 It's the breakfast and plus TV Africa time for worth the press as always we'll take you through the pages of a national dailies and have a guess make sense of all of the big stories. Ezekiel I took a public affairs analysis and standby. It's good to have you join us Ezekiel I took good morning. Good morning. Okay. So we take a look at the daily independent newspaper this morning and I will be looking at the bull's story on a daily independent national assembly rear amends electoral act amendment bill that's the boat caption underneath the several riders. Senate approves direct indirect consensus for party primaries. House of representatives adopt direct indirect primaries. These are riders you find underneath the boat caption. Home invasion by military court orders federal government to pay Namdi Khan one billion Naira alleged terrorist canary reign again and trial continues February 16 five count charge what tree and baseless and this is what the defendant is quoted to say Mike confusion as last minister differ on removal or feel subsidy. And so the big question is who is in control who is calling the shots in a country of 200 and almost 11 people 211 million people by the way. Security forces killed 1,400 civilians in 14 months in southeast right groups quoted and gunmen enforcing sit at home order kill APC youth leader another in a new go. National rise development council to save Nigeria two billion dollar yearly and that's what the Senate is quoted to say and Lagos acquires to tango trains. Bala Ahmed's associates split over or see ban just alleged presidential bead. I don't want anyone to create an enmity between myself and to noble a day is quoted on that Nigeria maintained clean sheets and group stage in style talking about that game that happened yesterday but that's the much we can take on the daily independent to this morning. All right let's go straight to the punch and look at the stories and on the headlines on the front page of the punch newspaper and of course the electoral act amendment leads the headlines on the front page of that newspaper. Senate bows to Buhari includes consensus for party primaries. Senate bows to Buhari includes consensus for party primaries. Senate adds consensus to House of Reps direct indirect primaries proposal. Consensus will subvert popular will antithetical to democratic principles CSOs is what they are saying about that. At the top of the paper on the front page Nigerian passengers face hitches as airlines suspend US flights over 5G rollout very interesting but also worrying times Nigerian passengers face hitches as airlines suspend US flights over 5G rollout. That story details can be found on page 17 of the punch. Fuel subsidy, NEC considers report today, TUC meets, Ascon threatens showdown. PVCs have not expired and a counters tunable and FG to establish 18 modular refineries in all producing states. Cooking gas demands surges over NLNG's 100% domestic supply. My presidential bid after APC convention bellow is a picture there of the legacy governor Babajideh Somolu in Milwaukee, the United States of America inspecting those trains that are destined for Lagos with part of the Lagos metro red line and of course the Lagos state government sprain effort to publicize that. More headlines, a man who all confessed to killing mother with stick, dumping body and bush remanded. Three of the teachers beaten by hard thugs, parents arrested. Another one, federal government charges not worth defending, Kanu tells court gets February date. Reps order probe of Malami IG's involvement in Maguro estate dispute that can be found at the bottom of the front page. Another one at the bottom of the front page, a Lagos domestic worker flees with 13.9 million dollar cash, jury one week after resumption, wow. And returning officer told me 2003 governorship results ready before election, Oshoba recounting his experience. Those are the headlines on the front page of the punch newspaper. All right, let's take a look at the leadership newspaper this morning, ex generals, governor's regional groups may determine 2023 presidency. More foreign countries to participate in Kaduna trade fair. And another bold caption says, electoral bill, NAS pushes choice of primaries to parties. APC denies zoning positions, releases timetable for convention, according to the APC that convention happened on 26th of February. APC women seeks review of parties constitution and you also have federal government bans, rise in petition through seaports. That's it on the leadership newspaper this morning. And finally, we take a look at the headlines on the front page of the nation. It leads with this one, governor's Titan grip on APC ahead of convention. Governor's Titan grip on APC ahead of convention. And it follows with the sub headline state helps meant to shut list two aspirants for chair zoning battle rages and convention guidelines out details on the front page as well as page four of the nation newspaper. Still with the 2023 elections, Zynaq warns parties against conducting primaries outside a kitty. Oh, sure. Okay, these is ahead of the governorship elections coming in that state. Another one at the top of the front page, EFCC quizzes, AMCON MD oversold assets. Canoes trial continues February 16 and table clarifies position on PVC, a bit of a diplomatic take on that episode by the nation newspaper. Those are some of the headlines. At the bottom of the page, we have reps probe AGF IG over Maguro Lagos