 President Mohammed Puhari has ascended to the Defense Research and Development Bureau Act 2022 passed by the National Assembly. Who told us this means for Nigeria's security? Stay with us for our conversation on this. And in sports, we'll look at how the flying eagles and superfakens are faring in their respective tournaments away from the country. And now for press to bring you in depth analysis of today's major newspaper headlines all these and more on the breakfast. And we're back with the breakfast and plus TV Africa as usual. We're ready to do justice to two wonderful conversations, two wonderful topics. And of course, we have our guests getting set to join us ahead of that. We also have in depth analysis of today's news headlines as we said. Interesting to see what the people are saying this morning. But before then, I'll implore you to sit back relax, grab a cup of tea or coffee, and have yourself a wonderful time watching the program. Before we get into the papers, let's look at the trending stories today, or yesterday on social media. My name is Kofi Bartels, by the way, alongside Messier Bopu and this morning we're doing justice to the program. The trending story is quite interesting. We know that it's not too new. You already know that the President Mohammed Puhari addressed the country yesterday and he had some things to say about the situation of the Central Bank of Nigeria's monetary policy that has seen Nigerians go through some difficult times, especially as it concerns accessing cash, cash, just money, cash. And of course, the President is announcing that the old, the old 200 Nairnot will be allowed to circulate, will be allowed to be used for the next 60 days whilst the Central Bank tries to print more money and to get more Nigerians, you know. So, you know, that is what we have the first one. But Nigerians have been reacting to this. The approval is not news. What is news is the reaction. And of course, some people have, you know, praised the President, thanked him for coming to their rescue to say, you know, saying that this is a breath of, a sigh of relief that we're breathing because it's been difficult for us, you know, some are saying, oh, if you could not make the new notes available, are we going to see the old 200 Nairnot, you know. And then a lot more people are pointing to the Supreme Court case. Levergent till February 22. Some are alleging the President is promoting abuse of court, you know, disobedience to court orders. You know, disobedience to court orders. You know, so these are some things people are talking about. You know, some are saying that individual words are now bigger than the Supreme Court order. You know, et cetera, et cetera. You know, but some people, some legal practitioners have been quick to point out that people need to go and read the literature of the last hearing, okay, where the Supreme Court declined to extend the ex parte, the order and motion applied. Oh, this thing is kind of like very difficult for me. You know, but the interim injunction, let's call it that. The order they made, you know, they just told our parties to return to status quo and change. Some people would say that it is open to interpretation. I think about two or three persons talk about this yesterday. So let's see what happens. I think we'll go to town to see if people have access to this new Lizo 200 Naira note. If at all, it's making things easier. Will it fight money laundering? Will it make the Naira stronger, like the CBN wanted it to be done, if it won't make the Naira stronger, if it won't fight money laundering. And then Wutbein, which the president talked about, why not just allow the old one be used, you know, the 1,000 Naira and 500 Naira notes as well for the next 60 days, while you try to ensure adequate supply of the new Naira notes. But anyway, that's that. The reactions will continue to what the president said, and the conversations online and offline will continue because this is still a hot topic. And trust us right here on Plus TV Africa to bring you the latest data. Let's move on to another top trending, or another story, a top trending segment. Markets ignore federal government cell petrol at 205 Naira per litre. You know, even that 205 Naira per litre is, in some places, it's luxury. They wish they had that. So in some places, they're selling it for more than 205 Naira to the litre. And we've told that some petrol retailers, some petrol retailers are snubbing the directives. Directives, they have directives from the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timmy Press Silver, former governor of IELTSA State, you know, that the premium motor spirit be sold at 184 Naira per litre, and they're selling above this price. The main sales was legal some time ago, because the president asked him to come around and look at the situation of things on ground, you know, assess what needs to be done in Lagos regarding distribution of the product that's premium motor spirit. And don't forget the president had from the committee, chaired by him, Mr. President, and co-chaired by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources with a lot of people in there. But people pointed out that some people pointed out that these guys, their day job, their pay to do is what the committee was set up to do, you know, that they just have to do their job and not get a committee. You know, the Minister of State for Petroleum doesn't need to be in a committee. That is to ensure, you know, free flow of the product, PMS, before he pays