 On the breakfast reactions are beginning to trail Ukraine's attack by Russia. Russian tells America to stay away. So recorded 124.71 billion decline, a Naira decline from 472.52 billion Naira in quarter three 2021 to 347.81 billion Naira in quarter four according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Also we will be reviewing, as always, the National Daily with G.D. Johnson. Very good morning to you. We're back with a breakfast on Plus TV Africa. What is a Friday, beautiful Friday morning, reaching live from the studios in Victor Island Lagos. My name is Kofi Bartels. And I am Messia Boko. It's good to be back on your screen and thank God it's Friday. Yes indeed, yes indeed. Mercy looking is flashy as always, taking the shine off me. But it's all good. I'll do better next week. Mercy. I don't know if I was telling one of the producers that I was listening to, you know, the ongoing coverage on the Russia-Ukraine crisis. And he was like, are you listening to, I said, yeah, I need to know if I should hide under this table. The bomb is coming, the missile is coming. But Russia and Ukraine took most of the discourse, you know, by people not just around the world but in Nigeria yesterday. And the eyes of everyone have been fixed on what's going on in Eastern Europe. It's quite unfortunate what's going on there. And I've been following the comments. So we'll start a trending segment with that, you know, I don't know what you've been seeing and what people have been saying as far as you have noticed. Well, I lost actually been going on in the, you know, following the conversation. I mean, I have been very, I have been following the conversation from start up until, you know, this moment. And to some point I have a lot of people saying you're getting very personal with this issue. Not necessarily angry, but maybe worried, scared and asking too many questions. Quite unfortunate. Everything's going on is just a matter of interest. It's just a power clash. And that's what happens. And we would always leave with all of this. But the major concern for us right now is the fact that you have Nigerians there because usually when you have... And all the African countries around. Especially students. Students, really. Now, but usually when nation state comes together, they would always think about national interest. I mean, home interest. And so home interest would always supersede, you know, the globe. As much as we constantly say there's need for global peace, globalization, prosperity, and all of that school of thought. But that's not the real sense in reality when people, when nation state come together, they think about, you know, personal interests. They're going to think about themselves as a country. Russia would think about Russia. Ukraine would think about Ukraine. Nigerians would think about Nigeria. China would think about China. India and what have you. Really, the major concern is the fact that you have a lot of persons who are studying, you know, in Ukraine. Students, really. And there's been a lot of concern. We saw that video of some students talking about the need for safety. You could see all of the rush and what have you. And there's been this argument whether or not the federal government should evacuate students or the parents. Or, you know, the students themselves should leave. Because prior to this time, there's been a lot of call. I saw a tweet at that time where someone was saying it's important that Nigerians in Ukraine should begin to move away because of what's going to happen. But I kind of think that a lot of people were very relaxed because they thought that Russia would probably not, you know, invade or attack Ukraine. And so people felt like, hey, it's okay to just relax. I actually tried to put a call across a friend who has a daughter in Ukraine who's studying. You know, that call didn't go through. Necessarily she didn't pick. But I'm just hoping that everything is, you know, very alright. It's that time when you call, you know, your loved ones and your friends. And if we remember, this isn't the first time we're having to call friends and loved ones in Ukraine. At the start of the Crimean crisis, we're all panicking because we have a lot of Nigerian students in Ukraine. It's one of the countries that you find it easy to go to study amongst the Eastern European countries. And there are a lot of Nigerians in Crimea. And there are Nigerian students in Crimea and Donetsk. Donetsk is one of those places that wasn't part of the initial, you know, breakaway regions until recently. And it's one of the major cities in Ukraine. And that was taken over by Russian-backed rebels. Russia has been fighting a proxy war in Ukraine also. But we're going to that with the experts when they come on board. Nigerians have been calling on the government to say something, you know, say something. I'm one of the Nigerians from the government to say something. You know, people have been going on social media, especially Twitter, blasting the government for not saying anything. It's somewhere, even timing, you know, that the war started. This is 10 hours. That's not how it works, you know. You don't want to be quick to take sides because you want to see how it plays. If, for instance, you, because it takes sides, it's going to affect you years and decades down the road. You know, so, I mean, if the Nigerian government takes a post, because there's nothing you would say that would affect this, what are we going to do? Are we going to send in troops? Nothing. This is actually a nuclear war. Is Vladimir Putin going to say, oh, a Buhari said he's against us? Oh, I'm not going to go again. We don't care. We don't figure. We don't have the equation. In this global discussion, we don't figure. Let's just