incident. And he goes take all nine points. Of course, it will be complete without pictures from the governor of Lagos states visit to Milwaukee to sign a contract to buy two planes to trains for Lagos state. It's all good. Merci. Very interesting. But let's quickly, you know, have is he can I took share his thoughts on some of the big stories on the dailies this morning. Once again, thank you for joining us. Always a pleasure. Okay. So let's take a look at which of the stories interest you as we went through the pages of a national dailies. There's a first that does not have a second or a third after the first. The next one is a feed and that has to do with the electoral deal. I want to say that Nigerians must learn to have their eyes on the ball. Politicians are extremely good at what they do, which is play politics, not governance. Right now we know what happened and I want us to follow these very carefully. There was the plan by the public for us to have direct transmission of results. The National Assembly rejected outright. There was this terrible public outcry that we wanted it. Then I said, okay, we'll give it to you. But at the time minutes, the smuggled in the issue of direct primaries, it wasn't a coincidence, it wasn't an accident, it was a well thought out plan. Knowing they've got to play the good cup and the bad cup and the new day timing, Mr. President, unfortunately for me, was in on the game. So that very contentious issue was thrown in. Knowing very well that Mr. President will have that to play with. So Mr. President kept it till the very last day, knowing the timetable or the schedule of activities of the National Assembly. And when he sent it back, the National Assembly said, oh, we've got to go on recess. So they left it. Now we in the civil society, we continue to mount pressure, mount pressure, mount pressure and say, look, we've come to agree. We had a town hall meeting plus the Africa was part of it and the whole media. We had a town hall meeting. I was one of those that spoke at that town hall meeting. And then we said, you know what, leave out the contentious issue. We've agreed to lose that for today and life right another day. Let's not throw the baby with the bath water. Eventually they reconvened after they explained about how many seven weeks were there about, which they had enough time to talk, to discuss, to do whatever they wanted to do. One expected, we even went ahead to do a clean copy where even the typos and every single part that had conflict will resolve everything, gave them a clean copy. What we expected was it takes just a day to go through a man and then send back. But guess what has happened? They have very, very consciously, deliberately, intentionally produced two versions, which was absolutely unnecessary in the first instance, because they had meeting. I can tell you that even up to the previous night, they couldn't have been staying without Malami, the AGF, the Mr. President, the Senate President, the Speaker of the House without sitting down over this period. I mean, I would like them to tell and I didn't sit down and say, OK, this is what they're going to do. And what I see is another game. So as soon as they arrived, they now passed two different bills. Follow the progress. So there's going to be that offsetting of a committee to reconcile and come with a position, OK, which is absolutely unnecessary. Now we're going to go on that discussion. They are going to take us on that journey and time is going to go. And at the end of the day, they are going to come at a resolution and time is going. Every single step of the way makes Nigerians to lose confidence by their own calculation. But we Nigerians, and some papers have said that the National Assembly bows to Mr. President, and that's a wrong narrative. They're all on the same page. They are bowing to public outcry, not to Mr. President, because if Mr. President was on the page of the public, he would have told them what to do. He tells him to jump, and they say, how high? So if Mr. President didn't tell them what to do, it means he's in on the game. And if he had told them what to do, they would just go to the floor of the house. You know how they pass it in bills like that. You know how they even stay back to pass budget. We know how they play this game. So when they start to say, oh, I think it's X, I think it's Y, OK, we're trying to reconcile. We're trying to come together. It's a lie. So my own advice to the public today is one expression, eyes on the ball. You see that electoral amendment, electoral transmission of results at all. We are going to have it. It's going to be done. Whatever it takes, we are going to do everything within the laws peacefully to ensure that maximum pressure is brought on the National Assembly, on the presidency, on the governor's forum, on everybody to make sure that they bow to the will of the people. It's been established without any ambiguity that the people want direct transmission of results from the polling booth. Leave everything. We'll face that some other time. Interesting. Your take and, of course, analysis of the motives of these politicians. But, well, for now, it's still there. Our clause is still there, particularly the electronic transmission of results. But now we see a move or shift in position from the clause for direct primaries as a requirement for election of party candidates to a software approach, which is a direct or liberal approach for