 We're right back here to talk about the, some of the products that Niger has really imported in 2022. Maka Debayo joined us this morning, Merry Christmas, and thank you for being with us. Thank you so much for having me. Yes, then a bit of a background to all of this. Africa's biggest economy relies heavily on importation for many goods consumed in the country, including food. And it was, you know, that conversation we had with Inneka just before this time. It exports mostly agricultural goods, which sometimes do not meet the requirement. Now crude oil and gas are among some of these exported products. Now, according to reports by the National Bureau of Statistics, it shows that for the nine month period, the country's total import student 17 trillionaire indicated a 22.52% decline from 21.95 trillionaire in the same period of 2021. Let's quickly take a look at, you know, some of the products that topped the list of imported items into the country, that's Nigeria, from January to September 2022. Premium motor spirit popularly called petrol is the most important, according to the report, product into the country. It accounted for 21.5% of the country's total import in the, in the period. Also, Nigeria's imported, imported gas, which worth a 261.59 billionaire in the third quarter of 2022. That is a 4.62% of the country's total imports of the, for the quarter. Nigeria imported the Durham with what 252.62 billion in the third quarter of 2022. That's a 40 or 4.1% increase from the second quarter to the third quarter, accounting for 4.46% of the total import recorded in the same period. Nigeria's country spent 93.03 billionaire on the importation of kerosene type kind of jet fuel in the third quarter of 2022, which amounts to 1.64% of its total import. The jets fuel imports in Nigeria decreased by 8.9% compared to 102.14 billion recorded in the previous quarter. The statistics will continue, but that's a quick one. Use vehicles that we popularly called Tokumbio vehicles. Nigeria's imported use vehicles valued at 90.78 billion in the third quarter of 2022. That accounts for 1.6% of the total bill in the third quarter of 2022. We also spent about 86.58 billion, important sugarcane. Now, theaters, this is the cost of which the country, Nigeria imported about 5.32 billionaire or spent 5.32 billion, I beg your pardon, to import a third quarter of, in the third quarter of 2022. That's medication appliances. It cost the country 48.74 billionaire and 44.71 billion respectively in the third quarter of 2022. Mark Adebayo, thank you so much for joining us. Here's a public affairs analyst. Once again, it's good to have you join us. Thank you so much for having me. Good morning, viewers. Yes, I'd like to ask you at this point, would it be okay to say that Nigeria is an independent you know, nation and economy that's dependent on import? Thank you so much. Nigeria is a country that is over dependent on imports to the detriment of our economy and to the detriment of our development. The most shave wire running of all the products you have outlined today is the petrol, the PMS, premium motor spirit, you know, that is taking almost about a quarter of our total imports. So it is a station. Mark Adebayo, we seem to have been disconnected with you, but if you can hear me, we're lucky to go ahead with your thoughts. Mark Adebayo, all right, unfortunately, we have been disconnected. Mark, are you with us now? No, are you, Mark? Can you hear me now? Can you see me now? Yes, we can hear you. Can you please, you know, start off from where you started off from? I would say that this is a shave wire running that Nigeria, that used to be the fourth largest oil producer in the world, you know. Now is now the fourth largest oil producer in Africa, even in Africa, we have, we used to be number one. Now we are importing a product that we have in large quantity, the product that we have in the largest quantity. Out of all our exports, we are now importing, it constitutes about a quarter of our total imports into the country. It's a shame that Nigeria, Nigeria is now number four behind countries like Angola, Algeria and Libya in terms of oil production. Libya, that is essentially a failed state, is now producing more oil than Nigeria. And now we are importing what we have in the largest quantity in this country. It's got a shame. It's part of the failure of leadership of this country. Lack of fishing, lack of preparation, lack of preparedness for the economic development and growth of Nigeria. It is what has, lack and we in any way justify the fact that all that we have in abundance is what we are now importing is by PMS and is costing about a quarter of our total import into the country. It is a mark of leadership, total leadership failure. You know, everything that we inherited from independence, we have factually lost everything. Now, Nigeria used to be one of the largest exporters of cocoa. It's no longer there. Nigeria used to be among the leading, leading lights of growth of economic development in Africa. Now we have lost that. We used to have one of the, you know, almost everything. You know, we used to, we had a huge plant that was producing pojo in this country. We have lost that. We used to have a huge plant producing our, what do you call it? First one gone in this country. We have lost that. So many industries, we have lost them to either Ghana or South Africa. Everything that was looking for us post independence is no longer working. I grew up to know what a corporation of Nigeria is no longer there. I dug the borehole in my house to produce water for my family. Ditto for every, almost every Nigerian. It's no longer there. So we seem to be moving backwards. Oil is not something that we should be talking about importing to this country or any of its byproduct. It is something that we should be exporting but we are importing. And it does seem that the conversation even in the ongoing electionary campaign by the presidential candidates, nobody is talking about how we are going to diversify this economy and stop this crazy importation of fear into the country. How can you? It is unjustifiable. It is unjustifiable for Nigeria to be among the country that I am, that I am importing finished product of what do you call it? Of fuel byproducts. And we are bringing that into the country. It is a shame. It is a total absolute shame for Nigeria to be among. Like I said, Nigeria used to be number one oil producer in the country. Now we are number four. Angola, Algeria, and Libya. It is inexplicable how the managers of our economy could comprehend this type of backwardness and feel comfortable doing that. It's quite a shame. Of all the attempts that