 And just like we promised, Zika and Yaetok joins us this morning on Off the Press. Zika, it's good to have you join us. That's a title, if you don't already know. It's always a privilege and a pleasure. Thanks so much for having me. Thank you so much for joining us. Let's run through the pages now. We have the leadership. The punch is also there. Hopefully you'll look at the Guardian amongst others. But I'd like to start off with the leadership newspaper. The banner caption talks about post-election crisis. Conflicting a door, that's a door state. The FCT court orders unsettled local party. That's both captioned that you find. Fate of national chairman Abruh hangs in the balance and caught in junctions, cripples, party activities. Abruh, a local party governorship candidate, accuses Abruh of forgery. That's underneath the rider now. Have Messi on a court of Madhu, wife. That's what the former president of Lushigun Obasanjo begs the United Kingdom courts. Now, I remember having a conversation with someone. I think it was just yesterday and I think that my name was common. Because every other time you hear Messi, you know, what is that? Then she reminded me that Messi is, you know, just what everybody says every other time. Okay. Just before we move away, federal government secures $800 million while banking funding for palliatives. That's subsidy removal. So we have gone to cushion the effect of subsidy removal. That's very interesting. I'm going United Kingdom envoy. I love Nigerian food. Dan, I'll be back. Okay, that's okay. I can agree with that. 775 killed, 1,321 injured by IEDS in the North East. That's according to the UN's report, Easter. Federal government declares Friday and Monday a public holiday. Tomorrow is a Friday. That's what it means. That's a public holiday. And Monday is also a public holiday. Happy holidaying already. Then we move our attention to the punch. New house leadership, opposition reps elect. Opposition reps elect, plot to upstage APC. Opposition reps elect. Plots to upstage APC. And so the politics and politicking continues. Opposition reps elect meets from greater majority bloc to tackle the APC. And group once members gains APC in filtration, targets key house position. Be warned, 2015s are key dagore action won't be allowed. APC tells reps elect. These are some of the riders you have underneath the caption on the punch newspaper. The federal government bores $800 million for mass transit and cash transfer. That's the reports that you have also. I think that this headline might just be dominating all of the front pages of the national dailies. Fresh promissory notes, increasing national debt. That's according to the debt management, you know, office, the demo. Ecuador Madu, Obasan Joe Bex, United Kingdom for linearcy. We talked about that in our top trending. And just before we move away, a rider on the one page, K.O. Colt in your DPO. That has also happened in Lagos. Very unfortunate in the cost because if you live in Lagos, I'm sure you are very conversant with the ban on Ocala. Now I can tell you for sure that, you know, these guys are back. So it was just like, hey, we took a breather and then we're back then. Okay. Lagos is about on express. You find ready April 30th and drainage delay or your or your section. That's what the federal government is saying. I would just leave it at that. So we move on to the Guardian then and then we look at the nation. The Guardian says neighbors feed fat on Nigerian, poorly funded, inefficient seaports. What neighbors? Local ports get to billionaire budgetary allocation eight years and ports recovering with current reforms. NPA boss is saying. I think it's something we need to look into. Affinity for leaders tackle lie Mohammed over treason and polls claim these conversation would continue. Ionic and imperative of financial accountability. Opposition parties plot to produce reps speaker. Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt's slowing regional growth says the World Bank. Oh no. That's not fantastic. Then we just move away from the nation newspaper. It's like saying you're in the seat. You're in a ship and then the ship is about to sink and then the founder that you are the reason for the ship sinking. So we're moving away from the Guardian to look at the nation newspaper. Quickly. The nation says showing card to turn it will make part devolution a priority. Make part devolution a priority. I want Peter to be that his supporters would make him lose the election. And I saw the thought from a president. Rights United Kingdom caught over a quarter. Madhu and his wife asking that justice should be tampered with a bit of messy. APC moves to reconcile Adam. Omishore with look man. Six died. 27 million recovered from accident scene in Oshun and Trump denounces felony charges against him. These are some of the headline. It's interesting that he's also a front runner for the 2024 elections. A court suspends Labour Party National Chairman Secretary orders. Then you continue post election issues. I'm sad to leave Nigeria says British High Commissioner. Well, it's okay. You can always visit. That's the site of it this morning on the pages that we've been able to look at. Then we have a Zika on the item. Thank you so much for making our time to be with us this morning on off the press. We really appreciate your time. Thank you. As always. Okay. So quickly, the headlines are quite interesting, but I think we start off with the letter that was written by former president. Oh, Lucia, going to passenger or to the United Kingdom court pleading for messy on behalf of a quarter. Madhu and his wife. What are your thoughts really? You know, the very first thing is that you need to take the issues in context. Number one is that a crime is a crime. You do the crime. You do the time. That's number one. And that letter addresses that very well. Number two is that there's always what you call prerogative of mercy. And under 16 circumstances, if you take time to read that letter, you will have nothing short of the highest level of respect for president, former president of passenger. That man comes time and time again to show himself as a nationalist. Why do I say this? In a country where you have a man like that, there are several international dimensions. And a passenger has come into play a role that in my opinion should have been played by the federal government. If they had what I call emotional