 Our global terrorism index 2022 ranks Nigeria third in the list of countries most impacted by terrorism in sub-Saharan Africa and sixth most important world in the country, the most important country in the world. We shall be taking a look at the cost of insurgency and banditry in Nigeria. Also, as the nation grapples with the epileptic educational system and the need to improve on this fresh structure to accommodate the teeming population, can homeschooling serve as a supplement to the Nigerian education system? That's the question we'll be seeking answers to on the show as well. We'll also take a look at the headlines on major newspapers in the country and off the press with an analyst will join us to dissect some of these headlines on the breakfast this morning. Very good morning to you and thanks for joining us on the breakfast. My name is Nyam Gul. And I am Maureen. Morning to you. Today we're going to be looking at a major theme and that will be can parents do more to encourage their children's appetite for learning because nowadays a lot of people complain about the educational system and how the standards have dropped but where do we start from? How do we begin to encourage our people to cultivate that attitude of learning and having that precious appetite for learning all the time? Do we start from the home or do we start from the external body we call a school? Indeed, we should start from the home, Nyam Gul. It's been said that the best way to teach children to read is by reading yourself. Children learn most from examples. For instance, you want your children to cultivate the habit of reading novels. You must be seen to be reading novels yourself. You want them to read newspapers. Matter of fact, because these days we online newspapers have become the thing, almost replacing, you know, they had coffee newspapers which we grew up learning, reading and that was how some of us got to know some of the things happening on the national scene. Today our children do not have that advantage. So, let's go back to it. Yeah, I really call it an advantage because in those days if you're reading a newspaper the distractions are not there. Today, if you're reading online, there's so many distractions, so many things popping up, some things coming that you didn't even anticipate and you get distracted and when we're talking about homeschooling, my concern also is what do the parents as individuals even want their children to learn nowadays? Can we have a standard that we say that if everybody is taught at home this is how the child is likely to turn out to be. What will the parents be teaching these children and well, I'm not the expert but there are some concerns that arise whenever an idea comes into your head. Yeah, but I think the first place to even start is, is it even legal in Nigeria to homeschool? That's another thing. Is it even legal in Nigeria to homeschool? And even if it is, what curriculum should be adopted? Is it harmonized with the ones in the formal education sector or is it not? So yeah, these are some of the questions we should be asking. And are the parents comfortable enough for maybe one of them to stay home and homeschool the children or will be doing like in Lagos, you have a nine to five job, but you wake up at 4.30 to get to work and get back home at 12 p.m. sometimes. Well, you know that is just not possible, how is it possible to do that? But at least for the people who can, there should be legal backing for them to be able to do that for their children and we've seen people who are homeschooled even in the days of your that turned out to be very, very good and we're hoping that in Nigeria with all the complaints we've been giving, we should have alternatives that will work for us as well. Can I just shock you? I know a family who do homeschool in Nigeria. I said, I don't know if it's legal, but I know a family of seven kids, they have seven children, their mother does the homeschooling. Now, I do not know if they employed other hands to join, but those children are sharp, intelligent, right? There should be and well behaved. And then you don't, you don't have that feeling that it is a formal setting. You're taking things easy and sometimes learning is faster when you just take it easy. That's why sometimes when within the class, students organize lessons for themselves and they teach themselves, they tend to understand even more because it's coming from a place of relaxation. Relaxation. Ease. Yes, it is. Okay, but on the, on the, on the national scene as it were, we're looking at some trending topics. One of them is federal government bans in partition of used vehicles manufactured above 12 years. The directive issued along with a revised list of prohibited imports. And then those prohibited imports include some medication like chloroquine tablets and syrups, paracetamol tablets and syrups, cotrimazole tablets and syrups, folic acid tablets, metronidazole tablets and syrups among other items. I didn't know that folic acid tablets are contraband. Well, even