 It's now time for Off The Press. Let's invite our guest, a chief lecturer at the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Gideh Johnson. Good morning. Thanks for joining us. Good morning and thank God it's Friday. Fantastic. It's a pleasure to be with you. All right, let's begin with the Guardian newspaper COVID-19. Three states at risk as federal government suggests precision lockdown. Ex-president Chagaree's wife dies of COVID-19 complications. Stakeholders disturbed as Nigeria, others lose $3.8 billion to environmental degradation. APC Group 6 Oshimbajo presidency in 2023. The bi-based returning lover found dead in their imo apartment. Also, PDP has caught the Sakbuni as governor swearing party's candidate, and Ambraha Arangkaras primary's boosts relatively unknown parties. Let's quickly now turn to the next newspaper. Let's look at the nation or the punch. It says COVID-19 free rise. States defend community testing, stoppage, expert warn of disaster, no mass testing if someone feels somehow we test AKT tax force coordinator. Decision to stop community testing dangerous, wrong, shot-sighted says Tomori. All right, now let's go to the Nigerian Tribune and see what stories we can find over there. The big one is on the PDP, of course, and main Malabbuni, the Yobi state governor. It says the PDP goes to court once Buni sacked as Yobi governor. Accuses him of holding two officers at the same time, says PDP gov. candidate in last election, should be sworn in. Restructure Nigeria now to end agitation force, a session says Aynoku. Nigeria shots UK high commission as diplomats test positive for COVID-19. Also, Sheru Shagari's widow dies in isolation center. Federal government receives 177,600 doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccines target elderly. Court dismisses Evans, 200 million Naira suit against police over seized 25 trucks and Tet fund injected 2.5 trillion Naira in varsities and others in 10 years, says the federal government. Oshun Assembly passes anti-opened grazing bill. Missing Islamic cleric found dead inside vehicle in Ogun state. Those are the big ones on the Nigerian Tribune this morning. Let's take a look at the nation newspaper. Striking doctor slammed with no work, no payroll. Resident doctors summoned by industrial court will once surrender. Strike not best option to seek action. Governors forum cushions medics. APC senator writes of Buhari 774,000 public works jobs. Family plans on autopsy on Farimi, Buhari, Tunable, others mourn and COVID-19 toll. Nigeria's UK high commission shot government buying 40 million Johnson & Johnson for 298.5 million dollars. The egos retrieves oxygen plants, Delta variants now dominant. Also, bank CEOs, how Forex buyers firms undermine CBN policy. Kidnapped chief Imam found dead in Ogun. We'll also see the story here on the nation newspaper saying PDP asked court to sack Buhni as governor. Pretty much same things on the daily independent. Federal government rules out lockdown despite rising COVID-19 cases says it has spent 122 billion Naira on 29 million doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccines, considered as no work, no payroll against striking doctors. Indonesia apologizes over manhandling of Nigerian diplomat. 11 hostages escape from bandits camp in Kaduna and also 17.5 billion Naira flood funds. I have nothing to hide from EFCC says Dixon. We've heavily depleted Bukoram fighting force in northeast says defense headquarters and Raymond Docklessy says only a northerner can win presidency for PDP in 2023. PDP acts court to remove Yobi governor and deputy from office and Mark Kalu Ganawachiku Akilu say IBB assembled best brains for Nigeria as Nigeria shots UK embassy as diplomats test positive for COVID-19. Judy Johnson, good morning once again. It's a pleasure to be with you. Good morning. All right. Pretty interesting stories. I think we should start from the PDP's call for your base state governor to step down mostly because of the accusations of holding two offices. But the best way to build democratic system and representative government is to test every action under the constitutionality of the action. Constitutionalism is the key to democratic representative governor. So they should go to court and the best way to test actions or inactions is to go to court and let the court rule on the matter. Whether the governor has the right to combine the office of the governor of the state with that of managing the party and it's good for our democracy. It's really good for our democracy. So until the court rule, we are in a state of confusion as to what should be and what ought to be. But under basic, for example, you can keep two jobs. You can be working in plus TV and at the same time working in another media organization. You can combine that. So if you can combine two jobs, if it's totally against the labor law, I don't see why the governor should combine two jobs. But it is not left for you and I to decide it's left for the court to rule on the matter. And I like the way they approach the court. If Hermitji did not approach the court, it would not be the governor. He was some few years ago having lost out in the power plane, PDP. So we need to test the constitutionality of those actions in court and then that it's important, it's important for us to do that, to establish that fact so that someone does