 And you're welcome back to the breakfast and plus TV Africa. Let's now begin with taking a look at the papers that are making headlines this morning. Beginning with the Nigerian Tribune. It says, bring repentant Boko Haram insurgents to trial. ACF tells federal governments, that's the Arawa Consultative Forum. And mass retail citizens, arm yourselves against bandits. How Anambra Ogun Imu Eddo Eboyi abandoned over 10 billion Naira UBE fund with Yubek. 36 state attorneys, General Sue Malami, over recovered funds remittance. Buhari security shifts meet tomorrow. Governors move to end resident doctors nationwide strike. Federal governments to end 774,000 special public works program beyond 2021. More stories in the Tribune. Community mourns as seven members of same family found dead in Oshun state. One shot, many injured shops looted as court groups clash in Lagos. Police snap banker for allegedly siphoning 10 million Naira from customers accounts in Oya state. PIA, host communities, got fair deal. That's according to the federal government. NNPC goes commercial in six months. Sector deregulation now constitutional. Petrol pump price remains 162 Naira per litre. And now moving on to the punch newspapers. Signing of PIB. Buhari bowed to majority wish says Aso Rock. South, South blames lawmakers. And not insensitive but responsive to the yearnings of majority of Nigerians. And that's from his aid. South, South National Assembly members ignored their people voted for party says the governor's aid. Also on the punch Naira abusers risk six months in jail. A CBN gives fresh warning. Federal government owes CBN 15.51 trillion Naira borrows 14.86 trillion Naira under Buhari. ACF falls reintegration of repentant Bukohara members says it's injustice. And also Buhari Abbas and your others mourn as Mantu dies of COVID-19. Minister FIIRO board differ over staff promotion. And an interesting wonder book yesterday court freezes bank accounts of forex trading platforms. Stop election preparations and referendum must hold akin to year and others say. We can see just one more here that I would share. It says federal government meets NMA as NGF discusses Nigerian doctor strike today. Those are the stories that we can share on the punch. Let's take a look at the nation newspaper. Governors peak six hoes in petroleum industry act. And says oil industry law a recipe for disaster. Air peace inaugurates Abuja Ibadun route. Just killings. Acquired a new visit's families. Silver says the regulation come in after talks. And let market forces determine patrol price. Also on the nation newspaper. Ogun Ikiti 24 others failed to assess Ubeq 29.3 billion Naira cash. BDP plans new plaintiffs in Sootsikin, Bunisak. CBN, Naira abusers for prosecution. Inflation failed to 17.38% foot prices rose in July. Recover 2.28 trillion Naira lutes. States ask federal government to give account. Buhari governors, others mourn ex-Deputy Senate president Manthu. And on the Guardian. Despite PIA, federal government to retain subsidy sell petrol at 162 Naira. Insist allocations to host communities and frontier development justifiable. A law not perfect but a good start APC admits. And also why insurgency uprising thrive. And that's by Abbasanjo. Our increasing population keeps me awake at night he also says. Still on the Guardian this morning. Repentant Boko Haram members deserve no pity. Arab leaders tell for the government. Problem with Northern Nigeria by Jagat, Makafi and others. International fund recoveries not governed by local laws Malami clarifies. And also protect yourselves against banditry. Maseritaos, Katsina residents. Still on the Guardian. APC deploys 23 governors to tackle ABGA and others in Anambra humanitarian. Good morning to Mr. Mola Kingbola, the publisher of the podium media. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me again. Good morning. Good morning. All right. I think the big one there we can start with is the response from the ARAWA consultative forum with regards repentant Boko Haram members and the government forgiving them, I guess. What's your take on that? Okay. Well, quite frankly, I have no problem with the government deciding to forgive the repentance terrorist, but they must first serve the punishment for their crime. Okay. When someone has committed an offense and all you do is just to pardon the attendance that he or she will go back to their crime. So they should be punished. Okay. Maybe mild punishment. Then they should be really integrated in a strategic way. You don't just say go and see no more. Okay. They need to know that there's consequences for any action they take subsequently. So my own position is that, yes, pardon people if they've shown enough remorse, but let them face consequences of their action. But if you don't do that, you are setting a dangerous precedent for all that. So we'll say, okay, let me go and commit the same crime. At the end of the day, I will be forgiven. What would you describe as mild punishment? My punishment is if you are supposed to go to jail for 20 years for instance, and you've shown enough remorse, then you can get maybe 10 years. Okay. Or even five years. Yeah, but Mr. Kimbola, can an armed robber, can a murderer, can anybody who's accused of anything who shows enough remorse get the same mild punishment? That would absolutely depend on the legal system, really. But underlying what I'm saying is that no