 And as you'll the breakfast and plus TV Africa, Zikha and Ya'a took a public affairs analyst joins us this morning from Akwaibom State. Akitek is good to have you join us. Good morning. Thanks for having me. All right then. Let's start off with the leadership newspaper this morning. Looking at some of the headlines, I start off with the bold one. Now a swap deadline. Governors, civil society organizations differ on Supreme Court judgment. That's governor CSOs differ on Supreme Court judgment. Credibly election under attack, civil groups declare. Federal government acts apex court to dismiss state government suit as governor's hail vedic. It has saved Nigeria from anarchy, economic shutdown. That's what the presidential candidate of the all progressive Congress is quoted to say. Again, you find I will revive a Jakuta steel company. That's what Bola Tunibu is saying. Court dismisses suit seeking obese disqualification. Contents, ESCC boss must first go to prison before any other action. And you find a tick who insists on reopening land borders. You've elected president. These are some of the headlines you find on the leadership. But we turn our attention to the punch now. The punch says new narrow note or new narrow world bank. IMF one second. Or new narrow world bank IMF one CBN Supreme Court stops Friday deadline. World bank IMF one CBN Supreme Court stops Friday deadline. Shutting of new notes has caused hardship. Disrupted trade and payments IMF is saying. I mean, I think it's high time Nigerians, you know, Nigeria and those who are calling the shots in the country. Pay attention to the interest of these institutions, you know, the World Bank, the IMF. But of course, how can you separate their interests, especially when, you know, we're always in bed with them going to borrow. And some say those who go abhorring will go assuring. INEC appeals or shun po judgment and defense a delicacy victory. You also find 850 million Naira fraud fleeing senator. Noir show be napped and sent to prison. 195 Naira per liter impossible marketers insist 900 NMP CL stations to serve INEC during the polls. Mohammed Mahmoud Yacoubo is quoted on that. I did not offer to buy kidney. He couldn't ma do tells the United Kingdom court. We can lacks popular support to help to noble. Peter side is saying. And we also have the Guardian down. We have the Guardian looking at the Guardian newspaper. He says federal government insist on February the 10th. He asks apex court to dismiss state suits. Okay. I think that Nigerians are thrown into a lot of confusion at this point because there seem to be several ruling this everybody seem to be speaking and whose reports should we believe. We can hear Supreme Court reverse the joint suits. You also find immigration intercepts 6,216 voters cuts. Identify identity cuts and orders from foreigners. Immigration intercepts 6,216 voter cuts. Identity cuts and orders from foreigners. Atiku Harawa once Legos wreck removed from alleged partisanship. Talking about that collaboration with INEC and of course the transport park committee and transporting sensitive election materials in Lagos state and her personnel. Just before we move away from the Guardian newspaper. I think that that's the much you can take now. World attention to Nigeria. I hope nothing tempers with election. That's what the former president Olufshaguna Basin just quoted to say. And then we just quickly look at the nation and have a Zikong Yai to share his thoughts. Relief, joy as Supreme Court's heart. CBN debt line on Ode Naira. River Sik to join the suits. World Bank IMF debt line ill conceived. The pro problem anti people. The pro problem. The anti people looks like an editorial or an analysis on the nation there. Debt toll in Turkey and Syria at quick news 12,000. That's a lot. And I'll seek a nation found it on justice, prosperity of all. Niger air to begin flying soon says federal government. And we will continue, you know, the soon conversation until, you know, that becomes a reality. But, you know, let's quickly have a Zikong Yai to share his thoughts at this point in time. Ezeko, it's good to have you join us once again. Good morning. And thank you for being part of the show. Thanks for having me. Always a pleasure. All right. Ezeko, how would you respond? And what are your thoughts on Attico's concern and the Hariwa wanting the Lagos wreck removed over alleged partisan? The very first thing is that if you are going to the polls, you want to watch all the umpires, even to any game, even football. You want to ensure that a level playing ground is is ensured for all. So you now check the actions, the inactions of all that are involved. Now, the the the the wreck in in Lagos state is one that will come under a lot of scrutiny for two reasons. The very first is the volume of votes in in Lagos state. You can't afford the luxury of, you know, allowing anything to go in Lagos state because it's it's it's the largest vote basket, you know, in the country after which you have a place like Canada, you come to rivers and the rest. But Lagos is so important that anybody that's serious about the presidential results or elections must pay