not make that mistake. It is a mistake in the future. And governors does not suffer at the expense of managing the party. Because if we look at it to the third eye, definitely UB is suffering because where the governor is meant to have meeting with the state executive council and other various MDs in the state is busy running around looking for people to join the party, recruiting governors, senators and members of national working committee of the opposition party into his party and organizing for Tushov with those people with the president. They go to our ASUROC and take each other with the president. Judy Johnson, does it matter if it's not a paid employment, the second job that we're talking about now? It doesn't matter because the reason why you are elected as the executive governor of a state is to manage the state resources, manage the state affair for a period of time and not to combine that with other functions. So it really matters, it really matters. Don't forget, Boone was the national secretary of EPC before it took over from Gundam. On the 2019, before he resigned to contest the election, on the 2018, before he resigned to contest the primaries and he won the primaries, he took over from Gundam. And you know, Gundam too, was the governor that spent 10 years as a governor. Most people did not know that because it was the former deputy governor before he saw it shortly after his governor was elected. The governor died and he spent the remaining two years and he won election for two times. So he was one of the governors that spent 10 years because people don't pay attention. So until you test the, would that happen again? Until you test the constitutionality of the actions, you don't know whether what we are doing is right or whether what we are doing, what we are doing is wrong. The beauty of our democracy is that a PTP governor over sovereign went forward. PTP governors took over Sanjoto court several and they won at the Supreme Court in establishing some of the principles and some of the gains that the present state government are enjoying when it comes to their federal government and state government relationships. So it's important. It's important. There's no way you tell me that UB state is not suffering from the governor not being around all the time and facing the party. My advice is that if he wants to run the party, he should leave, he should, because part of him that runs the party as national secretary, when Oshio Molle was the chairman because it was national, before Oshio Molle, before he resigned to contest the election, part of him is still there. So if he wants to do that, he should forget about public administration and face partisan politics. You know Oshio elected, you're not meant to be partisan. You're elected as the governor. Okay. Yes, let's move to another story. Lots of big ones, including this, the NARD strike, striking doctors slammed with no work, no pay rule. That story is still there. The doctors are insisting that he won't surrender and they say that a no-work, no-pay rule really has no effect on them if they're striking in the first place because they haven't been paid. No, this issue of doctors going on strike, we discuss this over, it will happen again next year. It will happen again until, you know what, until we decentralize a liberal in Nigeria. Why should a doctor in Lagos, we collect the same amount with a doctor in Kauranga, or with a doctor in Ube state, in Jigawa state, or in Anambra state. Doctors should be paid based on the contingency, based on the comparative advantage that you have in the air. And I tell people this, whether we like it or not, the doctors are stretched, but if you situate what the doctors are getting to what others are getting, nationwide, you see that doctors are pampered in Nigeria. And every doctor, once he graduate from school, enter the civil service at level 12. Every other person enter the civil service at level 8, is there. And then there's nowhere in the world, I've asked people to tell me this, there's nowhere in the world whereby you have doctors practicing in public institution and operating their own private hospital. I want anybody to tell me where it happens. I want anybody, anyone to tell me to give me that. So doctors, the practices they do in Nigeria, what they enjoy in Nigeria, they don't enjoy anywhere else. An average doctor in public hospital in Nigeria has his own private hospital. I can say that without a fact, can you have your own private business where you are working now? Okay. It's important, we understand, we understand that they are treasured, we understand that the number of doctors we have are not enough. But at the same time, they should also look at the comparative advantage they get from working in Nigeria. Okay. I just talk about medical industry. Yeah. So right now, the federal government has taken this matter to the industrial court, asking the doctors to show reason why they should continue with their strike. What kind of judgment may be expecting from that industrial court? Now, should we be paid for not working? It's a basic rule. Should we be paid for not working? How many times have doctors gone on strike? How many times? How many times? In 1992, I remember that my dad was sick. The doctors went on strike. I'm telling you for a fact. 2018, 2018, 2019, my wife was sick. I knew the