 It's the breakfast on Plus TV Africa. It's time for Off the Press, where we take you through the pages of our dailies as being made available by our paper vendor. We have Ezeko Nyai Toku as a public affairs analyst, he's a standby to make sense of all of the headlines. Ezeko Nyai Toku, it's good to have you join us this morning. I'm always very delighted, pleased and excited and privileged to be on Plus TV Africa. Thanks for having me. All right, then. Thank you so much. Let's start our journey with the Daily Independent paper this morning. The banner caption says Erufai Akeridolu, misread Buhari's directives on Boonee, President and Dost Boonee to perfect plans for March 26th Convention, cautions governors against proactive utterances. That's what you find underneath the caption talking about the APC leadership crisis. Even though some quarters are saying there's really nothing going on, of course the APC is still saying there's no tussle, there's no issue with the APC. Everything is going on smoothly. 2023 presidency, Tunubu acts APC senators to support his lifelong ambition. And one thing that was very outstanding yesterday was the handle on Twitter, we're talking about the micro blogging platform. You have that platform tweeting about the APC and it got a lot of Nigerians talking and saying this is actually the handle of lawmakers or the National Assembly is not supposed to be tweeting issues about because it's a buddy, it's not the party. But it just shows it's just a reflection of what it is, House of Reps, APC cuckers and Dost's heme. That's what you find. John Inimo as gunman killed two prison officers. Very sad incident. United Kingdom debunked suspending student and work family visa for Nigerians. NJC wants to judge us and recommends 15 for appointment. Outgoing governor Obyano says he fulfilled most of his promises. Retired Air Force chief lost 228,428 okay so I like to take that again. Retired Air Force chief loses 228,428 million dollars property to federal government. Federal government blames gas shortage for current power situation considers dragging nasty court over electoral act amendment and 2023 PDP pegs presidential firm at 40 million Naira. Governorship at 21 million that's a lot right there. Let's move on to the next paper, the Pantoneese paper with these headlines. El Rufai other APC governors lose out, Buni meets Buhari returns today with the APC official. El Rufai other APC governors lose out, Buni meets Buhari returns today with the following writers. APC chair, Pali's president in UK returns from Dubai trip, cancels neck meeting. Party may die if crisis continues, Buhari warns, directs DSS police to provide cover on wonders what they are providing cover for hopefully not some bullets. Banks total assets rose by 8.25 trillion Naira in 2020 and 21 CBN report details on the P35 of the punch. Blackout, FG blames gas shortage vandalism, OK's 40 billion Naira for discos, FG blames gas shortage vandalism, OK's 40 billion Naira for discos, National Assembly proposing criminalizing illegal connection meter bypass according to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission Naira. ElectroLact, FG exploring court talks on amendment says AJF, FG exploring court talks on amendment says AJF. More from the punch, NJC places judge on watchlist warns another for misconduct. PDP presidential aspirant forms to cost 40 million Naira, the list was put out yesterday quite interesting given a 50% slash for young people between the ages of 25 and 30. Most port scanners are obsolete says custom CG, most port scanners are obsolete says customs CG. King will berate presidential aspirants over defections sells bid at National Assembly, on those shoemaker claiming self-defense stabs landlord's son to death. And the Yoruba Nation, Akintoye others ask court to stop akity Osho post, these are some of the headlines on the front page of the punch this morning. Well we move away from the punch newspaper this morning, we take a quick look at the leadership newspaper and it says allow Boonee complete his tax at National Convention, that's what President Mohammed Buhari says or said to the APC governors, allow Boonee complete his tax at National Convention and everyone will be wondering what is his tax. Other status quo in party leadership in a strongly word and letter, that's what you find, very strong one. Boonee arrives in Niger and cancels neck meeting, Mustafa, Adamu, Yari, Al Makure, Moussa, others speak chairmanship forms, that's what you find, I mean a lot of persons are still in doubt whether or not you know the 26 would still be very viable, but a lot of Nigerians and fingers across PDP presidential primary likely in May, that's what you have here as well, helped me achieve my lifetime ambition, the former governor of Lagos State, Bola Akma, Tunumbu, Beggs, APC lawmakers as they have also agreed to support and endorse him. Buhari apologizes to Nigerians over petrol and electricity shortages. You also have the National Judicial Council wants two judges, recommends 15 others for appointment and just before we move away from the leadership newspaper this morning, student work, family visa for Nigerians not suspended, the United Kingdom is quoted to say that said this morning on the leadership newspaper. And we take a final paper, the nation and with these headlines on its front page, the big one there, Buhari to APC governors, Boonee remains party chair, Boonee remains party chair and the writer, president insists on March 26 convention date, Yobay governor back cancels neck meeting, reminds me of the song by Matt Morrison, a titled return of the Mac. I think they should play that when he walks into the APC national sectarian aptly named Buhari House, what a coincidence. All from the paper, PDP neck fails to okay zoning, PDP neck fails to okay zoning, pay 40 million Naira for form, interesting where the nation needs to raise putting this one. Yoruba nation agitators file suits to stop equity or shown polls and Malami, we're seeking options on electoral act. Lautech alumni reject Makin Day's move to rename university, Senators Reps pledge support for Teenable, Senators Reps pledge support for Teenable and we have resigned now, Aerofie tells ambitious appointees to those who would like to contest her positions in the