 When Nigeria is going through the hardest times in the nation's history, what solution is there too with economic wars facing the country? Annually every 4th of February the World Cancer Day celebrated worldwide. Today on the breakfast we'll discuss fighting cancer with a focus on global observance. Well look at what the papers are saying this morning in other press as we bring you the headlines on the front page of today's National Dailies. I know back in the breakfast and plus TV Africa it's a brand new week, a week to face the battle of living in Nigeria. My name is Kofi Bartels. And I am Messi Ibukbo. It's good to have you join us this beautiful Monday morning. All right Messi how are you surviving? How are you? How are you my friend? How was the weekend for you? So Kofi, I mean I think that this is this is a time where a lot of people need to take you know like you have to self-care you have to be very deliberate. Everywhere you go there's people are complaining and ranting. You know you go to the market everyone seems to be beta, people are angry, and you can't stop to get all of the negative energy the complaints are one of you. So you practically have to be deliberate to say hey I'm not going to let this get me into a point of anxiety and we'll have you so you have to keep your thoughts together. So you went to the market this weekend? I didn't go to the market but my point is in the course of course I don't understand. And how do you hear you talk about markets? Why do you, but we don't get to talk about markets now. Do we get to talk about markets on the show? Well the first trendy I mean I mean there's only one thing trending in Nigeria today that happens to be the economy you know the economy. But before then just a quick the quick touch on the politics. As was lit yesterday of course Dogariya Kudogara, former Speaker of the House of Representatives was trending. Reason it was trending was because of a tweet by Festus Kiyamu saying that the president had endorsed Bola Amitimbu you know in Nassarawa state at the rally you know because there was some sort of confusion as to whether you know the president was supporting the APC candidate and some people say he doesn't have his back. So there was a big deal for supporters of Bola Amitimbu yesterday and then it was a back and forth between Festus Kiyamu and Yakubu Dogara who of course told Festus Kiyamu after Festus called him a political prostitute okay he now replied Festus is a street because Yakubu had said Buhari's endorsement of it was a satire you know it was a satire and Festus called Dogara a political prostitute and then Dogara replied you're not I would have spoken to you if at least you want a councilorship election we're not political mates and of course Festus actually replied him well we will not be political mates in terms of winning an election but at least I'm your senior at the bar and you went on and on the Nigerians were you know enjoying enjoying it you know so there's a lot of tension I just had to touch on that because is this showing that we have political tension as well as it's gonna make tension in the country but talking about the economy one of the people groups talking really is a political party called the socialist party of Nigeria mercy have you heard of socialist party of Nigeria before yes I have heard of socialist party of Nigeria yes I have to go and check to be sure because you know you know some party that you register is actually be sure because I'm not head who is a presidential candidate are you sure we have them you know anyway they condemn the ongoing economic hardship and social hardship witnessed by Nigerians under the Muhammadan Buhari administration and they're calling for a mass resistance to reverse the situation all right I'm sure they want to see people who come up you know talking about how it's hard to get banknotes in excess cash for daily transactions and the whole field supply situation I mean inflation at 21% I was saying to myself how come it worked this morning that inflation at 21% may even be a scam because a lot of things I've got sometimes a hundred percent you know so I'm they issued a statement on Saturday and they are saying that they welcome the socialist party of Nigeria they welcome pockets of protests across the country in some cities across the country they want to see more so they're calling Nigerians to come up on mass and embark on mass action remember what we saw in a dual state but more especially in Benin in Ibadu the capital of your state where it went a bit violent you know with a irate youth attacking a particular bank in the capital of your state and blocking roads and all that the latest reports we have one person dying from that clash you know your state because the security agents had to go curtail it and we have one person died that's from premium times so what they're saying this is socialist party of Nigeria is saying is that they're calling on trade unions pro masses organizations etc to provide coordination and leadership by initiating a program of mass activities including protests and 24 hour general strike to demand an immediate three month extension of the bank no turnover period and educate provisional petrol at the current official price they want the the narrow swap or the narrow deadline old narrow deadline to be extended by three months so that's all we have massive what are your thoughts on this it's quite interesting I'll talk about this here yeah yeah so first of all I think that the social democratic party for you are the correct socialist party socialist party of Nigeria actually if you've heard of this party I have heard of this party I mean Kofi there are several parties there are several parties in your hair you know you know what is tp you know labour party you know pdp no so Kofi you know that you know the the kind of system that we operate we have a multi-party system but unfortunately it seemed like we're practicing a two-party system and this is you know one of the questions but some people want to begin to make a comparison between Nigeria and you know if you look at developing democracies your access of what exactly is it I mean for those you know this country you see will find out that people shuttle between these other