 A very good morning to you. You're welcome to the breakfast on Plus TV Africa. It's Tuesday the 6th of February 2024. My name is Robert Paulsen. And my name is Nyam Gul Akaji. It's good to be here knowing that you are there as well and we welcome you to this very, very special edition of the program because every day is quite special. You wake up to a brand new day that you will never meet in your lifetime again and you have never met in your lifetime this opportunity to begin anew. Yeah, that's right. Anyways, we're going to be looking at some top trending stories as well as some hot topics and what the national dailies are saying this morning on today's bulletin. But first let's check out the quote of the day. The art challenges the technology and the technology inspires the art and that is by John Lassetta. He's a film director. Well, he was a producer, the former chief director of Pixar and then he's a producer and an animator. So he says this morning that the art challenges the technology and the technology inspires the art. What do you think about this? Yeah, first of all when I read it I was a bit confused that I remember some of the things that technology has come up with and where it started. Some of these things started in movies, in animation, things that we thought were not even possible. So the artist dreamed it and the scientist manifested it, so to speak. So when the art, I'm sure that's what I felt was the meaning of this, the art creates something, technology takes it off and because technology is able to take it off it also inspires the artist to think even deeper and better. I agree with you because most times when we talk about technology the art challenges the technology. So because for instance this person is a film director so he worked with Pixar and if you know Pixar they do animation so most of all of these cartoon-like movies are like that. And most times you need technology to be able to pull that off. So it is from the artist's mind that all of these things come and it challenges the technology to say, you know what, we need to do more because we need to create this thing, we need to make it work. So we have to do it a lot of times, we have to do it a lot of times. So it challenges the technology. But then when you see the technology starts to do other things you're like, you know what, we can even do more. For instance there was this movie, it's keeping my head now. Avatar, yes, Avatar is the name of the movie. And Avatar came almost 15 years ago, it was way ahead of its time. So most people saw that as, wow, this is a new technology. And so it kind of inspires the artist to say, you know what, all the film directors or other people would say, you know what, I can do more with technology. That movie was really based off from a studio. It wasn't anywhere, you had like the whole CGI stuff. So that's technology. It took 12 years from one, the Avatar one to the second one. About 12 years, that's how it is. But again, people take time to do what they need to do. They want to do it right. They say it took about 7 years to build the stage for a lot of the rings. 7 good years to build just a stage for that. The plans that needed to grow, everything that needed to do, it took 7 years for them to complete that. But like we said, some of these things started in novels where someone just imagined it and wrote about it and today they're manifesting. Even something as simple, this one is not connected to technology, or maybe it is, the Yahoo we're talking about, it's from Gulliver's Travel. We were reading about Yahoo, now we have Yahoo for mail and all that. So there are a lot of things that the art imagines, technology brings to life. And then the art still wants to imagine even more, adding up to what they had already imagined and all that. So it's really a complementary thing. It's vis-à-vis. It's a complementary thing. It inspires technology, it inspires art. That's how it is, it challenges it. So whatever it is, whatever we can imagine can come to fruition. Even the comics we're talking about, it started with one person's idea. He was writing them or drawing them in books and all that. Today, those things he was imagining are coming to life. People flying, we have shoes now, we have body bags, not body bags, let it not be like this. Backpacks that you can wear and you're flying. Things that we didn't imagine in the days that even we were growing up. So the art will always bring something that will challenge technology and technology will be inspired by what the art gives to it. It's complementary. Yes, I love that. All right, let's move over to our top trending stories this morning. And the first one says, gunmen abducted passengers of two Abuja-bound buses in Kogi state. Kidnappers have abducted passengers of two Abuja-bound buses in the Inala-Ekete-Ugugo, near-road area of Kogi state, East District. The incident reportedly involved a GIG and ABC transport buses heading to Abuja from the eastern part of the country. The GIG boss left Umahia in Abia state at about 7.30 a.m. on Saturday on its way to Abuja, the nation's seat of power. In a wake of the abduction, he said GIG had contacted security services to track down the abductors. Meanwhile, Kogi state police command has confirmed the incident. The command spokesperson, William Haya, in a statement on Monday said the divisional police officer, DPO of the area, local vigilantes and hunters, have been in the bush in an effort to rescue the victims. He said the incident involved a GIG boss with 12 passengers and a Sienna bus belonging to ABC transports with two occupants. But the driver of the GIG motors was later rescued by security operatives. The spokesman added. According to him, Kogi state commissioner of police, CP Bertrand Onwaha, has deployed an additional tactical squad consisting of a quick response unit, police mobile force, counter-terrorism unit and conventional police personnel to the area to continue with the bush