 Okay, time now for the headlines on some dailies and we begin with the Daily Trust newspaper. The Daily Trust newspaper leads with doubts over Buhari's fresh $800 million loan request. The rider's there, Nigeria fast exceeding borrowing limit, budget office, total debt hit $77 trillion narrow. New requests, a patent gift, CDD, no justification to incur debt for incoming government. Use savings from subsidy removal to fund palliatives, Muda Yusuf. You find details of that on page four of the Daily Trust newspaper. Right in front there you have the picture of Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari, former governor of Zamfara state and senator-elect Zamfara West. And the caption beside his picture is not West deserves Senate presidency. All right, so you find details of that. Well, it is a promotional, but then let's still take some headlines on this Daily Trust. You have Tinnibu Lech for Europe to reduce destruction, spokesperson. NBC lacks power to impose fines on broadcast stations court. That's a major one that concerns us. Details of that is on page 14. EFCC arrests Buharis Expo minister over 22 billion Naira fraud. Page 14. That's the much I'll be taking from Daily Trust. Okay. We're moving from Daily Trust to Daily Independent. And Daily Independent leads with WASI aspirants ranking reps reject APC endorsements. That's still on the tussle in the National Assembly. Riders are accused by the media of misleading Tinnibu. One party over repeat of Sarah K Tambo while schools occurred to look and deems parties National Assembly leadership zoning formula. All that will be seen on page 29. OB LP back at equals plea for live broadcast of PEPC sitting. Tribunal fixes fresh date to hear LP's petition. So that starts from page one and moves on to page seven. Senate index AGF NAVDAC 45 MDAs for financial infractions that can be seen on page seven. Still on page seven we have Nigeria 59 others at risk of missing maternal newborn SDGs targets. On page six you'll find stories like Buhari six Senate approval to borrow 800 million dollars. Don't interfere in Bilesa governorship poll. Diri wants AMI and Tinnibu heads for Europe 18 days to May 29 inauguration day. Then another major headline there will be why we're still awarding contracts days to government exit as federal government. OK is 100 and 29.8 billion Naira for further work on organic cleanup and water scheme. And finally PEPC dismisses petition against Tinnibu APC others. That's from the daily independence there. From the very daily independent we move over to the punch newspaper. The punch newspaper is leading with dissenting APC aspirants demand fresh zoning formula. Details of that you find on page two. However there are two riders APC zoning creation creating tension cannot guarantee unity is an assault ones. Not central senators write APC chairman decries zoning exclusion. That's on Senate presidency. Four men on trial for killing cousin. You find details on that on page 26. All right. Legos aren't as in Dibo for terrorism. You find details of that on page 28. NNPCL needs huge investment to meet demand. Page 11 is where you find that statement by Alhaji Alikotangote. On top of the punch newspaper you have subsidy. Buhari seeks approval of 800 million dollars palliative loan. You find details of that on page 19. Trouble looms over rising debt budget office ones. Page 20 is where you find details of that an expert minister arrested over alleged 22 billion Naira fraud. Page 8 of the punch newspaper is where you find details of that headline. Okay. Let's take something from the Guardian. Some headlines from the Guardian this morning. The Guardian leads with more cracks as APC House divides against itself. Page 6 is where you find the story. Tino Boos overseas trip stairs reaction. We can find that story on news page 3. Buhari seeks senate's approval to spend 800 million dollars palliative loan. That is on page 6. More trouble for students as jams biometric verification falters. Okay. That's scary. And then Dangote, Elumelu Hill, NNPC's performance on that Kiari. Okay. I don't know the parameters they used. But that will be all from the Guardian. We still have another. All right. We have been joined by our analyst Ezekiel Nyeh etok. Good morning to you Ezekiel. Good morning. Always a pleasure to be with you people. Always a pleasure to have you on half the press Ezekiel. Well, let's just start with this very strong story about subsidy. Buhari seeks approval of 800 million dollars palliative loan. Now, first of all, there's confusion in some quarters. Some Nigerians are wondering, is this a fresh loan or is it an old one? But we know that it's not a fresh loan. It is one that was gotten when they were considering the removal of the fuel subsidy to use as palliative to cushion the effect of the removal of subsidy. So instead of returning this loan, apparently it's been converted to conditional cash transfer. Take us through the process of how we got this money and why we are