labor to shift ground shift ground in a sense that there must be concession that government must be willing to make and there must be concession that labor must be willing to take so as to have a common ground with respect to strike or no strike because I am a serious advocate against strikes. Strike does not solve problem rather it worsens the economic situation of the people as well as affecting the productivity of of the nation. There are other there are other things that could be done instead of strike like what they did not destroy the gate of the national assembly. However picketing members of the national assembly picketing ministers once they are elected and picketing various agencies of government running in capacitating them from functioning at least while other people can go about their normal business. I think that would be a better approach better approach in the sense that it is directed at public officials public officials who are far away from reality because the reality of on ground is that majority of those that are inside of a first in this country are far away from reality. I'm not sure there's any one of them that has used their money to to buy fuel in the last 25 years just look across the length upgrade of of those that are taking decision with respect to what affects our daily our daily survival in Nigeria there's none of them okay well yeah well let's let's move away from that aspect of that protest to what happened between the federal government I mean you had President Nubu meet with these people he met with them they talked and of course we we know of the court injunction that the federal government sought to use to gank the organized labor from going on that protest so they went on that protest they had the discussion with the president and then the president has gone to court to sue them for for contempt of court for going on that strike despite the injunction that was gotten to stop them from going on the strike let's let's talk about that well um are you surprised by that you know you recall you recall the approach of the minister of labor and productivity to also strike under Boris administration you recall and then I don't know which court we stop people from going about their fundamental human rights the court cannot legislate on what is a constitutional right the right of association the right of peaceful assembly the right of protest the right to petition government they are fundamental inherent in the constitution that courts cannot and should not rule on such matters when where such matters are brought before them but we have this situation whereby uh the judiciary needs needs a proper a proper orientation and a proper a proper a proper um cleansing that's that's vital because the right to protest the right to petition your government the right for peaceful assembly they are inherent right that it's just like a court legislating that the election should be stopped on a day that has been pronounced by any there's no court that can stop a day for example finally pronounced that 2027 election would take place in december 2027 2026 before uh not march not april 2027 that's the date there's no court that can shift it because inherent in that is the power given to us so it's a constitution it's a constitutional matter so i don't know as far as i'm concerned the government have always engaged in double speak and that's why the black trust and that's why the black respect from people you cannot be negotiating with one person and going through the back end to secure court judgment court judgment to amstrong to amstrong them it doesn't it doesn't really be and so that talk has collapsed and so that talk has collapsed and nlc is to begin strike august 14 that's that's why you see that nlc said that they are they are they are they are they are beginning to strike august august august 14 so for me there's no issue you solve with litigation every issue is solved with mediation this type of particular issue is solved with mediation and not litigation but sometimes people in charge of adversity think that we are still in military regime the 30s of military military regime in dealing with labor so maroon after 24 years of civilian administration on our parts towards a democratic society some some antecedent of military vestiges are still present in our democratic life okay well in a related development we'll have right on top there on the masthead fg begins no walk no pay for striking doctors is that a good way to go well um they tried that you record that if no walk no pay for striking doctors it becomes very very instructive you recall what happened in legal state with respect to that young doctor that lost a life i've asked people to take a to take a trip to take a trip and visit the hospital look at the working condition of doctors look at the number of patients they have to attend to look at their you're working look at the offices and look at their residence and then you you respect somebody that has not been given some degree of comfort to provide degree of comfort and ease to ease the pain of the people to address their medical issue so you can't give what you have not been given as far as i'm concerned this idea of no walk no pay they will they will come with that they will threaten us with that but i can recall i can recall that before the senate president was warning when he was having an issue with efc he traveled abroad he secured uh uh uh whether an injunction or whatever that he needs to go for treatment abroad the president himself goes for treatment abroad we are not to show whether the vice president will go for treatment abroad and then the secretary with ferragame so they can they can they can implement such policies because when they have medical condition they are not even making of medical facilities we have in Nigeria so they have patrons of foreign medical services so the the the reality on ground is that if the patronize such services when they were first and the experience of what is really going on what is really going on in the medical sector particularly in the health sector and then the needed intervention can be done to address this issue we have fantastic doctors but the working condition just take a trip is clear just take a trip make use of public health facilities and then you you you you you you you you whip no doubt the investigations into this will unravel a lot of things and then also making one wonder why these investigations never you know were never done before this sort of tragedy took place right down still on