 Nigeria's federal government has called one over state governors as the federal High Court has ruled in favor of financial autonomy for local governments are there better days ahead for governance in the country. And as the march talked about, third force finally here, seven political parties have joined forces ahead of the upcoming 2023 general elections. What impact will they have? Here we have analysis of the headlines from today's national dailies. Very good morning to you, watching the breakfast on Plus TV Africa, what is a beautiful Tuesday morning reaching live from our studios right here at Victorial and Lagos. My name is Kofi Bartel, also alongside Messi and Popo. Let's move on now with our trending stories and look of course, this is where we get to look at what Nigerians have been talking about, especially on social media. And the first interesting one that we have been monitoring happens to be a so-called new phone call tax, a phone call tax set up by the federal government to hear the government plan to use a tax to fund the health care, yeah, yeah, yeah, a new tax that will be used to fund the health care and health care services to vulnerable Nigerians. And we've sent a lot of tongues wagging and talking. The Nigerian government introducing this new phone call tax, all right, new phone call tax. It's talking about helping Nigerians who cannot afford the cost of Medicare with this tax. Now, President Muhammad al-Buhari had said that the National Health Insurance Authority bill 2020, which he signed sometime last week, will ensure coverage for 83 million poor Nigerians who cannot pay premiums. And of course, there have been a lot of analysis of the previous health insurance regime, which is the NHIS, the National Health Insurance Scheme that has been known for some time now and has been a monumental failure, according to some analysts. It has been a monumental failure, written with corruption, written with fraud, and whilst billions of Naira have been spent or has been spent on the National Health Insurance Scheme, very few Nigerians proportionally have benefited in any way and have health insurance. And this is why this new bill was signed by the president called the National Health Insurance Authority Bill 2020 and now becomes an act, the president having signed that into law. We heard that about eight in 10 Nigerians do not have health insurance cover. And this really highlights and puts into perspective the monumental failure that the health insurance scheme has been over the past years. The servers conducted by NOIPose and they came up with that particular statistic and the average Nigerian pays cash when he or she goes to the hospital. Those who work in paid employment or those who try to do something for themselves have the private health insurance schemes to thank for. We have the private health companies who have been doing their own business and doing their work over the past few years. But if you talk about public health and public health insurance coverage, it's basically nonexistent. So the federal government is saying this new phone call tax is meant to fund basic health care provision in the country. They will use the health insurance levy to fund it. They have what they call the special intervention fund. They have what they call the health care provision fund. And then of course they're looking at donations and gifts and investment proceeds. So it looks like it's a purely welfareist idea, purely welfareist idea. They're not seeking to take money from Nigerians bit by bit as sort of a contributory scheme. It seems a government wants to tax the populace so that they can provide health care for the rest of those who cannot afford health care. In the country. A bit like what you have in the UK with the NHIS over there. Those who have, those who work, those who can't earn enough to pay a good tax, they fund the cost of health care for the rest of the country. So with an average of 11 co-op per second, the new law we're told implies at least 9% charge on every second of phone calls you make. 9% charge on every second of phone call you make. So you have the average call rate, like I said, being 11% or 11 co-op per second. So if I take about 10% of that, that'll be a 1.1 co-op. I don't think there's anything I point 1 co-op. So that'll be about 1 co-op for every second of phone call you make to be able to fund health care for the vulnerable in the country. Now, when we're talking about the vulnerable, who are we looking at? Who is the federal government talking about? We're looking at children under the age of five. We're looking at pregnant women. We're looking like the other age. We're looking at the physically challenged. And we're looking at mentally challenged persons as well as indigent people. You know, this is from time to time I define as vulnerable group as far as health care is concerned. So a cursory look at the new health insurance authority bill would show in section 26 of that act that it is written that the federal government will raise funds for groups through various measures. But the sources of the funds can be reviewed by the council. All right. And it requires every Nigerian citizen to or Nigerian resident to obtain health insurance. So what I was talking about was the HMO. Yeah, the HMO. But telecom operators have already been talking about taking the phone bill up. Nigerians are having to pay for quite a lot in increased measure. You look at the petrol cost. You look at the cost of transportation. You look at how much Nigerians pay for electricity. These things have gone up. The cost of transportation is not a government tax, by the way. But it's connected to what you pay for fuel. So some are saying we're paying more for electricity. We're paying more for petrol and diesel. And it's all affecting how much you pay for transportation. The Nara is not doing great. Inflation is on the increase. Should we be paying more for phone calls with the oil revenue the