intelligence, what a way for the North, let me just put it that, to tell the South is no, we're not against you. By doing what? By saying this, just take it on a national platform. This man has been in the Senate in my whatever serves me right for about three terms. Okay. And is a current serving senator and was once the number two man in the Senate. And you said, look, Nigeria is not like this. Yes, he might have been occasioned by, you know, a setting, you know, situation, family situation he found himself in. But you see, he didn't do it clandestinely. He actually went to the embassy, he got a visa, he boarded the flight, he came with it. But what he did was wrong under the current law. So please tamper justice with mercy. That's what he said. Now, imagine if this came from the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Imagine how you would have shut up the mouth of iPod. Imagine how you would have told the Easterners that look, my goodness, this man is not a house man, he's an Igbo man and look at what the federal government has done. Is there an antecedence to this? Yes, there is. There was a young lady, I think Zainab or something like that, that was caught in Saudi Arabia with cocaine. I think it was hard drug, can't remember exactly what. And the penalty for that was death. The federal government, Mr. President mandated order instructed the attorney general of the federation to learn with the external affairs minister and then get to them and see how they can plead for that young lady. If they could plead for that young lady for leniency, they could on the double plead for the death of the president one time, serving senator and somebody who has contributed immensely to national progress over the years. They could have said this man did not, he could have done it, he had vested it and found a way of taking it to India, but he did it openly. He probably was ignorant, but whatever is what, he's broken the law, but he pleases have mercy on him. Now that shouldn't have come from Abbas and John. No, should have come from the president of the federal republic of Nigeria. And that again, like I said, is the aspect of emotional intelligence that would have led to national healing that would have gone beyond the man. And it's a good case because it's a father trying to save a dying child. You understand me, not a man who is trying to make money. You understand? They had grounds to be able to make an emotional, a sentimental appeal. But they did not. And who stepped in again from a president of Abbas and John. So for me, he takes my salute this morning. I always feel very proud. That's why from time to time, I put up my picture with him and was like, why are you living this man? I said, no. Every time he does things that makes me proud, he's my father and I have a lot of respect for him. I do. Okay, but you know the case, the issue of leniency now and is left within the discretion of this country. It's a sovereign nation. And you know, whatever it is that they decide to do with all of that would just also be accepted because it is what it is. Unfortunately. But the best you can do is plead. That's all you can do. It's important for a lesser judgment not to say that it shouldn't be punished. But whatever it is that would be done should just not be as strong as it should have been based on character and what have you. Well, it can be very emotional if you want to think about it and go through it. But then would definitely follow up and see what happens. Just maybe the Nigerian government as well, like you have asked and said that it would have been possible to have the president make that letter or make that request. It would go a long way, you know, to heal the wounds of the people in Nigeria. But then again, we need to move away from that. There's also another interesting conversation on the front page and I'm sure that that's what a lot of Nigerians have been talking about since yesterday up until this moment is the fact that in the cost of trying to ensure that, hey, when subsidies removed in June and petrol probably might be selling at 700 or there about according to the marketers, the question. That's on the punch. It's also on the leadership newspaper dominating all of the papers this morning. It's that people would not have to suffer. There would just be palliative put out there to cushion the effect. Then again, we see on this paper that the government has gone ahead to borrow 800 million dollars from the World Bank to ensure that this also goes to some Nigerians to cushion the effect of it. Is it going to be as one who is very interested in government and governance and how the people fare? What do you make of this move by the government? You know, each time I see things like this, I feel very unhappy. Absolutely. I feel depressed. You know, I would say so because the level of insincerity in government using the name of the poor is infuriating. At the end of the day, there's a loan of about 800 million dollars. And you come to do an aggregate of the use to which these funds would be deployed. Number one, you say you are doing conditional cash transfer and I ask myself to who, at what exchange rate, what the level of transparency and accountability that we'll find in it. Will it be the same as the time when you are giving food to children in school who are at home? You know, these things bother me because number one, you are getting a loan that's going to be repaid. Number two, you are getting it in the name of the poor. Number three, to what extent can we see how this will benefit the poor on the long run? So there are too many issues and I can tell the federal government what to do with such funds to really benefit the people in the rural areas. Can we deploy it to rural development? All this money I want to give first people money to eat, money to eat. Those things just don't make sense because at the end of the day, you create what you call a dependency syndrome. Look at all the money to eat on election day. They are finished. All that money is finished before the governors are even sworn in. The money is finished. There's a video I'm doing and like brothers, how far away is the money? It's finished and the governor has not even been sworn in yet. They never passed away in the person. That means the four years never even start. So the question is how are we thinking as government? When will we start to have people that have this heart, this level of