get the truth. I start with you on this one. Leave President Buhari alone. All those on Twitter who are, you don't understand what it's going to leave. Leave, but we shouldn't say anything. Hey, what if they say, okay, we have to. We can't even say anything. What if we say, okay, even if you say you are going to be in the middle of the fence, urging both countries to exercise restraint. All right. Both will say, well, you didn't say anything for me. You know, when you spoke, you, so let them take their time. All right. And so Joe, Joe, and all those guys take their time and figure out what to say. Because whatever he's saying now, whoever I said to now, whichever way they kind of pendulum of international politics and, you know, the part or so swings, you might lose out. You understand. So let them, let them leave the country for for now. But anyway, the government has been speaking. We'll look at that later, but, but the House of Representatives seems to be the more vocal and vocal. Yes. yes and let me say people centered you know a chamber because they of course they have they're like a parliament they have represented it from from everywhere you know not just three per state and um they have demanded an immediate evacuation of Nigerians in Ukraine and they're offering to show that a responsibility I mean I haven't you know nobody wants nobody wants their peace to take the shine alone sorry I'm saying that you know you know before now it'll be the the the owner of episode so okay I'm going to South Africa to to to fly Nigerians because government doesn't do it so nobody wants their peace to take the shine alone this time you know so they all have to chip in you know and it's a it's a public relations thing so they are saying that they house of reps we showed out the responsibility of of of evacuating Nigerians or from Ukraine now yesterday at plenary uh the lower chamber mandated them the um the chairman house committee on foreign affairs he's from Cannes Street APC Alhassan ado adogua and um and to last with um well the leader of the house and then the the um chairman of the committee on foreign affairs bubayakub uh to last with the ministry of foreign affairs on the issue and I know that jaffer yoma is one of the best ministers we have around you know in terms of his understanding of what his portfolio is about he's he's he's a okay so they are going to realize the minister of foreign affairs to see what will happen and they adopted a motion moved by Ahmed Munir uh from Karnasa APC yesterday and um when the the honorable member of the house of reps was presented motion he said that there's a need for Nigerian evacuated citizens from the country and as we speak mercy as we speak um I listen to a group of Kenyans who were saying that um they're not in Kiev most of them are not in Kiev that's capital no it's not cheap to live in capital most of them don't have plans have no budgeted traveling at this time you know so they are not made budgets to travel this time so even getting to leave the country will be difficult on their own the airports are shut they're no flights so what they have to do is look for a way to take uh the train you know to maybe Poland you know but they yeah but the train stations are even them uh uh uh jump act on the roads yeah they they they there's traffic the roads are jump act you know now for you to even move you have to get money and they said that the queues at the ATM points are so much much more than they can they've seen and even when you stand on the ATM queue for hours when you get to that the point where you have to dispense or get your money you're not sure if the ATM is going to give you money now that's another challenge is to get to a place like Poland you need visas because they are not EU citizens the Nigerians the Kenyans the Ghanians and other countries other nationals so they need their countries to get an emergency visas to be able to go to Poland it's from Poland probably they can fly except the Eurkinian airspace is open now do you want to be flying in an airspace that has missiles you know moving all over remember what happened the Crimea no no the the truth is so so so the the the the immediate thing is for the Nigerian government to call it the least have a list um get the names and numbers of of in context of people Nigerians students and Nigerians who are living in in Ukraine so yes and then try and get them to Poland or try and get them visas you know so so one of the concerns that I actually had because we also saw the report from the Nigerian embassy in cave and we could actually see now from looking at the statement because he feels like we have series is I mean we have a series of statement or comments that has been brought by the one from the foreign affairs ministry yes really with a grammatical grammatical error yeah errors errors what have you the fact that you don't even have an understanding of the situation because right now in war zone those who are actually calling there's no insurance to cover these aircraft so even if you have the national assembly trying to be very proactive and you know be a superstar which is very applaudable and like I would say it's very patriotic of them but we also need to understand the insurance doesn't cover this aircraft in war zone it's a war zone right now and the Ukrainian airspace has been shot it means that everything this flying is going to be brought down it's too risky now what a lot of people are saying is prior to this time why didn't we move for the evacuation I remember a tweet that was out I actually think I posted a tweet on my own personal space that's on my whatsapp and the tweet actually talked about evacuating Nigerians and asking Nigerian students in that space to leave but you know it was