have been mentioned, the one that I read, the other one is sugar cane. In Nigeria, Papua Latua Lo and some places and some large expenses in Kando to use large amounts of sugar cane, large amounts of sugar cane that can take care of, that can even export to take care of the needs of Africa and Asia. But we are not developing it. So we shouldn't be among country that will be importing sugar cane to this country for what they read that we are talking about. Oh, okay, okay. I mean, Adeba, let's take the conversation further now. You have highlighted that there are two, you know, products on the list or items that has been listed as the most important in Nigeria that, you know, we have the capacity. That's what it means. For instance, you mentioned oil. You have also talked about sugar. Well, aside of these two items that you have mentioned, are there other items on this list that you think that we have the capacity and there are policies in place to enable us, you know, produce them and not import them? The other one that is also very, very painful is kerosene. Is kerosene, including the aficion fuir. We have the capacity to produce kerosene. I'm talking about kerosene for domestic use that is not even anywhere now. You know, 30 years ago, kerosene was the biggest attraction of the masses, of the common people. People who could not afford gas, who could not afford any other means of cooking. They used to patronize kerosene. You know, like it was as cheap as like five Naira per liter. But today it's out of reach. Even it's now more expensive than gas. A lot of people now who could not afford gas in those days are now resorted to gas rather than kerosene. Kerosene is supposed to be for the use of the common people. But it's out of reach for them now. You can't even find it. It's not even anywhere. So either for a creation use or for domestic use, kerosene is something that Nigeria can comfortably produce in commercial quantity and even export. It is not something, it's not a product we should be importing. It's not a shame that we are importing kerosene. Kerosene, from my shadow, I know that kerosene was quite affordable and accessible. But today it is neither accessible nor affordable. So it's also one of the products that I believe that Nigeria should not be importing. It should not be a month. It's something that we should be exporting. And because, and you know, when people, when the system, because there's a systemic failure here, has run down the capacity to maintain our refineries. It is, that is what we are facing now. That's what we are facing now. Hopefully there will be a government. That's why I don't blame any of the presidential candidates or any government that's saying that they want to sell off our refineries to private concerns so that they can run it better. Because it doesn't seem that any business, any concern, any compulsion that government touches in this country is run aground. So if we can outsource it to people who can run it very well and produce our premium motor spirit, produce our gas, produce our kerosene, either for both domestic use and aviation use, the better for the country. Rather than, are you aware, if you look at the budget, if you see the salary, the stop salary of the cardinal or cardinal refinery that they are collecting for producing nothing in the last eight, 10 years, they have produced nothing, but they collect billions of Naira every month as salary for a refinery that has been run aground, that is money-bound, that is not working, that is not producing one liter of fuel. Are people out there still collecting salary for doing what? What kind of country, what kind of country are we running? How can we be running a country like this? Okay, so I know that in the course of this conversation, you have actually highlighted maybe one or two reasons why we're not being able, but categorically, I like you to state, it doesn't add up. I'm struggling to understand that if we as a people have the capacity to produce some of this item that's been most imported or we have imported in 2022, then why are we not producing them? Why are we importing them? And subjecting ourselves to an economy that is dependent on imports, import-dependent nation, that would be the tag for us as a country. So if we have the capacity to produce this, there are policy in place, we have the structure, we have the, where without, we have the technical know-how, then how come we're not in business? It's bubbling, it is bubbling. That's what I said, it's an irony of shame. You know, Karnu state, or maybe I should include Nigeria state too, those two states can produce the sugar-pane needs of the world, of the old world. It is not an exaggeration. So Adeba, my question is why? Why? Leadership failure, simply, simplicity, leadership failure. Lack of a lack of visionary leadership, lack of commitment and attention to the economic development of the country, by the leadership. That is why we are where we are. It is not because of any other factor. It is about leadership. So corruption is not an issue? Corruption is not an issue? It's a major, look, it's a major, probably it's the central theme of the old backwardness, corruption, and everything boils down to leadership. Corruption, because people who are benefiting, who are benefiting from what you call a subsidy, are the ones who we never want fuel importation to end. But by the time the government removes the sand from fuel or from subsidy, fuel importation, you will see that everything, we will get our acts right. Corruption, the corruption industry is the largest industry in this country. We have to go now. And it is real fuel by the leadership. So that is the tragedy of this country, corruption. But even the leadership gets its acts right. Corruption will die in this country. Like they say, there's a contradiction about it. I think we need to leave it at that point. If the leadership gets her acts right, then corruption would be a thing of the past. Many thanks, Mark Adeba, for being part of the show this morning. We really do enjoy speaking with you. And we look forward to sharing your thought. We wish you a Merry Christmas and a prosperous 2023. Thank you, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Have a great day. And that's the size of a conversation on the breakfast this morning. We will definitely return tomorrow. If you missed that on any part of it, we will be on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And of course, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel at Plus TV Africa and Plus TV Africa Lifestyle. My name is Messier Bukbo. We join the newsroom at nine o'clock for the news brief. Please stay with us. Good morning.