number of days, months that I spent in the hospital. The doctor went on strike. If I document my experience with the medical industry, with the state of the hospital in Nigeria, you'll be shocked. They went on strike. My wife was on treatment. She was on chemotherapy. There was nobody anywhere to attend to her. So I know what I'm talking about. All you need to do, they move you to private, they move you to their private hospital. You can go and do your check. Yeah. But you know, Johnson, it's not, it's not justification for not being paid salaries or not having better hazard allowance. Oh, they are fighting over, it's not that they are not being paid salary. They are fighting over allowances. Yeah, exactly. So it's so, the fact that they have their private. However, I agree, I agree with you that they should be paid the allowances. But should they go totally on strike and expect to be paid their salaries? Do you get paid for what you are not working for? I have told you, look, which sector in Nigeria is enjoying what the doctors are enjoying? I'm telling you to you, which sector? Every sector is affected. The education, the architect is getting what they deserve. Jina Johnson, well. So how would you, how would you suggest that they express themselves better? Look, how do they express? Yeah, so how do they put out their, their concerns to the government better? If I want to be in the position, if I want to be in the position of federal government, well, I've said it, we need to decentralize it. We need to federalize. We don't need to uniterize labor so that each state will pay. Each state will pay its doctor according to what, what it can afford. And that's what I would do. And then the next thing I would do is that if we give you all what you want, you will not engage in private practices. Exactly, Jina Johnson. You know, exactly where I was going that, you know, they might, you know, government give them everything you want and anyone that engages in private, you prosecute, you prosecute them. Jina Johnson, I said that, that's where I'm going that most of these doctors that say the reason why they engage in those private practices is because they're hardly getting anything from their, their nine to five jobs or their jobs, you know, with the government. But let's quickly move on from that. Now, lots of other big stories on the papers. And there's this one that we've seen on the papers. It talks about an apology from the Indonesian government to the federal government regarding that assault on the Nigerian diplomat. First of all, we've talked about how Nigerians are seen abroad. And what do you think the response might have been if the country, if the citizen was not in Nigeria, maybe it was a U.S. national, do you think that assaulted have ever taken place in the first place? And what sort of diplomatic moves do you expect the government to do, apart from recalling that diplomat? And that's the, you know, put up a strong message out to other countries. Gina Johnson. Okay, there seems to be a technical glitch. Gina Johnson, can you hear us? You loud and clear. Can you hear me now? Yes, go ahead. Okay. So you, you recall during COVID-19, there's a particular case in Nigeria, in China, where Nigerians were stingled out by the Chinese government. And there was a Nigerian diplomat that challenged him for that. He was, he was, he was more treated. What do we do? We didn't do anything. Now he saw that, that, that incident. One, that, that was, he was doing it to the president of Nigeria. Not, he was doing it to the president of Nigeria. So any, any member of a foreign diplomatic call that is harassed, whatever is done to that person, he's been harassed. He's Nigerian, he's the president of Nigeria that is being harassed. He must be treated. We didn't, he's against international law and treaty. What I expected the president to have done is to have called for the letter of credence of the ambassador of Indonesia to Nigeria. Who we draw is the letter of credence. That's the IS form of sending messages diplomatically. What I'm requiring for an apology. Oh, an apology. It damages windows. You will draw the letter of credence. You invite the ambassador and you talk to the ambassador. I saw the foreign affairs minister giving a press conference. That doesn't stop the problem. That will make it to happen again because they know we don't pull our weight. If you don't pull your weight, if someone might treat your children and they get away with it, they will do it over and over and over and over. Even for Togo, Republic of Guinea, you have not seen their diplomats being harassed all over the world. It's only Nigerian diplomats that are harassed and harassed and because you don't do anything, you don't do anything. To hurt you, the apology. Who needs the apology? Who needs the apology? Let's talk about a statement. Let's talk about a statement on Daily Independent. It's from Raymond Dokbesi, I believe, who says that only a northerner can, it says only a northerner can win presidency for PDP in 2023. That is from Dokbesi. Don't you know that it's very clear that this battle for the soul of PDP by Wiki, that removal of secondos is about ensuring that they have control over that party. It's very clear, I would tell you, you have not heard anything from Kwan Kwan Suu. Since the last election, you have not heard anything. They