 Residents in Lagos and other parts of Nigeria are already grappling with massive fuel queues at filling stations, but it's a situation about to be exacerbated by attacks imposed on petrol marketing firms by Nigeria's federal government. The World Bank has urged Nigeria to urgently strengthen its fiscal management, create a unified, stable, market-based exchange rate, and it has reiterated the need for the country to face out what it calls its costly, regressive fuel subsidy. We'll unpack this ahead on the programme. And enough of the press to bring you in-depth analysis of today's major newspaper headlines, all these ahead on the programme. We're back with a breakfast and plus TV Advocates. A beautiful, beautiful morning right here, a Wednesday morning in the city of Lagos. And of course, we're reaching you on DSTV and StarTimes. We have an interesting package for you at this point. So I urge you to sit back, grab whatever it is you have. I mean, I have a cup of coffee here, and then you can have yourself a fantastic programme. We'll start off with a top-trending segment where, of course, yesterday some media houses reported and the social media space went agog with news that the Independent National Electrical Commission had been ordered by a court to resume voter registration ahead of the 2022 general, 2023 general elections. Of course, the voter registration exercise started in June 2021 as a continuous voter registration exercise started in June 2021, and it ran for 12 months to June 2022. But Syrup and 185 other Nigerians had taken INEC to court seeking for an extension of the voter registration exercise. And of course, the court granted that relief, and INEC was ordered to continue to extend the voter registration exercise. The commission continued the voter registration exercise extended to the 31st of July. 2022, and of course, that was it. We thought that would be the end of the story, but it seems it's not the end of the story. As we got this news, this information that the court had ordered the Independent National Electrical Commission to continue registering Nigerians. However, before the end of the day, the sources that came out with this information, because we're all going, I personally went on Twitter to tweet about it and to share the good news with Nigerians, but you see the thing about this is you must be able to see the court documents. At least this is something. And none of the sources quoted the judge, Milord, the Honourable Justice, Iyang Ikor, the same judge who's handling the Nnamdi Kano treason case. And that for me was a bit, you know, was something I was looking for. Before the end of the day, yesterday, some sources cut to clarify that the court had actually refused to order the Independent National Electrical Commission to resume the voter exercise. Now, what's this case about? Some Nigerians had taken the Independent National Electrical Commission to court, led as a suit led by one Anajat Salmat and three others, I won't go into your names now. The plaintiffs had sought three reliefs, and this is very interesting, very interesting indeed. All right, so I want you to follow me. The plaintiffs had sought three reliefs, all right. The first relief, the second relief, and the third relief. The first relief was a declaration that INEC by law is expected to continue voter registration until 90 days before the general post. That was the first relief. Second relief, a declaration that INEC is constitutionally required to ensure that all eligible voters participate in the 2023 elections. And the third relief was a court order, compelling INEC to resume the continuous voter registration exercise immediately until at least 90 days before the general election. Now, by calculation, yesterday meant it was 95 days to the commencement of the general elections in 2023. The national elections, you want to call it that, the presidential elections and the national assembly elections hold on the 25th of February, 2023, while the state elections, the governorship elections, elections into the state houses of assembly, hold on 11th of March, 2023. So by calculation, we had technically 95 days from when the court was given its judgment, the judge was given his ruling, 95 days to the resumption of elections or to the holding of elections in 2023. Now, when we got the update and we began to see quotes of what Millard, the Honourable Justice in Yanga course said, it became clearer that this order was not what it seemed like. Now, the judge agreed with the plaintiffs on merit, saying that indeed INEC ought to continue with the voter registration exercise until 90 days to the election to allow all Nigerians to allow them, all eligible voters in Nigeria, the opportunity to get registered to vote. But what the judge said was that the element of time had to be factored in. And by his calculation, there was little to no time for the Independent National Electro Commission to do anything. Therefore, he declined granting relief number three, which is, I'm just going to scroll down to that, a declaration on order rather that INEC resumed the continuous voter registration exercise immediately until at least 90 days to the election today. Today makes it 94 days to the general election 2023. Today makes it 94 days. And I know some people that were saying, when the initial news came out, yes, in conversations that I was able to have with some one or two presidents, yes, indeed, INEC can just carry its personnel, carry its officials and head to the voting centers immediately to go and start registering Nigerians, at least we'll have some people registered in five days. But I asked the question, how many people, how many eligible voters will get registered in five days? Who could not get registered in 13 months? It was meant to be 12 months. And the Independent National Electro Commission was taken to court. And as a result of that, they had to extend it by one month from June 30, 2022 to July 31, 2022. So what will we do in five days that we couldn't do in 13 months? I don't know if you have an answer for that. So the controversial section or the section of the electoral act 2022 in question happens to be section nine, all right, section nine, where the commission is mandated to continue voter registration exercise for not later than 90 days to the election. Not later than 90 days to the election. We have section nine, subsection one of the electoral act 2022, section nine, subsection six of the electoral act 2022, section 10, subsection one, and section 12, subsection one of the electoral act 2022, YNIC is mandated to continue voter registration, to update and review the voter's register until 90 days before the general election, all right. So the court, the judge added that, quote, this court is unable to grant relief number three of the plaintiffs, relief number three, which I just read out earlier, because going by the date of this