 Welcome back and it's time for us to take a look at the front pages of some national dailies this morning and I begin this morning with the punch newspaper and the punch newspaper leads with governor's battle for battle cash crunch governor's battle cash crunch and the rider's delta emo cross river or your lead as states borrow 130 billion naira in three months 17 shortfall hits states internally generated revenue debt rise to 5.5 trillion naira above the master you have opposition opposition attacks fg as presidency lambest eu poll observers details of that is on the inside of the punch newspaper page two to be precise nlc to meet to newbu on 65 year retirement age nmpcl marketers fuel vessels arrive next week that's according to it man and page 21 is where you have details of that on the punch newspaper utm e top performer in quote manipulated score faces persecution that's coming from jam and can mons as kidnapper skill r s r ccg pastor and seven church goers rescued can mons as kidnapper skill r ccg pastor and seven church goers rescued all right so that's the much to be taken from the punch newspaper from the punch remove to the nation newspaper the nation leads with investors 4.35 trillion naira gain in one month boosts economy investors 4.35 trillion naira gain in one month boosts economy above the master you have debt toll of Nigerian pilgrims rise to 13 banks collected 8.9 trillion naira deposits in 12 months details of those you find on pages 8 and 5 we're still taking a look at the front page of the nation newspaper and you have presidency rejects e use 2023 poll report and the writer there lp or case verdict chinese never ships in legos too dead in us mass shooting and you have in dume bami deli bidding for senate leader posts all right so that's the much you'll be taken from the nation newspaper from the nation there will move to leadership leadership is leading with 2023 elections presidency labor party cso's differ on EU report page 4 is where you have details of that on leadership then you have weed over girls lafayette cargo airport taken over by ebb g weed over girls lafayette cargo airport taken over by ebb g subsidy savings set up six spending details subsidy savings set up six spending details you have details of that of pitch seven on leadership newspaper and you have jump busts unambra girl who forged utme resolved pitch six is where details of that can be found above the master you have kuka tasks fg on freedom of worship even for the kuka tasking the fg on freedom of worship and you have had saudi arabia blames logistic challenges on invaders and from leadership we'll go to our last newspaper this morning which is nature news nature news is leading with 2023 flawed in a lot nimet ones of imminent danger fcta to demolish houses in abucha river state inaugurate committee and any good setup task force those are the riders attached to the headline 2023 flawed in a lot nimet ones of imminent danger world bank highlights field subsidies negative impact on immobility in nigeria you have platter state government cracks down on pollution introduces mobile courts for sanitation offenders pitch 17 is where details of that can be found on nature news all right well that's the much i'll be taken from the front page of the nature news and i have been joined by a guest and of the press mohammed abdullahi public affairs analysts joining us from niger state good morning to you mohammed good morning i jones good to have you join us so let's start with this report from the eu on the 2023 elections presidency labor party cso's differ on e you of course present to new boost government government has kicked against this report um but let's have your take on this headline yes uh it's it's uh it's actually a two way thing definitely the i mean the winning party or the ruling party if you allow me say that the abc will fill the EU report uh it's not actually because it's uh it's it's kind of a tinted the image of the election i mean all the positives of the election with the report of the EU it seems uh the victory for abc is tinted with uh skirmishes in adequacies by ionic and even inefficiencies by the empire so i understand uh when abc uh let government have to refute that report and say it is uh it's unacceptable but again on the side of the opposition particularly from the table party i know there is is is a kind of report that you'll be happy about because it's clamors and uh supports uh what they've been fighting for i mean uh all the wild weather on social media on uh news pages and even in the court so like i mentioned earlier is a two way thing depends on which side of the coin uh one find him or herself uh then uh the EU report either makes sense or not but if you want my honest opinion uh i think uh i will i will i will say to a larger extent the the EU also have uh they made a they made a good point but um it doesn't in any way uh i'll try it Lee uh i mean uh say the election wasn't uh conducted a bit freely like uh if you allow me there are so many instances uh examples of things that happen during the election that i will say okay to some extent uh the the will of migraines were i mean allowed to prevail but uh in other instances as well uh people are well on their right to register their grievances in terms of the conduct of ionic i mean statutorily the fact that ionic promised Nigerians to say the results will be uploaded i mean on the real time it didn't happen during the presidential election and there were so many reports across the country of violence there as well as the late arrivals of materials and probably to some extent uh kind of coordinated uh attack on some particular areas to prevent uh vote uh allegedly uh supporting some political parties probably opposition or what have you so but by and large i think to some uh extent uh the EU report is not far from the from the truth but again is not the whole truth so like i said earlier it depends on which side of the divide uh one finds himself to either accept or reject the report so um the writers there let us breathe presence it tells EU observers over 1000 petitions suggest for conduct CSOs and you are just saving your face LP fires back and then the court will decide says ipak so