 The Social Economic Rights and Accountability Project has urged President Bahamadu Buhari to take steps to reverse the increase in the electricity tariffs in Nigeria, which it calls a lawful, unjust and unreasonable. We have analysis of this ahead. Yet again, an attack on a train station in Nigeria has seen several persons abducted and families traumatized will look at the unfolding situation following the attack by gunmen on the Ekehen train station in a women local government area of Edo state. And in other press, we bring you a depth analysis of today's major newspaper headlines. Good morning to you. It's a beautiful Monday morning, great to be back on the breakfast right here on Plus TV Africa. My name is Kofi Bartels writing solo this morning. We have interesting conversations lined up for you and I implore you to stay with us. And I much needed spice and vev to your day. Now we start with a top training segment, which is a usual starter every single morning on the breakfast. And we go to something which isn't really new because I mean it's been happening for some time and it's latest was sometime last year, but it's what we're talking about. So we'll give it some attention. Well, it's no longer news that cross river state governor, Ben Ayadeh, Professor Ben Ayadeh, we can call him, presented the state's 2023 budget proposal to the cross river state House of Assembly in October last year, which was subsequently passed by the House. Now, apart from the size of the budget, which is 330 billion era, what got tongs wagging at the time last year, October, I'm sure some people were even looking forward to it. And I also was looking forward to it as well. What got tongs wagging at the time was the nickname given to the budget by his Excellency, the governor of cross river state, whom you can see on your screen right now. He nicknamed it budget of quantum infinitum, if you ever had anything like that before quantum infinitum. Now, well, there are no surprises here, no surprises at all. As since he became governor in 2015, Ben Ayadeh has been, you know, in the habit of giving his budget a very, very head turning name. Some will call it ridiculous names. His most defining legacy, some will say, has been turning his budget presentation into spectacle with the ridiculous name he gives the budget every year. Now, following this recent one, 2023 budget presented last year, October, called budget of quantum infinitum. People have taken the liberty to, you know, go down memory lane with some nostalgia to look at what the governor has been naming his budget over the years. And Wood has keyed the list. I think in 2016 it was the first year Ben Ayadeh had the opportunity to impose his imprint on the financial and fiscal aspect of things in cross river state. And he named the budget, budget of deep vision, budget of deep vision. Of course, in 2017 he had a second chance to present a budget as governor of cross river state. And he took it a notch higher. And he named it budget of infinite transportation. Well, I think I should say transmutation. Okay. Now, in 2018, Ben Ayadeh outdid himself. Yes, he did. He outdid himself by naming his budget, budget of kinetic crystallization. And in 2019, are you ready for this? Do you remember? If you miss it, where were you? He named the budget, the budget of quabalistic densification. I can't forget that one. In 2020, he tried to prove to everyone that his professorship is not in doubt. He tried to show you that is a professor in real sense of the world. What he named his budget, the budget of olimpotic meristemesis. You know, I feel like Patrick will buy him right now. I don't know by calling all these big names. So that was in 2020. Now in 2021, what name did the governor give to his budget? He was titled, I mean, I didn't see this coming actually, he was titled the budget of blush and bliss. The budget of blush and bliss. Quite ridiculous, you know. I mean, you can make this stuff up. You can make it up. Last year, last year, this penultimate budget presentation to the cross-strait State House of Assembly, he gave them something to remember. Budget of conjugated agglutination. Budgets of what? Conjugated agglutination. I've talked about this many times, but each time I have to talk about this on radio or TV, it always brings tears of laughter to my eye. I can't just wipe the one that is under. It's so funny. Budget of conjugated agglutination. And of course, for last year, we have budget of quantum infinity. I think anyone who can remember all these names and can write them down should at least get a diploma, if not a degree, a diploma for writing them down. I mean, one could, you know, be forgiven for mistaking Ben Ayadeh or to be Patrick Ubyamu's son or brother or student because the man has really almost done what Patrick Ubyamu did. All right. Anyway, you know, Ben Ayadeh may not be remembered for many things. I mean, it's more a case in cross-strait State of the more you look the less you see in his administration has been identified or been criticized for being offering so much in terms of promises and rhetoric but delivering so little in terms of action and of course results in cross-strait State. How many of us remember Ben Ayadeh's Super Highway? All right. What happened to the Super Highway in cross-strait State that was meant to be, you know, be the first Wi-Fi highway in Nigeria, you know, with Wi-Fi. All right. What happened to that one? That project is, I'm sure it's in the dustbin of history. There's a lot in cross-strait State that he's done but of course there's a lot that we've had he'll do really haven't seen the results. I remember there's a spaghetti flyover. Those in Calaba and cross-strait State will be able to relate better. I don't know if that spaghetti flyover has been completed but I remember going to Calaba several times which is a city I know very well inside out and seeing something at Odupanejau resembling something, you know, concrete structure and I was told it was a spaghetti flyover. Has that been completed? But for all Ben Ayadeh may be accused of including promising so much but delivering little I think that he will be remembered more the very, very ridiculous names that he gave to his budgets. I think we will remember him for that. That being said, please let those words your word bank and I'm sure you'll be better for it. Let's move on to our next... But before that, before that, you know, I've always had a thing, you know, against giving names to