 We're back with of the press and a plus TV Africa that's on the breakfast. We have a zikonga. I took who joins the conversation this morning. Is it good to have you join us? Thanks for having me. It's a pleasure. Compliment of the season. Very same to you and everybody in the station. All right then let's quickly take a look at the Guardian newspaper this morning. NGF Moom as federal government shifts blame for high poverty to governor. So the blame game continues. Agba there are rather beautiful flyovers, sky scrapers, but leave fight against hunger. Sokoto has the highest number of poor people followed by Bayosa. Yahaya bello governors are governors committed to improving livelihood of rural dwellers. Rising inflation and falling wages increase poverty, social unrest, says ILO. These are the riders you find underneath the board caption and just again you have, I have fears about a possible outcome of 2023 polls says Jaga. Now what could he be saying? Cod dismisses suit seeking disqualification of Labour Party presidential candidate Pitao B. That's also on the Guardian. Or you tell us appointees left with official vehicles. Others are delicate reveals. And just before we move away from that 8th day, which is today, no end to infection by 2030 as 1.8 million Nigerians live with HIV. That's a lot. We'll move away from the Guardian. Let's quickly take a look at the punch newspaper talks about fuel scarcity. No planned price hike says federal government queues spread. But what's going on with, you know, the hike that we're experience experiencing at a time? There will not be fuel price hike during you tied period says government. NMDPRA assumes or assures motorist and current stock can last for 34 days. And that's because the NMPC says we have like 2 billion litres of petrol. Government cannot continue subsidy amid diversion. NMPC sources quoted to say these are all of the riders you find underneath the board caption. But let's move away from that. That's because we have more interesting headlines. Ina Gezap for elections in North East deploys beavers. And government pays Asu November salary with whole arrears. Federal government blames governors for the rising poverty and doh akwaibom defa. Don Bax F federal government policy on mother thong teaching. A delicate alleges or shun government vehicles missing issues ultimately. And though Hunter mistakes man for antelope and shoots him dead. What a sad incident and sad story. Asha Buhari, Twitter critic, remanded it in prison. I mean, that's, that's the conversation that's been going on for a very long time. We'll just quickly take a look at the daily trust newspaper election valence claim 1,525 lives in 25 years. Boko Haram hyper bandits biggest threat to 2023 polls. That's according to report. Politicians excess excesses polls ricks to elections. That's what analysts are saying. Politicians excesses polls ricks to the 2023 elections. Breakdown of security threats to 2023 general elections, but it's anything that can be done. Now, there's a pictorial representation to that where you have the map of Nigeria. And, you know, if you look at the map, it would be the nothing part of the country. Abandoned, not Western, not central. They have been operating for more than a decade, but the danger reach have increased during the presence, the present presidents tenure. That's what you find there. Now, this Boko Haram in the nut is, if you also look at that map, you know, to that side, you'll find desperate assurances by the government. Boko Haram remanded a serious threat around the Lichard Republic. Again, you find 55,430 people were killed by terrorist groups and criminal gangs operating across the country. And you find 3.2 million Nigerians have been displaced from their homes, mostly in the North. The data and statistics actually continue and beneath it, you find iPop, that's in the South East. The map also can show you that vividly. The group did not take up arms until after Boko Haram became president. Now, that's a lot. Life lost to election violence in Nigeria since independence in 1960. In 1999, data says it's 80 in 2300 and in 2007, 300. Now in 2011, 800 persons died in 2015, 100. Now in 2019, 145. Feels like, you know, the number increases every other time. Now in July 2022, 2.45 million were registered as internally displaced persons so much, you know, to think about as inch closer to the 2023 elections. Governors abounding rural areas and building needless flyovers and airports, that's what the federal government is saying. Troops recovered two female cops, rescued three victims in Kaduna Karazin. Heads 1,000 per litre as food prices saw. Only 33 rapists convicted for over 11,000 cases, that's what, you know, the federal government is quoted to say. And then quickly we'll just look at the nation. Ezekiel Nyaituk will be showing his thoughts in no time. Minister states to blame for the rising poverty and hardship. Governors building airports and flyover, investing in projects with no economic impact. That's what the federal government is saying. We could take on governor over derivation payment. And just against schools to adopt mother tongue as medium of instruction. INXS, PVC mandatory for voting in the 2023 January elections. I mean, what have we been doing before? Tunable for Chatham House, talks and security, economy, Abdul Razak takes 189.4 billion budget estimate to the national assembly. That's the much we can take this morning on the nation. Ezekiel Nyaituk, it's good to have you join us this morning, sharing your thoughts. Thanks for having me. All right. And let's start with the daily trust. Election violence claim 1,525 lives in 25 years. And that's the report. And I'm sure that you were following with all of other statistics. The fact that, you know, Boko Haram, among all the terrorists and groups are really a major threat for elections come 2023. How do you react? Okay, I think first and foremost, we need to draw a line between election violence and all these other crimes, banditry and the rest of them. Now, one is an enterprise that criminals have found very lucrative and they will do everything to continue, except there's an extremely strong deterrent. Now, these are criminals that are in the bushes. There is a second set of criminals that are in the executive offices. These are people who have seen politics and, you know, election as means to state capture and not a means to serve the people, on account of which they will kill, maim and do everything to