more than a passing attention to the the players within the Lagos enclave to make sure that they favor you. If they don't favor you, they are not against you, but the proper thing should be that it's level, you know, usually if it favors you, you keep quiet. But if it doesn't favor you, you shout out. So the best thing, like I said, is for it to be level for everybody. So I'm not surprised. And again, as she was you, who is him, he's a primary contender with that of labor, you know, is is resident in Lagos and wants to have that as his base. For more reasons than one, both Labor Party and PDP will be very, very, very, very careful to scrutinize every act of every major player within the Lagos state enclave on on the INEC side. She also is talking about, you know, the recent judgment or the ruling, I beg your pardon, of the Supreme Court. And that's on, you know, the deadline asking that the CBN cannot. And of course, the old Naira continues to remain a legal tender, but however it was stated that it was just a temporary ruling. And it would definitely continue. What does this really mean for Nigeria? If you can tell us what does this really mean? And what are your concerns about the thoughts of the World Bank? And I am saying that the time of transition is short. They are very concerned and saying, hey, I don't think that this should be the case. I'll tell you one, two, three things about, you know, we just sometimes we don't pick things in little pockets. And I think this is a major issue that we should look at. Ezeko, do we still have you with us? Unfortunately. All right. Ezeko, can you hear me? Yes. Yes, I can hear you. Can you hear me now? Go ahead. Okay. I was saying that there are one, two, three things involved that we must look at holistically. Number one, the bigger problem of Nigeria, which is raining for four years, if not eight, is leadership. The current problem is hardship, you know, for the next few days or weeks. How does leadership come in? We all know that the biggest problem, the threat we have today is that of vote by. We've got to come to terms with our problem. And if the president has come to the point where he says, my legacy right now is going to be given Nigeria Free Fair Credible Election, he's going to use a sledgehammer to kill a fly just to ensure that the level playing field is there. Now he said, bring all notes in, let's have control of what's going on. And I go to banking halls and the bulk counting rooms are empty. They're empty in the past few days, meaning that there is still close to a trillion naira outside the banking hall system. Why is that so? Nobody's asking question. Why is that so? Why has all the money not been moved in? It's not because they are long queues at the bank trying to send in new notes or old notes and they can't do it. Let's take the issues one by one. Let's segment the issues. Why do we still have over 900 billion old notes when the banks are empty? As a matter of fact, I went to my bank and I said, how about the weekends? They said they're not working weekends again. Why? Because there's nobody bringing old notes, so they don't need to come in here. They have stopped bringing. It means they've mopped up everything. That is what they say. Now CBN is at fault because the little man that brought in his 200,000 wants to be able to get it out and do his business. Thirdly, the banks are complicit because this policy has been there all along. They ought to have had their IT units understand their volume of customers and what to do. If electronic transfers were working, we would not have the amount of problems that we are doing. Yesterday, I personally transferred from one bank from Zenith Bank four times and from Access Bank three times. It didn't go now to a particular account. The next thing was I got debited four from Zenith. I debited three from Access Bank and I was still standing with the man and he didn't get the money. Now, I'm at risk because this man has finally gotten his money. I think the fourth one from Access went. The third or the fourth one went from Zenith or whichever of them. Now, assuming this will don't reverse that money, I'm going to lose over a million just like that because I have to look for this man and depending on his goodness, his mercies, I've seen it, I've not seen it, all those things. What am I trying to say? Number one, people are not taking money to the banks and the banks are there to take the money. Number two, the banks are not making their apps to work well would have made things a lot easier. Number three, CBN says he has brought out money, but we're not seeing the money again. The banks, for instance, I'm told that about 11 billion of the new notes have been sent to Enugu. Nobody can account for where they are. It means that the banks are probably our biggest problems because they are giving this money. I speculate, I speculate that they are giving this money in bulk to politicians. Number one, number two, the other people are doing business with the POS workers. So the banks are in the middle of all these things making life terrible and now the citizens are taking it out on the government. And then these