have not made any meaningful contribution to public discourse. In the last two years, by next year, or towards the tail end of this year, we'll come out to be presidential candidate. It's very, very clear. Just wait two to time. I think it will come out, despite the elective comments a bit, Tambua that has remained quiet, but that took over the PDP governor's forum chairman. We also come out. So it's evidently clear, it takes the hire for them. And then if they are strategic as a party, they will look at their chances of winning the presidency. I have said it loud and clear that the PDP, not even before in 2019, that a PDP's presidential candidate will come from the north. It's clear, it's clear from all indications. The actors and the players in the party, majority of them are aware they're from the north. So who are the presidential candidates that you have in PDP that have muscles in the southwest, in the south, in the southeast, and in the south, south, south. It's only wiki that you have in the, in the, in the, in the south, south. Does he have, does he have what it takes to be the president of Nigeria? He's left with the Nigerian electorate. It's not left for PDP. Cheyima Kinde in the, in the southwest is the only governor that they have. Okay. Do we want to risk certainty from certainty? Will you want to seek second time as a governor or to pursue presidential ambition? It's all left, it's all left there for everyone of us to see. And then in the southeast, the governors, you don't even know whether the southeast governors are in PDP or they are in APC or they are emanated. So there's only two of them that is left. And where they belong to, you don't, you don't, you don't really know. So it's, it's just the other person in the south, south, the governor of Akwaibom, Akwaibom. So it's, it's, it's, it's, it's clear. This thing is, it's, it's like a game. You, you study the game. You look at the actors and the players, and then you know, like chess, because politics is like chess. It's a power play. You understand those that are, those that are pawns, those that are bishops, those that are roots, and those that are king and queen. So the king makers of the party are aware. The stakes are higher for people in the north than people in the south. And if they are strategic about the position themselves to bring the presidency from, from the south, and in 1999 constitution does not have any provision. I say that without, does not have any provisions for, for rotational presidency. Does not have any provision. There's no, there's no power rotation in 1999 constitution. It's just a PDP arrangement that they put in place in, and their last president, they can justify that their last president was from the south south, so they can see that now that they want to bring their next president from, from the north. So okay. So let's talk about auditing government policies. An APC senator was at a conference yesterday, and one of these statements he made was about condemning the 774,000 jobs, you know, for the public works. And he says that the 52 billion narrator was a max for that, could have been used to set up industries, factories, and other revenue generating streams in Nigeria, rather than a system of money sharing that is not causing youth restlessness. And I said that even the 60,000 narrator was promised to each, each of these youth at the end of three months have not even been given to them. And that, you know, that has been causing lots of fights in that system. So talking about auditing government processes, going back to this, remember when Festus Guillermo came up with this whole 774,000 jobs, you know, it costs quite a stay at that time. And the jobs, those menial jobs are cleaning gothers and all of that. And people really asked is that what government to call empowerment of the youth? Looking back now, would you say that program was successful, or just like this APC Senator, that 52 billion narrator could have been used for more long term projects that will benefit a wider number of people? They call it poverty alleviation. And I asked him, the person just started with PAP, can PAP quench your hunger? I'm asking you, when you look at PAP, it's called poverty alleviation program. The question is can PAP quench your hunger? Then they came up with NAPED. And this particular administration loves sharing money, no doubt about that. And when you talk about the dangers of sharing money, the inflationary effect of sharing money, of pushing too much money into the economy, people who accuse you of being biased or being partisan. Where is Traders money? The one they shared before the election, where is Traders money? What impact? That the vice president almost lost his life, transversing the length and breadth of Nigeria, sharing money to market people. What impact has he had on the market? What impact has he had on the commodity price index of product? Now this other one, when Kayamon came on there and said that they are going to employ 1,000, I'm looking for 1,000, 1,000 people that were employed in my local government. I've lived in my own local government for more than 40 years. I've played politics to a certain extent in my local government. I know the actors and players of their 11 words in my local government. I can tell you the boundary of my local government. So I know it's like the pack of