 Naira closes at $756 as rate convergence takes root, we'll be looking at that on the program this morning. Also, the federal government implements the 7.5% VAT on diesel. That's also going to be off the press where we'll look at headlines on our national dailies. Very good morning to you and thanks for joining us on the program this morning. My name is Nyam Gul Aghaji and on behalf of the entire team, I'd like to say it's a pleasure having you this morning join us. We do hope that wherever you are staying, if you work in Lagos, you're already on your way or you're already at the office. But if you're not, because of one reason or the other, very well. Today is another wonderful day and we're hoping that all of us will tap into the blessings of this day. We here on Plus TV, we wish you well. Well, today is Thursday. We think business whenever we're talking today. So wherever you're doing your business from, we do hope that the conditions are good enough because nowadays people are finding it really difficult to go to work the regular work or to do business. But we do hope that you're getting by. Put it at the back of your mind that you can make it work. You're stronger than you think. So let's be resilient as we've been described as Nigerians to be very, very resilient. And we should also take everything into consideration and hope that we can get the best out of it. Especially when it comes to health issues. And now we have a story that we saw just yesterday about a man who beheaded the younger brother. The younger brother was beheaded by this man in Adamawa state. And we've been told that this person has epilepsy. Now, I didn't know that epilepsy could lead to some kind of mental disturbance that will make you behave out of order. I always thought that there will be just that seizure that you're going to have from time to time. And it's dangerous for you to be close to fire, to be on your own. Maybe when you're crossing the road or something because you never know when that seizure will come and you just drop there and anything can happen to you. That's all I ever knew about epilepsy. Maybe one of these days, maybe on a Monday, we're going to talk something about epilepsy. When we talk health any of these days, maybe we're going to talk about epilepsy and the dangers or the things that are related to epilepsy so that we get to know. It is not enough for like our families in Nigeria and in Africa. Just let me say so. When you are epileptic, some families tend to just lock you in the house and you are disgraced to them. You are somebody that should not be seen and that's all about it. Let us try to find out whether there are some remedies for this, whether there are some cures for this or a way of managing epilepsy because it is not just seizures. In fact, from what we saw in the report, it's unfortunate that someone had to lose their life. But what led to these? What are the other signs? What are the other symptoms? What are the other things that present if someone has epilepsy? We need to know this. But first of all, we have to know that whoever is epileptic did not drink it from water. It did not bring that thing upon themselves. We have to be empathic. We have to know that if they need help, we need to give them help. That's all I can say about that story. It's unfortunate that that person had to lose his life. But a burning issue that a lot of people were talking about just recently is the fact that the RMAFC has raised the salaries of judges and political appointees and elected office holders. That news made the rounds all over. And by RMAFC, I mean Revenue, Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission. That's the RMAFC. Now, when that news broke, Senator Schehu-Sani reacted to the reports that the Revenue, Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMAFC will be increasing the salaries of judges and political office holders. And when he did that, he was saying that what should be paramount on the minds of the people is the salaries for the poor masses and not that of the political office holders and judges and all that. And when he said that, the chief, so to speak, of RMAFC, now said that they had not done anything like that. He denied it. RMAFC denied the approval of salary increase for tenable governors and judges and orders. Now, in the story that we saw, the boss of RMAFC said that it has not been approved. When Schehu-Sani said the increasing salaries of politicians, judicial and public office holders by 114% was not good enough. The chairman, Mahmood Schehu, who was represented by Raki Atanko Ayuba, a federal commissioner, disclosed this information during the presentation of a reviewed remuneration package report to Governor Nassir Idris of Kirby State. The news came as a shock to many Nigerians, many Nigerians as we are still battling with the economic hardship of the removal of petrol subsidy. Now, reacting to this report of the salary increase for politicians, Sani in a tweet posted said increasing the salaries of the poor at a time like this should not be of more priority than the salaries of the elite, or should be rather more priority than the salaries of the elites. While the revenue mobilization allocation and fiscal commission, which is the RMAFC that I've been talking about, denied the media reports claiming that it has approved the increment of salaries of political office holders, judicial and public office holders by 140%, 14% rather. In an interview with a newspaper, the public relations officer of the organization, Christian Wachuku, said President Bola Tinubu has not given approval for the increment of salaries of public servants. He said, and I quote, My chairman has never made any statement on it, and I have not made any statement on it. No statement from chairman, no statement from me, so I don't know. I heard one of the commissioners said it. I don't want to be quoted. No approval yet. There is no approval yet. I don't know the source of that story. Everything is under the process. It has to come as a bill for Mr. President to assent. The president has not given an accent. Until the president gives an accent, you cannot take it as if it has taken effect. You know that you are a journalist. I don't want to be quoted wrongly. The president has not given an accent to it. It is still under the process. End of quote. Now, when asked if the National Assembly has begun work on the proposal, he said, It will be sent to the National Assembly whichever way, whether it has been sent or not, the president has not assented to it. All those legislative processes have to be completed. Finally, it