a visit to Lagos. But this is all we have. You know, so he was around and we also have the former DPR, which is a Nigerian midstream downstream and downstream petroleum regulatory agency. It's now called NMDPRA. It's also being directed to scale up their regulatory activities to ensure that the petrol retailers, okay, or you call them marketers, buy by the current price regime. Also, I think the head of the NMDPRA is part of this new committee that was a couple of weeks ago set up by Mr. President. But the question remains, do they need to have a committee set up by the President to be able to do their job? Because the day job of the NMDPRA, which was formerly the DPR, if I was split or bundled, we want to call it a split into two, is there meant to look at, to regulate the midstream and downstream sectors of the petroleum industry? You know, so it involves making sure that those who are selling petrol in the country, the various independent and non-independent marketers abide by the rules, abide by the directives of government, abide by the laws, one of which is to sell at the regulated prices. So do they need another directive from maybe the President or from this committee to do this? Do they need to scale up their monitoring? In the emergency situation we've had, so they ordinarily should even scale it up because there's more work to be done. So I mean, I don't know, we just, I don't want to say some things on TV, but people who are meant to be doing their jobs are being put in committees to do the same job that they are appointed to do, elected to do or paid to do, and then you're not telling them to scale it up. It's just like the police, you know, during maybe Sala or Easter on Christmas or New Year, they will say we are intensifying a deployment of a man around the country during this period. Why are you telling me? That is what your ordinarily should do. You know, you have to, at different times in the year, you look at what is needed, and if you need more, you need to intensify it. That is normal. Or maybe it's a strategy to get criminals scared to let them know that the police they are coming out to. Most times they don't even do this intensification. You know, it's just only intensifying or intensification on paper. You know, so anyway, I haven't talked about these people who are meant to do their jobs. The fact is that people saw these petroleum marketers selling the product above the approved price. For me, you know, it's just love confusion and a lot of miscommunication, you know, misdirection about this administration. Is it about the Central Bank of Nigeria and its policies? Love, somersaults. Is it about dirty fuel? You don't understand what's going on. Nobody is answering Nigerians. Explaining, telling them till today they want to sell Nigerians what happened. And apologized, okay, properly, officially properly. What is the mode of determining the price of petrol in the country? What is the process, agreed process? What are the calculations? What are the indices? What is the structure? Is it the NMDP array? Because last time we were told by an Ipman official that the NMDP array called them for a meeting and told them you have to sell at this new price now which is higher than the previous price of petrol. The minister who says, okay, today you guys have to sell at this price. Okay, this is based on what is what we want to know. Because if you say that these petrol marketer should sell the product at 184 Naira per liter, have you asked them where they're getting the product from? Have you asked them the X-taple price? Have you asked them about the lending? Because these calculations I'm not saying the minister hasn't done that of state, sorry, of state for petrol prices hasn't done that. But I'm saying that I would like to see a definite way of what do you call it again? Of calculating and of determining what the price should be. If the minister is the one who when he likes, I'm not saying he's doing anything wrong but when he likes he would say okay we should sell at this price or that price let us know. If the president is the one who when he likes he says we should sell at this price or that price, let us know. So we need some consistency is what I'm saying. Are we still going to be giving Nigerians the subsidy that they've been enjoying before now? Then people need to communicate to Nigerians to tell them this is what we're doing. This is why we're doing what we're doing and this is what we're doing going forward. So we need more transparency more explanations so people can understand what's going on. Okay? What's going on? I think that starts that. But the marketers always tell that they're paying more. They can't sell at a loss. So what's going on? I remember we had some time ago subsidy was ended. There will be no longer subsidy in Nigeria. Then we started hearing some other things though. There will be subsidy. The president came back, addressed the press in Nassau Rockville and said the president has not said there will be no subsidy. But the minister of finance said it will be removed and then later NNPC took a bill to the president and said this is how much it costs. Bring you this money. We'll subsidize the petrol. We didn't know what I was. Now we're hearing that the subsidy is going to be removed halfway into the year. So of lack of clarity in all of this. I think the authorities administration should make things a bit more clear. Let's know what's going on. Let's know what's happening. Let's just know. Let's just know. We don't know a lot. Even