 you're welcome back. It's still the run-up and this is the last lap of the journey for today. And it's just past Christmas. Someone wrote on the social media once that a few days ago that not be Christmas at the fiesta, not January. Actually. The hardship that will come is not because of what is going to happen in December, it's what is going to happen in January. So as you're spending and you're doing whatever you're doing, you have to remember that December has like 60 days. It's not January. It's January. Sorry. It has like 60 days inside. It's at January alone. And remember especially now that the UN has said that weakening Naira, rising food prices are affecting Nigerians. We don't even need UN to tell us. We know. We already know this thing. We already know this thing. But the annoying thing is that if a government knows that the economic situation needs salaries to be increased, why not just go ahead and do it? Now the presidential panel reviewing workers' salaries have come out to say, not even the presidential panel, the minister of labor has come out to say that salaries of workers will be reviewed upwards. Will be. It could take years. It could take a lot of months. But they're announcing it already. And even before that announcement, I think some people had the wind that salaries may be increased and things are going very, very high. But I do have a question. I mean, is it salary increase that we need at a time like this? Because if you keep increasing salaries in an economy that doesn't work, how many times or how long do you intend to keep reviewing salaries upwards? And then inflation keeps rising. There is no stable or viable environment for businesses to thrive. People, civil servants cannot afford basic daily needs. Is that why am I even putting civil servants on the line? Everybody. Nobody can afford daily civil, daily life things like you cannot. Some people eat 101. Some people eat 1-0-0. That's exactly what the UN said. Or less than a dollar a day. And that's crazy. You know, the UN also said that. Okay, some people because of that are going on 0-0-1 or 0-1-0, whatever, whoever can survive like that. But you know, things are really getting tighter and tighter. And then you're coming out to announce, shouldn't it just be a seamless thing that, okay, after a number of years we increase because some things are increasing? You come and tell us that you are going to form a committee, you will increase. And if you're increasing it for crying out loud, why will it be the 11th hour of an administration that is promising us that? What will the next administration do? Can they decide for themselves and all that? Like you said, why not just do, make an environment so conducive that the salary you already earn can take you through the month? It's not even fire brigade. It's a shortcut that the government likes all the time. The knee-jerk approach. You know, when we have a problem here, we just solve it. It's like we hear of Idi Amin, whether it was true or false, that when there was no money in Uganda, he went into the mint and just said, print more money. I don't know if that really happened, but this, the approach that a lot of times the government takes here is just the same way like that, printing money because there's no money in the economy. It doesn't really make sense to me. It's crazy. I mean, how did we, like, if you look at the time frame and the height at which the cost of living has increased, let's give it like five years. The difference is alarming. It is very alarming. And, you know, it leaves a lot to wonder because how have we even been surviving all these years? You know, we make jokes, especially on social media. Nigerians say, Nigerians, we can survive in any situation, whatever this situation is. We were even making jokes this Christmas because there's been this talk about how they say that beans will cook this Christmas, but then the markets were surging with people buying and selling going on. But then, if we are suffering and smiling and we are doubling hustle all the time, then it leaves the people in power who are supposed to take responsibility for a lot of things. Like, we don't need to keep doubling hustle. I don't know if you understand. Like, the mindset of the average Nigerian has been tweaked. The mindset of an average Nigerian is, I have to be suffering to look like I'm doing something. And that is very wrong. You're supposed to be living a baby boy life. Yes, you deserve it. Yeah, it's terrible. And not knowing that everything that is done has a ripple effect is really alarming because if you're in government, you should know everything is connected. For instance, now, as we speak, there are landlords that have heightened their rents to three times the amount that was paid, maybe two times this year, because they will tell you there's no dollar. They will tell you there is one thing or the other. I'm sorry, what has dollar got to do with the house that you completed, say, five, ten years ago? Amen to that. But you see, that's the reality. You have given them the excuse. Even their bookie that is pushing water, the Merua that they call them and all that, they will tell you there's no dollar. Because even if he doesn't change dollar, he has to go to the market to buy something else that is brought into the market by dollar. Okay, now that house that a person earning 100,000 could get and stay and be able to pay, if it was, let's say, 150,000, now it goes for 450,000 or 500,000, that means he cannot live in that house anymore. He will go into a house that maybe doesn't have a toilet. And then you're talking about cleaning the environment. And now you have more people living in houses that do not even have toilets. You see how it's connecting to everything people now become sick. They cannot go to the hospital. That leaves me with a question. Like, is it ever going to be possible to