 President Mohammad Ibohari has written to the National Assembly seeking approval for the payment of judgment debts owed by the federal government to the tune of $566.7 million, $98.5 million, a British pound and $226.2 million, five days before the end of this administration. The monies were owed through the issuance of promissory notes. We'll be discussing this on the breakfast this morning. Everyone wants to make a living and the sales industry seems to be saturated. Yet, supermarkets seem to be thriving in spite of all. We'll be looking at how possible that is and what is making it too thick. I mean, the supermarkets themselves on the programme today. The newspapers will be taking a look at their front pages, their headlines and what they are telling us this morning. And all the press will have an analyst join us to discuss these headlines on the breakfast this morning. Welcome to the entrepreneurial Thursday edition of the Breakfast on Plus TV Africa. I am Maureen and I am Nyam Gul and today we'll be looking at the sales industry. If it is capable of being modernised here in Nigeria, we talk about the roadside shops, we talk about the hawkers in the traffic and so many other things that happen when people try to make a living by going into sales. Selling is the first choice of small businesses, buying and selling. You import and then you sell or you look around and discover what people may need in that environment and you sell. It appears to be the easiest business to go into, but then how do you know what to do and how to go about selling it so that the competition does not squeeze you out? Yeah, it's surprising that so many businesses in Nigeria because like we said, selling is the first choice of small businesses. So many businesses in Nigeria don't even think about advertising. They say, let me make it big before I advertise and I ask myself, what are you advertising if you already made it big? Why don't you want people to know you now and then you sell? How can we have both of them at the same time? The avenues you can advertise that doesn't cost a fortune and all that. So why not explore these things? I was talking to a friend who had access to creating a website, which means he had somebody who could do it for him for free. And when I asked him, why don't you have a website for this business that you're doing, a very beautiful business and there's so many other things tied to that business. He said, well, I need to blow first before I get a website. So I didn't understand. I still don't understand why so many people don't see the need to advertise their products. They just want to buy, they want to sell, make small profit and are satisfied with it, hoping that one day when they become their Likodangotes of this world, they can now have a website and they can advertise. I thought those things should come together. It is the unfortunate situation of having a poor mindset. That mentality that I'm not there yet. I'm not good enough for this. I'm not on that level. So it's a mindset problem and that unfortunately is the problem of a lot of people. Mindset, that small person mentality, that poverty mentality, even when something is readily affordable for you to take. You just define yourself and place yourself in a certain corner and tell yourself, I never reached that level. There are people who have been able to rise above that and have been able to make good use of it. For instance, there are some things you find online, advertised online, that when you go to look for them, where you will find the person selling it. Interior, interior, interior of one of those markets on the island or somewhere. These are smart people who have been able to embrace technology and know that, look, I don't have to be up there first to be able to say, I am here. And they've been able to use that to sell themselves and their businesses and they are thriving. Or maybe they're just running away from tax. Those people who don't want to advertise. I'm just saying because some people feel that if I put myself out there, the government will see me and they'll come after me. But how much can the government really take from you? For instance, you're selling things and you're making a profit of 100,000 for instance for a month. And then you put yourself out there and you have so many customers that you're making a million. How much will the government possibly take? How many people have the Nigerian government gotten through their advertisements online? In their small shops. So just put yourself out there and every other thing shall be added onto you like it is said in the scripture. But that is what was said, that is what is happening in our country. And we're wondering when the market is so saturated, the market itself is saturated with the people who want to market. I don't know how to put that. And then you need to stand out in some way and that is where advertisement comes in. Sometimes when I talk to people, they feel because I'm in the media, I'm looking for ways to bring them to me. You don't have to come to Plus TV, you don't have to go to any radio station. The internet is there for you. There are so many other avenues that you can do what you need to do. But they should come to Plus TV, we need them, right? Yeah, well I'll talk to them to see the importance first. Then I say, Plus TV do. That's how it is. But when we talk about Lagos we always remember traffic. I'm just going to ask you how it was when you were coming from your own access this morning. It's always good when