actually a dilly-dally situation where a lot of people were in doubt whether or not Russia would attack Ukraine or invade Ukraine however but this is what the reality is and one would think that if the government had thought about it it would be it would be great even though some people would say you also have the united kingdom you have other countries have not evacuated its citizens because no one actually thought that this would really really happen that Russia would invade Ukraine and this would actually happen but right now I looked at you know the the letter from the embassy of India in Kiev and you could see that in the letter it was really very brief just to paragraph or three he understood the the dynamics and that's where my concern is the fact that you understand that the airspace has been shot there's several reports across so you can't even say that oh we're going to be moving aircraft that's what the Nigerian government is saying very applaudable or to evacuate how you're going to do that it's too risky but people will say the hustle has to continue even though that's the original meaning of hustle is quite different from what we we get to say so but like you have mentioned the plan is that people would find themselves because all the countries are also using this find the way to get to Poland and then evacuation can actually start and maybe maybe that might just be the plan for the Nigerian government well the the yesterday the Nigerian embassy in Ukraine you know there was a joke going on around social media and that someone said the calls and Paul said they called the minister and he was not picking his call you know so people started joking say no the the ambassador sorry and he wasn't picking his call and some people started saying no he's going to he's trying to take him himself with his family how would he pick your call at this time I mean so I was a flying over but anyway the officials tip and then yesterday from the Nigerian embassy in Ukraine they were urging Nigerian citizens to remain calm and be responsible for their own personal security that's what I talked about yes you know and also the advice also want to relocate to a safe place to ensure that they validate all their documents for ease of return to Ukraine when they desire you know so um you know it just shows that that you know the government can't do as much as people want them to at this time you know even when you're talking about evacuation even the United States has not evacuated it says things are officially you know from from Ukraine I haven't seen anything so so for me my concern is let me quickly just run through this now Kofi I'm sorry the embassy of he says this is to inform all Indian national Indian nationals in Ukraine that since the Ukrainian airspace has been closed they understand that it's been closed because it was on the shuttle for special flight stands cancelled I don't know if you understand so alternative arrangements are being made for evacuation of Indians national embassy will convey information as soon as such arrangement are finalized so the Indian nationals can relocate to western part of the country and we have also mentioned Poland and all of this now they also say that so um so they're asking that please carry your passports and that's your document you can all you also advise to follow the embassy website and social media on facebook twitter and instagram post for updates on this regard for reference details of the embassy headlines are contained below and so you have the telephone lines you know stated and that's it very simple just go look at it as it's very lengthy but it just feels like you don't even understand what's going on even though I know that after that there's been a lot of communication saying oh yes we're going to make prior arrangement and all of that but however it's okay that the Nigerian government is also showing interest some people say that they should not be totally dependent on uh you know the government I mean it should not be the responsibility to have the government because you have parents who are responsible for the awards and kids or you have people guardians who are also responsible for their kids and what have you starting in Ukraine but um it's really sad especially if you've not experienced war you never can tell what how that feels like you can only imagine and our prayers and our hearts are with uh those in uh Ukraine Russia and everyone and also with Nigerians and we're hoping that we'll do everything possible everyone will come together and find a way to ensure that lives and properties are saved all right um another one that uh also you know is a cause for concern and um giving people a reason to be upset you know it might not be Ukraine this is Nigeria um the Kaduna state governor Erufai Nasser Erufai saying that uh no fewer than um three thousand three hundred and forty eight um residents of Kaduna state had been kidnapped and uh no fewer than one thousand one hundred and ninety two of them had been killed by uh bandits in the year 2021 alone you know um he's talking about banditry in the northwest being more serious than the Boko Haram insurgency that's what he's saying banditry in uh the northwest is being is more serious than Boko Haram and this is Kaduna state we're talking about in 2021 alone first of all I think that um for the government of Kaduna state is this one of the the the performing governments the organized governments in Nigeria um if people sit down here in the southern part of country and there's pure rubbish you know because I don't know what's going on yeah um Erufai is one of the the the performing governance and if you look at the the structure of government you understand the structure of government it's it's um for me to