the front page of the punch newspaper you have delta government indict legos hospital over doctor's death in elevator that incident that you just alluded to the girl is from delta state obviously what you mean the family of that doctor will sue the state government we sue the state government and then we sue them so that to foster such occurrences in the future this is an avoidable death you know very avoidable it was a mechanical fault and then beta the wife said it was spiritual spiritual spiritual attack and then that's the level to which those that are given the mantle of public public administration can you come back to that again who did you say said it was a spiritual attack allegedly the wife of the of the of the governor said it was spiritual attack that the lady it was a spiritual attack that that killed the lady so you can imagine that level of thinking that level of thought pattern guiding decision making guiding policy trust of administration when somebody is attributing basic you know i travel to be near i travel to enokumbai road because my flight was cancelled and i was approaching this river very close to be near and everybody inside the bus i wasn't but beginning to pray that this is dead river dead river that had this river soft blood and i was laughing you were looking at i said how would you say this is dead river you know what the wife they call this a dead trap i said whoever is responsible constructing this over this bridge over this river does not have his sense in right you can't you can't you can't be approaching a big river going downward when the big you are approaching it down i said the probability of vehicles running into the river is very very high so it's a it's a construction problem it's a problem of design you don't need any suit here there's no need for witches and wizards to tell you that cars and big trucks will run into this river because there's a major engineering design problem so it's the same thing we have if you look at the thinking that guides that guides public policy formation why what are they looking at what are they be looking at concerning that lift how many government offices are the lift functioning you know i i had to respond to the tweet of the government with respect to that mechanic before to say that well all he needs to do is to take a trip around leaguers and he will see a lot of roads going through quote on quote construction failure because majority of the roads have collapsed because majority of the roads have collapsed so that too is suffering from construction failure but it's not construction failure is it a pity of those who have given responsibility to manage their face of a of a nation to manage their face of a state amazing all right just before we leave the punch the punch is reached this morning as always let's look at this um niger to new boo boo's libya algeria against junta well um what type of government do you have after the west succeeded in removing an exterminating gadafi what what type of government do you have in libya exactly uh what type of government do you have in or jira with his own internal internal crisis after backline the the extremists for for close to two decades and then they have some relative peace in or jira you think or jia will be interested in intervening in in in in the j which has been the the flashpoint of different types of uh interest group and terrorist groups in in in in in in west africa so as far as i am concerned i think what we need to do is to is to engage is to engage those that are that have planned the coup and ask them what's their plan to us move towards democracy i'm not in support of coup in any in any case however if you look at it in in africa you have seen different types of it coup does not really happen through the barriers of the gun when you when you when you when you when you conduct election and the election does not go according to the to to to lead them guidelines process and procedure that's a coup when when when the constitution makes a provision for you to serve two times and you are trying to amend the constitution to serve a third time that's a coup you saw what you saw what alas and what i did in kudiva you saw what at least it took the intervention of a u and the president when he before he was warning for the president of uh senegal not to embark on the third time you know all of these these are the issues that um echo us and he used to address they should address if revanda is fantastic revanda is wonderful but look at for kigame for kigame came in became the constitution and then from serving two times to be so those are contract when a coup is when you subvert democratic government it could be through the barrel of the gun and it could be through not complying with the electoral act that governs your electoral processes so as well as i'm constant will be you and africa and african union and echo us you look at this and then intervene before this various internal crisis of this nation snowballing through into military cool counter or different types of what have you looked at the charges that have been brought against the opposition in syria alone by the by by the government so these are areas where they need to intervene yeah it would appear that echo was it would appear that echo was an a u do not step in when members abuse the rule of law in their countries and when they are caught in corruptions or when they are seen to be corrupt and messing things up in their countries but only jumped in when there is a coup isn't that an unfortunate development making the bodies nothing short of uh toothless bulldog they've lost respect that that that's then what you are even talking about echo as when you close border by echo as treaty there should be freedom of movement you don't need a visa to move through west africa by 90 90 days there's no single currency since echo has has been formed uh rather uh the francophone countries relate with with france until until lately which they begin to break away from the the anglophone countries really relate individually the francophone countries relate collectively with france but the anglophone countries relate individually with britain and other other other actors and other stakeholders as far as uh i am concerned there cannot be political integration without economic integration that's why it's called economic community now what binds them together is the economy do they have that what we have is um a poor economic no it's not a it's a political it's political community people worse let me put that