I'm coming in Yamgol. Because I live very early. When you live your home before five o'clock or five o'clock or eight minutes past five, the road will be good for you. It'll be free and you'll just be going to Sellele as we say in local politics, you know. When you live at a certain time of the day that you begin to meet traffic because so many people are on the road at that time. But when you live as early as I do, not many people on the road. But when will it get to that point where we don't have to leave our houses that early? You live at five, for like me, it's a 35 minutes journey. I always say that when the roads are free. So why do I have to leave four, five o'clock? When I know that I can get here. If I leave at six, I can get here at 6.35 and still because I've prepared from home and still have time to relax and then come into the studio and do what I need to do. Or I leave at 5.30 and I can still get here on time. But now if anything, if I leave anything beyond five, there's a possibility I might get here by 11 or something. So when will we get there? When will the government do something to make sure that we don't have to look like we're traveling long distances because we need to go to work? Well, I'm sorry to have to break the bad news to you. You may need to just wake up and smell the coffee. As long as you're in Lagos, that is your reality. The Lagos government will continue to do what they can do as we're going to be talking about today in a hot topic, one of our hot topics. The Lagos state government has signed some bonds to fix some things in this administration, this new administration that's about to begin. They'll be working on roads. They'll be working on drainages. They'll be doing some things to see how they can expand the roads and make traffic less peculiar for people. But the fact of the matter is that people continue to trip into Lagos. The population in Lagos is a factor that cannot be ignored. So that is the reality of where we are. There will always be traffic. So the thing to do is monitor the traffic and find a way to beat the traffic if you can. And that's why when I see some of these VIPs on the road trying to make every other person on the road disappear, disappear, we're coming, move, move, move. With all manner of brutality, the canes and the sirens and the armed willing officials, you ask yourself, why didn't they live on time? If you knew you had an appointment, why didn't you just leave earlier so that you didn't have to come out on the road and act as if other Nigerians on the road to probably left home early enough or who have been at work for hours and who are just going home to go meet their families in peace without making them feel like they need to disappear because you with ten heads, you have come from nowhere, live on time. Well, I think you're being nice to the government. I thank you for that. But I think it's realizable all the things that we are crying here that should be done by government because I came to Lagos for the first time in 2005. When I was leaving, it was just a one-week stay. I washed my feet like I will never go to that city anymore because I saw how Lagos was. But now I am in Lagos. I have never run across a road. I have no need to do that because Lagos is a five-minute journey. Five minutes you can always have a walkway, what do they call it, fly over as we call it. You can always have that. Five minutes you can always have the traffic that will give you enough room to walk across a road, not having to run. In the same Lagos, I am seeing people queuing for buses, for cars. I am seeing people, you know, cars, reversing to come carry people. It was not obtainable a few years ago like the 2005 I was talking about. In Lagos, I have seen places that are clean. In those days, you come to Lagos, the smell that welcomes you and you know that I am in Lagos. So a lot of things have happened in Lagos that I think with little creativity, all these things we are talking about will come to pass. We will forget about them. Now, we have electric cars. We have been told we have electric cars. We have been told that we have the rail. We have been told a lot of things. Why not make these things available and also available at the times that we need them? So you are bringing an electric car that will run from maybe from 7 o'clock to 5 o'clock. What happens to me if I close at 8? What happens to me if I close beyond 8? What happens to me if I have to come earlier than 5 o'clock to work? So if they consider all these things, I think it is doable that Lagos people don't need to have to sleep for 2 hours only because you need the same time to get home and then you are sleeping for 2 hours and coming back to work. The mental stress is too much. Yes, I get your point. But as I said, the Samo Lu administration is working. I am a fan of the Samo Lu administration. I believe that this second tenure of the government will even see more. Is there room for improvement? Yes, absolutely. The things you have highlighted? Absolutely. There is room for improvement. So let's give them this remaining 4 years to see him consolidate on some of the things he started and the new things he is going to put in place. I am hoping that now that this is his last tenure, he wouldn't be too loyal to use the Lagos money to finance some other things that may not be of benefit to Lagos. I am just talking and quoting these things. Well his promise, especially with this bond that is signed, that there will be discipline and transparency and