 promises and projections from the authorities that would black market sellers making a killing? What hope is there of the situation being resolved? And also on the breakfast ahead of the 2023 General Elections in Nigeria, the Independent National Electoral Commission is saying no new political party will be registered ahead of the polls. This is the end of any plan of the Thought Force as a political party. Plus we have analysis of headlines in today's national dailies, these and more head on the breakfast. Good morning to you. Welcome to The Breakfast and Plus TV Africa and what is a beautiful Tuesday morning. I am Kofi Bartels. And I am Mesa Bokwosky. Good to be back on your screen at the very first day in the month of March. It's okay to say happy new month. You know I didn't even remember today. It was first March. You know I know it's first March but I didn't remember. I'm not thinking about it. That's how maybe it's about February you know not running the full course of 30 or 31 days. I hope your birthday wasn't on the 20th. You know some people say today a day like this is a day to still wish your friends who were born on 29th February a happy birthday even though it's not a leap year. No it's not. It's not. It's not 29 and it's not 29. Today is first. Yeah well or yesterday probably could have been a day to wish your friends was born on the 29th of every usually. I mean if you want to wrap your head around that conversation it's usually very strange and very very sad. Well I think it's okay. You know you save some money. You don't celebrate your birthday. You do that only once every four years. So anyway there's a lot to look at today. The fuel queues are still there. The black market sellers as we call them making a killing and they're making good money. We'll look at that as we go and also of course we have the elections coming up mercy. Yes indeed we have the elections coming up and there's a lot to talk about especially as Ionic has released the timetable and published officially the the the notice of election that's required by law. But let's start with a top trending story. The Ukrainian invasion by Russia is still on. Some people call it an innovation. Some people call it Russia versus Ukraine. Some call it attack on Ukraine. But whatever you want to call it Russian troops are in Ukraine and it's a warring development for humanity. A warring development for mankind. Mercy yesterday as we know the United Nations General Assembly had a long session talking about the Russia-Ukraine crisis and of course the nation of Russia is still a part of the UN. They've not been being removed or they can't be removed at this point. Ukraine is also a member of the UN. So they had not the General Assembly. I apologize I apologize not the General Assembly but but they had a meeting and where the ambassadors of the countries each country has an ambassador to do and how to speak. The Russian ambassador spoke after the Ukrainian ambassador has spoken and he had to play or put up was really dramatic. He had to put up a text message or so obtained from the phone of a young Russian soldier who was captured and killed by Ukrainian forces and what the text message showed was that he was upset. He was scared. He was confused. The young Russian soldier sent a message to his mother saying that they were told that they were going to welcome those heroes in Ukraine. You know the Russians manage information and they have a very strong propaganda system. So he said to his mother we're told we're going to be welcomed as heroes in Ukraine. We're told that we're fighting for the Ukrainians to free them from Nazis but we came here and the people were throwing stones at us. They were lying down they were trying to stop our tanks and they were lying down on the ground trying to stop us. We've had to use our tanks to ride over Ukrainian citizens you know lying down on the ground and to also ride over using their tanks to crush Ukrainian cars. There's a video going on on the internet where you see a Russian tank crashing. It's driving over a Ukrainian car. So that was what transpired at the United Nations. It's a long session and the Russian ambassador to the United Nations responded by saying hey the Ukrainians are responsible for this. He went over to talk about the Minsk protocol like Kremlin was signed between the Russians and the Ukrainians and this has to do with not you know embarking on any aggression towards parts of Russia or parts of Ukraine that want to succeed. Those Russians speaking parts like Donbass and Co and not embarking on any actions you know against Russia and so they accused the Ukrainians of being the reason for this particular crisis or this fight and that the Ukrainians were the ones that provoked Russia to the war. But the Ukrainians are saying see we never had any reason to attack Russia. We never had any plans. We never had any reason or any intention entered Donbass you know where you have Donetsk and then Luhansk you know so it was spinning back and forth but the pictures the reports and the videos emanating from a neighboring country where the Russians and Ukrainians met for for a meeting and for talks. So things flying around. Well it's also reported yesterday that Russian Ukraine actually had started the peace talk and we're hoping that it makes a lot of sense. The peace talk in essence is that both parties would come together and call for a ceasefire and usually at this point in time there's also another report saying that you have Belarus also you know trying to invade and that's according to you as officials. Some people say whose report do you believe because at the time when the United States said you were going to have Russia invade Ukraine nobody took that to heart and eventually that happened and now you're also having another you know talk saying you probably might have Belarus invading Ukraine. Now people have constantly said I mean you remember having this conversation on this platform we talked about the fact that what we're going to be seeing would be alliance. You will now have alliance being formed and so different countries would just be you know supporting and taking you know standing behind each of this country for instance Ukraine so you probably begin to find out that you might just be having allies of Ukraine and Russia coming together and so different countries would continue to tilt towards each other but it's okay that the peace talk is going. I really don't know