get into power. These are two different sets of criminals. And at the end of the day, the people that they're receiving and are the poor Nigerians. And sometimes the time has come when these so-called poor Nigerians need to really sit down and know that the people in office are the people that should face the other criminals. But when these criminals are there for something else, then the other criminals will have a field day. The moment they have this understanding, they will now be careful into who they get into office in the first instance. I happen to be contesting, you know, in the forthcoming elections and I go like yesterday I was in one of the very, very rural areas and I really sat the people down and talked to them to understand that this bring money, bring money, bring money. They need to understand that unless they come to support the good people, they will never have peace. And we actually spent quite some time, probably of two hours or there about, and they started to see things differently. And when I left, I left giving them nothing. Or next to nothing I would say. And they're happy. They prayed for me. They applauded. It's like, you know, your case is different. But really even the media needs to have a conversation on how we are going to tackle the criminals in the offices. Because they are the people that will tackle the criminals in the bushes. And for as long as we have state capture entrepreneurs coming in to suck our resources, these people are not interested in the matching order of what governance is all about. I've quoted this chapter and I'm probably getting identified with it. Chapter 2, section 14, subsection 2b of our constitution says that the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government. Now, to what extent do we understand that? We look at the people that are at the forefront. To what extent do we think that Mr. Attico is somebody who understands about the security and welfare of the people. And he's primed in all ramifications to bring this about. Or Mr. Bola Ashiwaju, you know, is primed physically, mentally, spiritually, intellectually, emotionally, intelligence-wise to deliver this aspect of the constitution. Or Mr. Pitalbi. Or are we busy playing party, playing politics? And at the end of the day, we start to have another four years of letting the lives of the people get wasted. I think the time has come when we, the elites, or the allies, need to sit down and have a conversation with ourselves between these two criminals. The only people that can fight the criminals in the bush are these people that are in the offices. And once the criminals in the offices are the people in charge, they have no business with those in the bush because they are no better. They don't have any moral conscience to fight them. But still looking at this, should we be worried about, you know, the 2023 elections, looking at the fact that if you look at the country in the northwest and the north-central, the security threats of, you know, bandits, and then you come to, you know, the southeast that you have iPop as well. You also go to the nuts. Of course, I talked about the North East. You have Boko Haram also majorly on that part. Should we be worried? And is there anything that can be done because we understand the significance of, you know, the 2023 elections and every other elections? We should not be worried. We should be proactive. Sitting down and worrying has never solved the problem, never. This is saying that people united are unstoppable. Let us give an enlightenment to the people. Let us give an agenda to the people and let the people rise up at this point in time and make sure that we have free, fair, credible elections. The people can demand it and they can have it. All this issue of, oh, we're worried. You see, let me tell you something we must know. There is faith and there is fear. Fear has never been a solution to any problem. The faith looks at a mountain. He knows it's a mountain and he says this mountain, be down, removed and cast into the sea and it is done and we move on. So for as long as, oh, we are worried, oh, we are concerned, oh, we are this, we are that. If I ever thought of that, the last thing I would have done, a reasonable person like myself would have been to get into the governorship of Akwae Bomb State. When you know the actors on the field and the financial muscles that they must have, the most intelligent thing is to just respect yourself and leave the field for them. But there is something about the audacity of hope, of daring to dare. And let me tell you, times and seasons come up, but the people that should take advantage of such opportunities are too afraid. I dare to dare and I think the jury is out there. Let's see how it's going from becoming nothing in the race to becoming one of the top three in the race that is talked about in Akwae Bomb today. The other two have major issues. I'm the only one that has no EFCC, no ICPC, no court case, nothing, nothing. And I dare say that from nowhere, just the audacity of hope is about to rewrite history. And it can happen to you. Let's stop fearing and just dare to move on. So I totally understand where you're coming from from the perspective, but not worrying as in worrying, but worrying that it's an issue and then we're proactive just like you have mentioned. The government is acting to ensure that in all of this trouble spots, because this is a trouble areas and region, not to say that the entire country is not, you know, troubled, but to say that we have plans in place to ensure that this does not in any way affect, you know, or disenfranchise the people who affect the electoral process. However, this conversation will not end until we, you know, get to 2023. And of course, the elections are happening right there. But another one dominating some of the papers on the nation newspaper this morning, it talks about the state governors being responsible for the rising poverty in Nigeria. That's what the federal government is quoted to say. And specifically attributed to the minister of state for budget and national planning, Clement Agba, who said that, you know, during a briefing that, you know, this governor has paid more attention in having flyovers. Maybe there's a particular governor you're referring to, rather than thinking about construction roads in these rural communities and what have you. I'd like to share your thoughts on this. How do you react and respond to this? You see, this is one area that