budgets because I normally ask myself why should we crest in the budget? I mean, you know, it's one of the things that politicians in this country do in Nigeria do and you begin to wonder if they have a capacity to think creatively, to think innovatively, to think outside of the box and to do things differently because one person says I'm going to give my budget a name and everybody is giving their budget names. I mean, the others may not be doing it as outrageously as Ben Ayade or giving out landish names as budget of blush and bliss, you know, but they give their budget names and I keep asking myself, what is the big deal? Why do you need to give your budget a name? Budget of hope, budget of prosperity. Don't say, there's nothing there. Okay, because the name that you give to your budget has nothing to do with the performance of the governor and his administration in the fiscal year. He has absolutely nothing to do with the performance of the governor and his administration in the fiscal year. You know, a lot of these state governors get away so easily with corruption, all right, with nepotism, all right, with dictatorship because a lot of people are looking at the president but if we take the books of the governor's files and open it, you realize that many of them, if they became president, what you've seen in the past or what you've seen, you see ten times worse. So I think I would like to rejoin Otherworld meaning Nigerians to to advise our governors, you know, forget about naming your budget. There's nothing, there's no need to name your budget. Just go ahead and give us the figures and do the job and show us the results. We're not interested in the names to give you a budget. There's something they do now. You know, since Yerardwa, I think it was, we came up with seven-point agenda. All of a sudden, everybody was coming. We used to have a two-point agenda, five-point agenda, a six-point agenda, ten-point agenda, unless you have why can't you say I'm here to do something in every area and outline, must you name it, agenda, you know? So, I mean, some of these guys, they don't show the capacity to think creatively, to think out of us. I think that is something to worry about because for you to be a leader, leadership is about innovation. Maybe that's what Ben and I were trying to do and I'll give you some credit for that. It was trying to be different, trying to stand out. But I think we have politics that bothers a lot on a lot of rhetoric, a lot of showmanship, you know, a lot of Higihaga, but very little in terms of performance. I think for me that is a problem. You see, leaders that are big on performance and that are, you know, little on talk rhetoric and a lot of these displays that we see around. All right. This morning I asked around the office and I don't know you guys in the control room doing your job if you have a new Nara note. Can someone give me a new Nara note, please? I don't know. Kaede, do you have a new Nara note? Okay. Have you seen one before? Anyone in the studio have a new Nara note? Nobody has a new Nara note. No one has a new Nara note. I went to the ATM yesterday. I said I want to withdraw some amount of money. And I didn't see a single. Permit me to please take this out of my pocket. I'm not trying to flaunt. I mean, this isn't much money these days. You know, but I didn't see a single. All I got was old Nara notes. Okay. I got to one of the ATMs. I got a 1,000 Nara. I won't tell you how much I withdrew but it's here on the table. It's not much. Okay. And then I got to another ATM. See what I was given. 500 Nara. I'm telling you that as of today, I, for all my Lydia sadness and, you know, sit down and talk, I haven't seen the new Nara note. One. I haven't seen it. And this morning I asked in the office no one could give me a copy. One. One note. No one. Nobody had it on them. So it's a worrying situation because the banks are complaining and they're saying that they don't have enough of this Nara note. People are going to the bank, doing over-the-counter transactions with draws and they're being given a mixture of old Nara and new Nara. Does someone want to give me Nara notes? No. Okay. They're doing a mixture of old Nara and new Nara notes giving them to people. I'm like, you know, it's, I call it assorted. Mixing the old Nara notes and I call it assorted. Well, what people are complaining about now, you know, is that the ink from the new Nara note has the ability to stay in your clothes, to stay in, you know, stuff. And that's been the complaint from the public. People have uploaded pictures, you know, posted about it on social media, complained that they realized that the Nara note, the new ones, okay, the new design Nara note are staying in their clothes. I mean, the old Nara notes have a thousand Nara here, have 500 Nara here, I'm not giving it to you. I know that if I'm not correctly, for the few times I've had to wash my clothes and I forgot to take the notes from my clothes, I don't remember the notes standing my clothes significantly. I must confess, most times it's in the jean or the trouser. But I don't remember the Nara standing the clothes significantly. So, I mean, does this mean this talk of the new Nara note standing, does it mean that it's not durable? Does it mean, we see a copy on the screen, does it mean that it's not durable? Does it mean that it's not good enough? Well, the company in charge of printing the Nara notes, I mean, people came out with some fake news last year you know, that the notes have been printed abroad and blah, blah, blah, why aren't they printing, but we know that the Nigerian security printing and maintain PLC, all right, is in charge of printing our Nara notes. Now, they came out to explain and give some explanations to what people are complaining about why the new Nara notes is leaving some ink when rubbed on the plain white surfaces. And now, what they're saying is that best international practice was followed in their production, is what they're saying. Best, or international best practices, I think that's the way to put it, were followed in the production of the Nara notes, all right, but is that what we're talking about? People are saying the thing is stating their clothes and is staining white surfaces and the notes the company known as the Mint is saying that international best practices were followed. Anyway, Ahmed Hadilu is the managing director of the Nigerian security printing and minting PLC, he released a statement on Friday just