if that's actually ended and we're hoping that that makes a lot of sense you know usually when you have that particular peace talk we're hoping that both parties would have actually reduce you know whatever it is that they were doing for instance the attack would probably reduce on different facilities and all of that. We're looking forward to having you know a peaceful world. Yes indeed yes indeed the United Nations is the place where these issues should be should be discussed and usually if any war is meant to take place in this country the security council in this world sorry the security council the UN security council needs to pass a resolution. You usually would see that if the Americans and the the West NATO and the Allies want to go on and back on any war the Russians and the Chinese may most likely veto it and vice versa you know so the Russians didn't go to the security council to say this is a situation we want to go into and then give them an opportunity to solve it they went in on their own but the Americans and NATO have done that in the past as well you know in Yugoslavia the former Yugoslavia they were able to in former Yugoslavia they were able to um they embarked on a war because of what's going on in in Kosovo without a UN resolution but the latest from as far as the Nigerians in in Ukraine are concerned you know we've been talking about this for some time and local are interested in that so let's give them some snippets of what the Minister of Foreign Affairs said yesterday on national TV at night at about 7 p.m. he said that the evacuation of Nigerians is on evacuation of the plans are already in motion evacuation flights from Nigeria expected to commence from Ukraine's neighboring countries this week via air peace and Max you can see that's the latest the daily update from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and signed by the Permanent Secretary so they have now been releasing daily updates and I think that's very commendable this one signed properly written not like the other one that had a lot of grammatical errors it's properly written signed by the Permanent Secretary and the Minister of Foreign Affairs so he says fly air peace and Max air will be lifting Nigerians anytime this week he also said about 5,600 Nigerians students in Ukraine a total of 8,000 Nigerians in all in Ukraine very close to what I guess yesterday said he also said currently 1,000 Nigerians have crossed 1,000 Nigerians who have crossed into Romania or have crossed into Romania from Ukraine they will be airlifted in the coming days also Nigerians are crossing successfully into Poland and Hungary about 150 of them I saw me in Ukraine which is closer to Russia so they will be expected to go to Russia so they have these arrangements with Max air and air peace to fly these Nigerians home in the coming days but he also said that not all Nigerians may want to come back home some may want to stay there so only those who want to leave will be evacuated he also clarified the issues with why the federal government had not flown into Ukraine to pick you know some Nigerians have been saying people have been saying this so we had to clarify you know he reiterated that the airspace of Ukraine is currently close to commercial flights so the evacuations have to happen in neighboring countries I really I really don't understand I mean when I saw that message you know from the Nigerian government what I was I mean the Nigerian embassy the letter that was actually put out it was actually in public space and domain what I expected was there's going to be a disclaimer that it was fake oh that first one content yeah because of the content on how it was put out okay the truth is when I juxtaposed that with that of India the embassy you could see that this country understood what was going on it's a conflict zone the airspace will be short so Ukrainian airspace has been short and there's nothing you can do it's so dangerous you can't even try to say oh we're Nigerians and they were coming there to have what are you saying that would take down anything in that space anything to see so it's not even a time for you to begin to say oh we're trying to we can't come there we already know what it is and so there's no need for you to begin to stay the obvious and the big question here has been have we been proactive do we always wait for things to happen as much as people would say oh it's not entirely on the Nigerian government you know to evacuate citizens that's because you have people who are who are responsible parents guardians who are responsible for the awards I mean students in in Ukraine right but we need to you know move away from that and get back to Nigeria and let's look at the issue of student protesting I mean talking about ASU strike Nigerian student yesterday took to protest and they have vowed that the protest will continue until ASU actually ends that strike and usually the spot of the protest is usually the unity fountain that's in the FCT so yes like we mentioned Nigerian students are saying no we will continue with the protest until ASU ends this strike and they have talked about the impact that cannot continue to be a way and all of this strike constantly affects them you know state universities and federal universities the fact that they have to stay home it's no longer news but one of the things that worries me or that concerns me that this did not as much as yes we're talking about it as much as we think that it also made part of the conversation you know yesterday and up until this moment but I really didn't get that kind of recognition that one would think it's not a joke as we're saying they're going to be on strike for one month it's it's not even a time the fact that we have distorted calendar you know academic calendar that's it's not something to celebrate it's really really you know if we're a country that pay we pay attention to mental health it does a lot of harm to the people and imagine you know what will actually happen at this period or you know that students have to be at home so I really don't know but I know that ASU would be on the other side saying oh the students should probably be on our side understanding the plight and understand the fact that we're fighting for you know the cost of the Nigerian student but really it's also really fighting for the cost of the Nigerian student do you also have the government paying attention to the interest of Nigerian students I