the parties to choose what they want to do, which is direct indirect primaries. And then the Senate adding consensus candidates. Mr. Nyaito, your take on this inclusion of consensus candidates. It's part of the game. It's all part of the delay process. Simply, you know, we all know that there are only three options available to the party. There are only three direct, indirect consensus. It's only three. Simply say that the party shall adopt any method that they find appropriate. Simple. Or you just leave it out completely. It's a given. You don't need to state it. Mr. President, you take it back now. And Mr. President says, no, we don't like consensus. I don't think, after keeping it for first, they are going to use another two weeks to debate it. After the two weeks, they send it to Mr. President. He gives it for another 30 days. On the last day, he now says, no, no, no, we don't want this issue of consensus. Just take it out. I had told you to take it out. Just take it out. That's all I want. And then they bring it back to the National Assembly. And they say, no, President, we're not going to accept this. This is becoming too much. You are being authoritarian. You know, good cop, bad cop, they do like they are so angry. They are so upset. It's a lie. They are not. It's a game. And then part of that legislation says that money should be released to INE, not less than a year. And then they'll tell, oh, suddenly, it's less than a year. We're going to have to have that part, expunge again. So take it back. It again. This guy cannot stand the concept of direct transmission of results from the polling booth. They can't. That's just the issue here. So all of this game that you are playing, we've got to be like the sons of Isaka that can discern the signs of the times. So you're saying that this is a bit like what happened, I think, in 2015 or so, where they said, OK, the time is too short to implement card readers and all that. But yesterday, when we had, we spoke with the commissioner for information and voter education and some of these concerns were raised. He said, whether or not as much as we're still hoping that the bill would be amended and, of course, it would be passed, so we can actually have that particular clause, the direct transmission of results, which is top on that electoral act amendment. He said that internal mechanisms of INEC itself can allow the government to release funds. He said that there were laws, internal laws and legislations that can go ahead to allow funds to be released and allow them the use of the beavers and what have you. I want to use a nice word. He's being extremely diplomatic walking the thin line. If a law is passed today, that INEC should be funded one year to elect a job and we lose one year by one day, it's a default on the law. And on account of that, somebody can take that to the court. But we don't want that. Don't tell me about internal mechanism. Just sign this law, let everybody know what is on the table. Put it out there, sign this thing, let's move on. Why are you scared? What's scaring you? What are you afraid of? What are you, what's your concern? Mr. President, take it off. We say, take it off. Take it off, we've agreed. Just give us direct transmission of results from the polling booth. If the parties want to use, we can't get everything right first time. I was in the whole of Nigerian Bar Association, the Nigerian Union of Journalists, the Nigerian Labour Congress. These are the three main arms of the people's assembly. And then the rest of us that represented several constituencies, we all came in for two hours. It was live on virtually all the stations. And we arrived at a consensus. Take off the contentious issue. Let Mr. President sign it. After 2023, we would have put it. Jega gave us very good reasons. And I agree with you on why some of these things should not be there for now. We will now start to make sure that INEC makes it mandatory for all parties to have party registers, based on which you cannot have direct primaries. So let's win step one. We now go to step two. And then we go to step three. For now, please, National Assembly, take off that contentious issue. Give that bill to Mr. President. Let him sign it. There are too many good things for us to be speculating and gesticulating and going around all these things that are absolute distractions. Okay, Mr. Yatuk, for now, the bill will be including if the both houses in the conference committee agree on this issue of consensus, because that was not in the one passed by the House of Reps, but it was included in the one passed by the Senate. And the President signs it will be having on paper in black and white that parties can elect consensus or select consensus a candidate. Some suicide organizations in the immediate reaction to this said this will subvert the will of the people and is antithetical to democratic principles. What do you say to this? Let me tell you, let me tell you, let me tell you, that's a lie. That's not the position of civil societies. I know what I'm saying that. You know, there are different types of civil societies. There's a part that the government uses to push their narrative. Civil societies say, and I say it very, very, I wanted to quote me verbatim. They said, take off that aspect and give it to Mr. President to sign. They are trying to give us a new narrative to start to talk about and distract. It's a game. We've seen through it. There's no civil society