politicians are felling that the anger of the people because they want there to be a certain level of uprising for the policy to be reversed. Let's get to another part of this particular conversation. It's in different folds, so we have taken this part. Now on the other hand is that the IMF and the World Bank have raised their concern and they are saying that the time is very short. They are also backing the extension of this call by the CBN. Do you agree with them? Are you also in this school? Do you agree that the deadline is short and it should be extended? The first thing is that when somebody advises you, you go back to the background check of that person, whether that person is your friend. Check the past advices that the person has given you, whether the person means well or does not mean well. On the first value, it could sound good. I know one of my friends that would advise, don't worry about picking a form and they later discovered that they didn't want him to contest. They didn't mean well. They didn't support him, but they told him not to pick the form. So when IMF and the World Bank they advise you, great. Number one is that how much do they understand your system? Nigeria is a very peculiar country, absolutely peculiar. Number two, what is their larger intention? Have they shown good will towards you over the years? Or are they giving you loans on terms and conditions that will enslave you on the long run and they don't advise you on how to get out, but they advise you on how to take it and sink yourself deeper. I think that the time has come where mature enough as Nigerians to sit down and look at our policies and be able to examine who our friends are, have governments that make sense, that work, and not all these people that cannot think outside the box and all they want to do is borrow, borrow, borrow, borrow, borrow. I think the time has come for Nigerians to really sit down and profile all these people that want to be our president and hear what they've got to say is unfortunately a few minutes or a few days left, but it's never too late for us to sit down and think of the larger interests of the country then for me what do I think is the best thing to do? Central Bank, your reputation is at stake. How much money have you sent out? If you do not have enough money to make sure that these little things go that extended, a week can do you know Ham, a week is not yet election and it can do you a lot of good. Let them follow this little window of a few days that the Supreme Court has granted, the first little window so that on the 15th, don't try to bring it forward, just buy that little time, on the 15th, now tell yourself Central Bank between now and 15th, do a kind of human's job, whatever it takes, move money into the system, unleash all your people to go ahead and make sure that the monies are there at the POS so that by the 15th, when you go before the Supreme Court, the answer has given itself out. Money is there for the people, people are relaxed, so why do we need to change it, things are fine, so let's move on. Generality of Nigerians are in support of this policy, we are sick and tired of people who think that they can only manipulate us through vote buying. Something must be done to them to stop it, we cannot allow this policy to extend into elections, it will not happen, I can tell you it will not happen. Anybody who wants to buy votes should now think Nigerians start to ask them to give you new notes. Do you understand me? Well, what is actually playing out, what seems to be is that if the CBN had come up with this policy, the new notes have been chunked out, maybe a certain amount, I mean I can't come up with the exact statistics that were sent across different commercial banks. But the report is that if these new notes were chunked into the system, that should be sufficient for the people, then you have those who are in the commercial banks have gotten in bed with the elites, the politicians, and have given this money in the old car, so people are also hoarding the new notes, they have those who have the might, the powers, the connection and whatever you have taken these notes and have kept it and that's why you don't seem to even have it any longer. So it's a lot. What's the guarantee that if the more currency we have new notes chunked into the system by the CBN that it would be sufficient, that you wouldn't have those people who have the might and what it takes to take this money and keep it just as they've been withholding the old note. So it's a lot of conversation but just before we move away from this, I say this is very deep because the federal government already is challenging the suit. The federal government has made a request via the attorney general of the Federation, Abu Bakr Malami, asking the apex court to dismiss the suit that was filed by these three not-in-governors saying that they lack jurisdiction in the case. It's not, I mean the Supreme Court lacks jurisdiction. This is the position of the federal government. Where does this leave Nigerians? Look, before I get to that, let me say something that I've always said. Between the politicians, the civil servants