 We're glad to know that you're still there. It's still the breakfast on Plants TV Africa. My name is Nyam Gul Agadje. I did promise you that I was going to be joined later on by Kofi, and thank God he's here. Good morning, Kofi. Yeah, it's almost like saying thank God it's Friday. All right, we have Jimmy Johnson on the line who is set to give us expert analysis as far as the paper review is concerned. Yes, when he's ready, he will come in and do that for us. But a very good morning to our guests today. We have very interesting stories on the front pages, Nyam Gul. I think the one that's captured a lot of attention, especially listening to the radio stations this morning, happens to be the evacuation of Nigerian students from Sudan. Some of them are expressing surprise that there are Nigerian students in Sudan at all, and saying that, well, everywhere, like I had one really presented to say, I don't. You'll be asking yourself how, how come Sudan will be a preferred destination than Nigeria? That means there are fundamental problems that will make someone to leave Nigeria, to go to Sudan of all places to get an education. Well, the Nigerian students in Benin Republic as well. It does not mean that Benin Republic universities are better than Nigerian universities in their sense. Well, you have a point. Yeah, they're steady. That's like 90% of the thing. There's no strike there. They're steady. And then in Benin Republic, some of them go there because the courses they're doing maybe will need French or something, and they need to be in an environment where they speak French all the time. So, well, you can give them that. But to Sudan, what are they studying in Sudan that we shouldn't have in Nigeria? Well, I don't know. You've raised a very important point, which is that they are steady. But let's look at what the people are saying this morning. Daily Trust is the first we'll look at. The big story there, of course, they put out the figure of 4,000. And they put the number of 4,000 to Nigerian students stranded as FG, Taris on evacuation. I was particular about the number because some other papers have a different figure. 4,000 Nigerian students stranded as FG, Taris on evacuation, lives at risk. We're consulting, Daspar Commission, regional global forces behind crisis, General Agui. All right. Nigeria's oil reserve drops to 36. And General Agui should know that. Yes. Nigeria's oil reserves drops to 36.9 billion barrels as gas rises. Okay. FG concessions on each port for 30 years. U.S. Congress moves to recognize Ramadan Eid, tenable appoints on Nanoga, Marwa, 11 others to presidential inauguration committee. Where is he? Where is he? He's working. He's working. Oh, we've not seen him. We've not seen him. Wherever he is. He's in the hospital. He's said to undergo surgery. All of that. Maybe speculation. He's still working. You can see that on the front page. Binani Saga, Buhari approves the REC suspension, orders probe of security operatives, I could read from the electoral act yesterday, who has the power to, you know, remove the REC. But of course, it must be followed by parliamentary vote. I don't know when that is going to come up. I just have a small thing here. Well, maybe a conspiracy or something. The same thing that happened in 1993, that the excuse that was given for the annulment, one of the things is that M.K. Orbiola announced himself as the president elect. Binani gave an acceptance speech in something that she knew was not true. And she's not in the picture. Anyway, let's see. There you go. All right. Sudan conflict. Now, this is on the front page of the country, by the way. Sudan conflict, 1,262 Nigerian students demand evacuation, 330 residents killed. It's really sad. Rather, Sudan Nigerian students feel forms for airlifting. Uganda, Tanzania, rescue nationals, 3,200 injured as outage, food, water, scarcity, heat, cartoons as well health organization will Sudan become another Libya. Only time will tell. Moon sighted in Saudi Arabia, Muslims mark it off until Friday. It's what they call the long weekend. Yeah, Friday and Monday. But you know, you and I. We don't have that luxury. No, this is latest. Okay. Of course, we are essential workers. More from the punch. National Assembly inducts lawmakers elect May 7. But an island developer planned to rake in 22 billion Naira revenue report. Ogun community one year blackout lingers over IKEDC, IBEDC disagreement. It sounds like the university that's owned by legal state and I think Ogun state also where they had some disagreement or they couldn't come to an agreement and they had some issues. This is now about electricity. I hope they get the resolution as quickly as possible. Wuhari suspends Adamawar Rek order security agents probe IOC's moved $21 billion investment to other countries FG. Military will ensure peaceful Hanover May 29 as DHQ. All right. We go over to the daily independent. The following headlines. Wuhari failed woefully in securing Nigeria. Or Tom says president endorses insecurity killings in Benwe. And bold and full and imposterilists in the expansionist agenda. More from that paper. The end yet to be head of 2023 presidential poll. I pack chairman. Wuhari suspends controversial Adamawar Rek like the other papers have said Nigerian students trapped in Sudan fighting in Sudan fighting seek evacuation. May 29 Hanover Day remains sacrosanct. Military assures Diri orders a prosecution of herders for breaching anti-grazing law. We didn't compromise Adamawar governorship poll, INEC even in the face of provocation remain calm. We'll be tells supporters I think they had a meeting in Asaba where you mean that statement. No specific date yet. No specific date yet. It's more confusion. More somersault. What's going on? And 2023 election was transparent. Says Wuhari can find details of that on page seven of the daily independent just in case that story tickles your curiosity. Finally, we have nature news which has the lead story on the front page. Nigeria's future lies in blue economy. We took a few. Nigeria seals Benway ethanol plant, tasks, facilities on environmental compliance. Joe Biden pledges $1 billion to international