saying anything. When we are saying take it off, take it off, take it off, you know, the mass singers, take it off, give it to Mr. President, let him sign it. Now you go and harmonize and say, okay, let us add consensus. You send it to Mr. President. And he said, you guys, you're just wasting my time. I had told you, take this thing off. I'm not gonna sign it. Nigerians are gonna sign with Mr. President because he said so. Okay, is it, yeah, I took, for the want of time and the fact that we need to look at all the issues. Let's quickly check out the leadership newspaper. Now, there's some school of thought that is saying that ex-generals, governors, and regional groups made the timing the 2023 presidency. We'd like to share your thoughts on that. Also, you also have some people saying that we should tax, Nigerians should tax, on capacity, character, and stakeholders of these power brokers. For those who are coming to declare their intention and saying, hey, I want to become president, I want to become governor, and what have you. Some other school of thought are saying we should be looking at their character, their capacity to perform. What are your thoughts on this? Thank you. You know, I had a discussion with a senator that actually gave me what I may call sleep. It annoyed me in a very, very, very uncontrollable moment, almost. And that discussion, he said something very simple. Look, architect, the entrenched interest is so much that you're not going to let go. Forget this issue of third force and things like that. The entrenched system will not let go. And we're running narratives without thinking of the implication. The prognosis of such a statement, what they are telling you is that in this country, as are today, what you want, what you think, what you wish is absolutely irrelevant. What is important is their entrenched interest. The prognosis again of this is that we're all so dumb, so stupid, we don't have the capacity to think. We don't have a mind of our own. We are like robots. We are like puppets pulled by the strings by these people. 200 million extremely cerebral people. You see, there's a difference between education and literacy. Even in the village, go and see the way the people do things. They are educated, they are thoughtful. That they may not go to read and write, does not mean that they are not educated. They may not be literate. Nigerians can think. You have some of the most cerebral people inside the villages because they do very unique things. What am I trying to say? The time has come when you and I must stop running their narrative. We must stop saying the things they want us to say. How can you tell me that 2023 is going to be decided by generals, by governors, by pressure interest groups? Do you know what the subtle message that is sending is telling you guys, forget it, don't even waste your time. Leave this thing from the beginning. But is that not a reality? As much as that doesn't sound very interesting, has that not, no, no, no, is it a difference? No, but has that not been a reality over time? Has that not been the issue? I wish you can just hear me this. Okay. There is a difference between our reality and our challenge. Our reality is that we're poor. Our challenge is that we cannot stay down and be poor. We can do something about it. I can sit down here and tell you about my reality and sit down and talk about the problems of Nigeria. Oh, there's poverty, there's no power, there's this, there's that. You whine, that's our reality. Before goodness and leadership is about our challenges. Our challenges is that democracy is something that's owned by the people and that you and I that are enlightened should step up and tell the people, I go around the villages, I talk to the people and their mouth drops and they're white. I tell them, a governor is your boy, a governor is your servant, a governor is your person. And I tell them, this 2009 that you collect, be willing to use it for the next four years. And they're like, wow, can that be changed? I say, yes. When Mr. President signs this bill, your vote will count. He said, will you sign it? That's what everybody's asking. Let Mr. President sign it. All of us in the civil society will go back to our villages. This is not a television radio thing. No, it's about, today I'm going to run. Yesterday, not on yesterday, on Tuesday, I went to three local governments in all one nation. I went to the villages and that's what I do every day. I'm a professional, I'm not a government person. I am somebody who is passionate about this country and all of us need to stand up and seize our space. Look, the position does not pay the school fees of the people in my area, I do. It does not feed them, I do. And yet on election day, he takes the center stage and I take the back seat. I mean, it's sick, it's sick me. It's unacceptable. You there, my sister, mercy. You know the pressure that is put on you by the people around you, by your sisters, by your uncles, by your relations. You know how many school fees you're paying. Everybody, you know what they're doing. Coffee, you are the same thing. The pressure is put on you. And when election comes, you just sit back and allow one man, one local guy in your village who is a political labor monk who, you know, he takes and he decides the direction and puts more pressure on you on a daily basis. We've got to say no. We've got to stand up. All we, the elites, we need to wake up. We need to stand