where you come into your west africa because you don't the economy from from the name is economic community do we have an economic community is there a single currency now is a freedom of movement of people within that is there a trade a trade exchange between this this this country in this in this community even before you before you sort of before the european you know from european you know look at what european you know did and how they came up with the single currency what have we done concerning that in africa that we have a single currency to strengthen our economy to re to increase our bargaining chip with with foreign countries to also in international trade to ensure that we have we we strengthen our own currency with with with with other currency competing with the dollar competing with with pounds and competing with here but we don't we are not looking in that direction what they just do is an association of friends they gather either every month or every six month or every whatever you they just gather the heat and they have talk shop and not workshop the the the talk and talk and talk without coming up with strategic blueprint to solve west african problem that's a good way to sum it up talk shop and not workshop exactly so just look at just look at the west west african corridor look at that corridor how important that corridor is to international trade you know is that corridor you used to connect europe and that's in corridor you via the international waterways but but international the corridor you used to connect europe the corridor you used to connect america the corridor you used to connect asia so you could see how strategic important that that corridor that corridor is and you could you could look at that corridor even when you are talking in terms of slip treat which corridor was heavily involved in slip treat all right start okay so um let's move forward because of time uh to the nation newspaper the nation leads with the Ganduja pledges reform of fairness to reposition apc of course it's become the national chairman of the apc well unfortunately the party did not throw the line of the zoning arrangement it are with respect to the national offices and elective offices by this arrangement the north central has been changed because the national chairman that was removed that resigned that resigned um was from the north central was from nasa rastit you have expected that apc would have moved for a chairman in in either play two nasa rawa naija and the rest of it where they went to north central um to pick to pick the national chairman which i think is against the principle the principle of fairness the principle of zoning arrangement which the party claimed why they were why they were appointing the national officers of the of the national assembly um the principal officer of the national assembly party where Ganduja is there it's it's the god the the election of Ganduja as national chairman shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody in before you can become the national chairman of apc must be a former governor so it's the court of former governors that's that's just the reality of apc from inception to date everybody that has been the national chairman of apc had been a former governor from bc akondi bc akondi to uyegun uyegun uyegun to to adams oshemole adams oshemole to mai malabuni mai malabuni to adama abulai adama abulai now to Ganduja one of the things also instructing is that the only person that actually completed it's it's i think it's um uyegun that that actually um bc akondi let me see to my memory bc akondi seems to be the one that ran the party without running into one crisis or the other every other one every other party chairman had was bedeviled with one form of crisis or the other oshemole is not complete his tenor mai malabuni wanted to extend his tenor as the chairman of the categorical committee forever is when he ended up spending more than three years close to three years as the acting national chairman combining that office with that of the governor so let's hope and see what agandu do we do with with respect to managing managing the party managing the free free nerves within within within the within the party and be able to put your party in house in in other bodies too early it's not up to you away the national chairman national secretary who are who are elected you know sometimes when you look at our political parties what just comes to mind is some mothers do have them yeah well the bottom line is that the some mothers do have them the political parties are crossed but don't have respect for the constitution of their party they don't follow lead down rules and procedure in picking their their their their now usually i have said it and i've said it over time apc has never had an elective convention for the national chairman the national chairman is always coronated he's always cruel adam sushimole was coronated john john yugung was coronated yugung it was yugung and iqimi fighting and iqimi told he could get the national the national chairman national chairman i recalled the battle for the national chairman when bc i continued stepped down as acting national chairman or not apc and what you also have was a convention that was used to elect um um gandu j no it was so there is a need for them to call a special convention to ratify his election but it is usually it is usually even before the announcement of national chairman is what's on the streets what do you hear behind the wall with the very clear that this will be the next the next national chairman definitely we saw the handwriting on the wall exactly the part the wall is even to uh it's just a uh it's it's illiterate uh you saw the handwriting in the car it was it was it was it's interesting it's interesting you you you went deep to mention the likes of uh chief tom iqimi and you know those during his time you you just taking me down memory lane because we grew up knowing those people where are they now do you have any idea uh what's happening with chief tom iqimi i think i think i think the result of the treatment you receive i think tom iqimi is in pdp now i i think i i'm i'm not too sure i think it's in i think it's in pdp now you ask you as john you can you recall john you can was given the responsibility of screening the presidential the presidential candidate um uh in fact we're going to do not complete his tenor that's what but in adams so we hope that we complete his tenor but as far as i'm concerned even i had as a consultant to the apc i would have