 Nigerians grown as higher fuel prices shrink incomes, wasn't poverty. Federal governments set to sanction trade associations hiking food prices excessively. Good morning and welcome to The Breakfast. My name is Nyam Gul Aghaji. Don't forget that we will also be visiting the price to see what headlines made it to the front pages of the newspapers. Today is Thursday and we zero in on everything business. Whether we're talking business or not, we want your mindset to be on business. We will hope that whatever you're doing now is bringing some returns to you. But today, like we've said, we're going to be looking at people who excessively hike their prices and also what has happened to Nigerians or what is happening to Nigerians as the fuel prices go higher and higher. Remember that just two days ago, the fuel was sold at 617 naira in some places and in some places 700 naira. We also know that not only that, we also have dollar rising and rising. And according to what has been said, it is the market forces that are costing the hike in the fuel price, and now dollar is also going higher and higher. I think we've heard how the situation where the dollar has been sold, I think yesterday for up to 850 naira and above in the I&E window. So whatever is happening in Nigeria, some people have said that if you are patriotic, you will be patient enough. Okay, we are all patriotic. Let's see how much the patients will take us. But we do hope that there won't be any uprising from anywhere and solutions to all the problems we're finding will come as soon as possible. And then when we go on to seeing what is trending on the news, we find one of the stories caught threatens arrest warrant against detained CBN governor Emme Fele. If you haven't read that, the federal high court sitting in Abuja on Wednesday warned that it would issue an arrest warrant against the detained suspended governor of the central bank of Nigeria CBN, Gadwin Emme Fele, over his failure to appear in court to explain circumstances surrounding the 53 million dollar judgment debt arising from the Paris Club refund. Also Emme Fele, who was suspended as a CBN governor by President Bola Tinobu and subsequently arrested by the Department of State Services, D.S.S. has since remained in detention facility of the Nigeria secret police for over one month despite several court orders that directed his release. Justice Zinyariko on Wednesday ordered Emme Fele to appear on the next adjunct date. Emme Fele's counsel Aoudu Anuga prayed for the court to give his client another opportunity because they had been unable to reach him since the last order directing him to appear in court. Anuga told the court that all efforts to communicate to the court or the court's directive to Emme Fele were unsuccessful and Justice Ako had on October 20, 2022 ordered the CBN governor to appear in court on January 18 after his alleged refusal to obey the court's order to pay the judgment debt in favor of the legal practitioner Joe Agi. And Agi had dragged Linus International Limited Minister of Finance CBN and Mr. Emme Fele to court at first asked first court judgment debtors respectively following the application for Ganeshi made by him as judgment creditor in the case. The dispute stems from an alleged 70 million dollar judgment against Linus International Limited for the lawyers that is Joe Agi assistance with the Paris Club refund. And Emme Fele said to have only released 17 million dollars leaving an unpaid balance of 53 million dollars. On January 18 proceedings could not go on as scheduled when the matter was called prompting the new court to or the court rather to adjourn the case till March 20 before it was fixed for June 6 again. On June 6 the judge ordered Emme Fele to appear before it on July 19, 2023 upon resumed hearing on Wednesday Ayudeli or Rotiowa who appeared for Agi was about to make a submission when Justice Eko asked Emme Fele's lawyer if he had complied with the order. Remember this thing started when Emme Fele was still a free man and still in charge of the Central Bank of Nigeria and now he is in custody of the DSS. Eko asked how long the court would wait for Emme Fele since 2017 when the suit was filed. The judge consequently had adjourned the matter until October 31 for the CBN Emme Fele to show cause why an arrest warrant should not be issued against the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. So right now he may have an excuse that he is in detention of the DSS and he cannot appear before the court but it started way before that time and maybe he thought he was always going to be a free man. But right now he is in custody so when the court is making pronouncements they should also appeal to the DSS if that is what can be done by the court otherwise how can you whip a dead horse as it is. If he is in detention and cannot be released by the DSS to come appear before the court then at this time it is not his fault but prior to this time it was his fault that he did not come. But right now it may not just be in his hands to do what he is supposed to do. Well we do hope he appears and explains whatever happened with the $53 million that he was supposed to release and he did not release and he only released $17 million of the lump sum that he was supposed to release and $53 million is still pending. Now the House of Rebs have rejected emotions seeking to stop increase in the price of fuel. I don't know if you don't understand this story it might sound somehow to you because the House of Representatives yesterday which was July 19 rejected emotion to stop the increase in the price of premium motor spirit that we call petrol or fuel and revet to the old price of $537 per litre not the old price of $190 or $200 the House instead agreed to investigate the sudden increase in the price of PMS and the resultant increase in transport fares across the country. The House said since it has already resolved to investigate the increase and that stopping the increase of the fuel price by accepting the motion will amount to pre-empting the work of the investigative