party and the other party that's what it is so these parties are there I mean I remember in 2019 the social I have to say that social party of my socialist party socialist party thank you so much the SPN they didn't file a candidate there were about you know 18 of this candidate or 19 of them who didn't file in candidates for the presidential elections that's exactly what happened but of course you know 2023 elections you have several parties who are alive or political officers but you know to come to the crux of the conversation is that I think that the socialist party of Nigeria is acting you know and doing the beating of an opposition party that's exactly what it is but there also might be questions as to you know if this is you know the time in terms of I mean when you look at it you begin to ask yourself this is the right time when was the last time you heard of this party I mean have they been very vocal because the major role of opposition party in any government which is very critical is that it helps check the activities of the party in power with a view to pointing out where they're going wrong looking at the excesses and what have you and I think that you know the socialist party of Nigeria is acting in that you know regard that's exactly what opposition does but we have over time asked and queried whether we have opposition in Nigeria I mean for the past eight years you ask yourself is there an opposition party including the major opposition party that you should have that's the people's democratic party it's been a lot of question and some people say hey that's not the case but I think that that's what it is and if you also look at the concerns it's fine to have people protest but it's also you know the responsibility that's why you have the opposition party it's very critical in any democracy because that's that's really where you begin to pressure in and not necessarily politics here but you begin to point out what you're not doing right and he helps them you know in check and you want to ask yourself if we if Nigerians are complaining about the APC what has the role of the opposition being so far from the past eight years what have this political party's done including the major political party and every other party because they are all in the opposition so what have they really done how come all of this has gone on I mean how come if you say that the APC has not fared well has not driven Nigeria well but how far how come you know they haven't done well in in attempt in terms of saying the APC is sitting back and putting their acts together because the role that the opposition plays is what gets the other party the ruling party to sit back and put her acts together but that's not the case and yes protest is a tool like I always say that has been used by different you know government in different climes climes to demand you know good governance so people actually get out to protest protest different policies what have you I mean it's also a recent video that I saw you know where people are protesting the economic situation in the united kingdom and that's it so protest is it's important but what we are also saying is that some people take advantage of the system I mean the protests become very violent where you have people looting so yes if Nigerians are going to protest it's okay but if people are going to go out to begin to destroy loot and you know cost mayhem and just you know for the destroyed economy then that's not it that's not protest so I'm just hoping that at this point when a very critical situation and I think that those who are speaking to power are speaking fruits and what have you should be very careful so people don't miss quote all of this and begin to act indiscriminately but it's also expected that the law and those who are saddled with executing the law would be responsible maintaining the law peace and order especially the police you know we will be right at it and all of that so we will continue with this conversation but but but here I'm more concerned about where has the opposition been so far you know it is uncounted right um message so it's it's it's it's it's very interesting what's going on and there's some dots that we can connect and that's that you quickly connect those dots I think all our training service today have to do with what you call again the narrow scarcity crisis we'll call it that and of course the fuel supply of fuel scarcity crisis we'll call it that so we have the APC on one hand we have the PDP this is a political season so we cannot divorce the political parties from the economic situation in the country because the conversation is political so who do we vote for in the next election um of course uh the our progressives congress in its through its presidential candidate had been calling for you know saying there's a sabotage at play and some people are trying to scuttle his chances of winning the election by ensuring that there is no fuel by ensuring that uh we don't have uh cash because this will put the government in bad light and if they put it puts the government in bad life because people would vote in protest what it called protest vote against him I mean it's kind of the APC ruling party um the the the presidential candidate of the peoples and credit party last week uh uh atikua bobakar had come up to say the cbn should not extend the deadline uh for the old narrow notes from february 10 they should not because according to him it's going to encourage both vote buying if they extend that deadline then we had malam nasir l5 who is in the inner conclave of the APC presidential candidate but atin will come in and and to say that um uh you know to criticize atikua bobakar for calling uh making that call saying people like him are not feeling the pains and digerians are feeling and that's why they are he's calling for that extension not to be or the deadline not to be extended and of course atikua had to reply that the reason why arufi atinbu and other apc stalwarts were you know calling on the central bank to extend the deadline was because um it was not politically convenient for the politics to be implemented and for the deadline not to be extended and for political purposes they were calling for that deadline and um so it went