mean there were several tweets yesterday I saw some people saying it has to end now we say you don't use are the leaders of tomorrow but you don't pay attention to education education is very key it's important right but you there's always a saying and even some you know the Bible and for those who actually would believe in the Bible you know some parts that your money would actually go where your heart is so wherever you see your money going to that's what your heart is how much do we pay how much attention do we pay to the educational sector why do we constantly even have to bother about our student in Ukraine you know so you constantly have you know the figures on the high people are leaving students are leaving whether or not they want to study everybody's just trying to find a way out it's not high time we pay attention is this rocket science is this mission impossible what exactly is the problem the we giant of Africa cannot fix that that's a very interesting question what's the problem that the giant of Africa cannot cannot fix like you said that protest was they gathered at a unity fountain but they walked through some streets in in in Abuja we told that they caught you can look at it you can see the pictures there they caused them some discomfort to some motorists you know they caused some hardship to some motorists you know when they worked on the streets but I'm looking at the students there and I'm wondering whether this this this protest is is is going to affect anything because you know it's just a few students you look at number of students you have in Nigeria it's just a few students this are not Nigerian students I'm sorry I'm sorry it's a disgrace they should go home so you say this why do you say this are no Nigerian students they should they should go home the the nuns you know they should go home because over the years you know student unionism has died in Nigeria if we're talking about the student union government it's all about the national association of Nigerian students it's died it's it's it's dead it's dead you know you and I went to the same uni I don't know I should tell the listeners and what did you see I mean which wait when is the student union bodies be it the national associate of Nigerian students or the state unions or the the escu gene schools and have they come out to consciously or to to talk about conscious issues to protest conscious issues to be a force for for change and for good in the university first I'm not talking about breaking glasses and all that or protesting when there's no what I know but but serious issues these guys have become I mean when this is a serious issue so this guy this guy is serious if not the students who are facing these issues two days in the hands of the advice chancellors you know that's for the student union government leaders there's two days in the hands of advice chancellors and they also get a lot of pay you know then the national association Nigerian students leadership have also becomes two days in the hands of politicians that's why pay pay time you have two factions and then they disgrace themselves by coming out to support maybe one party or the other so you have two factions or maybe national union or national youth council of Nigeria or maybe nonce when we say oh we we support the federal government on this they're doing well and I would say oh we are against they're both for different political parties so I mean look at the if Nigerian students want to protest are these the number of people that will come out look at that no no so so if we look at the number um maybe there's actually a video unfortunately we're unable to put that now right now and I am not about whether the Nigerian students want to protest this nation will not move so so I'm about the fact that you know first of all I'm about the fact that first of all just before we move on I'm about the fact that first of all um I really don't want to pay attention to the numbers of students that we have and let's not forget that this protest is happening in the FCT we cannot take out the fact that yes you have you know the NANDS or the Nigerian students the SUG and the government in schools being taken over you know by politicians governors and whatever to project their own interests but my concern here is that there's a strike that's going on as to say they're going to be on strike and you have some sect of people who have come out to say the strike has to be end permanently and whether or not these persons you know the number is up to a million the most important thing is that people are asking that the strike should actually end and I do not think that this is actually in favor of because if you look at it they're saying that as we need to get back to school the lecturers need to get back to class and that's the most important thing we can't continue like this and expect that we we want a different climb where we we keep our children out of school for a very long time and then we hope that we have a climb where you know there's peace there's no crime and there's no criminality in all of that so yes for me it probably might not be about the people who are actually you know coming out right now but the most important thing is the fact that people are asking that the strike has to end but we need to pay attention to it one last question one last question you know and when you want to you want to strike and you say you ground you want the government to notice you you have to make the government notice you and if the government doesn't notice you it's just a protest you do it and you go away it only be reported on the national dailies that they went on striking that's the end nothing oh as we say just they're saying that they can go ahead and do you think that as you would continue to strike because as we say they can go ahead but nothing's wrong i mean two weeks no they're saying the students have a right but that they won't go they will not go back to school the classroom you understand so what are you protesting for you know and if you protest they must feel it otherwise it's you and i know that very soon as we have to we have to but that's the much that we can take at this point in time we'll definitely return with our top trending conversation surrounding you know our space right here that would be tomorrow in the meantime who will step on the brakes when we return will be time for us to look at the front pages of a national dailies please stay with us