some of the ones that have been mentioned here may be now they're contraband because they were, they were not. For instance, at some point they banned Kunin, which was legal at some other point and was saving lives. But I don't know whether they discovered something else that made them to ban it. Just like they're investigating one noodle, noodle company. Endome. They say it has some substance inside. So maybe at some point it will work and at others something will be introduced that will make it toxic or something. So let's just take the advice of the people. Yes. They're no better. Well, the federal government has also introduced a new set of taxes on imported vehicles. Well, the new tax system goes into effect on June 1st of this year. As it is. Well, those who are importing vehicles will not like to hear this. As it is now, it's difficult to even get a car nowadays because of the taxes involved. You could buy a car for, let's say, up to 300,000 Naira and it gets to Nigeria before you clay it at the wharf and all that. You're spending like 2 million Naira and now the tax is coming. So if you have not bought a car, no need to try again. Try. Your family should donate money for tricycle and then you just buy it and you're doing it again. Well, this new tax is known as import adjustment tax and levied at a rate of 2% of the vehicles value. 2% of the vehicles value. The new charge is in addition to the 35% import duty and 35% levy that car importers already pay. Such a huge burden. Okay. That means it is 72% of this car that you're paying because if it is 35% for one tax and another 35% for another one and now 2% so that's 72% which means you're buying a car. If it's 100,000 you're paying a 72,000 for tax alone. So how many people will drive cars? And I wonder why it tastes like this. If it were a situation where the government is providing transportation, you know, people wouldn't even need cars. I was on Thetmenland Bridge today and I was looking at the cars. Most of them had just one person inside the car and imagine 50 people being single person inside the car that could have been on one BRT. On one BRT. If it was possible. On one train. Yeah, on one train. There wouldn't be anything like a traffic jam and all that but they don't seem to be looking at that. Well, we have electric cars nowadays. We have electric cars which we looked at briefly yesterday to find out can it be charged in the rain and driven in the rain so that it is electric? And some of the things, the mileage of it, everything, we will need to take a deeper look at this electric vehicles that are coming of course. One of the advantages is that it will reduce emissions into the air but we'll take a deeper look and find out if it would also be cheaper for commuters. So this tax is also high on imported alcoholic beverages with 75% litre for imported wine, stout and beer in 2023 and 100% naira per litre in 2024. So we're looking at more taxes on alcoholic beverages and beer, beer, alcohol and wine I beg your pardon. So in 2024 things are really going to be more expensive with regards to wine and beer and alcohol. What's even the intent? Is it to stop people from drinking alcohol or to just make more money? I think the target is luxury goods. Some goods that are regarded as luxury goods and I think they're targeting those who are supposedly, you know, up there as against those who are down there. But then when you're targeting wine, when you're targeting stout for instance and it's not only the elite of the rich that drink that. I mean the Nigerian man is already under a lot of pressure as it is. So you have to ease down. What I'm not saying that alcohol is not exclusive of the rich. So when you're taxing alcohol, I mean you're taxing, I beg your pardon, wine, stout and beer, it's every sector, every part of Nigeria and South Africa, but the rich and the poor. So we end up being the ones to pay for it because people are still buying. And then these imported vehicles. I'm more concerned about the vehicles, you know, because, well, I don't know. This just makes me remember one time where the Lagos State government said that we're burning alcohol from parks, especially, and they said. Yeah, they said the ones in Sasha will never be sold in parks anymore. And I didn't see a single day where that law was enforced. And I don't know, maybe they will succeed in this one because it rakes in the money and they will be comfortable about it. But when they see something and they need to do it, they should just go ahead and do it. Incremented. Yes. Okada is no longer here, but policemen drive it. They are not dispatch riders that were allowed to do that. But the policemen use it, and they even use it for commercial purposes. I've seen a lot of them carry people and get money. And then the ordinary man is banned because he should have. He is an ordinary man. He is Frank Olysees' ordinary man on the street. So let's go to the second top trending, which is BRT driver who crashed into train, a rain for manslaughter. You do remember