here with it today. Okay. You know, the very first thing is that there has been this issue of subsidy. Is it a scam? Is it a reality? Should it stay? Is it sustainable? Should we remove it? That whole discussion, late Nigerians to say, look, this is one thing that the poor people enjoy. If you are to remove the fuel subsidy, what are you going to have as a replacement? What are you going to have as a circle for the poor? And then they started coming up with all manner of subsidy or rather conditional cash transfer and stuff. Then they went to World Bank, tried to get the facilities and everything. But the very first thing is that these guys don't even really know what they want to do. Are you going to remove subsidy? Are you not going to remove subsidy? The very first thing that APC promised the presidential candidate during the campaign was that he was going to remove subsidy. And then they said that by May subsidy will cease to exist. Then recently they came back and said, no, no, not yet, not yet. We are going to stay action on that. Now you want to collect this money. What are you collecting the money for? Conditional cash transfer on what understanding? And again, 18 days, when is the loan going to be approved? When are you going to do the disbursement? And above all, what is the urgency that Nigerians who have waited for all these years cannot wait for under 18 days so that when the new man comes unblocked, he's not going to say, no, no, no, they did it. I didn't know about it. That's not my program. When they come in, they would tell Nigerians, are we removing subsidy or are we not removing subsidy? If we are not removing subsidy, then what is this money going to be for? Now Ezekiel, Ezekiel, please establish for us, this $800 billion, is it a new one? Or is it the same one that was announced earlier by the World Bank to have been given to the country? My understanding is that it is the old one that was approved. The Confucian, sorry, the Confucian is that the old one, $800 million, was called grant by the same World Bank. And now he's applying for loan. So if he's applying for loan now, that means there are two $800 million that we are collecting. One is a grant, one is a loan. So if the grant was what they were talking about, that they were going to use for palliatives and all that, why are they going back now to collect a loan? Because it's in the name. So if one is a grant and the other one is a loan, that means there are two different things. That Confucian has, if you've been on the social media space, and you see, we can only speculate. Why can't these guys just be straight with us on these matters? We're just speculating. Now, where the speculation is right is that the figure is exactly the same, $800 million, not even $758 million, but the same $800 million. So my thinking, and you see, the process of getting a loan from the World Bank is not something that you just get, even when you get an approval, approval to apply or approval to, you know, there are things that are just not straight. For me, my take is that the Senate should just stand down that request, even if it is the grant, and they want to activate it, because the World Bank, once they give you a facility, they are conditions precedents. They do not just take like that. They are setting infrastructure that must be in place. They must be setting understandings, especially if it is a grant. It's in a loan matter that you can say, okay, maybe the backup, but for a grant, they must give very specifics on the deployment of such facility. So I think that whatever it is, whether it was a grant or it is a new loan, I think that we as Nigerians, we owe this nation the duty to say no, leave it for the incoming administration. When the new administration comes, we must interrogate. We're not going to have this situation where we leave government to government. No. There is an office that is higher than the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. There's an office that is higher than the government of Nigeria, which has the three arms, the executive, the legislature, the judiciary. That office is called Office of the Citizen. We are the employers, and no responsible employer just sits back and says, okay, I've employed you as the managing director of this company, so go ahead and do as you please. No. There's a board. We are like the board, and you must come to us and report. And where there is need for interrogation, the board can call you up anytime and say, why do you want to do this? We don't interfere in the day-to-day role, but we interfere in the policies and in the directions and the end game to the end that we, the citizens, are the better for it, which is the essence of democracy. So my bottom line of this matter is that we should tell the government to stand down or the National Assembly stand down, let the new government comes, and when the new government comes, engage with us and make it very clear what you want to do and how you want to do