 Federal government makes a U-10 restrict airlines coming from Canada, the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia into Nigeria, with a fact from Tehran. As federal reviews, implementation of MOU asks you to decide on strike by Wednesday. Pressure amounts as President Mohamed Buhari reportedly returns electoral act amendment bill. And we will be reviewing the dailies as always with an analyst to analyse them. Welcome to the breakfast and plus TV Africa. I am Justin Al-Qadonghe. And I am Massey Boppol. It's good to be back on your screen this Monday morning. Yeah, we trust you have yourselves all rested. We'll begin as always with top trending, basically which is issues and stories that are just making the rant across various social media platforms and of course making topical conversations around the world. And one of the issues that actually caught my attention over the weekend is the COVID-19 and therefore what we hear, there are talks about expired COVID-19 in Nigeria. The federal government has actually come out to see that some of the donated vaccines under the COVAX program actually had a shorter shelf life. Massey, it's as though the COVID-19 vaccines that were sent to us under the COVAX program were almost like dumped on us. What's your reaction really? Well, you know that first of all, third world countries, we still have Niger part of it, African as a continent, as dumping ground for anything by the Western world. So I'm not surprised. We also need to understand the fact that we are not producers of this vaccine. So anything can actually happen. The fact that we're dependent entirely dependent on the powerful countries reaching mighty countries to produce this vaccine and then send it to us, the handouts. So you can actually expect that you would also have the tendency to have vaccines being sent because at the end of the day, we have constantly complained about not having enough vaccine. And we had an expert, the commissioner for health, who actually put us through the entire thing that right now we do not have enough vaccines. We're looking at what's the population of the entire country, over 211 million persons. And how much of the vaccines do we have available? So yes, that's on one hand. Because if you remember, these countries would probably have to produce enough for themselves. And when they produce, they would have to send to the countries that they probably would categorize as Ailis countries before thinking about others. And Niger, Africa would come as others. So yes, there's a tendency that that would come through. Now do you also remember that when we had the first dose that came in March, we didn't have all of this vaccine going to expire. You also want to look at the issue of the bucrisis, the entire process before it's been shipped in. All of this actually works with time. So the time of filing and documentation and having it been shipped into Nigeria and arriving is also another factor. So yes, there are a lot of issues surrounding the fact that we have about one million or there are about over one million doses of expired vaccine in Nigeria, which is an entire waste, if you ask me. Because we have actually waste money. If, I mean if and if we're saying that it was just really charity that donated that to us, we didn't have to pay from the coffers of the Federation accounts. So on the other hand, so you look at the entire process and procedure of trying to get the vaccine down to Nigeria. That's on the one hand. And also look at on the other hand, the fact that Africa as a continent and Nigeria is a has always been a dumping ground. So yes, that's also on the other hand. And you also want to look at another factor. Now, you know that vaccine hesitancy or COVID-19 misinformation is such a huge deal. A lot of persons have not been vaccinated, not necessarily because, yes, we understand that the vaccines are not really enough. But on the other hand, a lot of people have some conspiracy theory and misinformation surrounding the vaccine. So on that other hand, it is also dependent on the Ministry of Information and Orientation. And I constantly ask myself, across the entire country, we do have all of these ministries, salaries have been gotten. What effort? Because I haven't seen, we ought to see a lot of advocacy, government pushing all of the campaigns, advocacy to ensure that we disabuse all of the misinformation surrounding COVID-19 and, of course, the vaccine itself. So we haven't really done so much. No, we haven't. And the issues for me right now, it is really alarming that we're talking about not less than one million doses of COVID-19 vaccine in a time when the federal government is also talking about giving some people booster shots. So then again, I'm thinking that we don't have enough vaccines to go around for some people who have not even got it, the first doses, even second dose. So next thing you're thinking of a booster shot. So how do you match all of this? You have expired COVID-19 vaccines just in front of you. Weren't there enough plannings before that? You talked about delays in shipment and all of that. My problem is that you should factor in time getting these vaccines into the country, check the shelf life of the vaccine. I know exactly how to go about it. And then again, you are actually saying that civil servants who have not been vaccinated should