 Welcome back to the breakfast on plus TV Africa. It's now time for off the press and this morning We are joined by a chief lecturer at the Nigerian Institute of Journalism G.D. Johnson. Good morning. Thanks for joining us, sir Come on in To you we're kicking off with the punch new sweepers this morning It's gonna be on your screen in just a few seconds and we can get through some of these major stories Making headlines across Nigeria today. There you have it. It says the federal government fails to recover $69 billion loot in American banks at 28.3 trillion our illegal funds remain in Texas banks since firms discovery in 2019 X NSA as Zaziz and $9 billion loot can be recovered within three months as a U.S. firm also Naira slips to $490 a dollar at the power of a parallel market CBN plans digital currency 25 generals and others may go as yeah, yeah emerges chief of army staff Ex-general acts a new chief of army staff to prioritize anti-terror and banditry fight Also, COVID-19 vaccinations office setback federal government laments vaccine shortage We can also see here NLC rebukes governors on provocative a fuel-prize proposal threatens strike Still on the punch new supers this morning. Buhari hosts children federal government launches 40 million safety kits for kids Sarki kicks as Quarra panel recommends ex-governors and others prosecution Policing pounds 70 okadas declare fresh clampdown on Lagos errant riders and fire me suspends provost over college immigration crisis probe begins I'm just gonna quickly throw in this one federal government lists fresh 132 COVID-19 travel guidelines offenders All right, that's all the stories on the punch We're sharing on the daily independent newspaper fear of EFCC 2023 poll driving PDP governors senators to APC Malami Bagudu Boni Badarou leading recruitment, but a judge here saying they're jumping from frying pan to fire Constitution reviews state creation tops list of submissions at Northeast public hearing BPE considers sale of transmission company So who renders account of two years stewardship promises more people-oriented project within next 24 months Ignore iPops citadome order emo government tells residents assets try Sarki others white paper panel tells Gov. Quarra governor Buhari appoints Yahya chief of army staff IDP differs with governors and creation of state police says they've recovered weapons from secessionists and insurgents Also saying gunmen who attack gov. Autumn have been arrested Also on the daily independent newspaper 54 oil pipelines vandalized in February. That's according to the NNPC lastly on the daily independent INEC to create 2,000 673 registration centers and resumes continuous voter registration CVR on June 28th And on the daily son on the newspapers open grazing ban me at the last six meeting with governors and other leaders 45 generals to retire as Buhari names Yahya army chief officers of course 35 and 36 most affected COVID-19 don't worsen children's problems with another crisis UNICEF warns federal government a Nigeria on the brinks says say you're by elders police arrest attackers of autumn's convoy as force claim recovery of 5,000 weapons from secessionist and bandits IDP says SARS disbandment creating vacuum Immigration ramps up production to beat deadline for passport back backlogs one or two others constitution Northern Governors set up committee on restructuring and Emo government denies issue in shoot-on-sight order and mass arrests. I Think these are the ones we can share on the daily son and moving now to the Guardian newspaper fear of massive retirements grips officers has army gets new chief Nigeria could lose over 30 generals in four months YCE south is group blasts Buhari saying you're fueling Tension and ethnic distrust Buhari appoints Mohammed as naptyp DG a barry NOA DG Also the Guardian newspaper Buhari says we're targeting more than three million children for free feeding SARS disbandment creating security challenge IGP cries FG warns culprits as INEC records 41 attacks on fatalities How attorney general of the federation illegally transferred 59 billion Naira from EFCC account? That's interesting Nigerians to pay more for imported vehicles from June 1st hike in terminal handling Charges move businesses to neighboring countries dealers lament high cost low patronage for used vehicles and As stakeholders alleged that this is a ploy to discourage vehicle importation Also on the point on the Guardian newspaper fresh fresh concerns great plant privatization off the TCN There are other papers we can look at maybe one more. I think we can just quickly Squeeze in the nation newspapers is warning How Nsars protest weakened the police and that's from the inspector general States already running local police operation and restore peace yielding results also legislative judicial and financial Autonomy set for takeoff presidency governors in unions reach agreement Still on the nation this morning gunmen killed two policemen in Zamfara Buhari to kids. I'll end abductions Also theater commander a major general Yahya is a new army chief South-south demands more Derivation cash of any various snobs here in and 41 INEC offices destroyed in 14 states as chairman Finally acquire a government and a Syracuse bicker of a sale of state assets 26 bodies recovered in ferry accident Those are the stories on the nation news papers this morning. Mr. Judy Johnson. Good morning once again, and you can go ahead appointment of the chief of Army staff which has led to an implication that two sets of the Niger military will be forced to retire because You can't serve under someone that is your general when you are when you are commissioned ahead of him Said close to about 30 generals, but do we know how much it costs to trace a general? I think the president should be a bit strategic in his appointment and then the way we go about this things If the study general had to add to retire that means that we have to promote others to and in the process We spin We spin for that for that cost there is a cost implication to every decision that that we take the last one We saw what has happened over time Are we are you telling us that there are no other people in cost 34 or cost at the 35 or 36? Before you go down to cost 34 So it's important for the president to be strategic because every decision that is taken as his own implication It has political implication. It has social implication and it has economic implication And it has even security implication What would be the morale of the entire military when you say step to two generation to go to the next generation? Before you make your your pick and there's nothing extraordinary about your peak anybody Who just know that there is a rule of the thumb is it? Particular characterization that guides your choices of chief of Army staff It's not