and the banks, I think Nigeria's enemy number one is not the politician, is not the civil servant, is the bank. But the banks are not spirits, they are Nigerians. No, no, no. I know why I'm saying that all of them are Nigerians. All our institutions are Nigerians. Whether politicians are Nigerians or civil servants are Nigerians. Whether they are bankers or Nigerians. I'm talking into the categories. The central bank, I don't know to what extent it's complicit in what's going on. But I think that the banks need to really sit down as themselves, whether they really mean well for this country or their bottom line is all they care. And unfortunately, those banks are owned by the politicians and the big people. So the interests of the common man is not factored in. Government should be that person that should be the guardian of the interests of the common man. But unfortunately, again, government is being hijacked by the same people. So the time has gone for the common man to really sit and think. Now that the power is trying to come into their hands and let them look for those for whom service is the essence for seeking public office. This is very important. And the only man that can serve the common man is the common man himself. Let him not buy into the hands of this. I better get this one because for years I won't see them. These politicians have planted that mentality. Don't buy it. Don't buy it. Insist. Wake up. Think. And I want all of you listening to me, apart from, I mean, thanks to your studio for doing this. Everybody wake up and be proactive in, you know, I don't want to do all this analysis. Central Bank says this. Malami says that. And the court says that. All those are the bottom line is that we're having election next few days. Let everybody wake up and smell the coffee. These people cannot save you. Every single voter wake up and look for that person that you know whether it's from a small party or not. It doesn't matter. Wake up and support that person that you know understands service. You know them. Most of them are residents in small parties. Go to them. Support them. Support the president's policy to go cashless so that on that day they don't have enough money to give you crumbs for two days and then deal with you for four years. Ezekiel, that's also not, you know, that's very valid. I mean, we can't, you know, overlook that issue. You cannot be ignored. You're, I mean, the position that you have raised. Well, we also cannot also ignore the fact that when you have two elephants, I mean, it's just a popular saying. There's a proverb that has been said that when you have two elephants fighting, the grass suffers. And if you look at it, literally, that's the case. So now you have the Supreme Court ruling. Oh, no, it's not the case. So now that the federal government is challenging this and saying that the Supreme Court, I'm asking, what does this mean for Nigeria? The federal government is challenging, you know, through the attorney general of the federation, challenging this ruling. And also the fact that, you know, this governor said approach them and saying that the Supreme Court lacks jurisdiction. What does this really mean? Are we going to continue to spend the money? What exactly is going to happen? Are we going to have an extension? We haven't had anything from the CBN. We live in a country of laws. We live in a country of laws and we must abide by the law. The Supreme Court is a law institution. They have said maintain this present system till the 15th when you come for us to discuss. I think the federal government between 10 and 15 is five days. The federal government should not oppose that to avoid anarchy. If anything, I think the Supreme Court has given you five days for you to throw the backdoor, help yourself. So use these five days, pump in money to the system, supervise to make sure it gets to the right people. And then when you go on the 15th, you would have already resolved the issue and to be a non-issue and then you can move on. All right. We still have a few more minutes before top of the hour. Let's run through this particular one. It's on the punch newspaper. Ainek appeals Oshun poll judgment and defends a delicacy victory. Ezeko, what are your thoughts on this? The very first thing is I want to comment on Ainek. I followed the Oshun polls issue very, very keenly. And the issues involved have tried very hard to make people lose confidence in the beavers. But from the point of Ainek, this case is going to reinforce, you know, people's confidence in the beavers. Because when you look at what is in the beavers, you will see that it is consistent with the winning of Mr. Adeleke. Okay. So let Ainek appeal, let Ainek use it as an opportunity to show that the beavers did the work as was expected to be done. That the person that hurriedly brought up the result while beavers was still uploading, it means that we, the politicians, since whatever beavers uploaded has already been pasted. For instance, in a crime of am contesting. Now, whatever comes out on the portal has to be what was pasted on the wall. I have my people in every polling unit. They are sending me the result