combing to ensure all victims are rescued on hot. The abduction is the latest in the kidnapping incidents that have continued to gain momentum in several parts of the country despite efforts by security agencies and assurances from governments across different levels. In recent weeks, kidnappers abducted school children and their teachers in AKT state in the country's southwest region. But they were freed later. Two monarchs were also murdered in the state during the period. Last weekend, abductors took away 55 people in the northwestern state of Cassina. They were kidnapped while escorting a bride along Damary town in Sabuwa local government area off the state. Well, this is quite sad. And weekend, week out. Is this the new norm? Every day. Because like experts say, for one reported incident, there could be about five or ten that are not reported or even more than that. And, you know, what was given a mention there was the AKT pupils that were abducted. I saw those photographs yesterday or the day before yesterday, and I couldn't help it. Tears came to my eyes. How could children that young witness the murder of their driver, their school driver, because maybe like a lot of us, the men, we don't know the numbers of the cough. If I have two numbers, I just know one. I don't know the second one. So this driver didn't know the number of his wife and the principal of the school or so. And because of that, he was murdered. Just like that. And he was wasted in front of these kids. Do you know how traumatic that is? I can only imagine what like the, the nightmares they are going, like every night they have to sleep and dream about that incident. They will grow up. These children are very close to a psychiatrist. They need psychiatric evaluation at the right now because these children, that has scarred them for life. Even I as an adult can't watch that, can't go to that and be the same. Yes. And there's a lot of things. And these are kids, some of them I think are less than 10. Yes. And they see this. Guess what? If they grow up to be, you know, hard-hearted people, you would not really blame them because of the type of things that they've seen, so gruesome. It's ridiculous. Can we stop this? Once they were brought, they said they had medical attention. But if they gave them medical attention, did they give them the psychological or psychiatric attention, the evaluation that they need? Because beyond the physical scar that they might have, the one that is inside is what is going to live with them or they are going to live with all their lives. And same goes to these people who have been kidnapped on their way to Abuja. You can't afford flying. Then the road is not safe either. It's not even... How many percent of Nigerians can fly nowadays? And then the roads that you're supposed to travel... You're saying how many people can fly? How many people can even travel? Look at what happened in December. Like, you know, the government had slashed the prices. There were not a lot of people that could even afford that. The government slashed the prices. The government slashed the prices. But a lot of people could not... Because I think they were estimating how many million people and they only got like a hundred of thousands. That's what they even say, that's the report. Because normally in a good year, people who live Lagos alone are more than five million and you're talking about the whole federation. How many people that will need to travel from the North to the East? How many people will need to leave Lagos? My point is, even people cannot afford that. Then you're talking about air travel. So now, the few people that can even afford traveling from one place, one state to another, even on the road, you are not safe. So people would just be like, you know what, I would rather just be where I am because that's where I can assure my safety. I think government should take a lot of these small things. So let me call them small now and be very, very fast about what they need to do for Nigerians to come back to at least enjoying life. There are pockets of protests here and there. Today you hear these people are protesting. Today, tomorrow you hear one person that was campaigning for this government is apologizing. There was one that even walked naked, praying by the seaside for the president to image and he imaged a few days ago he was apologizing to Nigerians. A lot of people are doing that and it starts like that. I'm not praying for it to degenerate into something else but whoever is listening, whoever is responsible should take this seriously. Whatever needs to be done for us to see that okay, maybe in the next two, three months it's going to be better. Should be done. But for now we almost can say a hundred percent that when you wake up tomorrow the prices of goods and everything will not be the same as yesterday. It will go higher instead of coming down. Anyways, we're talking about security here so I don't even know what to say. I'm tired of this story. I'm tired of having to talk about this almost every time I'm on the show. Please the lives and properties of Nigerians should be secured. That's just where I'm going to leave it. Anyways, let's move over to another story. Duty increase spot effects, rate adoption and throw market into panic. The adoption of the spot foreign exchange effects rate in computing duty on imported commodities have thrown importers and the entire business community into a panic mode. For the first time, the Nigerian Custom Service NCS raised the import duty exchange twice within 24 hours on Friday under the guise of obeying the central bank of Nigeria CBN's directive. The unusual adjustment raised the going duties across commodity lines by 48.5% in less than two days. Recall that the NCS adjusted the rate from 951.94 Nira to the dollar to 1356.8 Nira to the dollar on Friday. While the market was yet to fully digest the decision, it was raised further by 4%, over 4% on Saturday to the current 