 Welcome once again to the breakfast here on Plastiv Africa. Now let's go to off the press and have a review of the stories making headlines across the country this morning. We're starting with the daily independent newspapers. I expect that should be on your screen in a few seconds. Yes. It says, Banks fear Enyra may erode profitability. Platulou Cook government polls, APC clears all chairmanship and councilorship positions. Also, 1999 constitution is a glorified death certificate says Bakari. TDB reunites with associates as Song Wulu host APC leader. It says, I return hail and hearty and well, and that's from the ex-governor. Autumn not responsible for insecurity says a middle-bound forum. And Petroleum Tanker drivers suspend planned nationwide strike. 2023 presidency, Ushimba Joe on a coalition cause with Tinubu pushes to succeed Bakari. We can also find on the daily independent 308 billion Naira presidency, National Assembly budgets, Dwarf Ministry of Powers, 301 billion Naira. Zoning PDP national chairmanship position, leaving presidency open risky says Bode George. Now let's move away from the daily independence of what we can find on the punch. It says here, why federal government can't remove fuel subsidy now? That's from NNPC marketers and experts. It will be disastrous to remove subsidy without refineries working, Ipman says. And subsidy now political matter, all Nigerians shoulder in it, says ex-LCCI DG. No provision in 2022 budget, but petrol subsidy continues, declares NNPC. Budget finance power projects get lion's share of 1.16 trillion Naira loans. And also federal government to spend 44.64 billion Naira on military equipment, arms and ammunition. S.A.N. Wright Malami threatened suit over Nigeria's 62 billion dollars with oil firms. Change of guard imminent in 2021, throw away 1999 constitution says Bakari. Still on the news, or still on the punch rather, presidency, Doc Pessie backs north. Tinibu says restructuring a must. Special salary, paying education students unsustainable, and it's a Greek gift, says the NPTA. Students merciless beating, choir orders Arabic school, Arabic school heads suspension raises panel. We can also find here NDLA raids Legos or your drug joints and others arrest 110 dealers. Man arrested for allegedly defiling 13-year-old neighbor's daughter as wife goes for vigil. Those are the big ones on the punch this morning. And now let's see what the leadership newswapers has. It says here each Nigerian owes foreign creditors 64,684 Naira. Puts Nigeria in the right direction. Bakari tells President Mohammed Buhari. And also only God can give and take life. That's from former Lagos State Governor Abul Ahmed Tinibu. Nigerians kick as federal government approves genetically modified maze. And I think that's all we can share on the leadership this morning. Finally on the daily trust this morning. Benwe, Borno IDPs sacked by insecurity, fleeced by aid workers. How sharp practices worsen matters. Officials deny neglect charge. Female IDPs survive through prostitution in Borno. And it says here we've built 10,000 houses for them. Two years after, federal government loses 24 billion Naira to land border closure in Ogun. This is not the time to break up Nigeria. Says the Vice President of Shimbaju. Electoral Bill, Senate Rep Committee to meet this week for harmonization. And I think a few others. Pandora Papers, Al-Bishabaidi, poor setup company for wife and kids in tax haven. Despite release claim, Niger monarchs still missing one month after. And finally 2022 federal government votes 650 million Naira from Mambila Power Project. I'm going to start this morning and say good morning to our guest, Mr. Mark Adebayo. Thanks for joining us, sir. Thank you so much for having me. Good morning viewers. Thanks for joining us. I want us to start with the story on the top right, top left corner of the daily independent. It says 308 billion Naira, presidency and national assembly budgets, dwarfs a ministry of powers 301 billion Naira. Let's start with your thoughts on that one. Thank you so much. Succesive governments in this country have always misplaced priorities when it comes to the annual issue of budgeting. Where the government do not see a reason to fund the critical sectors that affect the lives of Nigerians positively. I think power issue is a major challenge in this country. You should get the priority attention of government, but we are not seeing that in this budget. As I'm talking to you now, there is no power here. I have to be using alternative sources of power. Abu Dhabi's power situation is always very terrible from inception. That's why if you look at the budget of the field of government, you see billions of Naira every year being budgeted for generators. And it is a shame that we are having that. I believe that power should have gotten more rather than the other fight for those expeditions which we are having in this budget. For instance, the field of government is budgeted 26 billion Naira for travels and feeding of the presidency alone. Who does that? And then in this heavily indebted economy, now you have budgeted 26 billion for yourself for feeding and travels. We keep misplacing our priorities. It's not only this government is guilty of that. Even the government before it. Only that this one is not guilty. That is the problem we are having. How can you budget 26 billion for feeding and travels? And look at how much you are budgeting for power. It is almost sinful. That's a misplacement of priority. If you look at