matter how remorseful you feel, you must face the consequences of your action. Okay. If you committed an offence, you must face the law. In the presence of serving the punishment, some measures can be put in place to say, okay, it's your remorse. We've seen evidence that you wouldn't do it. Okay. Because really, where will we punish people? Okay. The essence is to reform them. Okay. The essence of getting people to go to the court to face trial is so that they can repay, they can reform. It's not to destroy them. Okay. So the legal system is not out to punitive, but reformating. So in between the two, we've got to strike a balance. You want to punish people for what they've done, but you also want to make sure that those who are generally repented are reintegrated into the system in a very careful manner. Because some people pretend, okay, that they have shown remorse. And if you rush into pardoning them or reintegrating them, then you are going to reinforce it as criminal act. So yes, it's something that needs to be looked into, but with a lot of discretion and with a lot of highs on the board. Okay. Realizing the fact that other people are watching, right, who are watching and they want to see how this issue will be handled. So my position is that, yes, pardon people, but not the blanket pattern. Let them see the consequences of the action. Okay. And in the process of serving the sentence or facing the punishment and arrangement and work out that will mitigate that punishment and make sure that we get to put them back into society. So that's my position. Okay. The Petroleum Industry Bill is a very big issue right now, and we see it across the papers on the punch. We're seeing, you know, a story here that says Buhari bowed to Majority Wish, that's according to Asa Rock, and the South-South blames lawmakers. When we go to the nation newspaper, it says, Governors pick six hoes in Petroleum Industry Act. So even though, you know, there's lots of commendation for President Muhammad Buhari's, you know, assent of the bill after about 20 years on the walks, the controversy there still remains about some sections of the bill, which still leaves it at 3% for host communities, against the initial 10 they asked for, 30% for oil exploration and all these other things. So regarding this particular bill, Governors have said it's a recipe for disaster, and that even if we hear this as, yes, it's given a regulatory framework for, you know, the oil industry in Nigeria, that the law is basically dead on arrival and that the world is moving on to fossil fuels and all of that. How do you interpret, you know, these concerns? Yes. I would like to take off from your last statement that it's dead on the river. Indeed, it is dead on the river. And here I want to put on record that National Assembly has been a monumental failure and it's sort of an issue to a lot of veterans. Where you have representatives of the people who prefer to vote across party lines and do not care about the wishes of those representatives, then there's no other name to call them, because they've just been a big disappointment. But where were the Governors when their representatives were agreeing to this bill? You can blame the President. Sometimes they presented to him by the majority of National Assembly. He has to sign. So I want to believe that during the discussions, those reps and those senators decided to ignore the wishes of the people. They decided to sideline their Governors, to sideline their constituencies. And now the bill has been cited to law. What are we going to do? Is it going to be implemented? Then of course there will be a backlash because of the crisis or because of the system. And the question is that, why can't we just get inscribed in Nigeria? Why can't we do things with the interpreter? For every aspect of President Obama, your mandate is to represent your wishes, not your own party, not your own personal opinion. So I expect them to go back to their states, hold consultations and be able to aggregate the opinion of the people present at them on the floor of National Assembly. They have not done that. All they have done is sit quietly in a kitchen and decided to vote across party lines. And that's what these senators have been doing. There's not a round in the National Assembly supporting the executive arm. But that support must be reasonable, it must be sensible and it must be in line with the wishes of the people. I want to take you up on the last statement you made, right? We discussed this bill yesterday and one of the questions I asked our guest was, why does it seem like when you take a look at the bills that have been signed in Nigeria, it seems that many Nigerians have agreed. There are points of those bills that a particular section of the country do not agree with. But rather than have those issues resolved before it goes ahead to become law, we find that they just go ahead and pass the bills. So it now seems that we have lots of laws that the people do not agree with. They claim that they were not consulted and their own grievances were not addressed before those laws or bills were signed. So why don't we now take a look at the PIB for instance. That guest of yesterday said that there can never be a perfect law in Nigeria. Do you think that's what it is? We are not looking for perfection. We are looking for adequate and sensible representation. No system is