not be allowed entry into workplaces. I just don't get how it works when you've not made enough provision to ensure that the average Nigerian gets vaccinated. On top of that, you have issues of COVID-19, I mean, vaccines that almost expire. Why would you think some people will not even want to get vaccinated when they hear of all of these issues of the vaccines that we have in the country expired? Don't you think I might get affected? I might get one form of disease. Some people are not even well educated concerning all of this. So now we have this on our table. So you know that on the other hand, I mean, generally we have a big issue of trust. There's trust deficit. And that's why every time you have government coming out with policies, government making statement, and what have you, people take it with a pinch of salt. Do you do? Now, I'm thinking that since we actually had the outbreak of this virus, that's COVID-19, we probably would have been on top of our toes. Serious advocacy. I'm saying serious one. Because for every time you have misinformation, you will need a very strong information to counter your existing thought pattern. So you probably need to push something out to change the narrative. And so you know that what people constantly hear, what you constantly listen to, what you constantly hear over time would form a belief system. So we need to find the way to change. And that's solely on government. Yes, I'm not going to say as much as I would give government the bulk of the game. And that's why you have the Ministry of Information and Orientation. And I constantly ask myself, how much of this advocacy have we carried out? Not necessarily we would also say yes, the urban centers and the rural community. We haven't done enough. So that's also a case because you also have vaccines that you've gotten that are not even enough. And then you have not been able to convince people to get it. Then you begin to use the false approach and saying, oh, if you don't get it and all of that. We also had people reacting saying, we got that vaccine in November. And some other persons are saying, the first dose that we got were also told that the vaccine would have expired. You're also in the same November. So we cannot be careless about all of these things. But Justin, as much as we're highly dependent on the Western world for vaccine, all of this is expected. You can't because it might just be a week to it. And then they push it down to you. What would you do? You're not going to be even with your money. That's the point because so it brings us back to that conversation where we constantly say for how long will Africa as a continent and Nigeria constantly depend on the Western world? Don't we have what it takes for us to come up with a vaccine? We have on virologists. We have scientists. Why are we not really exploring so that we could actually, over time, not depend on handouts and things just been dumped on us so that whatever we see is what we get. No, we should move away from that. The conversation right now should be, what investment are we putting towards research and development into creating our own vaccine? So that way we would know that whatever we're consuming is made from us and we are sure of the authenticity and all of that you get. Very correct. Let's move away from that because I don't want to get so agitated about that because it actually bugs me so much. Another story message that is actually trending is it is funny. Today is the 13th of the 7th. Two days to go. It was a sweat day to Christmas. And about 18 days to the end of the year. A lot of people are actually doing an end of year activities. People are sending hampers. People are sending out gifts. Have you got sent hampers already? Well, I have some. Don't ask me. I'm not going to show you. But people are already getting Christmas gifts and people are getting batch of rice, vegetable ois and a lot of things that come with the season. But the story right now is that it was actually someone in the presidential Amnesty Committee program. They have plans to spend $100, wait for it Mercy. They're spending a whopping sum of $187 million there to organize end of year activities. Mercy. Everyone's going to get a cow each or something. Well, but first of all, if you want to, how much? No, wait, wait, it's not going to get to me. You are getting some cows. Nothing has ever come to my table. I've never gotten anything, all right? How much are we looking at again? $187 million for end of year activities. $187 million. Let's be very realistic. Maybe you need to make some excuse for them, because if you also look at the cost of goods and services across the spin in reality that the price of goods and services has skyrocketed. And you want to agree with me. So maybe that's just enough. But it also reminds me of at a time where I was in school and the first class I had to attend, I had a lecturer who asked a question. He said, who can define what an Oambe government is? So he was asking the question of what is an Oambe government? And that really got to me. So I said party, because I know Oambe has to do with party. So Oambe government party. The truth is, as much as I would want to say yes, the cost of goods and services is actually on the high. And you want to look at what the value of the naira is right now that might just be on the right track. But