be able to collate the figures is one thing okay at least to know what's going on is one thing um governments state governors these days do not have um the the full and total control of security apparatus India domains to be able to do what they would like to do you understand and um last time we talked about Erufai meeting through his deputy with um chiefs and rulers leaders you know traditional and religious um as well as youth groups trying to tell them that they should not attack themselves and then some days later they were attacks and reprisal attacks in some part of that um that state so I think that for us to hear and see the statistics is one thing um it's good that government is keeping their their their hands on to know what's going on but at the same time people want to hear that something is being done about this um so so is this a call by um the government of Kaduna state to the federal government to say we need to have the same the same you know measures that you're having for the northeast in terms of but the Bukoram insurgency you have to apply something like that for the northwest in terms of banditry because right now as it seems it's it's taking more lives than Bukoram um he says that Kaduna state government so far spent 21 billionaire okay uh on supporting the security agencies in terms of logistics to fight bandits in the state in the last seven years so how come nothing has been achieved you know if if the state government says they've been giving security agencies logistics supports the tune of 21 billionaire in the last seven years why do we still have this thing getting worse so I mean it could it could be um you know encompassing first of all the fact that we have to establish that uh these governments are not in control of the security architecture of the country but for me I don't hold that as an excuse for these governors uh yes as much as that sounds very valid that uh the commissioner police is not answerable to the governor of the state and then he takes his command from the IGP that's a lot to worry about we also need to look at you know the number of police officers that we have across personnel it's a great issue over 211 million people or 200 people 200 million people that's the latest statistics 211 from the united nations as a you know 2021 july to be precise so he calls for a letter consent and could it be that there's also because it goes beyond that if the government is saying we're supporting with logistics then what could be the issue that could be sabotage and the issue of intelligence is also required now for some of these excuses has been given as a governor of the state as much as we would have want to agree with you and agree with the fact that yes you are not in control of the security architecture we also cannot take out the fact that you are the chief security officer and you should be responsible now he said that yes he's been providing uh support the state has been providing logistics to support security officers is it that these men are overpowered uh is it that they need intelligence because it goes beyond that there could be also issues of sabotage where those who are working in the system compromise the system and so there's a lot that needs to be done and we also would want to say that if you look at all of this the fight most times it's just you know how we have handled the security issue across board and that would also send a signal to all the criminal elements i beg to say um who would who would always want to think that because we don't it's really not nothing going on so we can just go out there and do whatever we want to do nothing's going to happen and so that might just be the case but however if this is the case with if this is something to go by then then there's a lot to be done you also need to look at the issue of you know the manpower do do they have enough manpower what's the level of intelligence they also need to look inwards to understand if there's any sabotage that's going in or that's going on with the system interesting so so so mercy you know aero fire is saying you know that's you know while saying that three thousand governor of fire was in a three thousand three hundred and forty eight you know people in cardinal state have been kidnapped in 2021 as a result of banditry and one thousand one hundred and ninety two persons in cardinal state have been killed you see that that those killed or kidnapped or even injured as a result of a banditry in cardinal state it's not as much as you have in in katsina state and zanfarah state that the ones from zanfarah state are three times more than you have in kanduna state and the ones from katsina state the president's home state are three times more than you have in kanduna state and so he's saying that he's persuaded that the banditry situation in the northwest is far more serious than Boko Haram both in terms of number of the people affected and and so so so you know when we say you know governors are chief security officers of states um uh you know there's not really a constitutional provision and you can see that when Babajire Sanolu went to Magodo in Lagos state and told other the police officers there to stand down they told him to call abuja you know so i usually do not go to that they do have a level of influence especially when they're on the same page with the federal government in this case the apc is on the same page because it's apc in cardinal state as is apc at the center so yes they do have a level of leverage you know and they do have a level of influence you can see even in in pdb control states like river state when it came to the issue of um going after what do you call it uh uh illegal refundering you know spots the the governor was able to mobilize and galvanize