 According to the Foreign Affairs Minister, Nigeria is witnessing huge investments under the Tenubu administration. And in Lagos, the commissioner of budget planning has said that the bulletproof SUV we bought is not for the chief of staff before his office says a queer judge. Well, of course, we're going to have off the press where we look at headlines from our national daily. And we hope that it's going to be a bumper harvest for you if you stay on till the end. My name is Nyam Gul Agadjou, welcoming you to the breakfast on Thursday morning. My name is Rameh Holson. Good morning. Okay, today is a very, very interesting day. You know, every day is a very interesting day. Like the same scripture, the Lord created everything and he saw that it was good, which means every day is good. It's just your ability to tap into the goodness of the day that makes the difference. We hope that you're positioned enough to tap into this goodness. And at the end of the day, testimonies will be told about whatever. Amen. I'm being, you know, tantravaru. Okay, so we'll move immediately to the top trending issues. By the way, we sincerely apologize for beginning a little bit late. Now, the Lagos state governor, Babaji Desong Walu, has said no administration is immune to mistakes. The governor said this while reacting to the outrage from Nigerians after the procurement record released by the Lagos State Public Procurement Agency showed some outrageous amounts were located for some items in the state budget. The governorship candidate of the Action Democratic Congress ADC in Lagos, Fonshaw Doherty, had written an open letter to the state government asking why such amounts of money were located. The state procurement records showed the governor approved 7.5 million Naira to replace liquid fragrance in his office and 3.3 billion to purchase rechargeable funds for the office of his deputy, Yobafemi Hamzat. Other contracts awarded by the state's Public Procurement Agency PPA in the second and third quarters of 2023 had included approval of over 440 million Naira for the purchase of a new Lexus LX600 bulletproof spot utility vehicle for use in the pool of the office of the chief of staff. The office of the chief of staff also got 18.5 million Naira for the supply and distribution of 2,000 Neola chickens across local government areas and wards in the state. The governor in a statement by his spokesman Boyega Koshile noted that the controversy was unnecessary, stressing that the state had nothing to hide in its public expenditure. Officers in the Lagos State or in Lagos have come out to show that there could be mistakes on some lines of items. So when you said Lagos had maintained open books for checks and balances pointing out that the state had judiciously appropriated funds for projects and services that benefit the residents. He assured that his government will continue to publish its pending and keep it open for public scrutiny. It's a good thing that they are being open about it and sometimes I love. I don't know how I always say this. I don't know how people in government think. I don't know the thought process that they have. Maybe it's different from what we have and I don't know why. There are some things that having that kind of scary amount to buy fragrance and to buy rechargeable funds for an office that has been in existence for a long time. And I'm sure in the last budget it was there. The budget before last it was there. They have to renew the every year. Where do the old ones go to? They give it out for charity. Oh, just like the chickens. You know the chickens don't have to slaughter them when they're eating them. They need something else in the tummy. Ah, roommate or bad. I mean we have to make excuses for them. Okay, very good. I guess that said, I think something that triggered me was the fact that I said the controversy was unnecessary. That kind of triggered me a little bit. Yeah. And I'm like, it's taxpayer's money. How can you, just like Bade Borot's rival said, the governorship candidate of Labour Party, he said he was trying to give a graphic account of how you can make that kind of a mistake. Two billion for something that they said should have been two million. Two million has six zeros for crying out loud. Yeah. How do you even make that type of mistake? It's very, it's crazy. Even if we're talking about the rechargeable funds, if we're talking about one amount, that's different. There's a lot of things, like lots of items that are just exorbitant. So how do you reconcile that? I mean, I'm not very good at accounting, but how do you reconcile that? Anyway, we'll be talking more about that on our first hot topic, or second hot topic this morning. We'll be looking at the fact that the state government is denying some of these things and saying that they are mistakes. Only God knows how many mistakes they have done over the years, and then went through with it because they wouldn't come back to tell us that this was a mistake. So they just went ahead because that money was approved. Somebody must have signed it with a mistake inside. Okay, let's move over to our next up trending story. The federal government slashes wages by 100 billion. Labor Union on Wednesday lambasted the federal government for slashing the supplementary budget allocation for wage awards to federal civil servants by 100 billion nair. Warning that this was not the agreement they had with the government. The data obtained from the newly revised 2023 supplementary budget indicated that the government swapped the controversial 5 billion nair, presidential yacht votes for navy badges, increased the budget for defense from 476.54 billion to 546.21 billion nair, and earmatched 20 billion nair as capital supplementation for the National Intelligence Agency. The recently approved 2.1 trillion nair 2023 supplementary budget was marred with controversy following the discovery of similarly extravagant items, forcing an amendment by the National Assembly. In the proposed document, the four month wage award was to cost the federal government around 210 billion nair. However, the approved and newly revised document showed that it would now cost the federal government about 110 billion nair. Also, in the revised budget, the Ministry of Defense budget rose from 476.54 billion to 546.21 billion nair, indicating an additional allocation of 69.67 billion nair. Under the ministry, the Nigerian navy, which was earlier caught up in the controversial 5.095 billion nair for the purchase of a presidential yacht, got an additional 25 billion nair to its total allocation. Its total allocation rose from 62.8 billion nair in the proposed supplementary budget to 87.8 billion nair in the approved document. That's a lot of billions. I'm just looking at it and why does it have to be that the money to be slashed from the budget after the outcry has to be the one that will come to the people? Even the navy that should be facing some prosecution right now because of what they did, procuring something that had no legislative