perfect all over the world. But why don't we have such problems in the U.S. and the U.K. in other developed countries? Simply because there is extensive consultation. Those who have been elected to go to a pudja to represent their circumstances, they have failed the people. These are issues that have been taken care of at the grassroot level. Most of them prefer to open up with ASSO law, collect money at the risk of satisfying the mandates that has been given to them. So it's not about a perfect law. It's about a just, fair and equitable law that will represent the wishes of the people. That's all we are asking for. We are asking for a law that often needs to represent what the people want. So I'm a red member in a pudja and I have to go back to my constituency. I have to hold consultation. So Mr. Kimballan, all the way. But then why do we then say a situation where we have laws that do not accurately represent the wishes of the people? Why? That's what I'm explaining. That those who are making the laws, they are not consulting with the people that the laws are committed for. Nobody does that. You don't shave someone's head in his absence. You are there to make laws. The people that would receive this law, the people that would recommend the law to their input, no, they don't. And that's why we are where we are. The PLB has taken us 20 years to put together. And this is all that we can come up with. It's shameful. Because now you are going to have forced communities that will resist. That will resist. If you ask for 3% and you are proposing 3%, you have not met them. It's not even up to what they are expected to do. And now you are saying 30% of the profit of NNPC inhibitor will go into exploration in the frontier's basin. Who decided and who agreed that these are the frontier bases that we are going to explore. So these are things that are avoidable. But because there's not an assembly as soda, there's not an assembly as a common joke. Because there, to wrap us up whatever the executives want. And we will continue to have this problem unless the electorate begins to recall those that are elected. If they do not elect all of the call, it is within their time. If you continue to have them. The recall process is also, you know, at least from what we've seen also, very, very, very difficult to pull through with. I want us to go into something else. Sorry, I want us to go into something else. It's on the punch. It says court freezes bank accounts of forex trading platforms. It mentioned a few yesterday that, you know, had basically been accused of doing illegal transactions, you know, with FX. The reactions to this have really been that Nigeria, you know, seems to be stifling the growth of, you know, private businesses, you know, and the economy in different regards. Do you agree with the CBN here and with an expatriate order that freezes accounts for six months? We need to know the facts of the case. We need to see the proof and evidence before we can judge, okay? There's no way the CBN will allow its laws to be abused or to be ignored or to be disobeyed. We need to know the facts of the case. And these guys can go to court, of course. They can appeal that decision, okay? Okay. Until we know it. Yes. The facts of the case here is that the courts here, the CBN here is saying that, first of all, it's an order by the federal high courts in Abuja. They froze the accounts of these companies. They include Bamboo, Chaka, Trove and Rise. You know, these are platforms that Nigerians used to invest, you know, in foreign stocks and all of that. So they said that the CBN is saying that these guys did not get the appropriate license to operate as a risk management company. And that's why their accounts have been frozen and that's for a period of 180 days. So these... So if these guys got licenses, they should present licenses. Okay. That's what I said. It's a simple and straightforward matter. Each regulatory authority has found you wanting in a particular area. All you need to do is to show proof that you shouldn't have been punished. Okay? So don't let us go to the sentiment of, oh, government is definitely being said. No. Let us know exactly what happened. I think guilty or not. If they are not guilty, let them appeal that decision on which are the supreme courts. Yeah. So I think the challenge, you know, that I've seen from the response mostly online is, you know, the ex-party order in the first place, you know, and the fact that the Nigerian government seems to have the same orders or priority of getting court orders to take actions before they fully investigate. Because now you've mentioned, you know, that there needs to be facts of the case. And the government has not, you know, you know, outrightly pointed out these facts before asking that the accounts be frozen for six months. It's pretty much the same thing with the police arresting any person that they see on the street and then while you're arrested, you find out you're crime in the police station or, you know, then they start to say for reasons why you were arrested. Yeah. These guys can go to court and ask for a state of execution. They can ask for an interlocute injunction that would not allow the CBN to prosecute that mandate. So now there is a little extra called legitimate before we know who is right and who is wrong. Of course, the CBN will always use its power sometimes in a pressy way. And