from every polling unit, which is what the beavers will send eventually. So if you are a politician and you are contesting, set up a situation room and know that what is being showed on the IRF is something that is still coming on, coming on. But what is pasted on the wall is the final result that you get. So let Nigerians be rest assured that the result at the polling unit is what is going to announce the winners of every election. And that sounds like good news to me. If you want to win, go to your polling unit and win the numbers at your polling unit. That is true democracy. Don't want to win through the court because when they eventually bring the primary source, which is the beavers, you will see that it has polling unit results. Nobody can take one vote of mine in a crime bomb state. Nobody, not even the chairman of INEC. Nobody can. So please, don't bother yourself. Go to your polling unit. Once the results are pasted, make sure it is exactly what was on the beavers or the beavers takes the picture of this exact one that is being pasted and then let your situation room get all the polling unit results, tabulate it, whatever happens, it can never change. All these ones about technology, no technology. INEC has done something fantastic by having beavers as the primary source. And I am happy that they've appealed it. And when they go on appeal, they are going to show that the primary source agrees with what they declared and that there's no discrepancy that the beavers did his job. That is going to reinforce the confidence of Nigerians on the beavers. And that sounds like good news from a far country to me. Okay. And another one, which should sound like an excitement for us and good news. I really don't know if you would say that's good news for you as the Nigerian Air, the Minister of Aviation is saying that the Nigerian Air would begin operation in no time as we're very close to the processes. I mean, we have crossed the T's and dots the I's. We're just at the verge where it will fight. This aircraft are already, according to the minister now, we have this aircraft already underpainted in our collars. So Ezeko, I see that you are smiling. I'm sure that you are happy about this and you look forward to having the Nigerian Air flying across. You see, I don't want to be a pessimist that says, excuse me, I've heard that before, time and time again. I'd rather say amen. The Bible says a man is ensnared by the words of his mouth. So I believe we have the Nigerian Air only that I've not been able to see the details of its configuration and its modus operandi to know whether it is going to be sustainable or not. Those details are lost on me. But if they run it like ebom air, that is said to be an acquired bomb government initiative of some sort. And you can see that it's run professionally. Then we are going to have an advantage in the sense that, you know, we have something that is going to have a lot more capacity. But if it's what the government used to take care of its boys and all those things, then it's going to be called come easy, go easy. And I don't know what to say. But I would rather say that it would be a good thing, just like we have ebom air, which is doing well. I would say that it's nice to have a Nigerian air. That's what I've grown to know. And that's what other countries have. But let it be run with the business acumen of the times with a PPP arrangement that is sustainable and makes sense. And let them get into hands that already have tested track record on how these things can be done. When that is done, and then government can actually come in and give a kind of sweetener to the lesser people. They can be able to take off certain things concerning students. The government can afford to say, because this is our own, we are giving subsidy of sorts to say, if you are a student, you can have 25% repaid. Or if you are an elderly and there's evidence from your goodness card or national ID that you are above 65, you can have 10% repaid. Or if you are a civil servant, you can have this or you can buy a ticket in advance paid based on your salary. They can come up with a lot of sweeteners because they are in primary custody of the back end. If that is the case, it will be good news for Nigeria. Let it not be like another oil business where we produce oil and yet we pay higher than others. I think it would be a good thing if they have great advisors telling them what to do per time. Ziko, we have to let it go at this point. Thank you so much for joining us on the breakfast and off the press. We appreciate you and wish you the very best. God bless you. It's always a pleasure. Alright Dan, Ziko Yatuk is an architect right there and he joined us this morning on the shore to show his thoughts on some national issues. Tomorrow would return. We'll have great headlines and great insight as well. We'll take a break when we return and we'll be looking at the issue of fuel importation policy. However, the outgoing Labour president, Yuba Wabbe, has said that Nigeria should be considering non-importation of petrol rather than price reduction and that would be the crux of our conversation. Please stay with us.