men. I want to know the number of people that was employed in the Pakodya local government, for example. Where do they live? Which street? Which area? Are they from a Fakor? Are they from a Jew? Are they from New Okoba? Are they from Ujuku? I want to now give you the four geopolitical zones in the Pakodya local government. Forget about the Nonsensical ECB they created. I've given you that example. Now where is the 1,000 from my local government? What are the people that were employed? How many were employed from the Jew? If you ask 3 words, New Okoba asked 2 words and Udo Koro asked 3 words. That's 11 words. Now we are the people that are employed from those areas. The way people want to make money for themselves, they create a white elephant project. They say they are going to create 774 jobs and pay them 60,000. At the end of 3 months what happens to them? And they will come. And the media will not grill them with good questioning. Rather the media will ask them patronizing questions. You'll be patronizing them rather than putting them on out-seat. That's the problem. That's the problem. That's the problem. Part of the problem is that our own industries are not holding them accountable to it. And that's what section 22, the second part of section 22 of 1999, Consciousness, he said we shall be the ones done. And he said all government accountants, how is it possible? Confessor Skayamo employed his own children to be sweeping gutters on the beginning of the streets. Is that the type of job you want to give to the youth? They didn't talk about sending them to computer villages to go and learn about the trade. They didn't talk about creating technical education so that they send people to go and to go and learn a particular trade. After that trade, we empower them with it. No, you want to dash the money. I didn't look. I didn't tell you without fear that some people collected the money. Majority of the names on that list are fictitious. They are fictitious names. Because what it's... Do you have evidence for that, Judith Johnson? Do you have evidence for your claims? No. Look, listen, look, the palliative money that was shared just yesterday I read the report where the minister, one minister said 10 million people have been lifted out of poverty. The people just banned the statistics. You are asking me for evidence. Did you ask them for their own evidence too? They are all physical evidence. The type of question you are asking me is the type of question. To be asking them when they go to press conferences, that's the question. Providers with evidence, only fools have to do it with facts. And evidence are fact based. Now, as anybody came out, the minister said, you have lifted 10 million people in six years out of poverty. Where is the evidence? We saw during the lockdown that the minister was sharing money. In the minister of social work, social, I remember, social and humanitarian services. They were sharing money in a butcher. Is that how you run an economy? Where you buy your pump money into the economy? That takes me to the story of what the banks were saying. Where did you see in anywhere in the world, where people sell dollars, foreign currency on the street? Where? Where do you see in anywhere in the world that you have a parallel market? Do you think that people that are engaging in currency trading will want the value of their dollar to improve? They will want the value of their dollar to improve. Do you think that people that have stolen money and are taking it abroad, their assets are in dollars? Are in dollars? We want the value of our dollar to match that of dollar. No way. No way. When we were small, when we were young, rather, the Ghanaian currency was less compared to the Nigerian currency, the CD. CD was divided as a toilet paper. But in 1983, we worked as a Ghanaian to live our economy. Now what has happened to Ghana now? How many Ghanaian politicians do you think have stolen money abroad, like we portrayed money abroad? How many recovery have they made? I'm asking you, until we stop the preparation of funds to foreign countries, we see the value of their can never improve because those that have stolen money from this country and those that are making money from the parallel market, we don't want the but just imagine, I'm asking you, if the value of Naira in Naira to a dollar is, let's say it's five Naira to a dollar. I'm telling it to you, five Naira to a dollar. What do you think will happen to all those people that have stolen money away from Nigeria? All the assets, we saw the images, let me end with this, we saw the images, the supposed leader of APC and the actual leader of APC, we saw both of them in London taking medical treatment in London. That gives you an example of what is wrong with this country, New York, why would doctors not go on strike? Thank you, Jene Johnson. We appreciate your enthusiasm and your opinion as always. Thanks for joining us. It's a pleasure to be with you but I'm looking for that job of doing the mic to give you that job, I'm very glad. Thank you very much and we'll of course look forward to another Friday. It's a pleasure to be with you. Stay with us, let's go back in history. I'm going to be sharing something, a very, very terrible attack on two ladies in 1967 today in history, I think of August. I was going to share that but yes, we'll be right back.