back and forth but the the are you talking about the opposition you know merci uh and how opposition parties should approach this particular uh um policy and what's going on now interestingly last night at about 7 40 p.m the presidential candidate of a uh of labor party which is the fastest rising positive party in nigeria um i mean some poll that we saw over the weekend put that party ahead um of course apc has come out to reject that poll and he says in a tweet quote that he came out to tell nigerians categorically for the first time that he supports the cbn policies and nigerians need to bear because the policies are well intended that's why he says the currency redesign is not peculiar to nigeria quote okay it is an exercise that comes with some inconvenience and pain but it has significant long-term economic and social benefits we told me right even though the are improvements that can be made he says he has an exercise that comes with some inconvenience mercy and pain but he has significant long-term economic and social benefits uh he says i urge nigerians to bear with the cbn and federal government with the hope that the general populace and nigeria will have will harvest rather the gains that will come with the reforms uh you know it's what he says so that's uh an endorsement of any support he's taking a stance now some people could say a socialist part of nigeria what game are they playing uh because we've seen a particular section of the polity uh asking for the cbn to extend the deadline we've seen a particular section of the polity saying we are not in support of this maybe because it does not support their public aims i mean and people have come up to say you look at wiki for instance yes we could govern a river state during campaign rally at some part of river state over last week you know saying that nigerians are suffering the masses are suffering saying oh um uh you know this is not affecting me it says i already have my campaign money i've planned everything already but i said i said is that not an indictment self-indict but let's do that for another day you know but it affects you the man i don't suffer it i don't suffer it was asking but you know some are saying when did politicians in this country especially of abc and pdp the major politicians we know the governor's inclusive when where did since when did they start becoming concerned about the plight of the common man since when did they start becoming concerned about who goes to bed hungry and who not because the antecedent we've been seeing is it shows a lack of concern you know is it today so people a lot people are not taking what they are saying that oh we are speaking the interest of common man that is a blatant lie because you can't ignore okay the patterns is what people are saying let's see look at the conversation out there a lot of people are saying we can't ignore the patterns is it are you all of a sudden i mean you know someone said miracle no the entire jesus you know about the situation it's a miracle there is politicians what they are telling us that they are messing that they're interested in who goes to bed hungry so are you also are you also making reference to this party so we case situation where yeah for we case situation where we came out to say that your masses are suffering people i was looking at the comments and look we were laughing it's it's you know these guys take Nigerians for fools i mean i mean come on i see i always tell Nigerians these guys actually think you're dumb we're at the entire country is dumb because of the things they do you know it's like they will go back to their rooms take out their their konyak their whiskey in their brandy and clink doesn't laugh this okay so a governor who has implemented draconian rules you know used the police to to arrest political opponents and including protesters mercy who has implemented a decrease okay that i seem to be anti people okay decrease that i seem to start i mean i would really like to jump in the hotels of of investors coffee i really like to jump on this conversation but and then you're telling me that you you you're interested well for the people you know let's let that slide it's all right we're definitely right so i mean what we talk about this just in some way in the sentence all i'm saying is that a lot of Nigerians are laughing at the politicians who today are telling us that they are so interested in the plight of the common man and and that's why and that's why we're also questioning you know the role of the political parties who are supposed to be playing the opposition because i mean political parties are very important in every democracy and so you have different political parties i come you're speaking now what happened all the time i mean people have gone through a lot uh some people say people have seen shiggy too much shiggy and the extra shiggy i do you support the mass action mass action what mass action i talked about that now and i my position on protesters has always been one protest has been a tool that people have used to demand change change a policy you know demand a lot from the government but over time and that's what we say and there's nothing wrong in protesting because it's it's it's a it i mean it's within your right uh just as it's within your right to go out and cast your vote it's also within your right to protest but whatever becomes a threat to national security whatever becomes a threat if you constitute a threat and that's why it's no longer a protest it becomes a you know something different an attack on the state and that's not what the the case should be so yes people can go ahead and say we're protesting and that's what the SPN is saying but we're saying if you have to go out to protest then let it be within the ambience of the law because if you are contrary like the one we see we're seeing people destroying stuff that's not it and that's not going to yield you any results but the way the apc presidential candidate is today in today's purpose he called it on his supporters to adopt to be violent regarding the narrow extension so we'll see we have to go now kofi yes we really have to go we take a break and when we return we'll be right back with the papers please stay with us good morning