forthcoming elections and Soledad takes office in a number of course. We had that he had only 50 persons on the list of those to attend his inauguration, some of the merians are pulling out their hair because of that. Time to introduce at this point our guest analyst, always a pleasure to have him. Ezekiel Eiatuk is a public affairs analyst, good morning to you sir and thanks for joining us. Good morning, I'm always excited to be with the two of you, I don't know why, but I just feel very happy. All right, all right. Buhni has made his triumphant return like Jesus Christ of Nazareth made a triumphant entry into Jerusalem. After leaving Nigeria to go to Dubai to check on it to see his doctor maybe had a headache or something, he had to leave Dubai to go to London to see the president who left Nigeria, to go to London to see his doctor and they both had a meeting of minds and Buhni's head was saved and now he's back in the country and of course like Julius Caesar he had his first execution which was to cancel the national executive council meeting those to hold today which was meant to eject him and his team. What are your thoughts on this Mr. Eiatuk? I read your mind when you were talking and there's a song that I think that you were trying to sing and that song says the return of the man. So I think Buhni's return is like the return of the man. But the analysis, the whole issues around Buhni and APC is sickening to say the least. It's annoying, it's irritating, it is actually provoking. When you see a country that until maybe a month or some weeks back was the poverty capital of the world and you see the ruling party not being able to draw a line between politics and governance then you wonder where our salvation is going to come from and that same party is having all this boldness and this audacity to see itself coming back to power meaning that they are either oblivious of the feelings of the people or they feel they have conquered the people so much that the people have lost their voice and their vote or they are living in a fool's paradise. I always give this illustration because it just tells me the mind of the people in power. The late Joe Wires when he was in US when there was a coup that toppled the Shagari administration and when he came back there's a statement he made, he said he was saddened that the sadness was not that he was out of power but that he actually saw Nigerians on the street rejoicing that they were out of power and he was confused because he thought they were doing so well he thought they were like the heroes of the people and he just realized for the first time that they were so unpopular and that they were living in a different world from the realities of the nation at that time. Now as of today look at APC as a party they have failed completely to draw a line between politics and governance where politics is supposed to be handled by the political party and governance was supposed to be handled by the executive. Today the leadership of the political arm is an executive member in the office of a governor given a mandate by his people one of the 36 states of the federal republic of Nigeria and of the 200 million Nigerians of the so-called 40 million members of APC they cannot find a competent person to run the alternate arm of the system which is the political arm but an elected governor and you know what they are even doing now is something that I sit down and I ask myself do they really understand what is going on. I was a national chairman and I want to tell you that when 19 of your governors say we want something this way and you tell them they can go to hell that you wanted the other way take it quiet and wait for you okay do the national convention there are certain criterias that are statutory you cannot change you cannot handle the delegates they will bring the delegates and the delegates are those that will decide what to do so rather than the mr president at a time like this giving marching orders copying the director the the the the the the the man in charge of the police and the man in charge of the sss which means or dss which means it's about power it's about an order it's about you know control and you're telling this man must get into office no problem the governor should keep quiet and welcome him let him set the criteria for the national convention and then let us see what the power of the chairman ialfa is going to go but mr yeah to show me looking at the the the the motive of his governance you know what the periodics come out to say they want and and looking at the motive of the president and and those who are in support of his actions and to to to see okay which of them is protecting interest of all interest of of the democracy of the party you know because in the past the governors have even said that they they want a governor to emerge a governor must emerge as a flag bearer of the party what is the constituency of mr president ask yourself that question in terms of land he only has one little place called the federal capital territory the rest of the 36 states are handled by the 36 governors when you go to national convention where is the power of mr president who is going to bring who are his delegates are we thinking here at all the 36 governors are going to bring the delegates from the 36 states who are going to be the people to vote on whatever is to be done so mr president should have been wise at this time smart at this time as he came back what he would have done was to call the governors to a family meeting guys guys you know the way these things are what do we do how do we get about it knowing that he has no constituency in the in the international convention and the governors have the constituencies either you do that or you break the ranks see how many governors you can get on your side when you've gotten them on your side and they are really on your side and you know they are really on your side then you play this you know the the good cop bad cop business and you know how to get what you want you see i've always said one thing this government this mr president they lack in tax and strategy they lack in long-term planning strategic planning they lack in being able to know that you know there's something called strategy in anything you do they lack you know even what we're