 Judiciary staff union of Nigeria suspends two-month-old strike after a meeting in Abuja. The bill seeking to give legal back-in to state security outfits passes second reading at the House of Representatives. Supporters of President Muhammad al-Buhari open accounts on India-owned micro-blogging site KOO, as federal government refuses to lift ban on Twitter. Good morning and thanks for joining us today on the Breakfast and Plus TV Africa. It's a bright and beautiful and chilly morning. I don't know how it is at your end, but we'll welcome you to the start of a beautiful day. I am Annette Felix. And I am Usagi Ogbon. Good morning also and welcome to, yes, like you said, a little chilly Thursday morning. Looks like it might just rain. We probably need to check up on the weather reports and see if it will be a rainy Thursday across Lagos. But good morning and of course so those who struggled to get back home to the mainland yesterday, like I heard, was insane. We wish you, of course, the strength of God. That's one thing, Nigerians. I believe should have already been used to the traffic and the, you know, with the committees from the island to the mainland and vice versa. So it's probably never going to be easy to get used to being on the road for three, you know, four hours, you know, just to drive a 45-minute journey. Especially because of how unsafe it is in Lagos currently. But I think it's getting better. Let's start top trending, which is that the president is set to arrive Lagos today, Thursday. And that's because he will be no greater than the 157-kilometer Lagos Ibadon Standard Guild Rail project. And this is at the Mobolaji Johnson Railway Station in Ibutameta. I have seen pictures of this train station. It looks amazing. It reminds me of the Osha Determinal. You know, it looks fantastic. So the hope really is that everything is up and running. The structures are put in place to make sure that there are no lapses in the system. And that more Nigerians get the awareness that there is a train station here at Ibutameta. And that, you know, this is where you can get to Lagos and beyond, you know, when you visit that train station. I think this is something we should all, you know, we should all look forward to doing. I mean, I think it's great, you know. Yeah. I would say it's great. You know, there's always going to be, you know, a chance to celebrate, you know, one or two things, you know, that we would say as, you know, some positives with regards to infrastructure. I mean, it definitely will help with transportation between Lagos and Ibadon, you know, and further. And all of that. It may not necessarily affect the traffic in Lagos, you know, because that train line doesn't necessarily go through Lagos. Because there's meant to be the light rail, I believe, or the speed train that was, you know, planned for Lagos, as I think they were, they were proposing in 2017. It still hasn't, you know, gotten anywhere. But I heard that, you know, there's going to be more work done on that. But so, yes, trains have been one of the things that the current administration has put some investment in. They've, you know, recorded, you know, successes here and there. They have, of course, been functional. They have, you know, been, you know, complaints from users or commuters, you know, every now and then or train breaks down here and there and, you know, and all of that. But it still is something that I believe that we should still commend and say, yeah, at least, you know, there is a train now. And, you know, it should also encourage more investment in the railway sector, more investment, you know, PPP are immense if possible in, you know, railways generally across Nigeria for at least to reduce the amount of vehicles on the road, to reduce the amount of people who have to go by road. And, you know, just ease, you know, the stress of, you know, millions and millions of Nigerians who commute between those, these two states and beyond. Yes, yes, indeed. And there's really lots to celebrate about this. There's a project that commenced in 2017. They began, you know, test runs in December. And they're saying that it's the first double-track rail, you know, rail project in West Africa. So, yes, it should be able to ease the burden on the roads, you know. And we just hope that we get more of this in the next administration. In addition to all the other things that need fixing, infrastructure is definitely one of them. And we definitely commend the legal state, I beg your pardon, the federal government for this project. And moving on now, the Twitter ban is still a very big topic in Nigeria. But it seems Nigerians are getting some relief. I, for one, am getting some relief because, you know, we know how Nigerians have been downloading VPNs. I didn't download VPNs. I can't be paranoid and think, oh, you know, all the talk about how we can be used to hack your account and all of that, you know, never really know how true that is. Well, that's cool. So Koo is a micro-blogging platform owned by, you know, entrepreneurs in India. So it was launched last year. I think it has about 50,000 users right now. So just a day after the presidency declared that Twitter was suspended in Nigeria, the CEO of Koo put out a message out there saying Koo is now available in Nigeria. I'm encouraging all Nigerians to join the platform. You know, it's going to be available in local languages as well. I downloaded Koo to see what the buzz was all about. And it seems pretty great, you know, at least so far as an alternative to Twitter. Nigerians have been signing up to Koo