judgment, quote, I'm still quoting the judge, this is as per, as per the cable engine, because going by the date of this judgment, from the date of this judgment, the defendant will have just a few days away from 90 days before the general election of February 25, 2023, and March 2011, 2023, all right. So the sources that came out with this story, who are credible sources, did an update just to give us the information. But it was, it's interesting to listen to the commissioner, voter, national commissioner information and voter education of the independent national electoral commission, who we've regularly had on this program. We need to have him back. Mr. Sokoe, he appeared on a television program last night and also told Nigerians, and this is the beauty of the whole thing, it's interesting, let me say, that was technically and legally impossible for the court to even make such a pronouncement on order for them to go back and start registering Nigerians, even if the judge had said, in the next five days they must register, it was technically impossible, though he said the independent national electoral commission had not been served with a copy of the certified true copy of that court order. But the question is, didn't they have a counseling court, but I'm sure the lawyers and legal minds out there know how these things work better than we do. Anyway, so this is quite interesting, he cited section 19 of the electoral act that says that they need to display, I like the independent national electoral commission needs to display the voters registered to the public, be it fiscally at various centers or online for registered voters and Nigerians in general to make claims and objections, which is what they've been doing. But this is it, the electoral act says, it must be done not later than seven days before the 90 days expiration, seven days before the 90 days expiration, which means that you can't be registering people at the same time wanting to display, because what are they going to see? So they have seven days for the 90 day expiration to display the complete voter register for claims and objections. So technically they cannot even register people 97 days to the election. Now you ask the question again, what time will INEC use in completing the registration they had, printing the voter cards, doing all those things they need to do, cleaning up the register the best way they can, before pasting these names at the various centers or people to see it online. Right now INEC has been able to weed out about 2.7 million names from the voter register, about 2.7 million names. And they're still working on the register to ensure that they clean it out, you know. So it was going to be technically impossible for them to do this. Now the question also arose, does INEC, the independent national electoral commission have the power to decide when it wants to end the continuous suspend rather, so to speak, or so to say, the continuous voter registration exercise, ahead of a general election? And First of all, Korea informed or reminded that a court of court and jurisdiction, a federal high court had already given a ruling stating that INEC has the power to decide when to suspend the continuous voter registration, so that it can do the compilation quickly to be able to display the voter's register for claims and objections from the public. And as we've seen in recent weeks, there have been a lot of complaints, and people have made some observations as to some things, the discrepancies they've seen in the register, including seeing the faces of those who look underage, seeing names appear multiple times with the same face, but with different voter identification numbers and some other things like that, so it is very important INEC is given time, given time to be able to clean up the voter registration, voter's register. So I think what the judge, his lordship, Iancor said was that this case had been overtaken by time, and I'll ask again, what you couldn't do in 13 months, is that what you do in five days, I think it's important for the citizens to always not wait for the last minute, you know, before going out for national exercises, be it the voter registration, SIM card registration, or whatever, which is the way we've been doing things in this part of the world. Let's move on. The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, an agency some people have been trying to understand what exactly their role is, you know, because sometimes it gets a bit blurry, but they've been working, they've been working. NSCDC, we call them civil defence. Well, this agency of government that is now armed, because of course they ask Nigerians to allow them bare arms and to help them carry out their responsibilities. Well, the Acquire Boomsday Command of the NSCDC has impounded nine trucks loaded with 400,000 litres of suspected adulterated petroleum products and nabbed two suspects. We hear that the State Commandant of the NSCDC, Mr Suleyman Mafara, issued a statement in Uyghur, the Acquire Boomsday Capital, where he disclosed this statement was made available to newsmen, and it's quite interesting what the NSCDC is doing in Acquire Boomsday. Let's just get some more of the background of this stuff. The NSCDC Commandant in Acquire Boomsday set the seizure, was made possible by a combined team of the NSCDC Operatives, the Nigerian Army, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria as well. This is quite interesting. Nine trucks loaded with 400,000 litres of suspected adulterated petroleum products, and this would have made its way to the petrol stations and of course people's cars would have suffered the consequences. They wouldn't even know where the problem is coming from. The mechanics will be smiling to the bank. They probably will curse government and all that, but we get to see that we are also part of the problem. We are also part of the problem. I was just complaining to our production staff of the air about how people just parked up in Charlie, blocking the road for those who were on their way to this part of Lagos this morning. And we have to ask ourselves the questions. What role do we have to play outside of government in the way the country is today? What role do we have to play outside of government with the way the country is today? Well, kudos to the Independent Petroleum, to the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps, the Nigerian Army, and of course the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria on that find, and I just hope that no other of such will be seen in a quite boom state again because people cannot continue to suffer from adulterated petroleum products. It's just going to destroy your car. Now, this is another one that I have close to my heart, the next trending story. It's bizarre. I have consistently asked why Nigerians are silent on the performance of the Ministry of Finance because