1413.6% Nira to the dollar. In a swift response by the NCS, they said the service is simply adhering to the official market as directed by the central bank of Nigeria CBN. Since President Bola Ahmed Tinibu came into office, the import duty determination rate has been increased by 235%. It stood at 422.3 Nira to the dollar as of May 29, 2023 when the administration was inaugurated. With the liberalization of the FX market, Nira saw a sharp depreciation last June forcing NCS to also adjust the rate used for the duty assessment. Since then the customs rate makes the spot segment of the FX market explaining it is not a decision that has control over. The service has ignored calls for the adoption of the average rate as opposed to the spot rate. Those who have advocated average rate adoption have argued that the option would make more sense for the predictability and stability of the prices. With spot rate adoption the customs have left importers guessing what the next day's duty could be a situation economists said could worsen the inflation including the cost of leaving and raise poverty index. The fresh increases also triggered a negative response in the prices of goods including staple food. At the weekend, the Guardian learned, one of our national newspapers learned that the prices of many imported items were hurriedly adjusted. A list of cosmetics items cited by our correspondent added that 18 to 25% across the prices. Some products that sold for 2200 Nira per unit were adjusted to 2600 Nira while the dealer explained that he would pay more to clear his goods and he had to make provision for the upward movement of the replacement cost. There are fears that the prices of rice, a staple food consumed by many Nigerian households could see a further sharp rise in the coming days following the increase. As at last May, a bag of 50kg of rice sold for about 38,000 Nira was sold by close to 100% to 70,000 Nira at the close of the year. Following the hiking prices of fuel and importation, traders said Nigerians should expect the essential item to hit 100,000 Nira sooner than expected as the rising cost of import feeds into general prices. An average Nigerian faced these tough times in the face of the rising cost of importation last year as in the case of previous ones of 5 top imports by value where motor spirits, gas, oil, wheat, sugar and used vehicles whereas the Nira depreciation means the subsidy cover for the motor spirit will expand drastically and Nigerians will face the direct consequences of spending more on these items well. Inflation How do you import things when you know that by the time you arrive at the ports, maybe the Nira to the dollar has increased by 100% when your plan was for you to pay a certain amount so what this means is that whatever the Nira to the dollar is, at the point where those goods have reached the ports, that's what you're going to pay. So if it is supposed to be 50,000 Nira maybe to clear your goods and you've planned for that, you get to the docks and they are telling you 500,000 Nira that you're going to do so how do you make the adjustments how do you plan for yourself you cannot even plan. I repeat this it is not how much money we have in our foreign reserves that people are concerned about what may cause a revolution will not be because we have no money in our foreign reserve or we have too much money in our foreign reserve it's because we have no food on our table on our table. How do you sell a bag of rice for 100,000 and this is not even a joke because in the next two months that can happen now right, 70,000 people are buying it 65,000, 70,000 depends on the market you're buying it from and then that is within within how many months not even just one year. So I the kind of rice I eat, I eat the Basmati rice and I remember when I started buying the Basmati rice it was about 3,000 Nira I kid you not Basmati rice right now the one I buy is almost that something thousand Nira it's ridiculous and we're talking about 10 kg so 3,000 Nira is like 1,000% as of November I bought it 38,000 Nira in Lagos Island not even in a supermarket so I'm buying it from the people who supply to the supermarket so imagine how much it would be I went to a supermarket just to check out the price one of the popular supermarkets here was 50,000 Nira for 10 kg which was 3,000 Nira which was about yes that raised like well many years ago but at least were you talking many years it could be like 3 years ago 4 years ago so that's not so many years ago when people go out to the UK I tell you a lot of things that were a certain price are still that price still today those things were the same price I know inflation happens everywhere but the jump this is not inflation we have it for another name for it I don't know if this is inflation I don't know when they were going to you because it defies reasoning that the country that should be able to produce so much is the one lacking so much it's terrible and then nothing the government will say everything is being done because the other day the presidency was replying one of the former candidates of a political party that things are moving well they are not as bad as he is putting it what the people are seeing this is beyond this is beyond opposition parties something needs to be done I don't want to have to run away from this country where will I go to this is my home I don't want to be anywhere else I would rather be here let's move over to our final story Nigerian Immigration Service repatriates 18 irregular Cameroonian migrants from Binwe Nigerian Immigration Service says it has sent back home 18 Cameroonian irregular immigrants residing in Makodi the state controller Jerry Omerzy while addressing journalists in Makodi on Monday said the command got intelligence reports that the residents in Makodi precisely number 22, Jonah Jankre was housing irregular immigrants the place was identified by immigration officers who were detailed to carry out surveillance