the total budget breakdown, we are having a budget of 16.39 trillion. And if you look at the allocations, maybe education is faring better this year. For next year, but I believe education still deserves more than it's got this year. And I'm not saying that because look at the financing. You are going to finance this budget by 3.61 trillion Naira. Financing of debt, debt servicing, you know? You are getting that much. So it's a situation where you are in this type of depression. Economic depression in Nigeria is what you need to do is to face the critical sectors. Like education, like defence, because we are having insecurity, infrastructure, health. These are the areas that you take priority attention on. You take human rights percentage of the budget, but we are not having that. Alright, I'm going to say good morning also to Tunde Kola Wale. Thanks for joining us. Mr. Kola Wale, can you hear us? Yeah, good morning. Very well, thanks for joining us. I want to get your thoughts also on the daily independent. It says here, 1999 constitution is a glorified death certificate. And that's from Tunde Bakari. Let's get your views on that one. Can you hear us clearly, Mr. Kola Wale? Tunde Kola Wale, good morning. Alright, I want you to react to the story from Tunde Bakari on the daily independent. Alright, we're going to have to reconnect with Tunde Kola Wale. Mr. Adebayo, can you hear us? You loud and clear. Alright, so let's get your view on that one. It says 1999 constitution glorified death certificate. And that's from Tunde Bakari. Well, in 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended is actually a death sentence of this country. I've been issued from the very beginning, it was never meant to sustain this country. It is a non-sustainable constitution being administered on the un-sustainable structures. Because the constitution defines the structures of the country. And the correct structure as we have is unitarized federalism. It's just a glorified federalism. We are not operating the federal system actually. So the 1999 constitution is a death sentence of the country. It is moribund. It is un-sustainable. We must keep Nigeria safe. We must save Nigeria from primary short death. We need to revisit, review the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended, to ensure true federalism, to ensure true federalism. We cannot have, in a country of over 200 million people with kind of that capacity that we have, we cannot have a unitary system of government. And that is what we are having now. It is not sustainable. We have to go back to that constitution. If we must silence the people that are agitating for secession, we need to revisit the 1999 constitution by allowing the country to purchase true federalism. We need to go back to what used to work for us, which is regional government. That is what I believe that the socio-political zones must be able to exercise independence in terms of governance in many areas. We should just leave constant the first international global message to the federal government. Let these regions determine their own fate by themselves. Economic fate, their social fate, their political fate by themselves. We cannot have one person sitting in Abuja and dictating to everybody around the country. It is not going to work. So the 1999 constitution is an abattoir that we must throw away and give us a living constitution. I agree to that statement, that we have to review the 1999 constitution to make this country work. It is not working. The 1999 constitution is not working. It is not working for this country. We need to do something. We need to think out with it. I am going to try it once again. Can you hear us? Yes, I am hearing you. Good morning. Good morning once again. Let's move away from the constitution now. There seems to be, on the daily independent, one story that is having different angles. It says here, Tinuble reunites with associates as Song Wulu host APC leader. And at the same time on the daily independent, it says 2023 presidency, a Shimbajo on collision course with Tinuble pushes to succeed Buhari. What are your views? And you know, is it likely that this is just clickbait? What? Those are two very important questions, so rather than them, if I have my way, I wouldn't be commenting on such, on a large polar metinuble. In my own Bulu opinion, I sympathize with him, with respect to some of the health challenges that he has had, they are very, very difficult. But when we are talking in terms of presidency, that is the person who will be succeeding, General Muhammad Buhari. I am not sure. I am sure he is a fit and proper person to succeed in for so many reasons. He is not on his side, just like Dr. Bani Rea said, anybody above the age of 60 shouldn't be shadowing the responsibility of the presidency of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2023. We have enormous challenges in our hands. We therefore need a very agile person who can move around, who can shake things off, who has the wealth without to be able to find out themselves with something. Take for example, look at what the marathon is doing in France. Wherever there is a problem, wherever there are challenges, you find the president Macron hoping to run the places in his chopper without tension to talk to people and to make sure that the country's pilots are right. We should see back to him. I am also not sure that we have the credentials to become the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for also a few reasons. One, when