as well, opening Koo accounts. You can also Twitch. You can also actually call it Koo. You can Koo. You can follow, you know. So I think this just makes us realize that, first of all, Nigerians need to develop their own micro-bogging sites. We need to do a lot in this space. I would definitely give Kudos to platforms like Naraland. It's a homegrown indigenous Nigerian, you know, social media site in Naraland. And I heard talks about them, you know, getting advances, you know, to sell, but they refuse, they turn that down. So it's great that we have that. But I feel there's still, you know, the sky is still big enough for every other investor, every other entrepreneur, every other person in the tech space who wants to do something great, you know, when it comes to, you know, digital apps like this. So for us to look all the way to India for an alternative to Twitter, it's great, but Nigerians can do better when it comes to like indigenous apps like this. What do you think? Nigerians should be encouraged to develop their own apps so that Nigerians can be on, you know, those social media networks and whenever those apps see that the president violated its rules, they lock up the manager in Panty and throw their stuff inside police vans. Is that what it is? Why is it pessimistic? And line permit can wake up one morning and say, I don't like the color of this bird. And so spend the app, you know, because the app is giving them the kind of a platform. Come on. Come on. So, you know, they say that when Nigerians are pushed to the wall, they break the wall and keep going back. We're changing the conversation. There's absolutely nothing to celebrate here, in my opinion. Absolutely nothing. I don't know Akuis. I've never said the first time that I'm hearing about it. It doesn't even sound like, you know, an app that I would be interested in, not different from the other one by Adamugava. The important part of this conversation, VPN, KU, Kukuru, KU, any of it, is the fact that we currently are in a situation where, currently in a nation where the government can wake up one morning and feel like its ego has been bruised and suspend a platform that has created business and created opportunities and opened up a space for millions and millions of Nigerians. The government can decide one morning and take that away, simply because, you know, one tweet was deleted. So what happens when we create our own social media site and a tweet is deleted? That's why the emphasis really is on regulations in these things. That they don't like. So there's absolutely nothing to celebrate here. And once again, when Nigerians are pushed to the wall, they push the wall down and keep going back. It makes absolutely no sense to be jumping to another app because one has been celebrated or has been suspended. The conversations should still remain on the fact that the rights of Nigerians to freedom of expression has been trampled upon and that's where we should continue to leave that conversation, not go to a different app to continue. How many more apps will be suspended? The government wakes up tomorrow morning and says, you know, banks should withdraw $5,000 from everybody's account. Bank managers will, of course, you know, bend down and say, okay, no, Allah, we can't disrespect the president. Laiman made to say, oh, we need to fund social and social projects. Or somebody else will give some excuse. And, you know, Nigerians would complain and complain and complain and say, oh, well, let's not use these old banks again. Let's go to online banks that won't do this to us. Makes absolutely no sense. There should be a continuous demand for accountability and to respect the rights of the Nigerian person that is guaranteed by the constitution and the UN Charter. And that's where the conversation should end. Nobody should be co-in any way or should be trying to get into any Indian social media platform. And that's where it is. Nothing exciting about this. And another development is that the minister, Laiman Hamid, has said that the ban on Twitter will be lifted when and only when Twitter is registered and licensed and operates within all the laws of Nigeria. I really have no idea what that means, if they need to draw up an agreement, because that's something Lagos de Gondeson will have said that it probably needs to be an agreement between Twitter and Nigeria for the ban to be suspended. So now, Laiman Hamid is saying this, we're looking forward to just what the details of that agreement would be, how Twitter would get it licensed. How Twitter would get it licensed in any other country, because it's an online platform that people simply download from free apps, app stores, and they get that open money. So looking forward to how that will end and to the outcome of the summon of the House of Reps in about nine days now. It's all just a charade. And eventually, I believe that eventually it will pass. Whatever reasons and whatever explanations the government has for taking their steps, they've moved from the fact that, oh, how dare you delete the President's tweet to saying, oh, it gives platforms to Namdi Khan or to saying, oh, it gives platforms to Boko Haram. Didn't they know that there were my POB members or... Before the tweet was deleted? Before the tweet was deleted. Did all of this suddenly become revealed when the tweet was deleted? Come on. So, you know, we... To be honest, I'm actually tired of talking about Twitter and all of it. We would have to continue to... And I personally would leave the conversation at the fact that it seems like somebody felt like how dare