 President of the Nigerian Bar Association accuses fellow lawyers of buying judgments. Ullumide Akpata specifically calls out senior members of the bar who abuse the judicial process. And different groups push out different names including that of the vice president as the preferred successor to President Muammar Dabwari. But what kind of president does Nigeria need in 2023? Two analysts will join us this morning to talk about that and also of course of the press where we get to share a quick review of the major news stories making headlines across Nigeria today. And we'll have an analyst, an independent analyst actually to analyze some of the stories on this very interesting Wednesday morning. And these are some of the major interesting points that we'll be discussing this morning on the breakfast. Thank you for joining us on Plus TV Africa. I am Osaugi Ogbama, very interesting Wednesday morning. And of course we start with what's trending across the country and of course on social media. The first one I will be speaking about is the response of the statements by Reverend Fadah Ejikim Bakar who of course has once again come out to lambast the current administration for the handling of security challenges in the country. He was mostly referring to the attack on the Nigerian Defense Academy which he says should be one of Nigeria's safest locations. And he says that if bandits or criminals could easily attack the Nigerian Defense Academy then it paints a very, very dream and sad picture of what Nigeria's security situation is currently. He's also spoken with regards to Namdikanu and next to the government to go ahead and release Namdikanu who of course according to reports was arrested in Kenya and brought back here to Nigeria. He basically is saying that if Namdikanu is on the government's detention and still we're still having security challenges then let us well go ahead and release him. These are the views of Reverend Fadah Ejikim Bakar. And over time I believe that with numerous conversations that we've had and a lot of Nigerians have had concerning the involvement of the church and clerics and Reverend Fadahs and priests and whatnot in politics and in the issues concerning Nigeria. Some people have said I think it's best that church leaders and religious leaders completely stay off those conversations. But there's also those who have said it's important that religious leaders because of the influence that they have will always go ahead and share their views and the challenges Nigeria is facing, the country is dealing with because they speak on behalf of the people, they speak on behalf of their flock if I can use that word and of course the thousands of people who listen to them every Sunday and every other time that they have something to say. So it's two sides of that opinion. Those who believe that they should speak and those who believe that they shouldn't. But I think the controversy concerning Reverend Fadah Ejikim Bakar has always been not just his involvement and his being able to speak but sometimes when he has been criticized for playing a little bit of politics and getting involved with the political game instead of simply just speaking on behalf of the people. If you remember in the 2019 elections there were certain moments in the 2019 elections that he was strongly criticized for. And even in 2015 where he had spoken about prophecies and messages that God had said to him that he had of course administered to the people. Not long ago, a few months ago, he had said that he had taken back those prophecies and God had told him to withdraw those prophecies concerning President Muammar Dupuwari. His back again in the news and of course doing pretty much the same thing. Speaking on behalf of his congregation and on behalf of Nigerians his thoughts concerning the attack on the Nigerian Defense Academy. He's not the only one who has also lambasted the current administration for such an attack and the fact that such a thing could happen in one of the places that you would expect to be one of the most secure places across Nigeria. He's not alone. A lot of people have spoken in similar tones and said pretty much the same thing. But of course when a person like him does it, there's always going to be those who say stay off and then those who say yes, go ahead and say it. It is the truth. So once again, Reverend Father Ambaka is speaking from the southeast. Some other thing that is trending this morning and this is one that made a lot of conversations across social media yesterday is the Central Bank of Nigeria's release and they're contracting a foreign company called Beats Incorporated to be their partner with the E-Naira, which is meant to be Nigeria's cryptocurrency. Of course, for some people would be a good thing that Nigeria is getting involved in cryptocurrency and bringing forth the digital currency rather than bringing forth what it's called, what it calls the E-Naira. There were those who of course had complained that after the CBN had made its new laws and banned certain cryptocurrency fintech organizations here in Nigeria from trading cryptocurrency and of course made it difficult for Nigerians, even if that didn't slow Nigerians down, they still went ahead to bring forth their own E-Naira and their own digital currency. So there is controversy on that part and there's different opinions that have risen from that angle. But the main controversy concerning this particular news story is the fact that Beats Incorporated is a startup company from Barbados. I'll quickly share what exactly it is. It is a Barbados-based startup that led development of Eastern Caribbean currency and some people would say it does have some level of credibility in that regard because it has already gotten involved in cryptocurrency. But the challenge with this is there is a lot of very, very standard and successful fintech companies here in Nigeria that the Central Bank of Nigeria could have reached out to to partner with for E-Naira. And it doesn't sit very well with a lot of Nigerians that we have to go all the way to Barbados to set for a fintech company to help with the E-Naira. How much support does that show for Nigeria and fintech? And I've said it over and over that Nigeria as a country needs to make it clear. It stands on where we are headed as a country. Are we really, really getting involved with information technology and financial technology? What is Nigeria's plan and how much support does Nigeria have for homegrown financial technology companies and of