backing, is having a 25 billion nair a race. Increase? Yes. The Ministry of Defense entirely is having an increase of almost 100 billion, okay, let's say 70 billion increase for them. The swapping of these 5 billion for the yacht, the House of Representatives said it was not going to sign that, it was not going to approve that, and they said it should go to education. Yes. So what happened to education? Which means education, at the end of the year, didn't get the 5 billion that was supposed to go to them. Instead they were raising monies that will go to the Minister of Defense and all that, and we've heard over the years how monies voted for defense have been used by these people. A lot of them, in the past administration, we had Chief of Army Staff and so many other chiefs in the Defense Ministry that did so many outrageous things that we felt they could have been in jail. Instead, when they were removed, they were given ambassadorial appointments. They're working freely. So I don't know, not only that they were working freely, but they were given ambassadorial appointments in other countries to represent us, people who we felt should be in court and then in jail if they're found guilty anyway. Guilty, yes. But nothing like that happened. Well. I think for me, one thing I've always said is people before processes, right? It's how it should be. You should look at your human capital. These are people who are working, right? They need the daily wage. They need the food on the table. Defense is wage. Yes. They need their food on the table. How do you slash that and, you know, start buying other items that are not necessary because you need to look at the scale of preference. Do we really need this? Can we still function without all of this? But guess what? The people who are working for you, if they don't eat, they don't have the strength to work very well. And how many people will have so much to eat and then still go into crime? Some of these people go into crime because they need to make ends meet. Yes. And then you're now... I mean, I'm not... You're not justifying the fact that it's... Yes. And then you're further oppressing them. The reason we're oppressing them by your lifestyle. The very person that is supposed to make them feel comfortable. You're asking me to tighten my belt and then you're losing yours and taking more. Okay. So, see now the legal state government is purchasing an SUV for the office of the chief of staff. Another thing we didn't even add was... 440. 440. However, they said it's for dignitaries. So, when dignitaries come into legal states, they have to use that vehicle. And I'm like, the dignitaries that are coming, they don't have vehicles. How do they come? I'm sure they flew to legal states. No, no. It's bulletproof because legal people, they shoot people on the streets. How many... We've not really seen those high rates of crime and we didn't even pray to see that. An SUV is a small vehicle. It's compared to, you know... Is it an SUV boss? Do we have SUV boss? Because dignitaries, how many of them can fit into an SUV? And I'm sure there are other ones. Is it necessary? I think if we need to purchase something, it's just like in your home. There are some things you would be like, do I really need this AC to be cooling as much? I can allow it cool and then maybe turn it off at some point. You know, you're trying to manage the budget. You can't just carry 440 million Naira to buy an SUV. Just the same way you can't be saying, oh, we want to buy a yacht. And put other things in place that you know that they are not really necessary. However, the common money in Nigeria cannot afford three square meals. 440 million Naira. It's crazy, well, but maybe because we've not been in the corridors where we get to see this kind of money. But at this time... I can promise you I've not seen this kind of money. At this time of my life, I'm not talking about anybody else of my life, 440 million is very, very high. And if you ask me, unnecessary. 440 million out of a budget of a state owing so much money. Yes, we are the fifth greatest economy, we are the sixth greatest economy or biggest economy in Africa. Yes, but how does that translate to the people enjoying their lives in Lagos state? Because if you ask me, everybody is as wealthy as he is happy. So if you have billions upon billions and you're not happy, then you are not wealthy at all. You are not. The person who has maybe 100,000 and is happier than you is well there than you. Yes, wealth is not about money. I think it's a state of mind really. It's about how much satisfaction that wealth can give you. So Lagos state is a wealthy state, it's the largest economy in Nigeria and all that. But how many people are really so happy? This is even my thought. Nigeria is for all of us, we like to say it's for everyone, we're all Nigerians. Why can't everybody have the same money from Nigeria? Why do some people have to have all of the money? So it's floating just up, it never trickles down. 1% the same. So yes, it's just floating right there. And the other people are really poor. They cannot afford healthcare, food, there's no good infrastructure. There's no good education. All of these things, why can't we say, you know what, even if I have all of the money, if I have the access, because most of the time it's not their money, they just have the access to the money. So if you have the access, you can say, okay, since I have the access to this money, fine, let's make sure that everyone in Nigeria is doing well and everyone can afford the basic necessities of life. Why can't we not do that? And this thing is just, like you said, a mindset and it is doable. I'll give you an example. When they were doing primaries, there was a delegate, because that was the raining thing then. There was a delegate somewhere up north that said, if I succeed to become the delegate and I'm in that place and any money that I make, I'll come back and share it with my constituents. And he did. They end money in dollars at that time. And he came back home to his community and shared the money. Maybe that's not what I would do. I'll put it into some kind of fund, maybe some scholarships or one thing or the other. But he made good of his promise. I didn't think about himself. He shared the money. He knew people in his community that needed this money. It even makes you happy knowing that everyone around you is happy, flourishing, because I don't know how I would stay and I'm seeing other people beg, literally beg for food and I'm not doing anything about it. I'm like, yes. No, it makes them feel good. Because I'm close. Yes, in the village of the blind man, the one eyed man is the king. Yeah, he is the one eyed man. In fact, he has four eyes. I mean, the money is large. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, we are on to the breakfast on Plus TV Africa. We'll take a short break and we'll be joined by, in fact, he's on standby. Ezeker Nyaitok will be joining us to x-ray the headlines on our national dailies. Stay with us.