sympathy for the poor? You know, something happened, you know, I won't be able to give details. I was called to be given a job by a governor. And that job was to change my life. Something too good to be true. And when the governor sent for me and I went to him and told him, I told him, can we have the four eyes meeting? Because there's some other people. And he said, okay, so we move to a private place. I asked him, sir, is this project for real or for empowerment? He asked why. I said, if it's for real, I'll be grateful to you for the rest of my life because it's going to check my life. It's when I need money. But if it is for empowerment, I don't want because it is a project that has also benefited the poor. And I will not see myself being part of the money that is meant for the poor, that is being deployed to the rich, just so that tomorrow that man has the highest level of respect for me. And he told me what was to be done. And I was very grateful and I was really empowered. It really helped me, but it was a project that directly benefited the poor. What am I saying? You can have your own fallout as it were, but make sure that when you call the name of the poor, that the money actually gets to the poor. Don't use the name of the poor to enrich yourself. That's what's really bothering me in this whole thing. And then end up giving him a loan that he will have to come and pay all his children when you have left office and you and your children, a lot of you, are safely out of the country. How many former this or that are here with us and their children? Oh, they take off because they've created an alternate environment for themselves while they were in office. I think that this is an urgent need for us to really do things that will benefit the poor. That's really where my problem is. So the problem is not about the fact that we're boring to execute this sort of plan. The problem is that you don't trust the entire process that these funds will get to the poor. You couldn't have captured it better, exactly what it is. But what's the rationale? I know this is going to be the crux of our conversation for the first topic when we proceed, but just a little more before we move away from that. Do you think that it's rational that we probably have to bore in the first instance? Absolutely. You're taking a loan to solve the problem. And when you juxtapose that with the cost of the subsidy removal for 2023, is it not as good as saying go ahead and continue paying subsidy? I'll tell you this. One of the things I wanted to do as a governor was to get 10 people from every village. And we have 2,226 villages in our tribe. Get 10 people from each village, youths. Train them for three months. Three months training, not just throw money at them like these people are doing. Train them. Part of the training is regularity. You go to work, you go to the training by 8am. You are there till one hour break. It brings out certain things, certain disciplines in you and then tell them about bookkeeping. Tell them three solid months at the end of that period give them between 500,000 and say a million to do certain things you have trained them to do. What you end up doing is create a new class of employers who are productive in nature. Now, even the tax you get from them, which they will very happily pay because they saw country that trained them and gave them the capacity, that tax over period can even be used to aggregate the repayment of the facility. So what am I saying? There's nothing wrong in borrowing. But let the borrowing not be what we're just going to consumption, what you just take care of yourself. Let's have a little more thinking process into what we do such that it is sustainable. It creates more employment. It creates more wealth and it is sustainable and not what creates a dependency syndrome. When you dash people money, you create a dependency syndrome because when that money is gone, they will come for the next one. So away from that, the leadership is another interesting headline that you find there. It talks about post-election crisis and then the fact that there's conflict in a door, the FCT court orders some settled labor party. What do you make of this? I mean, we think that after the election, there should be peace, especially when there was a peace accord. That's a lot of rhyme. Peace with the peace accord. Yeah, the peace accord was intra-party. But the one is inter-party. And you know, I was in Akwaiboma, I was a little bit involved in the labor party thing because I was head of projects and even the minister in housing under the Big Tent. Okay? There was a relationship between my party and labor party and the other parties under what they call the Big Tent. Now, before the National Consultative Front, where Professor Patu told me was the chairman, I was the head of projects. And at the time I was the chairman of the Big Party Major Committee, you know, the Mega Party Major Committee. So I was a very vital part of it. Now, one of the understandings is that at the end of the day, there's a working relationship between the different parties. I'm one of the very few Nigerians that was openly endorsed by the obedient movement that was not in labor party. Okay? In which case it was like, when the ghetto is adopted in Akwaiboma, you know, under the labor, the obedient movement, the Big Tent. And it was done on tape by no less a person than the chairman of that whole organization, Professor Patu told me. What am I trying to say? Even with that, there were still issues of people going behind and getting certain things and levels of compromises and this and that. So there was a lot of disquiet within the labor party. That is why you would have, you know, the candidate of a Boeing state saying that he was unceremoniously removed and that his signatures were forged. So there's a lot of botched up, you know, anger, emotion by some of the members of labor party that felt they were, you know, had done by the system. And as a result, a lot of things are coming up. Now what you have as of today is too caught, one in the FCT, one in the DOS state giving conflicting statements as to the leadership of the labor party as of today. My hope and prayer is that there will be some elders that will be able to come into it and kind of put the party together because the war is not over. If they are going to the tribunal, like they've gone already, they need the party. It is a party that will