country has or makes with the oil wealth the country has with the internet-generated revenue the country has with the proceeds recovered from corruption, shouldn't the government be able to fund health care by itself? Or should those who want to take advantage of such a scheme pay for it themselves, no matter how small? The telecom applications companies had last month proposed a 40% tariff increase. And this already was there before the federal comments on, you know, idea of charging 11% per second for every phone call that you and I make to fund health care. So at the time, in April, when the private telecom supporters had said they were going to implement a 40% or considering a 40% increase in their tariffs, the group had said that the fee for calls would increase from 6 Nara 40 cobalt to 8 Nara 95 cobalt while the price cap for SMS will increase from 4 Nara to 5 Nara 61 cobalt per SMS or per page. And so these are the things that we have to grapple with. It means that whilst they're increasing it by 40%, they would have to add a few more digits to it because of the federal government's own plan to fund health care for vulnerable Nigerians through this phone call tax. Let's move on. How can Nigerian youth take over is a question that has been on the lips of some people, especially with the not-too-young-to-run idea. And the answers, protests, and the situation of things in the country, a lot of people have been asking how Nigerians can take over. People have been commenting, commentators, analysts, groups, opinion leaders and all that have been commenting on how Nigerian youth can have a greater participation in their affairs of the country, a greater see in how things are done around the country. Well, the United States of America has added its voice to this conversation. And one of the stories that attracted a lot of attention and comments was the United States of America saying that the only way that Nigerian youth can take over leadership of the country is to fully dominate the voting system, so to say. It's to fully dominate the voting system. The U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, Ms. Mary Leonard, stated this, at the 13th graduation of the American University in Yola-Damao State. That's the American University of Nigeria in Yola-Damao State, formerly known as the Apti American University. Well, the American ambassador pointed out that the Nigerian youth population placed them on an advantage to use their votes to decide who becomes the leader. So what she's saying is that we have more youth in the country and that the numbers are an advantage. So the youth have to use the numbers to get into the voting system and take advantage of those numbers to dominate the voting system. Well, quote her. She said in her words, and I quote, I can't stress this enough. Voting is the way your voice can be heard and to ensure that issues that concern you and your community become a priority for lawmakers and elective individuals. It gives you access to those you may wish to end your vote. So this is what the woman said about the youth and the participation in politics and indeed how they can take over the governance system in the country. That's an interesting one. Let's move on and look at what the Nobel laureate, Wale Sherinka, has been saying. Whenever Kongias is popularly called speaks, everyone listens because, first of all, you might learn a word or two new words in English. He has a gift of the gab. You would also get to get something good. Very important points about national life. He doesn't always speak, but when he speaks he has something important to say. Now, Professor Wale Sherinka, he has raised concern over the perennial insurgency at killings in the northern part of the country. And he's saying that if nothing is done to address the perennial killings, insurgency, the violence in the north of the country, other parts of Nigeria that are peaceful will start witnessing terrorism soon. In other words, he's saying there'll be a gradual move to other parts of the country where you don't have Boko Haram, where you don't have Ansaru, where you don't have Aiswap, or even so-called bandits. We will be seeing terrorism in those parts of the country. And he has said that other relatively peaceful parts of the country will start grappling with this menace in a distant future. And he's saying the government has to do something drastic about this in order to tackle insurgency. And he was speaking at the launch of a memorial publication of a late, or on the late general, Ibrahim Atairu, former chief of defense staff at the Ladi Kuali Hall in Abuja during the week. And he says, the federal government needs to adapt the lateral thinking, what he calls lateral thinking, and new constructs outside the orthodox boxes of military engagement in tackling insurgency. What he's saying, what Waleh Syenka is saying is federal government needs to think outside of the box. Think outside of the box and do something about the insurgency in the northern part of the country. Else it's going to creep into the peaceful parts of the country. We'll take a quote from him. He said, quote, the times are not normal and thus require offbeat, lateral thinking in new constructs outside orthodox boxes of military engagements above all. Let no one imagine that the ongoing insurgency will forever remain within its present borders, its threats, it contaminates, it breeds mutations in the least expected places. You expect that from Waleh Syenka. But it gives us reason for concern and it gives us reason to worry because this is a real threat and it's a real possibility. Think about Boko Haram in Lagos or Boko Haram in Abuja. Where next when I hear it? The earlier something is done, the better for all of us. This has been a trending segment right here on The Breakfast on Plus TV, Africa. We'll be right back. When we return, we look out the headlines of the pages of the National Diaries with analysis by our guests. Stay with us.