indeed the court will decide the EU's report you know highlighted some key areas especially six of them uh that needs to be looked into but as ipak has said the courts will decide and we are indeed waiting Nigerians are indeed waiting the international community waiting to see what the court is going to say uh from all that we saw happen at the election tribunal all right so let's move forward to another story that's quite catchy here jam busts anambra girl who forged UTME result it's quite unfortunate that a girl of less than 15 years if i'm if i'm 17 from what i saw 17 yeah okay what was celebrated across the nation as maybe you know uh having registered a very high score in jam in fact i i i know of uh either some philanthropists or corporate organizations that are even paid as high as a scholarship of about three million or so uh you know to support the dissent candidate only for jam to announce yesterday that that was not the original score that score was manipulated but again it tells a lot about uh even our corporate organizations in you know giving out scholarship and so on and so forth even the press themselves seriously because i i expect or one we expect that uh you know stories are verified before it is either published or broadcast you know so uh it means you know what we see on social media or what someone just say it i think is as simple as if this uh candidate in question says i have scored 362 it be hopes on the press to actually confirm with jam before going to press but i think none of the none of that happened everyone just flew with uh the what's it called the result presented by the candidate and it was all over the news only for several weeks only for the you know the authority itself i mean jam to issue a statement yesterday that that wasn't the actual score so it is shocking and it's uh it's it's it's it's it's shocking that um 18 i don't want to believe maybe this candidate in question will be the particular person that have altered this call probably there might be a probably a family member or friends around i i i don't want to insulate but i am very skeptical to think that particular candidate that lady that young girl who have the courage to do to to commit such anomaly so i think a proper investigation is is uh needed to be carried out and all those are involved needed to be real to be prosecuted and punished for such offense but again i think it be hopes on our media on the press and even our corporate organizations before flying with any story issuing sponsorship statement here and there to verify the authenticity of such news before going forward is important lots of questions really mohammed first of all it was the chairman of inosin motos that gave her that scholarship of three million era and then anambra state wanted to give us some special recognition but it was at the point of giving her that recognition that top members of the ministry of education in anambra state decided to verify with jam first and it was at that point that the truth came out that the girl indeed did not score up to 300 and whatever it was she said she was she scored and and and so obviously she used an app to change her grades then the question now is how is that even possible what happened to security of the jam app why is it that this little girl was able to manipulate jam to the extent that she did if you remember there was a case of a girl in kaduna state also that uh claimed she had 380 and members of our community uh were calling on jam to give her a special recognition for such you know great result and then jam investigated and discovered that that girl did not only not score that grade but she never even registered for jam in the first place so that raises lots of questions how easy is it and why is it so easy to manipulate jam result to get to their system and change stuff no i don't think it's about getting into their system is i think it's about uh different uh apps on display all over the internet where you can create whatsoever you like remember you can just you can you can pick up even even i'm very sure uh even roadside uh uh what's it called designers can design the app logo perfectly and design the jam result perfectly for you to include whatever score you want so i don't think it's actually infiltrating into the jam side i think is is is just uh some other mechanisms which are very abundant on the internet that you can actually use to you know to manipulate figures i want to believe that is it is not actually infiltrating into the jam servers yeah but that that's something to really it's something to really think about as a people to have a girl that young uh do something that serials is something that we should really consider it's it's it's i mean because we're looking at the future talking about the future talking about the leaders of tomorrow talking about the quality of education and to think that this kind of a thing is possible and then you you wonder those results that they manipulate if they took them to the universities at various schools where they would go to seek for admission is that what they would see or would they be seeing uh the one the script from jam one wouldn't know i know i know i know for sure that jam sends every result every result every year i know i result to the various schools it might take time yes what you present at the initial stage is what the school you are uh you know you want to get admission into work but i want to uh i show Nigerians that you know these schools also verify it takes time anyway sometimes you might even get the admission initially and then probably at the second year or third year even the final year we have people who have been you know rosticated due to exam practices and then result for certification at their final year which is even more painful you know paid school fee for one two three four year and you think you are a student but at the final year uh when probably the school must have carried out its full investigation they discovered that your jam result is fake and you are rosticated so we've had cases like that all over Nigerian universities so i don't think it's a team of fear Nigerian universities are not that terrible they carry out verification of results to the best