you read the Nigerian constitution, the economy of the country is putting the hands of the vice president. And General Muranadev, who already has also come out to say, look, he gave that portfolio to Professor Yemio Shibaga. If you look at what the performance of the economy is doing, it means that Yemio Shibaga has said, hopefully, it is suddenly the responsibility of money to the economy and the economy is in this kind of factor. Then what is likely to be the performance, even if it comes especially from the Federal Republic of Nigeria. But then more, I see a lot of people praising him. His past story is entirely gays and lurid, so a lot of things are ignored. But you see, the system, I mean, show me your friends and I will speak to you all. Yemio Shibaga is able to operate this new play and this play in the midst of the people who have perfected hypocrisy and legitimized it. That means he himself may not be as clean or as fattened as people are pretending or are presenting as he is. For God's sake, these two people, he says to Nigeria, he's targeting of what we are witnessing under the APC and the General Mohammad Wali regime. He also appeals not to be politically speech, but to many conservatives too. It regards to issues of corruption. Just look at the health system in London today. The report in the paper today is that that property where he went to recuperate, where people have been visiting, was bought with lots of money. Was bought with lots of money. Even though the pensioner said it's 20 for him or bought the house for him, he signed it tonight. But the Pandora paper, which International Journalists investigated and came up with, just like the one they did before, had little life. Even the journalists are not thorough with some of the interpretations. You can't say that it's too polyjournalist. A consortium of journalists from different parts of the country, some of the best in their trade, came up with that very raging indictment. Mr. Kola Wali, can you hear me? Mr. Kola Wali. So that is the identity we should be talking about to people's prejudices. All right. I'm going to bring in Mark Adebayo on the same discussion. But I want you to take it from the angle of Southwest politics. And if this really is just a newspaper trying to create chaos here and there. What are your thoughts and how do you expect this to play out with regards to the struggle for power around the Southwest politicians? Thank you so much. It's a real struggle, a real struggle for power. I want to think, personally I would have loved to see Anashivadu, which is per degree, like he did in 2015, and like has been doing in Lagos. He has nominated some young, vibrant person to become Nigeria's next president. It will further enhance his political credibility as a statesman in this country. It will have been better for him to do that. But having said that, he has the constitutional right to contest for the presidency of Nigeria. His biggest undoing is not even himself. He has a couple of baggages like the lawyer mentioned. But if General Muhammad Uguwari, at his age, had performed as a president and given Nigerians the kind of leadership he promised in 2015. Nobody will be talking about the issue of age. The age consideration will not come to the leadership very well of Nigeria if General Muhammad Uguwari had performed well. But this is a president who has performed less than 10%. So people believe his age, but have you not believed his age? I mean, it's about the same age as the president of the US. So it's not about age. Everything General Muhammad Uguwari has been doing is intentional. Whether in the area of open gracing, whether in the area of tracing gracing routes or enabling Mietyala and all those things. They are intentional. So it's not age. The president, what is happening is a question of competence. And on the issue of Professor Oshiba Uguwari, the issue is that I do not believe that Professor Oshiba Uguwari has the kind of free hand that people think he has. I don't think so. I don't think he has the free hand to do. To even run the economy the way he should. He has the boss. He has to clear things. Even at times we are hearing that he has to clear things with the presidential staff and the secretary to the government of the federation. It is as bad as that. So I do not think we should blame him for that. But I want to believe. I want to believe that Nigerians would prefer a new face as president of Nigeria. A new face. Let me call it a political phagin. As the next president of Nigeria. A young, vibrant, educated Nigerian to become the next president of Nigeria. That is what we are going to do long. We should swing now. I don't think the political group are players. Mr. Oshiba Uguwari, what do you think about the possibilities of a clash between these two persons and factions that might be pitching tents either with Bola Mettinibo or with Oshiba Uguwari? And if the Nigerian government, if the Bwara administration decides to, you know, and this is me just thinking, you know, wild, if the Bwara government decides to, you know, support and the Bwara government decides to pitch a tent with the vice president as its preferred, you know, successor. Of course, you know, there's always been rumors that, you know, Bola Mettinibo had, you know, had expectations of also taking over, you know, after Uguwari. So what do you think is likely of that clash? Now, there will be, there's something that Tefela called a run for offer fight. We have been hearing of this since