committee. Okay So in a motion of urgent public importance by Honourable Ikenga Ugochinyari the House acts the Group Managing Director of the Niger National Petroleum Company Limited Melikeari and oil marketers to appear before an ad hoc committee to explain the increase. So the House cannot intervene at this point because a committee has been set and let them investigate and see what happened that now the prices are going higher and higher like Melikeari explained the other day it's market forces causing all of this. What really is the market force here in Nigeria like I was asking our guest yesterday can we really say these are market forces when there seem to be a partial monopoly of who brings fuel into the country and who cannot bring fuel into the country and one of my guests also rightly pointed out that if you want the market forces to be really operational you should let anyone who can afford it import the product into the country but now you're giving licenses and so far we've heard that Dangoti and five unnamed companies have been given licenses to import this petrol this is a small click this is a small click that might turn into a cabal and set the prices according to how they want it to be because in the capitalist economy everything is about profit and so profits must be made no matter how much it is it's like you know people who sell oranges they go and buy a full stand of orange a full tree of orange for maybe 500 or 1000 naira and then come back to be selling one fruit for 100 naira or two fruits for 100 naira it's crazy kind of profit that they want to make and also maybe that's what gave rise to what we are going to be discussing now about the fact that some people indiscriminately just hike prices of foodstuff and the government wants to look into the issue well whatever the case may be we are praying for a peaceful nigeria till December we are praying for a better nigeria after maybe the first three months of the first the present administration we are praying for nigeria we can be proud of we're praying for nigeria whose passport you can take out of this country and people respect it not now that the passport is being banned from a lot of countries and they don't just want to see the green passport that we carry all around what has bastardized the name of nigeria that used to be the giant of africa that still prides itself as the giant of africa as the giant lost its knees that is now walking and crawling rather than walking and running like it should be as it lost its muscles that it cannot carry the continent again as it used to carry then echo was going before nigeria as it were the au or au were bowing to nigeria as it were because he or nigeria was the big brother or the big sister as the case may be now we don't seem to have that if you find out flights from bennett republic to london and you see flights from nigeria to london which is almost like the same journey you will be shocked at the difference in price so if you can trek into bennett republic and get a flight to london maybe that's what you need to do but we are hoping for a better nigeria and all hands must be on deck no matter how angry we might be like an adage says an african adage says no matter how angry the mouse is or the mouse is rather it will not stop the cat from eating it no matter how angry the mouse is it cannot stop the cat from eating it so the mouse cannot come and frown at the cat and the cat says okay because you're frowned I'm not going to eat you you just have to run so whatever the situation may be what will be will be but what we can control let's try to control that in a peaceful way and make sure our country moves from glory to glory and to glory well they show we hope it's going to be very interesting this morning it didn't rain this morning as it's been raining so many other days but it didn't rain this morning at least from the axis I came from to work I don't know how it is in your area and the traffic was quite free so we thank God for small messes some people would say it is because that so many cars are not on the road anymore but I choose to believe that is because the roads are getting better and better and that's why you find traffic very free in so many areas because there was a time of construction almost everywhere in Lagos now those constructions are thinning out because they are being completed here and there and so the traffic is a little bit freer but I look forward to a Lagos where traffic will always be free and when where the roads will not go bad after every administration they put the roads in order after the administration another administration coming will have to fix that same road that was built less than 5 years prior to that it shouldn't happen quality should be quality the roads that came up maybe in the 60s done by expatriate companies are still standing in so many places is it because the local content is now more or is it because the people who are giving out the contracts even to these big companies are cutting corners and the companies are saying well instead of leaving using out on the business let's do what we can do with the money that is being given to us I heard a Chinese talking at one point said small money bad road big money good road and I laughed but you know is the reality on ground no matter how you see it every every businessman who want to make a profit and if you pay less they will give you what you want what you can afford with the money that you give so if the money is the problem whoever is giving the contract should do better if money is not the problem then people should be investigated and brought to book people should be monitored while they're doing the work and so many other things well we'll take a short break look at the weather and see whether it's going to disrupt activities for today or not and then when we return we'll be lifting off the press the headlines that made it to the front pages of our national dailies once again good morning to the breakfast and this is Plus TV Africa and my name is Nyam Gul at Gadji stay with us