of my knowledge that's quite reassuring well the jam has said that she will be prosecuted and she is 17 so let's see what they will do about it some are even saying that tech companies should look into such girls and they are sharp enough to carry out such tricks that tech companies should look into them and see what they can do with their intelligence in quotes i don't think he did that alone i said it earlier i don't i don't want to believe that it must be like a cattle whether family friends and so on i think a proper investigation would or should unravel that yes okay so let's move forward to a headline on the punch newspaper in fact that's the lead headline on the punch governor's battle cash crunch delta email cross river or your lead a state's borough 130 billion error in three months some of this governor's met empty treasuries now they are struggling yeah definitely you know we just conducted elections and the governors are barely one year in a sort of one month in office and most of our our our kind of governance system if i'm not mistaken when the outgoing governor is leaving and is entering the they take a way allegedly take away almost everything from the treasury including state properties even cast they are very shameless that they take away even state properties cars and so on and so forth so the incoming government particularly with an opposition is left with almost nothing you know to start with so it becomes very very difficult for the incoming government to to start you know to to begin business and i'm not surprised seeing that headline because in fact it's i'm very sure is what's happening almost across the state in nigeria empty treasury except those governors were you know continuing their second term most of the new governments and new governors will find it very very difficult to to stand on their feet particularly at these initial stages you know they need to quickly find ways probably to igr's increase of igr and then you also want to understand that you know the the allocation from federal government is actually not enough you know so they have to find ways probably some people some of the governors might even start borrowing at this initial stage just like the headline says they're starting borrowing already yeah so it's it's it's quite unfortunate is the fact that governance is not a continuum in nigeria we just say on paper and we read it on paper that governance is continuum but in nigeria seriously it's a different kettle of fish so it's quite unfortunate but i'm sure probably in the next two three four months these governors must have settled down and then they will find a way always of questioning this effect of lack of continuity in government that the previous government left behind and sadly as long as the trend continues you know where governors former governors end up in the senate and not in prison where they should be cooling their feeds these kind of things will continue they come mess up the whole state still as much as they can borrow as much as they can i mean towards the end of last administration of the last administration we saw governors who were borrowing even in the last week of their tenure they were borrowing money borrowed this money steal these monies and then leave and nothing is done and some who may eventually get invited will probably get some sort of plea bagging and then that's the end of the story and tomorrow you look at the chambers you know the national assembly you see them there as your lawmakers it's quite unfortunate seriously it's it's the reality of nigeria you know i i i was speaking to a friend earlier and i was uh my my my argument was is there any unwritten law in nigeria that even prevents uh top leaders to be invited you know to you know to to present and talk about and to be accountable to nigerians from the presidency to s governors and so on and so forth is that where is the unwritten law in nigeria that says these people cannot be accountable for what they did remember for instance in san phara in fact it has to take the present government which who is a who is from bdb to ask the security forces to you know scale the fence forcefully break into the house of the s governor to retrieve cars that were bought by the government by the by the by zafiq state government money you know which were allegedly taken away by the s governor so it is so unfortunate things that are meant to serve the public i mean that way that you know that were bought with public money these governors as they are living they freely take them away not even money is now even properties air conditioners you know pettings and so it's so like it's so shameless and like you're addicted these guys retire into the senate chamber which means no one can prosecute them they have that immunity and then life goes on the public keeps suffering and then the new government begins to look for ways look for funding to buy even furnishing in the government house you have to furnish everything anew as if we are just starting up uh is is it not so unfortunate that in nigerian budget for instance we are not digressing but in nigerian budget for instance every year we still make room for cut lyrics in the presidency yeah humongous songs humongous amounts yes we we are we are looking humongous amounts annually to buy cutlery spots spoons in the presidency so what happens to the one but last year someone has scattered away with them also so it's so unfortunate that we live in such kind of uh society where governance is not a continuum everyone that gets into the position of power allegedly allegedly feels there's an opportunity to enrich himself and his family it's so unfortunate i think uh we can't continue this way we we we we need to change uh we need to change fast all right let's move forward um uh let's go to leadership newspaper above the master we have kuka tasks fg on freedom of worship yeah i think it's important is uh is a constitutional right for you and i to freely associate with whatever religion that we feel whether christianity islam traditional worship what do they seem you can name them so i think it's also very important that this constitutional right is upheld so that we have a free society where people have uh