last year that there's a major clash of interests between the first president and his political godfather, Oshiba Uguwari Mettinibo. I do not think this will work well for the Southwest. If these two titans clash, it's not going to work, you know, in the interest of the Southwest. The earlier they settled this, the better. Nobody should wear the under one finger. Both of them have presidential ambitions. The VP has presidential ambitions. Bola Mettinibo has presidential ambitions. It's not a hidden agenda. It has been on the front burner for a long time now. And we are here since last year, we have been hearing there are, you know, there are some clashes of interest and we see, you can see that there are moves, there have been moves across the country by both, by both political figures in the area of Etonio Interi presidential race. So definitely there will be, when it comes to power play, there will be clashes, there will be clashes. How it pass out later, only God will know. But if the presidency should, and that is going to be the game changer, wherever the presidency goes, whoever the presidency supports, it's going to be the game changer in this, in this matter, in these calculations. All right, we'll see. What we know is that both of them have enough baggages that can disqualify them from the presidency. And they are going to bring out the worst of themselves when the fight commences for real. It's not going to... We'll see how it turns out. To Nicola, will you, are you still with us? Yeah, I'm here. Okay, so now let's move to Barno's state. It's a story on the daily trust that I found very interesting. It says he has sacked by insecurity, fleeced by aid workers, and it's talking about how sharp practices have worsened the situations of persons in IDP camps. It says also that female IDPs survive through prostitution in Barno, while the government is claiming that they've built them 10,000 houses. Share your thoughts on that one. What is the tragedy in the first time that the people who are within their own country become internally displaced persons? But before I address that, let me quickly make a little comment on what my colleagues over there have said about age not being a factor. I disagree with him that age is a factor and countries where age has no issues are those countries that are very strong in positions where governance is almost autopilot. Would anybody as a president of America, no matter what the age is, since the age is, if the remainsment is copper, but if this is green capacity, this is green tax, he will be able to rule America conveniently and effectively. But here, institutions are not functioning, they are not working. If you put somebody who is not on top of his game, who cannot do things himself, he is likely to be a colossal failure. With the clashes of these two people, I agree with him that it is the president Muhammad Buhari, a game of the day that is going to be the game changer. So be that as it may, let's go to the IDP. The IDP is an unfortunate thing, just like I said, people getting to stay in their own country almost 10 years to come with a position in their own country is not tidy enough. And then more importantly, we are not making provisions for these people to be able to meet efficient life. Look at the budget that I got and present it to the National Assembly. How much have you seen the other person, for the IDP, compared to what has been budgeted for the National Assembly, compared to what has been budgeted for troubles and other evidences in the presidency? So I wouldn't, if you also add to it the challenge of corruption, that we see, or which is manifested in places like prison, and which sums of money I am at for the freedom of the image. But those images, they have to feed themselves. You could expect that the same thing is happening to the IDP. Besides the paranoid cabinet, who in my humble opinion appears to be sincere, appears to be hard-working, appears to be showing their role of impact, so they may rescue people from the dilemma, or from this quagmire they have planned themselves. I haven't seen much for many other, or from the federal government, to see the challenges that the IDPs are facing. So if the women are not into prostitution, to be able to feed themselves, if they are also like we have had in some quarters, even selling their children, to be able to raise money to keep those bodies together, some are also into selling of drugs and water. Some are also becoming common, or the insurgents for the bandit, some are also going on us in some of those IDP centers simply because we have refused to meet proper provisions for the upkeep. Not too long ago, you remember, money that should have been made to take care of IDPs. Millions of Naira were set to have been used to cross grass in the IDP camp. Not too long ago too, the Nigerian airport had mistakenly bombed an IDP camp. Up to now, we haven't had much to see. That was the concentration. And then the inquiry that was committed, where that error came from in some other countries of the world, very high-power panel was set up and a proper sanction and the remedies were put in place to ensure that there's not happening again. But because we didn't investigate this person, few other ones have happened in there. The government should set up the Nigerian people, the philanthropists who will also come forward to support especially the governor of Boronosa to ensure that we alleviate the problems of these IDP people. IDP people. It's a nice thought