that you went out of your way and to do something which is extraordinary. It's a predictable decision What do you take predictable decision? Are you telling me there are no people in other sets that fit into the criteria that you have used to pick present chief of Army staff argument that the Yahya is Battle-trained and you know and of course I'd have you know been in charge of some of the operations Fighting Boko Haram and the bandits in the north and that's why he of course it became favorable to take that position Do you do you think that's a good enough? others others that have that have handled that Book or I'm front line. They are not bad to train other in those other sets are not bad to train Well is the derivative of the president to a point where I feel as the as the Commander in chief ever if you should be to the chief of Army staff But what what I'm saying in effect is that the president you understand this fact that this decision has a lot of implication And when you take that decision, you see that you affect the morale of of the military that you require to fight Insecurity or you uplift the morale of the military that you want to fight Insecurity and also don't forget that the issue of appointment of chief of Army staff In the last in the last six seven years had been characterized There is a particular pigmentation as you can narrow it down to this chief of Army staff must come from a certain section From a certain part of the country is not good It's not good for any nation that has in his motto unity peace and justice justice talk about being just just mean Just talk about being equitable giving everybody equal opportunity of Having access to become whatever he or she wants to become in Nigerian Nigerian army Nigerian military, but it's there is evidently clear that decisions that we have taken with appointment of chief of staff They are sensing that to some certain people that no matter how brilliant. Yeah, no matter how Strategic they are they can never Become the chief of Army staff of of Nigeria and it's not good It's not good for a nation that is trying to build his nation I said to be the moral ambiguity and co-existence among the various units On people that constitute the nation so well Hopefully we hope yeah. Yeah, we wish him the best. We hope the fight against injustice insurgency and banditry will be dealt with and Would be there to dealt with decisively time is just a matter time will tell and we Now a prayer and I hope is that this issue of banditry dealt with Now the justification for his appointment is that he could because he's involved in the frontline to be able to deal with that in particular problem another story that caught my attention is the Naira is the is the story of Naira Naira sleeping to for a 19 Naira to a dollar and In the parallel market, you know, it's only in Nigeria that you have people It's only Nigeria and I'm saying it and I stand to be corrected that you see people trading in currency You see people trading in currency Other than going to the banking sector You have an informal sector that trades in currency that you can buy foreign currency on the roads and they are no They have never been any attempt To correct to correct that definitely people are making money from this exchange rate So the higher the exchange rate the more money they make because there are two markets You have the official market and then you have the parallel market So if you have if you run your economy on two two parallel lines, they say can never meet Except in infinity and nobody knows infinity So our economy will be topsy-turvy because once you can control your exchange rate You have you have you have disrupted the ability of people to do businesses because trading is affected Because there's no confidence in your currency There's no trading your currency and the value of goods and services is tied to the value of your currency So if your currency is valueless your foreign exchange and him will will be affected The standard of living of your people will be affected your gross domestic product and your gross national product will be affected So it's it's it's very very clear if you want to grow this economy We must do something about the value of Naira. There are must you must know the value It must not fluctuate like like like like like the end of of you know the old the old clock that we used to use So it is important For us to talk about that another story is about vaccine shortage And in this era where they are trying to even appeal to people to take vaccine in civilized climate We are talking about vaccine. I think they are in no vaccine to vaccinate the entire world And we shouldn't be talking about vaccine shortage in this because the price will pay for not getting as many people as possible To the point of having a immunity will be much more than the price will pay if we don't get people vaccinated So government is to take constructive action in in ensuring that Nigerians We get enough vaccine to vaccine as many people that are willing to get vaccinated So that we can get to the point of herd immunity and we can deal with COVID-19 pandemic Okay, so moving quickly to the story of you know, the big national issue right now, which is the constitution review We know that it has started and you know, just like this newspaper they independent mentioned that State creation tops the list of submissions at the Northeast public hearing. So first of all Do you think we need to create new states in Nigeria? And how will that help in solving all the ethnic and cessationist agitations we've been seeing? Do you think we need this jamboree called constitutional review again? That's the question we need to ask Do you think we need to create a jamboree? This constitutional review will lead to nothing mark my word. Look in 2019 in 2020 proud to 2019 the electoral act was passed by the National Assembly It was passed by the president the assent to that be This the National Assembly didn't have the gumption to use to thought majority to override the president assent to prepare hours for 2019 election today nothing has been done concerning the electoral act And we are having election in 2023 and there's a story that talked about Annek having close to about 41 of their offices being born in 14 states and having the national assembly setting up A constitutional review panel across the length and breadth of this nation After spending two years in the national assembly having less than one year to do Legislative work because by the end of this year and the start of next year Politicking we start So it's just a distraction They are trying to deceive Nigerians in the easier way that they are doing something but in natural sense. They are doing absolutely They are doing absolutely nothing To that to that effect. You see they are