that right respected but again it's also important that uh as we seek that right we also understand the our responsibility as citizens also you know you can't say because you want to freely uh practice your religion whether muth islam or christianity or what have you and then you infringe on the right of other people because that's what is uh that's what is very prevalent you know among people yes since i have the right for instance to practice my religion i can go overboard to also infringe upon the right of other people no i think it's important that whereas nigerians have that understand that yes we have that right to practice uh our religion we should also understand that we have the responsibility to be simple we have the responsibility to make sure that our country is in order and in peace and in unity uh irrespective of our religion so inasmuch as we understand these two tenets i think we're able to scale through and live peacefully but inasmuch in the sense that we uh we want to think our religion is above others or we have our right is more than the right of others in terms of religious parties that might cause a whole lot of problem you know so i think it's important like i said earlier uh this constitutional right should be respected should be of health but at the same time citizens should know that where there is this right there's also duties for us to protect and not infringe upon the right of others indeed indeed well still on the leadership there is a sub headline there subsidy savings six spending details of course in a situation where there is no trust it is necessary with the kind of corruption we've seen and the situation nigerians are facing the high level of inflation indeed it is in place to ask for a breakdown of how uh that money is spent money yes it's it's it's more than a month now since uh i mean almost a month or so or even more that we talk about the removal of subsidy and so on even though there's a whole lot of debate upon it because uh seriously the the untold hardship uh across nigeria and you know that nigerians are passing through is unimaginable uh which behoves the debate that you know whether it was right or not to actually remove the subsidy because i have seen this argument everywhere uh you know you you can't say because you have headache for instance and then you cut off the head uh i think the the most efficient thing to do is to actually look for uh painkillers and things that will relieve you of the headache rather than removing the head untied so what the government i think government is in nigeria is actually they're actually running away from their responsibilities because if you look at the subsidy itself for instance you know this it is the the the major issue is corruption and who says that they will remove the subsidy the money saved for instance just like what syrup is asking for will not be looted you know so why not close the loopholes for instance we as a country don't even know the exact amount of pms i mean fuel we use that's that's government duty we need to ascertain we need to know we don't we pay people invoices for importing fuel into nigeria while they don't is also the job of government to address the situation you know that's not a subsidy issue you know so why we are trying to cut off the head rather than you know look for better solutions uh uh we we should understand that the major problem uh is corruption so whichever you whichever way you try to to uh the government is trying to move across these corrupt practices is also bound to happen if not checkmated so i i i quite uh agree with syrup that government particularly should look for a platform whether to depress and so on something uh just like what the previous government was doing i mean i'm sorry the genotin government before he left office if i if i could remember uh was trying to uh you know try to publish i think every month the allocations to state so that people will see physically what your state is in i think it's also important that at this juncture this new government since the removal of subsidy should look for a platform like that to publish exactly what nigerians have been saving uh what nigerians save maybe in a particular month or in a particular quarter in terms of subsidy and then publish to tell nigerians what those savings were useful i think that would go a long way to make it accountable and make nigerians understand uh what the savings of subsidy is useful like what syrup is uh is asking is asking for indeed uh ngazio konjewale dr ngazio konjewale back then during uh her time as finance minister did publish the allocations to states and and was inviting people nigerians to challenge their governors ask them questions on how these monies were spent how far did nigerians go in responding to that is another question but now that nigeria is being ranked as the home to a large share of a global extreme poor and uh perhaps now nigerians will begin to ask the right questions and begin and begin to take their destinies in their own hands and not allow these so-called political leaders eat them dry as we are seeing yes it boils down to accountability uh it's uh and and then nigerians actually demanding for that accountability because i'm sure it will not be given on a part of good we as nigerians need to demand like i said earlier it's the hopes on the new government uh to make sure that it deals with nigerians in an accountable manner you know very open in whatsoever policies particularly in terms of finances uh for instance it was a it was a trending issue almost two weeks ago when the revenue mobilization whatever you know came up with the idea to say um yes i think it's possible to increase the allowances i mean all the salaries of public office holders and nigerians very many uh say no you can't do this why we are suffering why the government is asking us to adjust and adjust and the agency systematically you know we do uh that even the presidency says no we are not giving any go ahead uh with regards to that so in such manner that is the kind of manner that you want this new government a new administration to approach issues to be very very empathetic to be very very you know accountable in whatsoever dealings uh they are