identified 18 Cameroonians who had no travel documents upon questioning them it was discovered that they were here operating a foreign based online marketing company known as Qnet further investigation revealed that the business was in healthcare products juries and cosmetics the head of the online marketing business Anye Immanuel Aberafo who also had no travel documents said they invested about 900,000 Naira in the business the controller described the arrested persons were economic immigrants who had no valid travel documents hence Nairas would not let them stay in Nigeria he advised them to go back and follow the due process of immigration while assuring them of a decent manner of taking them back to their country Omerzy further added that the vehicles were already on ground to take them to the border to be handed over to the border controller for repatriation the majority among the group had applied for a refugee status because of the crisis in Cameroon which the new and high commissioner for refugees is processing just get your travel documents I don't think there should be any reason for you to go to a country without the necessary travel documents and this brings me to this story there was this man that went to the airport with no travel documents and he said because his spirit told him that the land or rather the earth is for him and he's supposed to take possession and so the spirit told him that he should go just have a passport he's a Nigerian he went to the airport with no travel documents he had a passport that was just said but there was no visa I'm not sure if he bought a flight ticket or maybe even bought a flight ticket without a visa something ridiculous like that and then he was expected to travel and he said the land is for him, my father God created everywhere so I should be able to travel to any part of the world that I want to I'm terrible I see but you see that was just to make the light of the story but yes well sometimes I cannot blame them our borders are so porous we need to make the borders less porous or it's the government that needs to put something in place I remember that in America Donald Trump was even threatening to build a wall so it's something that the government has to be proactive about there are so many Cameroonians there are so many people from Benin even Benin was in Nigeria that travel documents so the borders are too porous do you know how many people from Niger it's the same even into Lagos here there are some people that you speak Hausa to them they don't understand you speak languages up not they don't understand and they tell you that they are Nigerians and they don't have any travel documents they are the people who are our gate men they are the people who are our bookies that move around and all that and so today they are telling us that people had to alert them because border control border patrol is not there how did they even get into the country and that's why we've been calling for this synergy between all the security agencies that we have and for them to provide drones and everything that needs to monitor the borders the borders are porous but when they come in now they are making money when they come in now it's the only son us to ask them are you deploying somebody are you supposed to ask them where are you from do that form of would I call it identification process and then if they are not from Nigeria you ask them if they have the necessary travel documents so because we already established the fact that the borders are porous if these people come in because like you said there are gate men, house elves nanny and all of that do we start to ask them is that a way of helping the government what did they tell you there from Nigeria what is it that you are going to verify as a Nigerian what do I carry around what do I carry around to show that I'm a Nigerian so for instance if you are in Nigeria and I want to do some form of identification verification process I'm asking you where is your family from do you understand you need to have a guarantor that is a family member where do they live questions like that I think another gate man because I would know that there is something fishy do you understand my point once someone enters Nigeria there is someone he followed or someone who told him about something like they come to Lagos now people come from the North to Lagos you see them in lorries every day there must be someone who told him that there is a place where you can stay when you are coming here that person already knows some people around that vicinity so if they want to call they can come from here but I'm just saying is there something we can do to actually help the government the government should give us some kind of identification it started with the term of a passenger there was this national identification that he did so everybody was supposed to have some form of passport so that they would identify you because this enumeration was done within the villages so everybody knows everybody else and then we had all those things now nobody uses those things anymore I don't even know where mine is so that passport is so in Nigeria someone from Cameroonian can enter into Nigeria and he is as empty as I am so how do I identify so some of these people like from Cameroon they speak Boki language which is a border town some of these people intermarry so they know people that are coming from other places like that so they kind of just blend in so even my people migrated from somewhere in Cameroon so the first time I visited Cameroon I went to that village and they were speaking my language so if you want to catch them and say ok you say you are from Boda Contrary Boda Contrary please give us identity so that you can find out who doesn't have our identity and then make sure the border patrol help us help us help you alright we'll go on a short break when we return we'll be looking at what the National Daily is saying this morning stay with us