climate fund. Oil and gas opportunity for NCDNB plants focused on linkage sectors. All right. I'll leave it at that and say good morning to G.D. Johnson, senior lecturer of Nigerianity of journalism. Mr. Johnson, good morning to you. If you can hear us. Good morning, Kofi and good morning to your colleague and good morning to viewers. Thank you very much. Thank you. All over the world. Thank you. Well, as we're saying in the, you know, in the banter before we brought to you on, a story that. Well, I listened to you guys talking about Sudan. We are Nigerian students in Sudan in the Republic of Guinea. I think they do have professors that are manipulating figures for electoral, for electoral victory of people that we ensure that as soon we go and strike indefinitely, they don't participate in the charade that we call elections. So besides, and like your colleague said, you have steady, steady, steady, steady academic, academic and academic calendar. And besides, they have better infrastructure. It's just for you to go and take a visit. And then if you look at, you know, number of students to lecturer ratio is incomparable to what we have in Nigeria. So it's just for us to be playing the oski to think that everything about Nigeria, because we call ourselves, they have claimed that of Africa, we think everything about Nigeria is the best. You see, there are so many things that are wrong with this country. And then until we face that, until we come to that realization, we will not take critical steps in addressing it. You saw the performances of VCs, of professors that they couldn't even do physical arithmetic. And those are the ones that are teaching students to build their schools that we have in Nigeria. Before we move on to the next headline, what are your thoughts on the fact that Nigerians in diaspora commission is saying that they are consulting? And normally, like I say, we have a confused setup as far as Nigeria's foreign policy is concerned, because you know, I don't think you need a Nigerians in diaspora commission when there is a foreign ministry. But anyway, that's the best of you. What do you think is a way forward? Because people will soon start complaining on Twitter that the government has abandoned Nigerian students in Sudan. The situation there is not as simple as that. What do you think? Well, the fact that, unfortunately, the fact that you are Cambridge train doesn't mean that you have better intelligence, a better coordination leadership than something that is trained locally. We have seen to a large extent that there's no policy trust for Nigerian foreign policy. It's clear since the beginning of this administration, this administration is coming to its end. We have not seen that it's the same person that has been minister for foreign affairs. There's no clear court direction with respect to is it Nigerian first, or is it African first, or is it Afrocentric or Nigrocentric policy we focus on? We've seen the response of government to what happened in Libya, to what happened in Ukraine, to what happened in other places. Why would they be studying the event? The event in Sudan, everyone can see the carnage that is going on in Sudan. Everyone can see with their eyes how the situation in Sudan has gotten worse. So you don't have to study the, you have to take quick response in addressing the issue. But what do I know when these people do intervention, the thing that, oh, they are doing Nigerians people, they are coming to a aid. You recall the time, you recall how they went on here celebrating the intervention of the federal government in rescuing Peter Obi when Peter Obi was detained, was detained in the, in, in, when he went, the last time he went to United Kingdom. So it's, it's rather unfortunate that we found ourselves in, in this, in this dark street, dark street in which we put people in position. They don't even know what the, what the government of the United Kingdom is. Sorry, sorry to interject here. What about the fact that it's not really as simple and straightforward as it, it may seem in other situations where you can just go in and what do you call it again and rescue your, your, your citizens. This time the, the, the bombing, the shelling, the, the airport is in the center of Khartoum, the, all the family, the bars are in the center of Khartoum. Kofi, why do you have to wait till you get to this stage before you start the evacuation process? You have the intel. You think that other nations, United States of America, United Kingdom, I know that we have not evacuated their foreign nationals. Kofi, you see, or South Africa or Egyptian, Kofi, the, the bottom line is very, very simple. We, if it's, look, I'll give you a classic example. If it's another citizen that commits an infraction, you see the full might of the state coming in. Everybody, they quickly react. You wonder the quick response of, of these agencies of government. And then when it's someone that is not just standardized, commits an infraction of similar magnitude, you just see that you just go code and it seems as if there's nothing that is happening. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's a typical of us when it comes to responding to issues affecting Nigerian nationals outside the shores of Nigeria. We are not a portion in blame. We are just stating the facts the way it is. It is, it is, it is just clear that those who have given responsibility, those who have given an assignment, they are filled with us time and time again. And such people have no business in any leadership position again. Okay. Let's, let's move away from, from Sudan, Sudan back to Nigeria. Now, the federal government is mauling, raising the salaries of workers. The federal government is also talking about removing fuel subsidy. The federal government is talking about a lot of things. And right now we're, we're seeing that 1.5 trillion Naira has been approved for contracts even when it is just barely 30 days to the end of this administration. But then we hear that the federal reserves, the oil reserves have been depleted. They have gone down. What is, what does this mean to our economy? Well, the focus of government