that is very crucial, discipline and transparency in how these funds are dispersed. Because if the transparency is not there, people will not be able to say, okay for certain we know that these monies collected have been used judiciously. And so he is aware of that and that is why he has made that promise consciously. So people will need to watch. The owners is also asked the citizenry, the people in the state to question these things. And those in the houses of assembly that are supposedly representing us. Because there is only so much an individual can do. An individual Nigerian can do without being whisked away or without missing. You understand me? So those who supposedly are in the state's houses of assembly who should be representing us, asking the right questions, asking the executives the right questions should be seen to be doing so. Unfortunately what we've seen over the years to a very large extent is you have them as rubber stamps. Because of what you're going to get from these funds that are being released, that is just the bottom line. We can't just keep going around the circle with words. That's what it is. Why don't they represent the people as they have been allegedly, you know, selected to represent? Well, my lecture I used to say meanings are in people, not in words. So when I heard what Somolou said, it just, in my mind it was like, okay, you're saying this time you will be very disciplined. Which means before now you were not disciplined at all. I wish he had just added the word as usual so that it will give me the idea that okay, whatever you're going to do, you're confident that what you were doing was right. But it is this time that you have chosen to be disciplined. Well, let's let bygones be bygones. But at this time, like you were saying, individuals, there's only so much they can do. I just miss, I just miss Ghani fire me. He didn't care if everybody else was talking differently. He was just saying what he felt should be done or should be said at any point in time. And he made sure even as an individual he kept the people on their toes. Even military administrations were afraid of him. Yes. I wish we had more of the fire me here. Well, I miss Ghani fire me just as you have said. But thank God today we have set up. We have set up. Set up is really trying. I am very proud of the achievements of set up. They've been able to question government, take government, especially federal government to court. Several, several. Just this week we're discussing the case where they said the federal government should come and account for the CCTV loan, the $360 million CCTV loan that was collected in 2010 to fix CCTV in the FCT. We're servicing that debt. The contract has been stalled for years, over 10 years, 13 years. And no one has been held accountable. The Minister of Finance has been asked about this. She says she doesn't have details of it. But she knows that we are servicing it. And so a lot of things have been called to question. So set up is doing a lot. So we have missed Ghani fire me. You have no idea. The President will say something that is happening in his country has no idea. The Minister will say something that is happening in his or her ministry. He or she doesn't have an idea. And then everybody else will just keep quiet and all that. But like I said, I miss fire me. And today we also miss someone else. Tina Turner. It's now of blessed memory. I just remember that song. What's love got to do with it. Even if I forget any other one, I remember that one. It was so beautiful. So many songs to remember. When he comes to Tina Turner. You're simply the best. She represented. The Queen of Rock, that's what she was. She had this voice that was so powerful, so strong, so energetic. She had the sexy legs. She wore the shot. Look at that. She wore the shot dresses before people knew about mini skirts and all of that. She had the crazy hair. Look at that. She had the swag. She had class. She is an icon. Everybody is just throwing in three boots. Diana Ross said she was shocked and saddened by the news. While Gloria Gaynor called Turner an iconic legend who paved the way for so many women in rock music. Sami Jagger has also paid tribute to who he calls wonderful friend, and Sir Elton John labeled the late performer a total legend on record. She has 12 grammes to her name. 12 grammes to her name. In 1988, she said a Guinness World Record for the largest paying rock concert attendance where a solo artist performed in front of about 180,000 people at the Americana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. There's so much to say about this woman and she lived long though. She lived long. She really did live long at 83. She battled an illness that has not yet been disclosed but she did live long at 83. Illness or no illness. I think she was blessed and she lived a fulfilled life. 83 is quite a number. Yeah, she had a filled marriage at a time. She married her co-worker or her producer, Ike or Ike. I really don't know how to pronounce it. You would want to call him Ike but I think it's Ike. Yeah, so she divorced that man in 1978 and became a very successful solo artist and yeah, she's done so well for herself. Yeah, well, but back home here we're all so worried that the CBN has revoked licenses for 132 microfinance banks even as we heard that interest rates have been jacked up a little bit more. So I do not know. They say that these microfinance banks did not comply with the directives, with everything that was laid down to before they were