before the weekend, last week Friday and he said that his attention, the attention of the company have been drawn to various clips, skits and concerns and comments on diverse platforms regarding the quality of the redesigned notes, so he talked about this issue talking about the staining and he says, quote, it is basically the same as the other notes in circulation. It is basically the same as the other notes in circulation, right, that's what he said. He also said this, however in addition, the second stage of the currency printing requires a heavy deposit of special inks with fairly large particles to give a tactile feeling of the portraits as well as other raised prints by we'll decide, I don't know if you understand what he's saying, that's what he's saying it's a lot of technical jargon there but if you look at the narrow notes the new ones they're generally light when issued and he says that they will become heavier in circulation on getting moisture on it, on getting dirt on it and that's why you have some of these things, the lighter nature of the note and then the ink that is going off. Well he also wanted to say that this one of the properties of this intaglio ink as he called it is non-solubility in water and ease of transfer on plain white materials owing to the size of the particles he says this is generally a security feature of all banknotes that easily differentiates them from forged or counterfeit notes so I guess what is the minting PLC or the mint is saying that people have nothing to fear even if you see or rub the new narrow notes on a white surface and see it staining the surface it means that it is actually the authentic one I have never seen this in my life before I mean, we all have had fresh narrow notes I mean, is it 500 narrow alright this one is around 2 new okay, but is it 500 narrow or 500 narrow or 1000 narrow we've all had to have fresh notes either from the ATM or somebody just wants to give you a bundle or do business you get paid you know, I've got it sprayed before and they've never rubbed never, never like in the Wiki said some time ago never, never they never got rubbed on so I mean, if we say it's normal we don't know the professionals we don't know about these things they are the ones who know but what we know is that these notes 200, 100, 1500 never rubbed off any ink or staining any white surfaces when they were new okay so what is he talking about like I said he's a professional let's see where this goes now the next trending story we've all been talking about this and the Central Bank of Nigeria issuing further directives fresh directives regarding its cash withdrawal policy alright and this time the Central Bank of Nigeria has ordered deposit money banks not to pay customers making over the counter withdrawals to renew narrow notes again alright that's what they're saying don't give them the new narrow notes over the counter now what the apex bank is writing the banks to do is to instead load their automated tele-machines or ATMs with only the new notes to ensure that the currency circulates across the nation ahead of the January 31, 2023 deadline when the old notes will be legal tender alright so according to reports the Central Bank of Nigeria issued the directive on Wednesday, last week Wednesday and ordered the implementation to begin immediately so what this means is that if you go to the bank over the counter withdrawals you will not be given the new notes so does it mean you're going to be given old notes and they want the banks to instead load the new notes into the ATMs so the banks have been they don't have enough of these new notes so what are they going to do as of Friday according to reports I saw as of Friday the banks have not been able to comply with the directive as they complain of inadequate supply of the new notes prompting them to load their ATMs so the old notes yesterday I went to the ATM I was drawing a thousand narrow from the ATM I saw somebody from my left who was to draw 500 narrow axes out of curiosity if the machine was giving him only 500 narrow notes he says yes that machine was giving only 500 narrow notes but it was old narrow notes so something is not right here CBN on one hand is telling the deficit money banks to load only new narrow notes into the ATMs deficit money banks are saying we don't have enough of the new narrow notes so what is going on where is the money where is the money where is the money you know so it's not that isn't clear and you know what the inconsistency with the CBN as far as this cash withdrawal policy is concerned is sickening it is worrying it is dangerous it portends only bad things I'm not a prophet of doom but I mean it doesn't take the most brilliant economic mind to know that policy inconsistencies send a wrong signal alright you came up by saying that XYZ amount of money was the cash withdrawal limit per week for individuals and for corporate organizations and then those love reaction and people were shouting peer operators the national assembly and then it's oh okay we're going to change it now you can withdraw 500,000 per week or 1 million dollars if 5 million per week change of policy or what you call policy somersault now all of a sudden from nowhere after giving directions and guidelines on how you know this cash withdrawal policy should be carried out all of a sudden you are telling banks to give people new narratives over the counter but I give them only through the ATMs you know we need to see some consistency some direction alright and some resolution from the CBN you know if you're going to think about these things think about them give the scenarios from the get go so that people don't get confused at the end of the day of course the banks are saying they don't have these money so can the CBN say to this anyway we have to go at this point and hopefully we'll see some improvements okay in the situation we have a January 31 deadline people have taken their monies back to the banks who are doing so will people be able to catch their hands on the new narratives my prediction is that beyond January 31 Nigerians are going to continue in the old months because some people may not be able to tell the difference okay some people in special rural areas are going to say oh they look familiar the new ones are fake they'll reject it let's see how it goes my name is Kofi Bartels we're back on the other side of Puna Buon Kutare standing by as we go through the papers and of course with analysis to follow