I'm hoping that the judicial system will come to the aid of these companies to ensure that they are not being totally punished. But hey, if they are being fined to have flattered any law, then they should be punished. Because most of us investors don't even know what these guys do, okay? We don't know what to do, how they get their license, we don't even know. Okay? So then I'm going to court. Okay. I would not support the CBN trying to discard it from the investment. Everything that needs to be done by the law. That's it. Alright Mr. Akinbola, there's a story on the nation newspaper just below the headline there that says recovered 2.28 trillion Naira loot state as federal government to give account. Now according to the story, the state governors have taken the federal government to the Supreme Court, challenging how the federal government has basically spent about 2.28 trillion Naira that had been recovered from suspects. So they're saying that between 2015 and 2021 the federal government of Nigeria has recovered the sum of 1.8 trillion Naira in cash and about 450 billion Naira worth of non-cash assets. This state government, governors also said that the federal government diverted this loot into the consolidated revenue accounts and other accounts that are not recognized by the constitution and that they want the federal government to actually come out and defend itself about this. So what do you say? That's the beauty of democracy. The courts are there to interpret. My own concern is the fading bottom mentality that states have continued to display. Any state government who is serious about generating internal about developing states will not be dependent on a putsch. It's okay for them to identify areas where the federal government is scared and to try to bring this into a problem domain. But at the same time, what does the law say? What does the law and law of the federal government do with looted funds? We need to know exactly what they should do. So at the end of the day we have states who believe that at every opportunity they can either identify the federal government to get the money. And that's the mentality that I want them to really move away from. I always say most of our states are not viable. Okay, aside the Lagos, the Rivers, Delta, the oil producing states all that are not viable. They're just struggling. Okay, so that's the matter for 100 days. But it will be interesting to know what the courts hold supreme commandment. So it's a good decision for the states. I believe what they are doing they are doing it on behalf of the people. They are doing it on behalf of people for us to know exactly how federal government is spending looted funds. However, going beyond that, I want states to move away from this feeling of hospitality that money must always come from our future all the time. This is the first time that they are fighting. It's not going to be every revenue that comes in, they want to fight. They want, yeah, we've talked about the kind of lose for them that we have. We've talked about the fact that the center is feeding fat on the state. All of these things should feed into the destruction plan that we've been calling for. Okay, so we're going back to the social, yeah. Alright, let's wrap up with you speaking on the story on the Guardian that says, and that's from Governor Masari saying that residents should defend themselves against bandits. It's on the Guardian that says, protect yourselves against banditry. Masari tells Katsina residents. That's one of the indices of failed states. Okay, it is one of the symptoms of a governmental system that has failed. It's one of the evidences of a system whereby people have lost confidence because I've never seen any part of the world wear a position or a particular that is asking the people to defend themselves. Even in America where people have rights to carry guns, license guns, governments will never tell you to say go on self-defense unless it is a possession. So for Masari to say people to harm themselves, where morally, what he's saying is right. Okay, morally, because you don't want to want people to be killed. But legally, that is an excitement that's equal to anarchy. And under instead of walks, the DSS should not be speaking to Masari. Okay, because you can't insult people. There's a way that you can pass such message across that people should be more security conscious. People should come up with different arrangements to counter insecurity and all that. But you don't ask them to harm themselves. In any way, if they... The segment says protect yourselves. The segment says protect yourselves. Why you protect yourself? Are you going to use your bare hands? No. You've got to look for an ammunition to protect yourself. You won't put yourself by just getting broom or stick. Again, someone will carry AK-47. Okay? So that call, morally yes, but legally, it is an open-ended call for anarchy. Okay? So I would expect him to temper himself or to moderate himself. And look, what I'm saying is that let's all be more security conscious. Let's have vigilante groups. Let's have grassroots approach to security management. Let's have the state police. Those are things that we can do. That is what people want. People should really accept, they don't. It will be which they accept. It's it's it's it's it's it's it's It's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's Stay with us.