 Real cost of being a Republic and Togo University Certificate's ban. Mapping your success in 2024. Those are hot topics for this morning. And of course we'll be having off the press where we'll look at the national dailies and see what the headlines are saying. My name is Nyam Gul Agadji. Welcome to the Wednesday edition of The Breakfast. It's a very, very, very, very new day. And the only day that you can see in your life, the only Wednesday, the, uh, what's the date again? Wednesday the 10th of January 2024. This is the only one in your lifetime in all generations. So whenever you find that you have the opportunity to see a new day, know that you have a very great opportunity to begin anew or to solidify what you think you're doing well and set yourself on a good trajectory. That's what we are going to be looking at this morning when we say mapping out your targets for 2024. Well in the meantime, we'll just take a short break and in that break we're going to look at the quote for the day to enable us to set our minds on what we really intend to discuss this morning. Very wonderful quote there from Mahatma Gandhi, telling us that the real wealth is your health and not pieces of gold or silver. So as you move about trying to make ends meet, remember that you have to do regular checks on yourself. In Nigeria, we have, we have the kind of medication that we put on ourselves. That is not my portion. But not my portion doesn't work in every other thing. So if you're poisoned, it is not a not my portion thing. If you're taking food that you're not supposed to take, it is not a not my portion thing. Not my portion should be that you're taking care of yourself, you're mindful of what you eat, you're mindful of what you drink, you're mindful of anything that you're doing to your body because ultimately, if you're in good health, you are the real deal, you are the healthy person, not the person with all the millions of Naira or dollars and yet you're not healthy. There are a lot of people who have so much money, well they cannot eat, but you are able to eat no matter the condition you find yourself, know that you are a real wealthy person. Like I've always said, wealth is measured by the amount of happiness that you have. It doesn't matter how much money you have. If you are not as happy as you are supposed to be, then you're not, you're not, you're not rich at all. You're not wealthy in any way. There could be a poor man there in one village there that is so, so happy with himself and is so satisfied with whatever he has. And then he might live even longer than you. So how rich are you if the wealth that you have cannot translate into the happiness that you should have or the health that you should have. So as we go on today, let's know that real wealth is the health that you have and not your money. So do your best to always take care of yourself. So we'll start with our top trending issues this morning. The first one is the fact that Tinibu has slashed delegation for federal government trips. President Bola Ahmed Tinibu has directed a major slash of travel delegates for all federal government official trips within and outside the country. The special advisor on media and publicity are during Galali. This closed isn't Tuesday during a press briefing at the state house in Abuja. According to the special advisor, the directive means a 60% slash across the, across board and affects all MDAs including the office of the president, vice president and first lady. Additionally, when any international travel is being approved, limits have been placed on all ministers of the federation. These include four members of their staff, appointees and the like, will now be allowed to travel with a minister on official trip. For heads of agency, the limit will be two members of staff allowed to travel on an official trip. The president also approved for official travel that no more than 20 individuals be allowed to travel with him. That number will be cut down to five in the case of the first lady. Additionally, the number in the entourage on official international trips for the vice president will be cut to five while the wife of the vice president is also to be limited to five. In terms of domestic trips, a new limit of 25 members of staff will accompany the president for trips within the country. Similarly, president Tinnable limited the number of those who accompanied the first lady on official trips within the country to 10 staff members. Galali revealed on behalf of the president that the vice president will be limited to 15 members of staff on official trips within the country while his wife will be limited to 10 members of staff. The special advisor explained that the difference between the number of members of staff allowed to travel with the presiding officials on international and domestic trips is down to international trips being far more expensive across board. And that the president is determined to bring total sanity and prudence to the management of the Commonwealth of the people. Well, we'll have to applaud the president for taking a very bold step. We're still looking for more. Like Oliver Twist, we're in Nigeria. We want something very decisive, something even better than what we're seeing. We're seeing a situation where if there is non-performance, the president has warned all the ministers that they are going to be sucked. Now there's been a case in the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and the minister has been suspended. Whatever the outcome of that investigation is going to be, we're hoping that it will be across board because if this is something that has been going on in all MDAs, then one person should not be the scapegoat. So if they can look at an audit report of maybe the last five years in all the ministries and see that monies have never been paid to individual accounts, then it will be good. But if they have been paid, then everybody should be brought to book. We will applaud even louder. And by the way, Mr. President, thank you for cutting down the people who will be traveling with you and your people, Vice President, outside the country. But the question Nigerians are still asking is that even though the number of people are cut down from whatever number it was to maybe five traveling with the First Lady, is the First Lady an official portfolio in Nigerian constitution? So Nigerians are still asking why in the first place the First Lady, whether in a state or a country, will be traveling like an official assignment and that office is not even in the constitution. So will it be the Nigerian taxpayers' money that will be paying for the luxuries and even the office of the First Lady that is not covered by the constitution? It's just a question. If that is not the case, there should be a way to we should find a way to put the office of the First Lady in the constitution so that it will be covered by law. Otherwise, every money spent on the office of the First Lady should not be spent. I'm just saying some things are acceptable or accepted, not acceptable. They are accepted but it doesn't mean that they are not wrong and that's what is happening in the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs. Things that are accepted over the years may not necessarily be the good things or the things that are covered by the constitution and so now a minister is being suspended and a lot of heads probably will roll because something is accepted but not acceptable. Just saying. The next one is no fewer than 157 incidents of crude oil thefts were recorded in Niger Delta between December 30, 2023 and January 5, 2024. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited said the cases were recorded from several incidences, incident sources like Nigeria, Agip Oil 62, Pipeline Infrastructure Nigeria Limited 29, Matan Engineering Limited 18, Tantita Security Services Limited 8, NNPCL Command and Control Center 2, Shell Petroleum Development Company 4 and Government Security Agencies 34. According to a 323-minute video posted on this X-Handle on Tuesday, the NNPCL disclosed that 52 illegal refineries were discovered in Abia, Imo, Rivers and Bialsa states where the illegal refineries were destroyed. It was stated that 32 illegal connections were uncovered in several parts of Nigeria Delta including Bialsa, Delta and River State. It also reported that illegal connections were also removed along the central corridor in the Niger Delta while 7 illegal storage sites were uncovered in Aqaibom. The NNPCL revealed through the video that buried drums of crude oil were on effort and some were discovered in bushes. In Oporoma, Bialsa state and Ole in Wari, sacks of stolen crude oil were reportedly recovered and confiscated. Also in Delta state, drums filled with stolen crude oil were found in the river while oil wellheads were vandalized in river states. 25 cases of pipeline vandalism were recorded across several communities. 12 vehicles conveying stolen crude were arrested in the past week across several locations in rivers and Delta states while 24 wooden boats conveying stolen crude were arrested and confiscated. It was disclosed that 9 of these incidences took place in the deep blue water, 45 in the eastern region, 95 in the central region, while 8 took place in the western region. In the period under review, NNPCL said 17 suspects were arrested and connection with the incident or in connection with the incident. The federal government earlier revealed that more than 4.3 trillion Naira worth of crude oil was stolen in 7143 pipeline vandalism cases within 5 years. We do hope that something will be done about that. In Saudi Arabia when you go, all these activities of the oil sector are monitored in just one room, one big screen of about 240 meters or so. Everything that is concerning oil is monitored in one room and we keep asking the question is it that is too expensive for Nigeria to have something like that. The oil body, the oil regulators and all that in Nigeria are different from what we have in Saudi Arabia and some other countries that don't even produce oil as much as Nigeria why is our case so different and then I also ask the question, so it is possible to even refine crude oil in Nigeria into petrol, even though the acts are illegal, the refineries are illegal but if that kind of technology is available in Nigeria why do we take this crude oil out of this country, go to another place, spend a hard end foreign currency to get this same crude oil back to us and it's only petrol that it brings back to us. Every other thing that comes out of the crude is not brought to us by butter so all other products that come from petroleum will not come back to us, it's just petrol that we get and maybe kerosene and so on. So why are we not exploring local technology and curb these many of illegal refineries and the loss of lives that go with it and so many other things. So we should while I condemn the illegal refineries I also ask the federal government what is wrong with our local technology, why can't we explore this and develop it and make sure that we are independent of the nations to cook as it were, this oil for us to consume. Well, we move to yet another top trending, gunmen kill traditional ruler in Ogun state, that's a very sad one, suspected gunmen have killed the traditional ruler of the Itunso Kung community in Shagamu Ogun state chief a day in Kachfalari, the Ogun state police spokesperson S.P. Omolola Odutola confirmed the killing. Odutola revealed that the incident happened on Monday night at about 10 45 p.m. at Itunso Kung residence of the deceased. The victim whose name is Bashoru Biodunfolari is said to be the Bashoru Akirubu three gunmen were said to have come in a Toyota Camry car shot into the air and dispersed the people and then went to shoot dead the deceased. The spokesperson stated that it is a case of suspected murder or assassination because the unknown gunmen did not take anything away. He said at the scene of the crime two expanded cartridges were recovered. He added that the deceased had been buried according to Muslim rights. Meanwhile Odutola expressed assurance that the culprits will soon be apprehended. We just hope that will be the case and all the culprits will be apprehended. Why would someone assassinate a traditional ruler? I would someone assassinate anyone for that matter. Sometimes when it is a politician we say it's political opponents but a traditional ruler what is he opposing? Is he talking about some security issues and the people are not happy about it? Is it because he shouldn't be the traditional ruler and another community or another family is supposed to we don't know the questions but why would someone just wake up and assassinate the other person? Well until these things are addressed, until these killings are addressed, until the security situation in Nigeria is addressed then we might just be as stagnant as a lot of people think that we are in this country and by the way government cannot do everything alone. No matter how much we berate the government we know that if we don't contribute our own quarter to making our country it might really never be safe. No matter how many soldiers, how many policemen, how many civil defense men, how many Navy Air Force that we have it will still never be enough until we as citizens of the country also contribute what we can. By giving the relevant information in spite of everything we know that the police sometimes you give information and the police will act differently and we are not happy about it but the fact still remains that security is in our hands. It's not until we carry guns and begin to shoot each other that we say that we are securing our place do what you need to do as an individual as a citizen of Nigeria and live the rest of God as it is. We believe in God so much in this country. So let's keep believing in God and we do hope today is going to be a wonderful day. So let's just take a short break when we return we'll be looking at the newspapers and see where the headlines