on the other hand, you find that we spend so much on things that are not very relevant. That's what I would call it. I'm not saying it's not important for them to actually have end-of-year spending and what-have-you. But you see, I'm thinking that if you look at our budgets year in, year out, or you'll find that we spend so much money on things that are not infrastructural development. So you want to look at the capital budget and the capital expenditure and the recurrent expenditure. And you find that we spent so much on the recurrent. And the recurrent would include the cost of running governance, administration, paying salaries, and all of the spendings that we have. And all of this does not translate. They would ask you, show me a country that is willing to show me a country that is headed towards development. And you would see a country that spends a huge chunk of a budget for infrastructure or that's capital. Because at the end of the day, it would translate into infrastructures. You would see them. And business, individual, private sectors would thrive. And they would also translate into some kind of economic development for everyone. But we usually just spend monies on things that are not very relevant. So it's okay. We're going to eat rice. We're going to have chicken and what have you. And you're going to have the cows and blah, blah, blah. Then we get back to the same cycle. Also, it's usually the cost. I'm not saying there's anything. First of all, I'm not saying there's something wrong with all of that. But I'm also saying that look at how much we're putting out there, right? So you want to begin to ask yourself instead of you, what is the salaries? What are they earning? Those who are earning, how much is their salaries at this point in time? What is the working condition for all of them? Because instead of having all of that together, I think that we can digest, you know, push, that shift all of that monies and resources, you know, to ensuring that they have a working, better working condition. The road infrastructure is working life is comfortable. They have access to education, their kids, you know, health infrastructure and all of that. There will be no need for all of that because you as an individual will be able to cater for buying a bag of rice and salt. I don't figure my point. So if we take care of, you know, the basic things, the real issues, I'm not sure it would be difficult for any family to say we can afford rice. We can afford, you know, chicken and what have you. Not a problem, but it's fine. All right, fine. 187 million will be actually following that story and we will also bring you details, you know, of how the money is going to be expended, maybe on rice, chicken or free harvest, but then we'll let you know how it progresses. Finally, Merci, we spoke about this sometime last weekend that it is coming up again. Asu is still the side, you know, their fate or what they would do if we're looking at another strike come Wednesday, that's December 15th. You know, last weekend, the, the ultimatum they gave to the federal government indeed expired and they said we're going to come up with your position. Somebody right now, they said they will be decided by December 15th and Merci does not really look good. From all that we have seen, from what we know from the body language and from several MAs are being signed, most times these agreements are not actually, you know, let's. And it's okay to come back on another strike. We will continue in this second. We'll constantly go in second. You will be at home forever. Well, it is not the first time, it's not the second, it's not the third. We haven't talked about the need for our kids not to be at home. So it's not a big deal. I mean, it's no longer a big deal. It has become part of our culture. It has become part of, you know, the educational system in Nigeria. Strike humans actually anticipate strike. It's a normal for us. And because we're not seeing it as an abnormal, and I tell you that I, you know, the fact that we constantly have to even talk about this on national television calls for, it triggers me. It really triggers me. And I would say this, it is irresponsible for any party not to respect agreement. And over time, our government has never respected agreement. It is totally wrong. We still talk about the fact that we have a problem of huge trust deficit. You don't respect agreement. It is not responsible. Government has not lived. I do not understand why we're still dragging issues from 2009 with ASU up until this point. Okay, so yes, ASU wouldn't back on that strike. Well deserved. It's normal. It's something that we have come to live with. As a matter of fact, I think it's part of our culture. Let's constantly enjoy it until we understand the need for us to respect agreement. The need for us to pay attention to the educational system. Well, I agree that we need to respect agreement but the federal government should actually do something right now because our education system is actually getting to be in shambles. That is much we will take on top trending. Well, get on a quick break when we return. I'll be going to see what the papers are about this morning on Off The Press and we have a public affairs analyst, O'Connor Boinkotaria, who will be joining us in a moment. Stay with us. It's still the breakfast on Plus TV Africa.