go to the tribunal so they need to put themselves, their house in order. And again, one might look at the possibility of there being a fifth columnist in this whole thing. Is there any way that APC or any other party is coming into labor to destabilize the system to make sure that they are not as organized in the way they want to pursue their case at the tribunal? It's a lot of things that the labor leaders, let's say the big tens Professor Patutomi and his group have a big job to step into labor party. Even the NLC also have a big job to come in to stabilize the system so that the revolution that the labor party kind of stands for with a man like Mr. Peter will be being the face of that movement is not truncated. So we must be careful to make sure that the baby is thrown away with the bath water. I think labor party leaders need to come on board now not just to watch and see because to an extent it will reach and become too messy and the answer might not come too easily. This is the time for them to come together and decide what to do. They look at the cases in question and if there is need to advise the chairman to step aside that even also look at the other side specify them and let them be peace in the labor party. Let's get to the economy of Nigeria and that's on the Guardian. It's very very important to look at this. It talks about the fact that the reports saying that the neighbors are feeding fat on Nigeria's polyfunded inefficient seaports. However they are very expensive in South Africa in the region West Africa but they are not properly funded by the government and that does not allow for efficiency at the end of the day especially when there can be as a means of revenue contribute to development. What do you make of it? You also have statistics to this effect that for the past eight years the allocation that has gotten to airports facilities about 1.7 billion this figure has been dismissed like a drop in the ocean. Do you agree with this expert and those who are saying that our seaports are underfunded? You see the the issue of the seaports is one that needs what we call a national discourse. That's all we're having? Yes, there's a lot of things that are not straightforward with our seaports the Nigerian port authority their operations their models operandi there are many things that are just not right then the system is managed by people that don't understand how business works when you say that government has no business in business the most stupid thing I've heard because government is the management of the resources of the generality of the people and what is business? Business is making good management of the resources to the larger interests of the shareholders so within this context we now look at chapter 2 section 14 subsection 2B of the condition that says that the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government that is a matching order in business like I'm a private sector of business the matching order in business is that you've got to make profit as much profit as you can make the better for you and you can bend the law just don't break it you break the door you do the crime you do the time so what am I trying to say coming down here if we had people who think well in government they'll realize that the seaports are part of our highest revenue earning and generating system or setup in that context why is thinking shows you that if you have a cow that you milk from you have a choice either to keep draining the milk without feeding the cow and then I mean I'd like to end on this this is very important at a stage you discover that nothing is coming out but if you feed that cow well it will continue to give you more milk it's a business thinking argument if you apply that to the seaport because they generate funds for you so what do you do you make sure that you fund them well you make sure that you control them well you make sure you put systems and structures and processes well that means for transparency, accountability and happiness with the workers and what do you get in return higher returns and money and that takes somebody who thinks well but when you have people who say just bring the money just bring the money they will end up sucking that place dry not funding it and at the end of the day you don't get anything good out of it again well we have to let it go at this point in time but for me it's just I mean I continue to ask the question as to if government is really really in the business of should be in the business of managing business and they have any business in business because if you were the case government is managing your life but you can also if you look at those reports now the complaint here is that budgetary allocation to the seaports have not been anything to write them about for the past six people don't understand but then again is government then again is government is not you and I, it's the government that is making this government manages your life and mine and the most competent people should be putting there if not so you and I are then become the problem because we the elites should understand that government is the management of your life and my life and that I cannot take the risk of being where my life is managed by an incompetent person so I think we the elites need to step up to the game and make sure that whoever goes for any government office must be the brightest and the best if not so my life and your life is in trouble we have to let it go at this point I'm sure that we would have we should have a robust conversation around this issue in terms of seaports and the fact that usually the argument would be concessioning which is like a guise it feels like government is hiding under that guise to evade injection injecting funds into this sector it's like saying hey wherever your money is that's where your heart is and you know what you're coming from that area but then thank you so much for being part of the show this morning I always like to have you on the show thank you so much well that's the size of our conversation this morning on off the press we just take a breather when we return we'll dev to a first major conversation right here we'll have a guest who's a legal practitioner who joins us we need to understand what a treason is that's a very huge thing if you are declared an enemy of the states then you need to hide for your life stay with us we'll be right back after this time out