up. We need to seize our space. We take care of those people. So we're gonna determine which direction they go. Our reality and our challenge must come to a point when we decide whether we want to keep mourning about Nigeria being the poorest country in the world or we look at the other side at the office of the city and talk to these people and bring them. Nigerians are enlightened. They just want to be given the right information and they will go in the right way. All right. Before we move on to other things, I just want to go back to the final story from the front page of the leadership beef stripper. I may say you touched on this while going through them, man. The All Progressives Congress Convention has been a very, very contentious issue. Even the PDP after they conducted a convention. We're not magnanimous in victory, but through one of the APC challenging them to try to organize a successful convention. Well, yesterday on the front pages, we saw that the APC, we heard, we're told that they had zoned the chairman's position to the North Central. Right now today on the front page of the leadership newspaper, we're seeing Boone or this headline, APC denies zoning positions, releases timetable for convention. What's to take on this issue of zoning of the parties or the chairmanship position of the leading parties, namely the APC and the PDP as it affects the outcome of their party primary to elect the presidential candidate? You see, let me say this. It's also an enlightened note, but it's like using a small voice to say something serious. The problem of APC is still in the gym. It's still doing press-up. The TV building must do the wall and never start. What is on ground for APC, you understand me? I came here at the beginning of 2019 after Mr. President took the second term, you know, started his second term. I said APC, half strategic thinkers. APC, Mr. President is not going to be on your ballot in 2023. Start to move the narrative into issues, into persons that you'll be able to project and continue. Up till today, APC is still running on Mr. President, Mr. President, and it's starting to dawn on them that if this man goes back to Dauran to face his 150 cows, you understand me? They're gonna have a problem and it's already bursting on all seams. The camps are already split and politics is a game of numbers. Now, back to go to the convention who so ever has, you know, they have blocks. Whoever has the structure of the party, the other is not gonna want to agree. They're gonna be disenfranchised and what happened to PDP is gonna happen to them. A couple of governors, stakeholders, take for instance today, you say, Mr. Tinubu, you can't have the ticket or Mr. Tinubu sees that his camp has lost out in the primaries and the primary says the structure, but now that they've said you can have direct or indirect or even consensus, whichever team hijacks the convention, your candidate is gonna win. Imagine a situation where Tinubu's team loses out. What is gonna happen? It's gonna sit down there and clap for them. No, and it's a major principality in the party. Others are gonna say, guy, come, let's work together. These guys have worked against you and it's gonna happen. My name is Zikia, but I'm not exactly a prophet because this is not even prophecy. It's just what you don't need to be. There's no rocket science, as it's normally said. So APC has problems on their hands. The issue is this, if you say you send the presidency to the south, what if another party brings a very strong candidate from the north? What's gonna be the sentiment like? So they are torn. They're trying to move Nigerians to say, don't worry, it must go this way, but they are not even in tune. Because if they were, they would have taken a certain decision to work on the sentiment of the public, zone into the southeast in particular. But if you look at all their equation, the people involved are Southwest, okay? You have my old guy Tinubu, you have my old guy Sibangio. These are the two big names that they are parodying. One or two will pick up with time. All Southwest, they have not in the equation brought in somebody from the southeast, seriously. So that sentiment of let it come to the south, we in the south and southeast, we're asking Southwest has had eight years as governor or as president, eight years as president. South has had six years as governor and then a little bit of it as vice president, you know, as president and vice president. Southeast has had none at all. So if it's coming to the south, they should go to. So their concept of sentiment is not well packaged. And then their concept of numbers, that is what they are trying to see. If sentiment has failed, can we go back to numbers? That's why you have somebody like Yahya Bello, you know, coming up and strong. And let me tell you that at the end of the convention, what's gonna happen is that we have AAPC that is so disorganized in so much disarray that anybody that picks up the third force and brings in, breaking them from AAPC and they break away from PDP, you know, and gets it act right in terms of policies and programs and things that will get the people talking about the character of the persons, which is where the civil society is going with respect to personality. We want to know your character, your capacity, your capability, the courage that we have. That's what we want to know. So we're going to start driving the narrative amongst along the lines of personality