created or given these licenses and all that and well, while I say on the one hand that we're glad that monitoring has led to this because if you monitor something that's only when you can discover that they're not doing the right thing. I'm very glad. I hope that monitoring will be in every other sector of our economy as well. But if 132 microfinance banks, the licenses are revoked, what are they supposed to do? What about the customers? Is there a plan? They actually seized to carry on their businesses in Nigeria for a period of six months. That's one of the reasons why their licenses were revoked. So if they didn't do anything for six months. They didn't do what they were supposed to do for six months. So if you were opened and you had XYZ as the things that you were going to be doing and then you were doing something else or not doing anything at all like you're saying and then they're now revoking their licenses because you know these microfinance banks are still functioning. What are they doing? If they're not doing what they're supposed to do. That's what I'm saying. Part of the information regarding this revocation is that for six months they seized to carry on their businesses in Nigeria. For which they were given the license. So if you didn't carry, if you're not doing your business for six months, you can't be said to have customers that will be missing you when you're shot. Oh, I tell you they have customers but they're not doing what they were supposed to do. For instance, if I'm registering my company and saying I'm going to be selling clothes and tomorrow they find out that in all the time that I've existed, I've been loaning money to people. When that is not what I. What you were registered to do. So they give me some time to settle down up to six months and I'm still doing what I'm doing and not doing what I was registered to do. Man, bring back our license. Bring back our girls. Bring back our license. Bring back everything. All right. Well, for family mortgage banks, we also have their license revoked plus three finance companies also have their licenses revoked. So that is something for that. I saw the list. I saw the names and I was just looking to see which of them I know. But again, I asked myself how many microfinance banks do you know? Yeah, but I do know that some people, a lot of people now have accounts with some microfinance banks which whose names I may not mention right now. And that is because at the time of the cash crunch transfers to those banks or from those banks never failed. While the regular banks, you want to make a transfer, it will fail. You will not see the alert, nothing will happen and all that. And your money is well overcast. Yeah. And then they are not charging you the way the regular banks are charging for whatever transaction you do. So a lot of people migrated to those banks. What if these banks were also affected? Then you will see that the customers will be affected. No, but I think that those who have been active or who have been doing business as they should have been doing, as these ones that bridged the gap during that cash crunch, if they had been in that category, they wouldn't be facing what they are facing today. But were they formed to do online loaning of money and all that? Financial institutions, I imagine that they function within the limit of what they were permitted to function. Oh, well, okay. Well, before we go into the next thing, which is our newspaper review, as it is, it's just a wordy of note that Somolou, who we've already spoken about it, has decided that this money that he's going to get from these bonds will be used to upgrade 33 ajegunle schools. Now, the good thing about this is that they have mentioned a particular location where these schools will be renovated or upgraded and all that. I wonder why it's only ajegunle anyway, but now that we have a location, it means that we can monitor. I do hope that the list of the names of these schools will be given so that we can just comfortably go anytime to see whether the work is going on. In the next four years, we have that assignment to ourselves to do so that we know that government is really doing something or they're not doing something. Yeah, they're also targeting key infrastructure, other key infrastructure projects in agriculture and the health sector. So it's a lot that they want to achieve with this idea, saying that the two bond issuances will provide this administration, the impetus to to drive the administration's agenda. So the owners, as you said, is on us, the people, and indeed the journalists to keep watch and keep them on their toes to know that our eyes are indeed on them. And things have changed, haven't they? Nigerians are beginning to hold their governments accountable, more accountable, thanks to social media and thanks to the robustness in the media industry. Back in the days, you couldn't question some things. Back in the days, we didn't have enough information. Back in the days, the freedom of the right to know, you know, we didn't exercise that as we do today. So a lot is changing. And those who are saddled with the responsibility to take charge of our commonwealth and administer them for us know that more eyes are on them now and that more lips are talking and asking questions. So there's no doubt that this time around, the things may definitely improve. Okay, well, we'll just take a break now and look at the weather and some other things. And when we return, we'll be looking at the headlines. Stay with us.