it. Isn't it interesting that as the president is seeking this $800 million palliative loan, you also have the budget office warning that trouble looms over rising debt for the country? You see, the budget office should shut up with all due respect. They should shut up. You see, this is what you find in Nigeria and it actually irritates me. When this man was in office and we, the citizens, were shouting ourselves, he was, they were keeping quiet and trying to justify many things. You are taking too much loan, borrowing, borrowing, and let me tell you, there's nothing wrong in borrowing. I wanted to be a governor. You can't help borrowing. I'm a businessman. I'm a private setup businessman. Okay, but borrowing has certain rules. One of the most fundamental rules is that the circle must close. The circle must close. What that means is that you borrow, you implement, you do all, you return. So you need to show me how that look closes. How do you intend to return the loan? How do you intend to repair the loan? As a businessman, I'm into real estate. I'll tell you that look, I need about 500 million to complete this estate I'm doing. Look at the cost benefit. I am doing the sales. At the end of the sales, I'm going to raise about a billion. I can return your money, I can pay you off, and then I can have a profit left. They look at it, they look at the feasibility, the viability, and at the end I'll say it makes sense. I am borrowing for production, but if I am borrowing to pay school fees, I'm going to tell the people, how am I going to pay back the school fees? It's not going to work. You don't borrow for consumption, you borrow for production, and that is a problem I have with Nigerians. You want to borrow 800 million for conditional cash transfer to give to people. It sounds very good, but you are so dishonest. Who are these people that you've been giving to? Who are they? Go to the street, ask anybody about conditional cash transfer, and they're like, what's that? They don't even know what it is about. What's that? What's that? And then you now want to borrow 800 million. I think that the time has come when we as citizens need to sit up, interrogate the systems, and ask government questions, and don't allow them. We have to start to occupy the National Assembly if they start to take decisions that are against the larger interests of the future of our young children. Some of us, November 1, I'll be 60, you can tell that I'm already on the other side, which is what happens to most people in government. But what about your children? I have a grandchild. How about my grandchildren? Where is their future? We need to think for these people and have a heart for them. These guys are borrowing too much. They are borrowing and fritting away the money, and at the end of the day, they are stripping the future of our children to enhance their own very, very ungodly presence. We'll all, Jack, but I'll leave the debts here. Okay. Now, there is tension in the APC because of the zoning and the anointing of some candidates vying for the Senate presidency and the speakership of the House of Representatives and all that. But let me combine that with the fact that the president-elect who is sort of like putting everything together has traveled less than 20 days to the inauguration. When there are court cases, there are everything, there are things to sort out here in the country. So what are your thoughts on the travel of the president-elect that we've been given the excuse that he has gone for a walking visit, a working visit to Europe? Yeah, you see, these people are Nigerians, but the Bible says my people perish for lack of knowledge. When people at high level make very irresponsible, uninformed statements, it actually irritates me. Please, with all due respect, my big brother, Ashiwaju, is a private citizen. He can't go on a walking visit. A president-elect is a private citizen. And until the day you are sworn in, you are not the president. Remember what happened in Bielsa? The man was getting ready to be sworn in the next day was, you know, doing the parade and the Supreme Court passed a judgment and said, sorry, we are not. What if he had gone to start having a walking visit? A walking visit with who? For who? How? So he's not going on any walking visit. That is number one. Number two, they say he's going so as to reduce the pressure. Bros, you never start. He won't reduce pressure. Do you understand what the office of the president is? Are you going to be saying in London to reduce pressure? Are we going to start or not, Johnny? Stay here. There are problems. What if the court says you should come and appear, if you are someone as a witness? Are you going to tell us, sorry, I'm a brother, I'm not available? Or is that a hidden agenda? Number two, the National Assembly leadership that you know that you should be interested in. Isn't that the time for you to do this nocturnal, you know, meetings, my guy, you know, please leave this for me. The only person