saying state creation. You know what the cultural requirement for state creation Now the states that we have they are not financially solvent. They can't even pay minimum wage They can't pay minimum wage. You now want to create states state that can't generate Internally generated revenue that can't sustain themselves. They are allies of federal location You now want to create additional burden by creating states the state you have created Are they solve the problem now in the north east where you have insecurity? That's where your people are clamoring for the creation of states We still do want to create in the north east. I think if you want to create states We should be talking about having your political balancing So that we have seven states like we have in the north east in the north In the north west rather we have seven states in the north central We have seven states in the north east We have seven states in the southwest and we have seven states in the south south And then we have seven states in the southeast that means that you have to create two additional states in the southeast One additional state in the south south one additional state in the southwest And one additional state in the in the north central one additional state in the north east the north west it's already seven, it's low-sided. So if you are talking about equity, well if you are looking at it from that angle of equity, you can create those states. But if you are looking at it in terms of finality, viability of those states, I tell you, people just want to create an empire. Somebody wants to become a governor. Now if you create those states, you have status of assembly. You have three senators per those states. How many senators are we going to have? Already our senate, our national assembly is too bogus. It's too big. There can't be meaningful deliberation. In the last year, you have 260 members. So I don't know what they want to do. But they want to distract us. They want to tell us that they are doing something. The question you need to ask is, what is lawan? What was lawan and Bajabia Milad doing before now, before the start of this January, in the second year of the night national assembly? So it's a major distraction. Nigerians should not bother themselves. I can tell you without fear that that constitutional review will lead to nothing. They want to add in legal. They add an argument. You call me a talk. You didn't call me a talk. You call me this. You call me that. You will see what will come up. In some of the cities, they will beat themselves. In the typical fashion of when we can't resolve, these are among ourselves. One of the stories also says, that's from the inspector general of police saying the end SARS protest and the disbandment of SARS weakened the police force. I think he's trying to blame that for some of the inadequacies of the police currently. Do you agree with him? When he says it weakens the police force, what he's telling you is that there's a need for us to bring back SARS. The basis of the protest was not on whether there should be a police formation to deal with robbery. No. The basis of the protest was that the conduct of the men and women of the anti robbery squad is not acceptable to Nigeria because the rights of Nigerians are infringed upon. And I thought that the last inspector general of police said they have set up a new body, a deep training for them. What people are clamoring for is police to respect fundamental rights of people, not that you disband. You could change the name, give them a new orientation, change the attitude and for them not to arrest innocent Nigerians, to arrest young Nigerians, to engage in police brutality. That's the argument. So when the inspector general of police says it has weakened the police, he's telling us that he's failing in his duty. If he's not able to perform his duty, he should resign and give someone else to take the job because he's given that assignment as the inspector general of police to help the president in the area of policing. He should not be telling Nigeria that the police is weakened. That's a wrong statement coming from someone that is in charge of policing. Now in his remark, he said something about community policing. And whether we like it or not, there's a need for us to engage in community policing. And you could do that through the posting. We have said so many things concerning this. You could do that through the posting of people to their local communities because they are aware because when you do recruitment into the police, you do recruitment using the 774 local governments in Nigeria to recruit. If it's five per local government, you do five per local government. The interesting thing is that by the time you get to when they should be given appointment at the top level, you see the appointment tilting to outside. So the inspector general of police does not know his honors and he does not know how to deal with the issue. I think he should resign or as you call for a strategic meeting in his force and they look at on how they can strengthen the police. There were issues that were raised. The issue of welfare of the Nigerian police, the morale of the police, all of these issues were raised. What have they done to that effect? We should not treat issue on the surface. We should deal with the main issue. There are other issues apart from police brutality. If you look at Lagos panel, there were police officers that were rewarded because some of them lost their life in the line of duty. So it beyond the protest was not limited to police brutality. It was limited and an holistic review of what the police force should look like in terms of their morale, in terms of equipment, in terms of their welfare package. And that's what the inspector general of police should look at. Rather than complaining. He's the one that is given the responsibility. If you wake up to the responsibility and not be going on the page of newspaper and be saying that the morale, the answer has protest as we can the police. We need community policing. We appreciate your analysis every time. Thank you again for coming on the breakfast and have a beautiful Friday. Yeah, it's my pleasure. I have to improvise this morning. I go to the office. There's no light. So I have to stay outside and use the wall of the fence as a backdrop. I hope my audio is clear enough. Yes, we thank you for your resourcefulness. Thank you. Have a great day. All right, let's take a break here. We'll return to tell you events that shaped our history. And I'll be telling you about the economy community of West African state and all about its formation. And of course, once again to 2020, we're one of the biggest protests in the world. Of course, at this point, it was ongoing. We'll talk a little bit about that when we come back.