we really need to pay serious attention to. Number one is that we are the governments that believes in blame games, that are blaming everybody for everything, anything. Either the roads are bad or the people are doing this or the governor, that's on one side. But I'd like to be balanced. What they have said, I agree with them in principle. The details that they are giving is wrong. Now, if you live in a state like River State or Lagos State, where the traffic affects the economy, you can't spend all your life in traffic. You can't do anything. So you may need to, in constructing your traffic movement, build a lot of bridges or flyovers. There's absolutely nothing wrong in principles on that. But there is a point they have, which is why I came up with what they call social governance ideology. Now, the rural areas are being neglected and it is wrong. Let me blow your mind. I started saying in Akwaibom that I'm going to put 500,000 naira in. I'm going to invest, invest 500,000 naira in every village in Akwaibom state every month for four years. And people are like, how? How? I said, yes. Number one, they have agreed I would be wonderful with stimulating local economy. They asked me how? And I told them a little thing. Akwaibom has 2,226 villages. And if you put 500,000 in each village, it comes to about 1.1 billion a month. And guess what? That is about half, about half the security vote of the governor. That is about half the security vote of the governor, which means that without any appropriation whatsoever, I can put 500,000 naira in every village. And I showed them how that money is going to be spent, open up the rural roads so that the market woman will be able, the farmer can bring her goods to the house and market don't have to carry on her from there. We now have a kind of social security network where you can spend as much as 5,000 naira to all the very, very, very elderly women, the widows in the village, and then the maintenance of the women. When I feel people are like, I don't believe it, really? So this is possible? You understand me? We need to start to think of the rural dwellers as the people that matter because the constitution said that their security and their welfare is the primary purpose of government. We need to have to think in government, cerebral governance, where the rural area, the rural economy stimulated brings about peace. And peace is the number one thing for any attraction of investment. You want to go and attract foreign investment to where areas that you don't have stability and peace is not going to work. So we need to start to have people who are thinking as governors. And I want to challenge Nigerians. You hear these things. These people that have these ideas don't have the resources. This would have stolen the resources, do not care about these ideas. So the time has come when every Nigerian should stand up and support a candidate that makes sense. I know that that might be something to consider. I wish everyone should consider. But let's look at the kind of system that we practice as a country. It's the federal system of government. And of course, you have the three tiers of government. So you have the federal, the state, and the local government. The argument of the minister, Clement Agba, is that this governor should pay attention to the construction of roads in rural communities. I mean, why is the third tier of government not functioning as a third tier of government in Nigeria? What business does the state government have in terms of construction? Let's even look at the functions of the local government as it were, the reason that why they were created. Two things again, Nigerians need to be careful what they applaud. Now you come into a system, you lack confidence in yourself. So you want to do things that people will hail you. People will sit in 30 story building you've done. People will count the flyovers that you have done. People cannot count the number of people you've brought out of poverty. So it's not a priority to you. So we need to have a new set of people who start to define their channel by the poverty indices, what they met and what they've left behind. That should be the new world order in governance in Nigeria. People should think in terms of the lives they have built. People should be able to show that when they came into office, this was the unemployment rate when they left. This was the unemployment rate. This was the internally generated revenue and this was what they left. But that internally generated revenue must translate to the GDP that what they came in, those are the things that Nigerians should start to interrogate. When you do that, if the bridge that you build does not translate to a better life for the people, then you should be seen as a failure and not be applauded for building the bridge. When we have this mindset in governance as the media, putting that up as the basis, people will start to copy what I'm doing, which is thinking in terms of social governance, which is a bottom to top approach to governance and development with the primary objective of bringing the people out of poverty, which is investing in rural areas for their development and transformation as a priority, which is laying more emphasis on MSMEs as against the big and the big... But Ezeka and Yaituk, how can that be when the local government lacks autonomy? These are some of the conversations that we're talking about. Yes, I'll tell you two things. Number one is that the money of the local government is collected largely by the governors. I'm telling you this and this is just... We played the ostrich a lot of times. You bury your head in the sand and your whole body is exposed and you think you're hiding. Go and ask any local government chairman in a lot of the States. They would tell you that the governor tells you, oh, we will do the projects. And a lot of times, look, there's something that Madam Okonjo Iwala was doing and I hope we continue to do that, publish the amount of money that your local government gets every month. Publish that money and let the people of that local government ask the chairman, you've collected a hundred million this month, please show me where you spent the hundred million. Ezeka and Yaituk, in most cases... When it becomes really hot, they will now start to tell the truth that out of the hundred million, the governor just allowed me money to pay salaries and gave me additional five million for me to run the system. When that comes, they will start to ask the governor whether that is the right thing to do. Then maybe then it's really true that the state governor should be blamed for the underdevelopment or the poverty that the rural communities are faced with, especially with recent data and statistics. 