going through as a nation perspective planning they can't have it you know that 2023 is sacrosanct you two years ago you set up a body and gave them six months mandate to put in place systems and structures by today adc should be did i say adc apc should be thinking in terms of costing to victory you allowed a whole of two years to pass and then some months to election some weeks to national a total to primaries you are now having a fight on how to have a national convention that will set up the template for the primaries it just doesn't show me people who are thinking and Nigerians are watching the one thing i would like to say is that mr president no matter the crimes that you've committed are forgiving you are forgiving you in advance for the electoral act that you signed because we are going to announce clearly what we want as Nigerians at the polls so um let's drift away from that and look at the daily trust newspaper this morning and also i mean some of the papers is also reflecting the the issue of um daily independent abego pardon uh daily independent newspaper it talks about the people's democratic party putting the of presidential form at 40 million era and governorship form at 21 million now we're thinking that this would be an era where political parties would say hey uh they would need to include it as a plan to end money back politics but that's not the case it feels like it's going to be some kind of business again as usual it's getting a lot of Nigerians talking but we'd like to share your thoughts on that okay there are two things um the first is that i am a member of board of trustees of a dc african democratic congress and there's something they did at the last board meeting that i found extremely what's the word refreshing and i wish that pvp could borrow a leaf and apc if you want to be a president for instance we know that the cost for you to be a president is humongous so like in my party it was put at the forms we put at some like 15 million but you see and the governorship about 10 million you know what they say they said look let's do something bring about 10 percent of that cost to the party you know in terms of maybe 15 million just bring maybe 1.5 or 2 million just something really paltry but then let us have what is called tax deductibles tell us what you are going to do in those states to show a level of seriousness and understanding of what this is all about that to me is is cerebral governance cerebral thinking that to me is is is just it's just mind-boggling and i love a dc but when you say you want to be a governor bring me 21 million to me at the national as pvp is saying i try to find out why i should leave my state that i want to govern and bring a whooping 21 million in in in aquaibom said that we have 31 local government that's almost close to 700 000 per local government that can get get me headquarters you know party secretariat to start with in the not too cosmopolitan you know local government areas you want me to carry that and give to you at the national so that you can use to run administration it doesn't show good thinking number two it also disenfranchises the younger people because they may not have 21 million to give to you cash but if it was tax deductible in parenthesis then they could say okay mr immanuel is helping me with the secretariat in umbo local government or dofia is helping me with the secretariat we put all those down you can see in the 31 local government you can see my 31 secretariat you value them at maybe maybe 11 million and you say okay fine you've shown seriousness you just give us maybe 1.5 million at the secretariat it makes sense and then that is the way politics can be run you can raise a lot of money directly or indirectly okay the logistics that you want to put a man who wants to buy vehicles he can have people volunteer vehicles for him to run with so that he does not really need to cough out the the cost in cash that's the way i'm running my election so that i'm not bringing out the cash people are volunteering things here volunteering things there and we're working the system but what do you tell me to bring 21 million and come and give you you ab initio disenfranchise the young people and i think it's not a good strategy we need to change those things maybe it's good let all these young people leave those people alone and come to parties that that provide that platform for them like atc where the young people are giving next to nothing to pay and what you want to do is tax deductible do whatever you do at home we take it as payment to the party because you are helping us to set up the party but the PDP has actually granted you know some kind of weavers for you know young aspirants i mean young persons who are i'll tell you i'll tell you the waivers they tell you that if you are below 30 below 30 in Nigeria the youth population they are claiming 45 not even 40 not even 35 if you are below 30 bring 50 percent what do they mean by that if you are below 30 bring us 10.5 million so what's the waiver there sister tell me no interesting um let's return to the punch newspaper um and it has a headline that other papers have also um you know used um it talks about electoral act 2002 the amended electoral act 2022 sorry about that and with this one uh electoral act federal government exploring court talks on amendment says a g f and of course after yesterday's a virtual executive for the executive council meeting presented over by vice president Yabiyo Shibajo the honorable attorney general and uh minister of justice Abubakar Malami yes and a few dead questions from the press one of the things he had to address was the federal government's position on the controversial if we'll call it that section 84 subsection 12 of the electoral act which talks about the involvement of political appointees at all levels in congresses and conventions of various political parties he says the government is exploring three options number one is to represent that bill to the national assembly number two is to explore the legal option probably going to court over this or number three accepting fate what are your thoughts on this is it okay um the very first thing is that I believe that is the fundamental right of Malami to seek to contest any office on the land number two it's