that people will become internalized state parties within their own country in their own fatherland. Because of an emergency, because of religious war, that is just inflicted by our cautionary and irresponsible. I think we lost to Nukola already. Marca de Barrio, can you still hear us? Yeah, I'm hearing you. Let's get you to speak on something on the punch this morning. It says, why federal government can't remove full subsidy now and then PC marketers and experts are saying, and it goes on to say it will be disastrous to remove subsidy without refineries working. It's a big man. Subsidy now a political matter or Nigerians shoulder in it and also no provision in 2022 budget but petrol subsidy continues declares the NNPC. Share your thoughts on that one. Let me start from the last one. The NNPC says there's no provision for subsidy in the 2022 budget, but says that subsidy will continue. I don't know the kind of magic they're going to perform to bring that to bear. The Nigerian subsidy subsidizes oil to the tune of 150 billion naira per month. And that is 1.83 million naira annually. We are told that the landing cost of petroleum in this country is 256 naira. We buy for 162 now, which means that the government subsidizes to the tune of 94 naira per liter. Okay. One of the biggest frauds, a letter of fraud committed by President Buwari was to tell us in 2015 that there was nothing like first subsidy in the country. But for the past six years, it has been running a regime of subsidies. Whatever we have, my own media concern is that nobody should even think of removing any subsidy because Nigerians are already over oppressed, over depressed in terms of the economy of the country. Food prices are skyrocketed by a minimum of 400 percent. So you cannot over, you cannot be already overboding. So you cannot put any other burden on Nigerian masses. So we have to find a way to continue subsidizing the full consumption of Nigerians. So the fact that everybody says they will continue to subsidize is a good tidings. I think they should just continue to subsidize no matter what happens. If the presidency can allocate 26 billion for feeding for two families, they should be able to continue to subsidize the full consumption of Nigerians. But because we are about to wrap up I want you to help us understand this. If there is no provision for it in the budget where does the money come from to continue to pay subsidy? That was why I said I do not know the magic that NNPC is going to perform. No, but doesn't that mean that there is there are some sharp practices here and there and some auditing that needs or proper auditing that needs to be done with what really is going on with Nigeria's money? Which means that the president was right when he said in 2015 that nobody was subsidizing anything. Maybe now they have woken them to spend the coffee. Maybe we are not going to see the reality of that subsidy is a fraud and even if you remove it if you don't put it in the budget we can see continue to buy fuel at 162 Naira. It means that something is fishy somewhere. You say you are not putting the subsidy in the budget but NNPC is coming out to say that we would continue to subsidize even if the subsidy is not in the budget. I agree with Deepman that it would be disastrous for anybody to think of increasing the fuel prices again in this country. Look at what we are passing through in terms of electricity tariff. So if anybody increases so if they say they are not going to increase it and it is not in the budget it shows that the subsidy regime has been an abracadabra all this while and they have an abracadabra in the response to it to make us continue to buy fuel at the current rate without it being in the budget. So somebody, if it happens there will be queries. There will be investigations. People have questions to answer. That is going to be the president of Nigeria in the Petroleum Minister. So he has questions to answer and so he has to we will have to tell us where have all the subsidies been going to we need to interrogate that issue. It will be interrogated and that is what I think. But the most important thing is that for me is that nobody should think of increasing the fuel price of fuel products. Nobody should think about that. It should not come at all. It is going to lead to a cataclysmic response from Nigeria. Of course bear in mind that gas prices currently are the highest that they have ever been. Same thing with diesel. The same with kerosene that used to be that used to be the cheapest among the petroleum products. I don't know but I think one litre of kerosene is around 250 to 60. One litre of kerosene. That is supposed to be a circle for the masses. It is costlier than PMS is costlier than this is unfortunate. How do you even defend that? That was one area that late president Yara Dua did very well. He reduced the cost of PMS and made sure that kerosene got to the masses who needed it. It caught down the price of socially. People are not buying kerosene at that high cost. It is ungodly. It is a fact. It is a part of our leadership strategy. Thank you very much. Very interesting conversations with you this Monday morning. Thanks for staying with us. Thank you for the wonderful week. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you for your time. And we will see you at some point. Stay with us when we are back. A little bit of history. We are going back to 2002 to tell you about the Nobel Peace Prize that was given to a person on this day. We will be back.