have an entire system overhaul of the country if you know what I mean? Because now it's easy to sit back and blame government and people in power. But as individuals, we've also contributed in making life difficult for ourselves. So you can imagine that, let us say, somehow magic happens and the dollar and error disparity comes down. Let us say you're able to, like we used to in the past, buy a dollar for 200 and error, as you mean. Are people willing to come down? Do you understand my question now? It's not the government that would do that now. But again, you see, in some other countries, you cannot just sit down, wake up in the morning and increase rents as we like. Because there's a policy. There are some things that are put in place to make sure that never happens. But in these same countries too, the landlords can go to the market and buy things very easily. So now they're connecting everything. If I can't make a living out of the house that I built, then what's the point? So they're hiking everything. They are making everything so difficult. But everybody has to sit up. We know that. But the person who has accepted to be at the helm of affairs and say, life would be better if I sit there, should take the responsibility and do what is right, let it be left for us. For instance, government now says, I'm going to bring BRT, for instance, so that people will find it more easy or easier to move from place to place. And then you don't provide the BRTs that are enough. And if you provide the ones that are not enough, you go to BRT right now. The people that stand inside the BRT are more than the ones that sit. So if now, like the FCTA, for instance, is giving a red alert warning on communicable diseases, Ebola is back, even though it's not in Nigeria. But there's a possibility anybody can come, a soya can come from anywhere this time because he was the index case. It can come from anywhere. So what if it enters Lagos? And then you're saying, let me run, go to BRT so that we'll have space. At least the chances are lower. But you go to BRT, you can't even find space to stand sometimes. So if the BRT is supposed to carry 30 passengers, now it's carrying like 70. So the people who are standing are more. That brings me back to my question. Is it possible to have an entire system overhaul? Because I am sure that whoever is in charge of the BRT system understands that people are not supposed to stand in those buses. At least not the number that stands. People are not supposed to stand in those buses. So why are people standing in the first place? Not stock of the amount and the number of persons that you find standing every time. It's almost as if the bus doesn't feel to the brim, it won't move. They stand there and wait. And in fact, this time they even have two lines, the lines for the people who are standing and applying for people who want to sit. So if you say you're in a hurry and you want to go, you'll stand because the line will be too long for you. You go and stand somewhere else. And then when it comes to the time, you pay the same amount. You stay there. But when this BRT started, they couldn't carry that much people. They will tell you there are cameras inside the buses. There's days under that. Now there are no longer cameras the way I see. There's no longer AC even in the side of buses. They open the windows and things are just going wrong and wrong and wrong. And guess what? I just saw on the headlines that telecos or telcos, telecos, telcos, well, communication companies are threatening that they will stop the U.S.S.D. services. This is where people used to transfer. So they will stop it because the banks are owing them up to the tune of 80 billion Naira. So even, yes, exactly. So if they stop it, and now we're talking cashless economy and all that and all that, how are we going to survive? So that's the question. Are we ever going to be able to have an entire system over? Yeah. So when these people come out with policies like we were saying earlier on, who do they consult? How much of investigations do they do? How much research do they do? How much figures do they come by to understand the gravity of what they are going to do? How it's going to affect the people that are going to be the final consumers and all that? Do they even make these findings? So now where has 80 billion been hiding? And if they say they're stopping the services, you can't blame them. They're in business. They need to make their own money. They still pay for power. They still pay for everything. So how can you blame them? It's a long, it's a, this conversation might never end. I mean, we're still talking about how that there is rising food prices, that is going to linger into next year because we've not, we're not done talking about the floods that ravaged the country this year. And effect is going to have on the harvest next year. But that is gist for another day on the run. And even on the fact that some bandits are demanding tax for people to harvest their own crops. That's still there. So many things. All these and more, the conversations we're going to keep having on the run-up. But this is where we draw the cutting on today's edition. We hope you had an amazing time as we did. The run-up will return. It will be tomorrow, 11 a.m. to 12, 12.30. But then, until then, I do not forget to pick up your PVCs. The time to do it is now until you decide. My name is Uche Chuku Onoda. I just heard that in Qatar they are going to change the hotel room that Messi stayed in to a mini museum. And that is because his role in the campaign, the agentine campaign in the Qatar World Cup was so, so good. And he has been honored in his hometown and all that. That means he put in his best and is being recognized. When you leave office or when you leave this earth, what will you be remembered for? Think on that. My name is Nyam Gul Aghaji. Let's do it again tomorrow.