me as a journalist I'm confused. I'm confused. All right. Let's go to the last one. This happens to be something from the how I put it now. The prescribed indigenous group of Biafra. Indigenous people of Biafra group and of course some of the infighting involving one of their members a leader, one of the leaders of the group by the name Simon Ekba. Simon Ekba has been really, really pushing in recent times to become recognized by Namdikano's protégé. Excuse me. And of course he's been live streaming from Finland. He's not made a hidden where he is enjoying the freedom of Finland and making sister home orders from the comfort and safety of where he is in Finland giving orders. He's been in detention. He's emerged as somebody who can stand in that place. However, there's been conflicts, disagreements and the kind of faction, the kind of block of IPOP has said, see this guy he's not our man. He has his own agenda. But what is trending is that the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs earlier in the week, I think this was on Tuesday to come on the Finnish ambassador to Nigeria the ambassador of Finland to Nigeria over threats by this man who is in Finland live streaming from Finland making statements from there threats that he made Simon Ekba to stop the 2023 general elections in Nigeria southeast. And he's making this at home declarations over time. Like I said, the Kano faction, they've said, see this guy he's not our man, don't listen to him but he's continuously made these at home orders across the southeast. And now he's been insistent for some time that there will be no election in the southeast in 2023. There will be no election in the southeast in 2023. And then this was the initial said to be the initial stance of IPOP. I think sometimes they've had to think about changing that they've not been talking about it as much anymore but Simon Ekba is the one who's continuously still been saying that okay, but IPOP have changed their tune changed their tune a little bit. So what we hearing is that the minister of Foreign Affairs of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Yammer had a meeting with this Finnish ambassador from Algeria and he was saying Miss Ambassador, we're not happy over the thing that someone is doing. He's in your country and during the freedom in your country to peace and he's causing conflict in Nigeria southeast making statements that are possibly going to disenfranchise voters in the southeast in the coming elections saying they are sitting at home orders and voting over. So what we hear is that the government of Nigeria is saying to the Finnish government that they won't take it lightly with them. Finland very beautiful country. If they do nothing about Simon Ekba's threats that there will be no election in the southeast in 2023. Don't forget that one of the leading candidates for the 2023 elections is from the southeastern. Imagine that there are unknown government everywhere who IPOB maybe Eastern Security Network everywhere and they say if you come out they're going to shoot you and then the residents of the south is to not vote in 2023. Now we're asking who wins, who wins and all of this is it happens who wins. So the question remains for me what is the end game? What is he driving at? What is he hoping to achieve? Because even IPOB the main guys that we're used to, people like him are powerful they've changed their tune a little bit and they've said what people can be allowed to vote and all they've not been saying what they used to say before but Simon Simon has refused to change his tune. So it remains to be seen if what the Nigerian authorities have said will yield any result at the end of the day at the end of the day 48 hours to reverse the seat at home order I don't know if that can happen. Simon is a I think he's a lawyer if I'm not mistaken and I'm sure if he looks at the Finnish law he'll be able to find somewhere where he says I'm exercising my fundamental right as a resident of Finland to agitate for self-determination so it's going to be a tough one it's going to be a tough one but let's see how that plays out at the end of the day. Someone may say oh okay this song that Simon is singing who is playing the drum this tune, this tune is singing it, who is playing the drum you know it's quite easy to sit afar and begin to make orders that would affect the security of a particular location I would like to see people like Simon come back to the country, go to the south live there, stay there and fight fight for self-determination Mandela did it, Mandela went around the world, went around Africa to Nigeria where the late chief from Baselika met she healed him for a while and all that but he went back to South Africa and said even if it cost me my life I'm here you know he was put in prison for many years but what happened he still made that long walk to freedom it was a long walk maybe Simon Nekpa and his likes can come back home be here and the struggle will be enhanced and then maybe when he begins to see that on the ground people want to go to work on Monday, they want to vote they will put pressure on him but it's so easy to sit afar and give these orders anyway, kudos to the Nigerian government kudos to the minister of foreign affairs for summoning the Finnish ambassador I've done this a long time ago let's see if it will yield any results my name is Kofi Bartels we'll be back after this break to look at what the papers are saying this morning thanks for staying with us on our top training segment, stay