that can intervene and people because of you, they will, you know, shoot their sword. That's the only thing. So I don't really see the wisdom. I don't see the sense. And number three, only a very, very irresponsible investor will talk to somebody who has not been sworn in, somebody who is in the Supreme Court, unless the person is an opportunist, but somebody who is a genuine investor will say, sir, it's just about 22 days, no problem, just hold on, we'll talk after. The sworn in first, even if the court will remove you later, it means that you have a signature to sign because you're already sworn in. So when you look at it, and of course, the unsaid story is, could it be possible that he's going for another health, you know, checkup? And, you know, I wish it was something that I could laugh over and tell my people, I told, you know, that isn't all, you understand me? But unfortunately, I can't do that because it affects me. It would be like my laughing at myself. It's like smiting my nose to spite my face. My prayer is that whoever, if he's going to be eventually the president that is sworn in and is a president, my prayer is for divine health so that he will stay back here and do the work. The work is enormous. You know, people talk about tinnubu, tinnubu. I always remember my mother and I can't forget this woman was a young lady that made life hard for me and God bless her because he trained me well. And now I now have children. And then when I want to do something, he says, you have lived them, you know, their little children. What was I? Was I not a little child? What I'm trying to say is that the people of 20 years ago are not the same people of today. They've gotten older. They are looking at things. They are no longer as adventurous as they were. They are a lot more cautious. They are slower. So each time we talk about the tinnubu, the tinnubu, the tinnubu, I want to tell Nigerians to have a certain level of cautious optimism because that man has become older. That man has faced a lot of experiences in life. That man knows that he's on his way out. And as a result, they are setting things he will not dare to dare. And they are all considered. I think that the concern in other quarters is not just the health concern. The concern is that the courts have categorically said that, one, they will not allow frivolities. They will not want the cases to drag. And so they will have speedy trials and all that. They also have said that nobody can stand for another person. We had the case of a former governor, La Long, who was his campaign manager of sorts, trying to stand for tinnubu. And they said, no, you cannot stand. And then the very next day, tinnubu is out of the country, which means he will not be available when the case comes up in court. So if he stalls until May 29, is it going to affect the cases? Is it going to affect the inauguration? What is it going to affect? I'll tell you this. I did a video, you know, like eight minutes video. And I think Nigerians need to know that election process does not end at pronouncement of a winner. No. After pronouncement of a winner, there is a next phase which is the tribunal. And it doesn't end there. After the tribunal for the presidency and the governorship, there is the cut of appeal. It doesn't end there. It ends at the supreme court. That's what we've got to know. So if you are happy that your principal has won, please sever that victory with cautious optimism, knowing that cover the back of your mind that the table can turn, so that you won't have system shock if tomorrow they say they've removed this governor, that was governor-elect, or they've removed this president. Just know that there is a process. And Mr. President-Elect should also conduct himself as one that has setting huddles to cross before he is finite. Like Adelaide Kenner can sit down well. After how many months, not shown state. It's only yesterday that he can say, yes, I'm the man. So I think that Mr. Tinubu probably seeing the handwriting of the word because case day, I can assure you case day, there are fundamental issues that must be addressed. I think that it would have been wiser and more expedient for him to hang around and show himself as the leader, show himself as law abiding, show himself as not above the law, show himself as somebody who is going to have respect for the rule of law and follow the process, except there is an emergency which has to do with health. There can't be any emergency with the, I need to go and But does the court, does the court have the power to, to influence, say, what happens on inauguration day? Because if he, he just evades, this is not a rest, but he doesn't want to appear in court and he stalls it. He stays overseas until late 29. Can the court do anything? Let me make something very clear. He, except the judiciary, is compromised. He has, nothing says that he must be there. He's summoned and if he's summoned and he fails to show up, it could be an act of contempt. He can actually