having whether in terms of policies in terms of finances make sure it is something that is very visible make sure that it is something that nigerians can see and nigerians can relate to because it's it's it's it's uh it's not it's fair enough for the leaders at all times to ask citizens to sacrifice why you know the leaders you know are you know are spending or you know following in opulence i think it's it's not a good idea so like you rightly mentioned the government if it wants acceptability of nigerians must make sure it deals with nigerians in an accountable manner in all front and facets well let's before we go let's look at the story on nature news 2023 flooding a lot nimmet ones of imminent danger and then fcta to demolish houses in abuja you are up in the north there tell us were you in abuja when the last flooding took place we saw some horrible videos and pictures there were you in abuja did you see what did you what do you know about the flooding yes well unfortunately unfortunately i was a runner abuja during the flooding and the trade mall is actually a trade mall is called trade mall estate in lube it was actually devastating but again i i i i say it every time we when we when we fail to plan we actually are planning to fail uh because you know this estate i don't know whether it got the fcta's or fcta's approval but uh you know people should have known that that is a water channel in fact because all of the estate was actually so merged by by by by flooding so it should have the warning should have been there but again their proven shouldn't have come because you know all the authority should have understand or know that that particular area is water logged and is a water channel you know so unfortunately we have lost lives we lost properties it's important that we plan ahead so it's a good uh it is a good thing that nimmet is actually making the warning i mean issuing out a lot issuing out warning and then making sure that people uh understand these warnings and a lot but again it shouldn't even it shouldn't just stop there i'm sure there are government agencies in various states that are responsible i mean maybe never or whatsoever uh in various states that are responsible for making sure that uh people see this if put in the national organization yes you know i think they should amplify this campaign so that whether on radio tv newspapers and even social media that people get this and see the imminent danger staying where it's prone to to flooding because seriously the the the situation that happened in abuja two weeks ago was actually avoidable yeah very avoidable unfortunately like i said we lost life we lost property and we shouldn't allow that to occur but remember it's not just the first time even last year we had it all over Nigeria we lost several lives several lives billions of billions of water properties farmlands and so on and so forth so what are we doing to make sure that 2023 or 2024 is not a pit of 2022 it beholds of all the agencies and even the citizenry to make sure that wherever you are is not prone to flooding if you are is your responsibility and prerogative to understand that you need to leave seriously because nothing is worth uh one's life no matter your investment you need to leave and then like i said earlier the the the agencies of government need to amplify all this campaign shouldn't be just nimet alone the national irate agency to take it different languages you know you know different niger languages should amplify this campaign so that when because we're in the winter we're in the rainy season yeah nimet gives this warnings every year nimet gives this warning every the headlines here this the writers saying river state in our greats committee enegustate set up task force but you see this what happened to ecological funds nimet raises this alarms every year every year they give this a lot but we see this flooding come up year in year out kill people destroy property you wonder why the states would not take those warnings seriously why any governor who knows what he's coming there to do will not make it top priority to sit with that each year nothing like flooding happens in the state is it a way of siphoning funds to perhaps who knows because sometimes they allow for tragedies to come up so that they can use it as a means of siphoning funds okay that is it's also possible with with the niger word allegedly it's also possible but i i my take is the fact that you know flooding is a natural disaster so no matter how prepared you are no matter to stop to to another extent no matter how prepared you are sometimes it's beyond the preparation it's something that is not easily predictable yes you know nimet can try to say okay yeah it might get to this but sometimes it's even above or below so i think the best option the very best option like i said is to allow these government agencies amplify this warning because nigerland language is not mandible watch tv or even read the newspapers or even read it but probably the local dialect you know officers going around we all we know all these uh revered areas the places that are prone to flooding and cost magic and we know them seriously agencies know them they should go there and provide these messages and evacuate people before it is too late make it tell people that they need to leave before it is too late show some blues to people and i'm sure no one wants to lose his or her life as they're planning any kind of property so i think that is just the best option because it is very unpredictable nature is unpredictable all over the world we say applaud it even the us yeah definitely yeah but some of them as you alluded to are actually avoidable the ministries of environment should be you know often doing to ensure that those who shouldn't be occupy certain places are not occupying them that the canals the drainage the drainage systems are all well put in place and cleaned up and all of that so that the avoidable ones can be avoided definitely definitely thank you so much Muhammad Muhammad abdullahi public relations analyst has joined us on of the press all the way from niger state thank you again so we'll be back in a moment to give you a very first hot topic do stay with us