will land on Mr. President's table for assent. That has not been completed. Now, he was also asked if the story making the rounds on salary increment is not true. Wachiku said, Just take it the way you understand it so that you don't quote me anyhow. Okay. That's how he responded to that, that he doesn't want to be quoted anyhow. The statement he made also to the journalists, you are a journalist. You should investigate more. People like to make these statements all the time. When they make some mistakes or they say some things that are out of order and scrutiny comes, they just blame it on the journalist, on the media people that you're not doing your work. Meanwhile, that is part of the work being done. Deny it or confirm it. And you're saying that the person didn't do his work. How is he going to do his work? Now, these are some of the takeouts from what he said. They said the RMAFC has approved. They have not said, no media report has said that president has assented to it. This is the proposal by the RMAFC. That means they have said this is what should happen. And he also came up to say that it is in the process, which means there is that bill that is being sent to the National Assembly. Let them look at it and after that it goes to the president's table. So whether the president has signed it or not, which means there is this thought that this public office holder salary has to be, or yes, they have salaries have to be increased by 114 percent. Now, Labour has gone, that is the NLC, not the Labour Party now, NLC, the Nigerian Labour Congress, the TUC, the Trade Union Congress, and all the relevant bodies have met with the presidency or the government and said that the minimum wage should be moved up to 200,000 a month. We all know that that will not be approved. Well, we might say, okay, believe it in faith that this can happen any day. Now Nigeria will get richer and all that. All those things we're just talking. We know that even if it's going to be approved, the raising of that salary is going to be approved. It may not be up to 200,000 Naira. Now already when Nigerians are complaining and feeling the bite of fuel subsidy removal and maybe subsidy in education, the removal of subsidy in education and so many other places, and then someone is coming up with the idea that the salaries of the people Nigerians are already complaining that their salary is too much should have their salaries increased by 114%. So if you were earning, let's say, 13 million that they said they were earning, maybe in the Senate and all that. You remember that time in the past when Senators Shehu Sani said they were earning about 13 million or so per month? So you're increasing it to 114%. So if you increase 13% by 100, that means you're having 26 million. If it is 13 million, sorry that you're earning in a month, that means you're having 26 million because it has been increased 100%. 13 plus another 13. But this is in a country and in an economy where everybody, at least the common men are crying that there is no money and the common men are crying that the cost of governance is too much. What the people earn in the National Assembly alone is enough to defray some of our debts and do a lot of things that we need in the country. Do bill good roads, bill schools, settle ASU, for instance, and do the needful in the education sector and all that. And then revenue, allocation, mobilization, fiscal commission still saying that they are to earn 114%. It's outrageous if you ask me. But, well, what do I know? What do we even know? If the bill gets to the president's table and he signs it into law, will we still hear about it? That's the question. Now we were not supposed to hear that the race has been done, but somehow the information got to the people and the race to alarm. And the person who came out to deny it denied only that the president has not given assent to it, which means the bill is there. The idea has been brought, it has been put in paper, and the think is right for the people who they have fingered as those that are supposed to get this benefit. But what about the people? What about the common man? What about people like me, for instance? Do we get to have the 114% increment to whatever we're being paid? And, of course, it's not the government that is paying us. Will my employer get some kind of grant that will make him so wealthy that he can pay me like 100% of the salary I'm earning right now? And if that is not going to be done, then are we still going to be going to the same market as the political office holders? If we are going to the same market, then what is going to be our fate? So, well, he has denied it, and the denial, we know where it went to, where he pegged it, where he left it. The denial is that, oh, the president has not assented to it, so we cannot say that it has taken effect. But why did you even think about it is the question. Are they crying that they have been impoverished? Are they crying that the money they are being paid now is not good enough? We heard the other day that they are going to have, like, is it 2.4 billion Naira shared among less than 500 people in the National Assembly? And everybody was on the average supposed to be earning, like, 51 million Naira for accommodation. We don't know how they pay the senators and how they pay the House of Reps members, but on the average, if you take the 300 and something House of Reps members and the 100 and something, 109 actually senators in the House, then you share that among them, everybody gets, like, 51 million Naira for accommodation. Okay, we have not talked about Wardrobe allowance. We have not talked about Hatshiba allowance. We have not talked about newspaper allowance because I still see that, even though I don't know how many people read newspapers nowadays in the National Assembly, but we have newspaper allowance, we have so many other allowances, and then everybody for accommodation will have 51 million Naira as allowance for them. And now they're talking about 114% increment of whatever they earn right now. Well, that's how it's going to be. That's our top trending, whatever you feel about it, whatever you have to say, you have to say it now. We have Twitter, we have every other social media platform that we can cry out if we're not comfortable or applaud the Revenue Mobilization and Fiscal Commission for doing a good job and raising the salaries of political office holders and judges and the likes. But for now, we'll take a short break, see what the weather is telling us now and when we return, it is the newspapers we'll go to. Stay with us.