Twitter deletes President's tweet, even when they have refused to realize that they simply should have worded those tweets better. They simply should have maybe rearranged President's script. Well, he spoke freely, which is, of course, his right. But if those statements seemed inciting, then there should be a publicity team on the President's... To do damage control. Rather than make it worse. This is not what we meant. This is not what we, or the President was trying to say and make it better for Nigerians to understand and say, okay, well, it's fine. We'll move on. Instead of doing that, you know, we're going in circles and, you know, making all these laws that don't exist and trying to prosecute people for laws that still do not exist. Now, still talking about, you know, locally grown apps or, you know, homegrown apps, indigenous apps like that, we know that drivers on e-healing platforms like Uber and Votes, you know, they've been protesting in the past few weeks. We even had a driver, one of those platforms, come out to say, you know, they're demanding an increase in the fare. The price of everything is high now, what they're saying, you know, bought an Uber is, you know, the fare that the charge is quite low and they're asking for that. And we know that the national president of PEDPA, PEDPA is the association for the, you know, professional drivers and private owners in Nigeria. His name is Idris Sonoga. So he announced yesterday that, to journalists in Lagos, that PEDPA has partnered with indigenous apps and they're called Active Ride and MyCab app. These companies are also into e-healing as replacements for Uber. I know other apps such as Ogataxie, this and that, you know, they're also, you know, Nigerian-owned apps, Nigerian-owned e-healing services that, you know, that are trying to give Uber and Votes a run for their money, but what we've seen here that the pattern with is the app called Active Ride and MyCab app. So they're saying that when you compare these new apps to Bote and Uber, they're getting a better deal. So Uber and Bote would chat them about 20% commission on every ride, but Active Ride and MyCab app would chat them 15%. And that out of this 15%, 5% goes to a safety fund where they can always access for, you know, emergency use and all of that. They're saying also there's more security, more safety. They're just gonna listen at all the advantages of these locally-owned apps to say, let Nigerians go over to these apps and begin to use indigenous apps that would help them. But my concern here is it's great that these Uber drivers or these drivers in Nigeria are getting a better deal, right? But if the reason why you left is because you want Uber to charge more, that means these apps will be charging more. And the question is, can Nigerians actually afford to pay more? So already Uber and Bote and any other e-hailing service is expensive already as it is. I remember asking one of the Uber drivers to say, Uber is expensive. Bote is expensive. These e-hailing apps are expensive. So if you're saying you want Uber and Bote to raise up the price, how can Nigerians afford that? And the explanation was, you know, this is a luxury service. It's not for the common man. So Nigerians should be getting ready to pay more. I mean, that's just what it means. Nigerians should be getting ready to pay more even though it should treat or be a better deal for the drivers. So that's really where we are right now with the Uber boats and the e-hailing drivers in the country. Whatever it is that makes their services more affordable for Nigerians and also for them to be able to take something home at the end of the week or the end of the month. A lot of these drivers, drive vehicles that are owned by somebody else and they have to remit at the end of every month or at the end of every week. And so, you know, they should have legitimate reasons to complain that they're not making enough. You know, after driving the whole of Lagos or the whole of Nigeria. Maintenance costs. Maintenance and all of that. Yes, petrol and all of that. You know, they still don't make enough because of the charges by the app company. So whatever it is that makes their job easy and makes committing easier for Nigerians and at the same time affordable for Nigerians, I feel like these apps that you've mentioned should also take very, very seriously security for, you know, riders, security for their drivers also, better tracking systems, better response to crisis situations and some of all of that. Those should be the added extra benefits, not just, you know, 5% deduction in the rates that they charge. So I'm all for it. However it is, you know, that makes drivers, you know, have a better deal and makes it easier for them to do their business. And of course also it makes it easier for Nigerians to assess and use these apps. I'm all for it, whatever it is. Yes, and I think the conversation really from Twitter to e-hailing rise is just the emphasis on the importance of technology. Technology seems to be driving everything now. Technology makes everything easier. So I mean, an e-hailing taxi service would never exist without technology because all these things are all, you know, basically online. So we need to begin to, especially the government should begin to think in that direction and not to impose bans on suspensions and, you know, basically draconian laws on Nigerian entrepreneurs who simply want to innovate in the country. But that's where it is on this day for our top trending. We'll take a break here and return to see what's making the news on the papers.