secret architecture of the state to do that um but but i think that um at at some point you need a level of um organization and an attention and uh military uh or security hardware you know and commitment to tackle issues based on the the the the seriousness of the situation so for instance you look at hopuzo dima governor of imo state who hopped on the plane and went to abuja to see mr president even though he was away for longer than he took sure of taking you know but um you know he went to see mr president he said he went to ask mr president for military support um to handle the scary situation in the south east especially in imo state and what are you seeing here uh it is beyond the scope i think of what the governor alone should handle um nigeria as we speak it's not just a kaduna state matter it's kaduna katsunah zahra state in other states the country is in danger of being overrun by bandits um the borders are porous it's a territorial integrity issue and it's not one thing for a state governor to handle nigeria's territorial integrity is under attack by people who are coming in from all parts of west africa and we all know from the experts who have spoken you know that um uh the the insecurity and instability in the sahel area in libya for instance has um affected other parts of west africa so so you have you have you have we have to have a a concerted and wide wide wide wide ranging you know you know effort you know if i can call it that if i want to a better word from the center to say what do we do when nigeria was attacked under um the shagaria administration and this same president uh was in was in charge of security in that part of the country you know he was able to galvanize nigerian troops to chase out metesina you know even on when the president ordered that he stopped into chat so so so um i don't know he's it's alphai communicating with mr president it's the president aware of what he's saying because it's not just enough to say these things uh to the new surpresident the tv stations and radio stations um what is the president saying what has he said has he gone to asu work to to say mr president i want to see you what are you doing so i don't know i don't know so for me when i when i say that we understand the fact that the security architecture is in the exclusive lease and because it's very sensitive we feel like the the argument over time would be that the center is overburdened with several consents and issues that's need to decentralize as a matter of fact if we truly are federal capital if we truly are a federation then you know states should be able to control the security apparatus but you would also have some school of thought who would say does that solve the security issue power venture we get to a point where we have i mean states controlling the security architecture and then they have control will this issue of bandits and banditry be solved so number one would be the fact that you look at the fight against insorgency or the fight against bandits and crimes and crime we haven't treated this that there's no implementation it feels like we have treated this with kids globe we see constantly how we treat people who have committed crime and we make excuses for this person all in the guise of saying oh yeah there should be amnesty and this region is saying oh you granted amnesty to xyz so you should grant amnesty at the end of the day it boils down to the political will to address the issue of security and you know all of the consents that would arise from all of that so yes for the reason that i would always argue that you can't the governor should not as much as we know there's no constitutional provision for them you know to tackle to handle the security architecture in their states they're not responsible however you can also take out the fact that you are governor of a state whatever it takes however it takes just as a lot of them would say whatever it takes you know to be coming but you should be concerned about the people in your constituents the people that you govern not also taking out the fact that security votes have been put out so if the Nigerian governors are very interested in even the Nigerian governors are very sincere if they really want to tackle this issue nothing stops them 36 governors why can't they have one voice for for once and if they think that the issue is the fact that they don't control the security architecture then they should be pushing for the issue of restructuring and decentralizing you know or having the exclusive right transferred to you know the component unit that's the unit if the 36 governor so it means that they're not in unism what stops all of them imagine that 36 governors advocating for the police to be decentralized I mean that that power should be transferred from the from the you know the the center to the units if that the if that's the challenge but so I'm saying that it goes beyond the challenging also I mean we also need to look at the fact that what is the willingness how many persons have we prosecuted how many persons are we arrested how far have we dealt with this issue are people paying for what they have to do is a law-takenness cause so this these are some of the issues and you also need to look at the number and we're talking about strength in this point how we equip the men of the Nigerian police so the issue is actually encompassing but we we definitely hope as as our democracy is very innocent we need to move away because we're really really out of time and we hope that we have more time some sometimes soon to talk about this we step on the brakes right now and when we return over time for us to check out the national dailies and bring you up to speed what's making the rounds across walk please stay with us