100%, I agree. 100%. State governors have not been governors. They have not been what they ought to be. And I look forward to have a conversation with them, a direct dialogue. Because these people are... And they don't understand what... You see, people need to understand that most people in office don't understand what government is. They talk about experience. Experience. He has been a commissioner. He has been a... These guys are experienced in making all the property capital of the world. They have no understanding of what government is. They don't have. They don't have. And Nigerians need to come to terms with that. The conversation I've just given this morning, please sit how many of your people in government can understand what I'm talking about and that they are doing it. They don't. Their concept of government and governance is one word, state capture. That's it. Go and look at the houses they are building. You are a commissioner. Your house is worth over 150 million. What's your salary? And people are not asking questions. You are a commissioner. You are going around with the convoy of so many security aides. What are they securing you from a man who is earning less than a million a month? There's something we're not telling. And Nigerians need to wake up. And that time is now. Wherever you are, stand up and support a good candidate. There are many of them. There may be small parties. Support them. The electoral act is come to stay. It's going to one man, one vote. There's going to be a lot of surprises. Stand up and support a candidate that makes sense today. And Nigeria will be in for a change. And we need it so hard, so bad. Well, the punch talks about fuel scarcity. The federal government is saying that there's no planned price hike. That's what the government is quoted to say. Of course, the queues are already spreading. And we can't say that there's no planned price hike because, or hike, because people are buying petrol, 220 naira, 300 dereba depending on where you're getting from, the black market or from the filling stations. This conversation is almost endless. It's a lot that's going on. Fuel scarcity. Is it, what do you make of the situation and government's assurance? Yeah, you know, when there's a man that gives you cash, and you don't even trust if that cash is even original, in quotes. A friend of mine said something that his father told him. He said, may the man who is always trusted never lie against you. Let's flip it. Government has come to a point where they speak so much lies that the people don't even believe them. So much so that even when they are saying something serious, people are like, forget those guys, they're not serious. Because if you tell me as a government that you have enough reserve for 30 days, and that there's no cause for panic or alarm, and that there will be no price hike, and I believe you, then there will be no need for panic buying. But you see, what government is saying might actually be true, that they don't intend to hike the price and there's enough reserve, but people just don't trust them. They don't trust government. And that trust deficit is the paralysis of all elements of the things that we do in this country, because we don't believe government. And it's a shame, and it's sad. So as we are, people would rather want to err on the side of caution. Okay. And as a result, they are making life more difficult for themselves, because with the panic buying, the price is going up. It's just like when we're rushing to buy dollars that I tell you, don't be careful, that in January, the dollar is going to come down to 500. And during election, it's going to come back to less. And after election, it might start to come back again to about 500. Be careful how you panic buy. And be careful not to put fire in your house. Be careful. But is it a case of panic buying? Because in reality, there are some filling stations that are not even selling. They're not dispensing this product. They are short. And so it makes it very cumbersome for people to get product. And that's why you most times find a lot of queue, because if you have every other filling station selling, then there will be no need for the queue. It therefore means that the product is not available for whatever reason. I don't think it's panic buying. It's a combination of many things. And the Bible says wisdom is profitable to direct. At a time like this, maybe the time has come where you need to restructure your movements and make sure that you only go on the essentials for now. When things are like the way they are, you try to bet some people will necessarily need to buy. But I can assure you that nothing less than 30 percent of the people in the queue don't necessarily need to buy. And the answer is just one for me at the end of the day. Let's have a governance that is not about sentiment. A governance that makes sense. Look at the most competent, qualified person on the ballot to make your president the same for your government and the rest down line. Let us just wake up and know that the answer to all this is having a government that works, that is trusted, that is committed to the people. For me, it all comes down to that bottom line at all times. We need to go now. Thank you so much. I mean, so much for a country that's all producing, so much that we can't even refine our product. We have to export it to refine it and then import it back. Quite unfortunate. And then we can't even, you know, make this product available even when people are willing to pay at any price. Nigerians will buy definitely at any price, but then you can't find the product. And so the suffering continues to increase is so much, so much blame for the construction work that's going on in different parts of the state. I don't even see the connection because some philly stations are not even selling this product. But that's it. Thank you so much. You have a fantastic year. Thanks so much. Have a lovely Christmas ahead. Thank you. We take a quick breakdown and when we return, it's time for us to delve into our first major conversation right here. We'll talk about petrol and its scarcity, especially when it's the first period. What's the hope for Nigerians? Please stick with us.