that train, that horrible incident that happened? These people died and so many others were wounded. And it's because of, from the stories, like we say, strong head. Don't do this. And he's going ahead to do it. He's a typical Lagos person, you know, who doesn't want to give a room for it. To the other person. Yeah, way to the other person. That's why they drive in zigzags and all that. And that's why before now we were talking about mental health and the need for evaluation of these people, especially the people who are faring people for the government because it gives a bad name to the government that their own people are misbehaving. So how do you advise the other people if your own people cannot be evaluated? Yeah, there you have the picture there. Very horrible bus and train colliding. It's very rare, very, very, very rare occurrence. The state, Lagos state bus rapid transit driver, Oshiba and Joe Oluwashion, who collided with a moving train at Ikeja and allegedly killed six people. He was on Tuesday rain before Ikeja High Court. The defendant is facing 16 counts bothering on involuntary manslaughter and grievous harm. Well, the director of public persecutions, Babaji de Martins, told the court that the BRT driver negligently killed the victims by ignoring warning signals and run into an oncoming train. Just as you have said, that impatience. Yeah, a train that is coming, the noise alone, even if you don't hear the horn, will alert you to the fact that it is coming. And if you're crossing an intersection, the total is to look right, look left and all that. You wouldn't have been that close to a train and not notice it coming. It wasn't in a bend or something, but he felt he was smart enough, he could just pass and got some people killed. But also, some questions were raised when that happened. What about the warning signals? Were there enough warning signals? I remember a few months back I was driving from that Ikeja GRI going to, you know, the other side and I had to go through past that rail track and I didn't know that a train was coming. I didn't hear anything. Thank God there was the official there standing there who just said, run, run, run, run, run. It was just like that. Run quickly. Yeah, just quickly. No, I wasn't, because there was no signal. The buses were driving past, I was coming, there was no horn from the train, there were no barricades, so to speak. It was just as if nothing was going to happen, we had no idea that a train was coming. So from nowhere I just saw him saying, quickly, quickly, drive past, quickly, move, move, move. And that was how I had trauma for a while. Uh-oh. Yes. So the warning signals, are they there? The barricades are they there? Yeah. These are some of the questions that were raised when this happened. It's a pertinent question, or they are very pertinent questions. In Lagos we find out that even some roads that are one-way, they don't tell you, give you the sign. What if you are a newcomer in that area, you don't even know it's a one-way drive, and you enter it, they're just ready to catch you, that's all they want to do. Sometimes I've seen a case where someone was asked to, there was a diversion and people were supposed to pass that one way legally as it were. And the guy passed, and they arrested him, said it's one way. First of all, somebody on the other end asked him to pass, and then... Somebody in front of him, like some sort of collaboration. And it's not like 80 or 85,000 for that, you know, because they were being threatened, you will impound your car, we'll do this and do that. But anyway, back to the BRT driver, the fact that people warned him shows that there was a sign, even though not official sign, but it shows that he could have seen this train coming, he still wanted to be smart enough. But all the facts are not with us, we don't know what he's taking us. Well, the director of public prosecutions is accusing him of ignoring the warning signals and... What's the warning signals from? Yeah, exactly, that's the question. Warning signals from home and how strategic were those warning signals. And I'm sure he must have passed that road a lot of times. So he might have felt that the situation was the same as every other day that he has passed. And so people might be telling him, stop, don't go, and he could think, I've been doing this thing. I'm smart. Yeah, I'm smart. I'm fast. I'm fast. I can do this. Yeah. And then he was the one who survived. Others died. Well, I wouldn't wish that he died. But I'm very sure he didn't just want to kill these people, but he made a very bad judgment. Yeah. It led to a death. It's a very bad judgment. And other bus drivers need to be careful. Don't drink in the morning. I was about to leave the park. The bus parks don't shine your eyes. You know how it is. And I can't swear for him. That he didn't do something. Okay, so we're moving to the weather report now. We'll take a break from these hot topics, from these and then we'll go to the weather report. I'll be right back. Stay with us.