course information technology startups? How much support is the Nigerian government willing to give to these companies? You might point out the ban on cryptocurrency, you might point out the Twitter ban also and some of all those things as signs that the Nigerian government may not be totally excited about information technology and its growth in Nigeria and also financial technology companies and their growth in Nigeria. So this basically just looked like one more reason to point out that they may not be as interested in supporting those who are homegrown, who have done exceptionally well in the fintech space here in Nigeria. There is that. And also we've been talking about supporting the Naira, the growth in Naira, supporting Nigerian businesses so that we can keep our money down here instead of having to outsource some of these things and pay in foreign currency to other companies. And this is very similar to, this looks very much like what the CBN has done once again, instead of supporting homegrown companies and keeping our currency down here. And paying companies here in Nigeria, they've instead outsourced this to a company in Barbados. I'm going to quickly just share some reactions to this from certain social media handlers. This one says, did the CBN ask Nigerian developers to bid for the Naira project? A combination of inter-switch and flutter wave cannot lead a local consortium to develop E-Naira? He's asking, was TSA not developed locally in Nigeria? And that is a treasury single account a couple of years ago. And then he finally says, you think China or India will give Yuan, which is a currency there, to a foreigner? These are genuine concerns and I think it's, it does make some sense. You know, I don't expect that China or any other country there would give their currency to a foreigner to help develop a digital currency. This one here also says, have they not devalued the Naira by outsourcing what we could develop locally? I'll finally share this one here. It says the CBN ditched Nigeria's fintechs and tech bros and outsourced its centralized E-Naira crypto project to Barbados-based bit incorporated. So much for growing the Naira. You don't trust Nigerian fintechs or developers to handle your E-Naira project. They're only good for banning and blacklisting. So this basically is, it paints a picture of, you know, most of the reactions to the CBN's release saying that they had outsourced the E-Naira project and contracted it to Bit Incorporated, a company which is also a startup somewhere in Barbados. I hope that we can get more reactions to this sometime during the week. We'll be able to bring in some guests to share their thoughts on this. Now, let's quickly move on to something else that is trending across Nigeria today. And that is in Cross River State where a local government chairman, I'm going to quickly share her name, the chairman of Oban-Liku, local government area of Cross River State Honorable and Evangelist Margaret Inday, has been criticized for empowering pilot farmers with a hoe, a cutlass and one tuba of yam. These photos got released yesterday. And of course it came with the criticism that was expected. One thing that I would say here is I think we should get to a place in Nigeria where it is, you know, we shouldn't just blame these politicians and these characters who support with either, you know, grinding machine or tuba of yam or bags of sachet or pure waters as locally called, or some of these very, very, very random, shocking things. I think it's also important that we start to criticize the people who accept them because if you leave your house and go to the local government office and you collect a cutlass, a hoe and a tuba of yam as support from your local government chairman, you should be ashamed of yourself. Yes, I understand the need to, you know, blame poverty. Some people don't have a choice because, well, you know, a lot of people are hungry. I'm sure those yams will not be planted. They very likely will, you know, be fried or be boiled. They're used to make porridge or used to making salad or, you know, something else that they eat in Cross River State. I'm very sure that those yams will not get to the farm. But it is still very embarrassing. And pretty much the same thing with those who go to collect 5,000 hire when it's time for election. It is time that we, as the people, start to ask ourselves these questions and start to actually do better. When a politician brings things like that to you, it should be expected, as a Nigerian, that you shove them away, you know, reject some of all these things because it's an embarrassment and it's disgraceful to see this coming from a local government chairman. Time after time, I've spoken on this platform and said that the local government allocations in different parts of the country ranges between 150 million to 250, sometimes almost 300 million Naira, every month. That's what local governments across Nigeria or 774 of them receive every month. In Lagos, it's sometimes a little higher. So you can imagine how much the local government receives every month. That is, of course, under the control of the local government chairman. It runs into billions of Naira every year, sometimes 2 billion, sometimes 3 billion Naira every year. Forget about the conversation concerning, oh, governors don't let the local government chairman have full access and use of their local government funds and some of all of that. That's a totally different conversation. As long as there is a local government chairman, that person is, on behalf of the community or on behalf of the local government, receiving 150 to 300 million Naira every month. That should be used to develop the local government. You used to pay salaries, you used to fix markets, drainages, every single little bit here and there. But we don't get to see a lot of these things happening. And so how is the person who is receiving that amount of money, giving a tuba of yam, a cutlass and a hole as empowerment to people in the community? Call it pilot farming, call it whatever other name that you want to call it. It's embarrassing and I think Nigerians should be aware that these things should be totally rejected and they should be reminded that they should do better. That's all we have for you on Top Trend in this morning. Stay with us. We'll take a short break when we come back. What's in the news this morning? Off the press. A Demola Kingbola will be joining us to share his views on these stories making headlines. Good morning once again.