because money, you know, you just say it's something that, oh, Mr. Tinibu has so much structure, so much structure. Structure to win. But what we want is structure to govern, structure to preside over the country. That is the next narrative, you know, structure of to win election. That's politics. We want structure for good governance, capacity. Do you have the character? Do you have the capacity? Do you have the capability? Do you have the courage at a time like this? How informed are you? How fit are you? Because they're going to have to walk 25 hours as a president today. Mr. Yatuk, so it means you, on behalf of civil society, are agreeing with what the leadership has in front page. Basically, you're agreeing with the ex generals, you're agreeing with the governors, you're agreeing with the regional groups who are set to be determining the 2023 presidency. And we'll add the civil society there. That, you know, as parents must be chosen on capacity, character, rather than where they come from. But some people have a problem with the civil society. You know, that is all huff, huff, huff, and puff, no action. Really, it's all about talk, talk, talk. But at the end of the day, we don't see any impact from civil society. You see, what has been is not necessarily what will be. A time comes, it's a pressure, an expression I love to bring out. What has been is not always necessarily what will be. That is why a day came when the youth of this country shocked us with the ENSA movement. It shows the potentials that we have. So all it needs is for men and women of conscience or women and men of conscience to stand up and feel in the garb. The time is right. Mr. Yertuk, Mr. Yertuk, when they sought to interrupt you, so when the young people came out on the streets and stood the nation to a standstill, like you said, where were the civil society groups that we know? Where were they that the young people were left on the streets on their own? The voices we know, the people who come out to the front when civil society issues are talked about, those who have the major donor funding, where were they? Until today, until today, we have a process that has said, people were killed and the government has rejected that and statements have been made by government rejecting all that. And civil society has not basically done nothing about it. And we're talking about fighting an election to bring our people of good character in Nigeria by the same civil society organizations, Mr. Yertuk. It's a good question, amazing question. But Nigeria is a country that evolves. Sometimes it's almost a country of anti-climax. That's why I'm one of those in the school of thought that Nigeria is a client nation for God. One day, PDP thought that they would be in power for 60 years, they thought it could never happen. But one day, a group of people just came wanting together, whom they hit a narrative, it resonated with the people and what happened, a sitting president was removed. If that could be done, it can be replicated. If it has happened before, it can happen again. So I like the fact that they say, where were they? But I also like what I'm seeing, the meetings we are attending, the results that we are getting, the pressure is being brought back. I know how this issue of direct transmission of results came back to the table. In this country, it was thrown out. We said, no, it's not gonna be thrown out. We know how it will be brought back. This is phase one. We also have phase two. Let the candidates come out. And what we are telling parties is be careful. Be careful because we are going to, it is person not party. That is the campaign that we are launching. Person not party, the hashtag we train. Because at the end of the day, don't tell me because you are the ruling party. You're gonna bring everybody, or you're the second big party. You're gonna throw anybody first. And Nigerians don't have a choice. They've got to go to either APC or PDT. I'm telling you that they will be in for a rude shock. Let them just bring up the candidates. There is a phase three. That phase three will be unveiled when the candidates come up. But the ground swelling has begun. Nigeria will have a coach that can take us out of poverty. Just like we are looking for a coach that will take us to the World Cup. Now we are looking for a coach for Nigeria. We have to call it a wrap here now. Thank you so much for being part of the conversation. Always a fantastic time speaking with you and having you share your thoughts on some of those national issues. We do appreciate, and we look forward to having more of you on the show. Thank you, thank you. It's been such a privilege. All right. Quite sadding that talking about staying with police brutality and the fact that the rights group have reported 14,000 civilians have been killed by security forces. And even despite the harsh against us protests, police brutality continues. And I recently remembered the experience I had. First-hand, seeing a police shooter go on at Leckie. I can't recover from that shock in any time. Where are the civil society groups we're talking about? Where are they? We're involving them who are definitely killed. It goes beyond having meetings in hotels and drinking tea. We see them. We need to move away now. All right, let's tell you what happened today in history. And when we return, we'll be heading straight to your very first major conversation right here on the breakfast. Please stay tuned.