made ganduji the national chairman of the party because it's not good for the optics of the party it's not good it's not good for the optics of the party to to to to have and then we now have a situation whereby somebody is the national chairman of the party who has changed the insignia on his cap to that of the to that of the president because you have a senate president who are in his first uh in his first official promotional video because as we all call it in his first official promotional video by media and glass it was he also had the a cap which has the insignia of the president so in South Africa you know what they call that disgusted capture so you know when you see all these you begin to wonder what kind of what kind of checks and balances will have in this administration what kind of checks and balances we would have it's not it's not it's not it's not too far away from when the military the military you record doing abacha days when abacha was trying to transmute himself from beneath a military head of state the president where everybody every military officer began to wear the lapel that has abacha to show you that it's in democracy you need people to challenge your thought in order for you to come up with constructive ideas and his constructive ideas that give you the reviews of them and isn't that the whole concept of having the legislative arm to make sure that executive arm does not get too puffed up does not abuse powers i haven't you seen well i haven't you seen the the the screen of the ministerial nominees you saw you you you you watch the screen of the ministerial nominee now when it's when you subjugate and relegate your position and your responsibility to the background in the process of asserting your authority asserting your authority as oversight starts with the screen of the minister but when you are rubbing palms and shaking hands with the minister doing that process instead of you sending that signal you are subjugating your authority so it becomes you become a rubber stamp you become neglected you become ignored by by by by the ministers once they are sworn in because you have not established your authority you have not laid down the marker rather you are you are relating with them and see this business as is your god will help them we keep seeing oh well we are seeing some of us we are not surprised jude johnson i mean we expected they take a bow and we saw a lot of the take a bow so we were not surprised at all there are there are there are standard rules also for example if you are a former legislature it's it's it's it's it's normal those we expect that okay take a bow is understandable if former senator senator that's oh take a bow fantastic there's no problem with that are you getting my point because it's it's it's it's the court let me put it it's the court of association it's the privilege of being a member of the legislature are you getting it now so you understand now what is it what where is the screening part of that if you have to come and take a bow and go whether you used to be is it constitutional though is it is right in the constitution that former members should not be grilled so that we know whether they are qualified for the portfolio that they should be holding it is it is believed that if you have told the office that's why they use the word honorable and then you use the word distinguish is distinguish senator honorable member are you getting it now it's a privilege are you it's like it's like what right that the privilege that is accorded to his hand once his hand gets to you cut no matter how if you are the opposing lawyer and you are not his hand in many stands stands on his feet you you keep quiet you take your seat so there are some privileges in every profession don't doubt about that okay stand those privileges being extended to former legislature or sitting legislature current legislature i don't expect that to be extended to governors that rendered their states useless that that rendered their states that rendered that made their state on governable that that have made on awesome on awesome statement speeches here and there i don't expect that those should have been screened those should have been great but what did we see we saw look the fact is that the governors the governors there's a new heat on the block in the past in Nigeria Nigerian politics is to be controlled by the generals the errors of the generals are gone you are now in the errors of the governors check every sector the leader is the senate president is a former governor the secretary to the federal government is a former governor the national chairman of a pc is a former governor so check check how many former governors you have in this new cabinet nine former governor think there are nine is it eight it's nine nine nine former governors in this cabinet so if you look at the executive you have former governors if you look at the legislature you have former governors so if you look at the party structure you have former So in the bureaucracy of government, in the secondary of government office, you have a former governor so you could see that there are the new kids on the block and what was their performance or what were their performances when they were governor. Yeah, well, time would not, time would not permit us to go any further. In the country where we reward, reward, reward failure, reward failure. That's the country we live in. That is, we live in the world. Let me take a word that my soldiers are dead. We live in a world where people, where we reward mediocrity. That's very sad. Meritorocracy has been sacrificed. Let me quickly touch, let me quickly touch on the Guardian newspaper. We don't have time to analyze it, just to, to just read it out. Nigeria's political dynasties works stronger as poverty deepens. That's the big story of the Guardian newspaper and details of that will be found on pages four and five. You have contempt charge, NLC threatens strike if someone's is not withdrawn. And then Forex challenges, high OPEX force and GSK's exit from Nigeria. And Biden calls for immediate release of Bazoum's orders officials out of Niger. So many things on the front page of the Guardian newspaper. So you can pick any of these newspapers and just go through them. They are rich this morning. Thank you so much, Judy Johnson, for your time on the press this morning. As always, it's always a delight to have you. Okay, so you're still watching The Breakfast on Plus TV Africa. We'll take a break and come back with our first hot topic. Stay with us.