be convicted in abstention, except there is a health emergency that is understandable outside of that. He cannot stall and nobody says that they cannot give a judgment without your verdict, without your presence and your testimony. It is in your own interest to be around, if you are sure of yourself, to give your testimony and show why your victory should not be tempered with. Why do you think that Mr. Peter will be, is inside the court? It's, in fact, it's there's something called emotional intelligence. It's giving your people that, that swag that men, this guy, in novelty in the do. I say I'm safe inside the court. It's a psychological warfare. People are now starting to say, bro, so if you like this man read the handwriting on the run, do you get a point? Okay, so let's move from that story to another one, the Daily Independent, the Nigeria Guild of Editors, Lords Court for Stopping NBC Imposition of Finds on Broadcast Stations. There just is a motor show yesterday at the Federal High Court in Abuja. Telling the NBC you do not have the judicial powers to find broadcast houses in Nigeria. Talk to us about that. Yes, you see in Nigeria, this question of impunity is one that we need to look at very well. What makes you think that you have this, what you call the judicial powers? I have a case against you. I'm not just like your landlord, even a landlord that owns the house. When there's a bridge, he does not take the law into his hands. What's the case scenario? He goes to court, and the court says, guy, you cannot do it, repay the man's money or leave his house. Do you get a point? When a landlord comes to your house and removes the roof because he wants you out of the house, you can actually get him, take him to court and do a lot of things. Why should NBC? NBC is a liberty. You have regulatory guidelines, and those guidelines must be attested to or must be abided. You must abide by it if you are one of the practitioners. Where you fail to comply with the guidelines, there is a legal process that you go to, and not you just sit down and impose arbitrarifying. Boom. Come and pay this. And you do it not consistently. I want to ask you, assuming it was this station, this station plus TV Africa that did the broadcasts of that Adamawa lady live, what do you think NBC would have done? Now, when NTA did it, which fine did they impose on them? It's arbitrary. It does not have any guidelines that everybody can say, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, there's fairness, there's equity, there's justice. There's something you can do and everybody says, okay, that makes sense. So I'm very happy with that judgment of the court. NBC have your guidelines, and if anybody flouts it, go to court, and there's a way the judiciary can expedite anything, make sure the guidelines are very clear, and then your evidence is also clear. You can get judgment in a day or two, so any matters can be dragged. But it does appear there is a code, a code that may have enabled the NBC to do what it does, because even the court, the court has, you know, condemned, faulted that code that seemed to have enabled the NBC to do what it's doing. Do you see the NBC appealing this? No, no, no, no. You misquoted to the best of my knowledge. The court actually contested a code that goes outside of the constitutional provision. There is, it's just like an electoral act and the law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Whatever electoral act says cannot contradict, it is only legal to the extent of compliance with the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, outside of which it's a nullity. Okay, so the Federal Republic of Nigeria has given you four grounds on which you can contest election. You know, you must be sponsored by a party, you must be a Nigerian, you must be of age, and there's a fourth one that I can easily, if you introduce the feed in the electoral act and you disqualify anybody, the guy will take you to court and he will win. You know, I think the educational qualification is one. So what am I trying to say? There is no code, there is no bylaw, there is nothing that contradicts the constitution that will stand. So to that extent, I don't see the NBC wasting our taxpayers' money to try to change that. What they could do is try to approach the National Assembly to see to what extent there could be a constitutional amendment that will give them judicial power, which of course will be an exercise in futility. The judiciary can never see its powers to anybody. Well, this is something that pleases media practitioners like us. Let's not doubt about that. You have something for me. And friends of the media like us. Yeah, exactly. Well, thank you, Mr. Izzykel, Inya Etok, for your time and insight. Have a great day. God bless you. Thank you. All right, so we continue with the breakfast. We'll take a short break and come back to look at our very first hot topic, which borders on the security situation of the country. Stay with us.