also his fundamental right to go to court on matters that he does not feel favors him number three is that it is also the fundamental right of the court to decide which way they believe the law should be interpreted and also the fundamental right of the national assembly to say guys sorry but no okay now the national assembly have said sorry but no they want to represent let them represent I wonder how they are going to put it they know why they have said sorry but no they know why they have said and Malami knows it himself the only option is for him to go to court and when he goes to court I the way that the judiciary is starting to look at things objectively when you are on your way out of the office it's not the same thing as when you have a second time to go guys Malami needs to wake up and smell the coffee people are already counting days for this administration and people can afford to take very hard decisions which before now they would have been maybe thinking twice about so let him just take the last option which is well you've been there for all this time if you're really interested get down people like me I don't occupy an office I'm running for the governorship and then I was in your state you want to sit down there do all the campaigns with all the paraphernalia of the office trading contractors that if you don't support me I'm not going to pay your money you understand me all those things and then buying all the good wheel and everything to contest against me that's not fair we can understand those that are elected because they are channeled guy you were appointed Sanan Boro ya he simply means leave that thing alone all right quickly let's let's share your thoughts on this one it's on the leadership newspaper it talks about the fact that the president has addressed the issue of field shortage and the electricity issue that we're faced with at the time he's apologized Nigerians and the big question is how does apology solve the problem I mean sorry has never fixed anything if there's no action and saying hey we're going to correct this yes the president said petrol would be delivered to different states and what have you but I really don't know but what do you think is it going to I talk we have we have two sets of people we have people mandated to do something what they give us is result and we have people who are sympathizers and what they give us is sympathy now when a man that is mandated to do something gives you sympathy you are waiting because it's like oh that's so nice you're waiting and then he leaves you take you know he's addressing you and he says I'm really really sorry about it I'm like oh this is nice of this man at least he starts with apology and then you are waiting for him to tell you the action that he is taking to ensure this never happens again and you are saying wow he even quoted his actions with apology but when he sits down to address you and he's apologizing and while you're waiting he stands up it's like an anti-climax that what's that it turns around to even infuriate you so he came just to apologize to me and not to bring the solution to the problem so what does he want me to do okay so mr president apologizing should have been like an introduction to what he wanted to tell us what Nigerians even without apology Nigerians want to know the game plan to take us out of this choir Maya that we are in that's what Nigerians want to hear from mr president apology could have been the opening remark that kind of softening us to you know kind of um say well better late than never but for me to just hear that mr president is giving me just apology and that is all I think it is almost infuriating but you would have noticed that I'm not as voice very feral as I've been in the past I am kind of a little mellow since mr president signed the electoral act I have even forgiven him in advance so I'm not as you know so you you have for you he's used the electoral act to to bribe you yeah he has he has before we move out away from the the the power situation story there's a headline that has been popular popular rights in Nigeria it's made the browser a cut out from a knee stripper from 1985 I think it's a campaign uh a promise or I don't know I I can't see the details of the letter of the headline but it says NEPA no more blackout 1986 deadline and we're talking about blackout in 2022 I mean are we not to blame other people for allowing this to happen I seems we we're okay with it I'll tell you I'll tell you that this during my campaign I addressed a very large body of young people in Ika depenet and from Ika depenet and I was brought up in Ika depenet and I said something that that that made it look like they didn't understand what I was talking about I told them I pointed down the road I said I lived on this road number 36 Abar road I lived here and I used to cross the road and fetch water you know they knew what I would be you know it was within the city so they knew where I was talking about and it was like what I said yes every morning I would cross the road and fetch water there there was public water in Ika depenet in 1972 73 and then over 40 years down the line that story sounds like wow was this somewhere in London or somewhere I said where you are now that is the story of Nigeria and that is the spirit of that cutout that 40 years down the line we work we are worse than we were 50 years ago we had light in my time we had water in Nigeria in my time I attended a school where public school federal government college yes but out of 452 star 48 were white they were all degree holders one had a phd several had masters in the secondary school that Nigeria gave to me that's why I'm so passionate about this country and yeah we have let me just say this okay today my driver the children attended private school think about that well thank you so much for being part of the show is Zikonya it's always a delight to listen to you share your thoughts on all of those issues we do appreciate you and we look forward to sharing more of your thoughts on this platform thank you thank you thank you and that's it on the papers this morning we will take a breakdown and just before that particular break let's tell you what happened today in history when we return we head straight to a fast major conversation stay with us