look at the way the economy is today, the state of the economy, the level of financial management at the state of financial management, the method and the performance of this administration as it consents financial management has left a lot to be desired, as say the revelations in recent times in the past have shown. The latest one is a situation of budget panic, let's call it that. This involves two women, not to cast suspicion on a female folk, but this involves two ministers in the Cabinet of President Mohammed Buhari. One is the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, the other is the Minister of Finance and National, should I call it, the Minister of Finance, let's just leave it at that, but she's actually the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning. The Ministry's departments and agencies have been making representation at the National Assembly defending their 2023 budgets. And you know, I mean, the government today in Nigeria is a government of borrowing, the government has to borrow to finance its objectives and to just to run the country. I mean, it was some weeks ago, a couple of months ago, that the Finance Minister, we're together with the man we call Mephi, Gordon Mephili, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and former presidential aspirant of the platform of APC, went to the global financial meetings to ask for more loans. And some have asked, and personally I would always ask, you know, is it a job of the Finance Minister just to announce how much the country is borrowing and how much the country is spending, what personality is this Finance Minister bringing to her job? All right, is it just to announce how much is being borrowed and how much is being spent? I mean, anyone can do that, but what personality, what is she about, what's her philosophy, what's her ideology? Now, we've seen Finance Ministers in Nigeria in the past, we've had the likes of Dr. Ngozi Okonjewheela, we've had the likes of even Kemi Adelshun, and I can guarantee you that you would have seen some sort of body language, some sort of personality, ideology or philosophy from any of these two, you know, play out in the charade that we have in the country today, as far as the government, you know, financial activities are concerned, all right, the fiscal side of things, it is quite sad. But now, what we have is the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs goes to the National Assembly, sits before the Senate Committee on Special Duties to defend their budget, and of course, Sadia Farouk is the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, and the budget committee says a, or the Senate Committee rather says a, we're seeing a certain 206 billion error in your budget that you can't explain. Where is it coming from? Of course, Ishak Oabo is a member of that Senate Committee, we won't go into his own file, we'll leave his file for another day, all right, we'll leave his file for another day. But remember the minister, the senator who was embroiled in some, some controversy, some time ago, that's the man. So they said, okay, where is this 206 billion error coming from? All right, where is it coming from? We have, we have to borrow to fund the budget, and it seems you as Minister of Humanitarian Affairs are unable to explain, to tell us where this money is coming from or what this money is meant for. And they've therefore summoned the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning to explain this in session of 206 billion error into the 2023 budget of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs. I'm not saying or trying to suggest there's any hanky-panky going on, all right, I'm not trying to suggest that, but this is what the committee on special duties, as I said, has said. Now the committee's chairman, Yusuf Yusuf, issued a summon because, like I said earlier, Sadiah Farouk, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, disaster management and social development appeared before the committee and could not explain this 206 billion error. Now this is what Ishak Abou said, he said you intend to borrow 206 billion error for a project. What are the projects to be implemented? And is it captured in the medium-term expenditure framework? It was quoted by the News Agency of Nigeria. If it is, he said, what are the specific projects, locations and activities attached to this? Now in response, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs said, you know, that they made mention of the projects in 2022, which were not released or funds were not released for that project. And part of it was for the North East Development Commission. The money was, I'm quoting her now, the money was not released. And now we have seen it recurring by almost tenfold. Fault is what she says. Quote, the money was not released. And now we have seen it recurring by almost tenfold. She says, we are also going to clarify from the Ministry of Finance to know the reason for this increase, in spite of the fact that the previous year, the money was not even released for the project. So we'll get the details and send it to you. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine that? I mean, are these guys taking Nigerians for a ride or what? You know, that the Minister goes to the National Assembly to defend the budget and cannot even explain a humongous amount of 206 billion Naira and now says, is the Ministry of Finance that put it there? They don't know what it's for. They don't have the details. They'll have to go back to the Ministry of Finance to find out what exactly is going on. Okay, so before she went to the Ministry, to the Senate, didn't she sit down? Didn't she look at what was on the paper to prepare herself before going? Or was she expecting to just go and they would overlook it? And then that's another matter. Why they didn't overlook it? Another issue for another day. Let's not go into that. So what is going on? I'm not blaming the Ministry of Finance for anything here because we don't know. But is this acceptable? How does this happen? But you see, I blame Nigerians because things like this have been happening. I'm not talking about last four years. I'm talking about recently. I'm talking about this year and the financial management of the nation's economy. I'm not talking about the central bank now. Let's see. I'm talking about the federal government through the Ministry of Finance and some of the things we see happening. Nobody even says anything. In other parts of the world, they're trying to, they're summoning the Minister, they're asking questions. They're asking for resignations. Yeah. They say, no, the economy is not performing well. The Minister has to go. I'm not saying she's, it's her fault, but I mean, how does this even happen? How does this happen? We have to go. We have to go. We'll be back and when we come back, we'll look at what the people have to say.