should be on how to reduce the double digit inflation that we are not to contribute to that inflation. You know, this is when they be mauling on increasing staff salary, doing all of that civil servant and the rest of it, you know, all kinds of intervention they've done that contributed to, to this present precarious situation we found ourselves when it comes to double digit inflation is, you know, they did to them on into us 2019 election, they injected too much cash into the economy. And then also remember the COVID relief measures in which that the minister was practically sharing money by ourselves. That's by the fact that we have BVA and we have cashless policy and government could distribute this money to people by their banking platform. So require them to open an account so that you can track, you can monitor. They've not given us, they've not given us the amount of money they spent on COVID intervention with respect to cash that were physically distributed. Now you are coming up with the idea that you are going to distribute 5,000 for six months for 10 million ideas. Ah, these people think that we are fools. And then you keep awarding contracts at the twilight of your administration, two billion, 10 billion, you know, you are wondering where is this money coming from? Why would your foreign reserve not be depleted? It will be depleted, of course, because you are just allocating money in the same year you had an election is the same year you are going to do sensor. You ask yourself this question. Are these people, do they, do they, do they put some of these things, some of their decisions to intelligence test? Why will you do an election and sensor in the same year in less than six months to the end of your administration? I don't, I don't, I don't understand when you have eight years to do, to do sensor. You did nothing. You did nothing, you did nothing about it. And you start awarding contract left track and center injecting money into the economy. You destroy the economy, you destroy the value of merit. And at the end of the day, these are the common cities that will pay for it. On the issue of subsidy, I don't want to say anything again on subsidy. Because I don't know why our colleagues keep reporting. So he's on strike. Subsidy strike. Okay, there's, there's another issue. Can you hear us? Because we can't hear you anymore. I really wanted him to talk about this concept. I don't know why our colleagues keep, you know, took 1,200 Naira. When this administration came into office, it was those 300 Naira that were selling good meat. I, I traveled to a lot during the course of, I said, I asked my son to go out. Service the car, the car we used to service for less than 3,000 Naira. And this, these people used their money to do anything. Someone like fashion, someone like a curfew, someone like lawan, someone like, well, this is not, some of them since 1999, some since 2000 and since 2000, they've been in government. So they don't even know the price of the cost of food stuff in the market. They're far away from reality. And these are the people that are leading us. And then you now see a situation whereby the minister of labor, the minister of state for labor will travel to United States to America for vacation. And then he will be sharing the picture of where he's leaving the car, the affluent that is going on jogging. Can he imagine the minister or minister or secretary of state in America coming to Nigeria to do vacation and sharing that image to Americans in the midst of economic crisis, in the midst of high youth unemployment? It think that is possible? Okay. Well, there are a lot of things on the papers that we would like to touch on. Another thing is federal government concessions on each apart for 30 years. Is this the way to go? That should be on the daily trust. Yeah, this is daily trust, really, like the last story. Well, you see, look, in Nigeria operates one of the airports in London. The consensual is the way. Look, government has no business in business except to regulate. That's the reality. We should concession the port, not even on your nature. On a port, you come to on do here, you have a deep water port. You concession it, just like you concession the refinery. You give it to them, like private people, let them get engaged. That's their own responsibility to get engaged in business and government, the pay revenue back to government. But when you give these services to government to manage, we have seen mismanagement. The classic example I usually give is the issue of, is the issue of telecom sector. Look at what has happened in the telecom sector. We just align private participation in the telecom sector. Or you come to our industry, in the in the broadcasting industry, through the deregulation of by 1992 deregulation. See what it has done or the deregulation of 1991, 1992, or the banking sector. Or you look at the deregulation of education, align private participation to participate in tertiary institutions. If not for those public and even for those private and religious, but this institution, what do you think will have happened with the insensors strike that we have had in successive administrations from 1999 to today, a lot of our children will be, will be uneducated, working room in the street. So we need that. We need government to take his hands off business, but to regulate to regulate businesses so that people in the society can be better. Employment opportunities can be created and then a lot of the stages and mismanagement will be dealt with. So I support that. I support us concessioning the Unichapot, which also concessioned the Apapapot, Tinkana, Atlanta and the rest of it. And then look for opportunities whereby we can have ports and people can private investors can invest heavily in this. And then we have partners, we have ports in Calabar, we have ports in Binay, we have ports in all of those coastal areas, which people could navigate internationally. And it could be a one stop for people, for them to even not coming to Nigeria, that in the course of going through through connecting the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean. Nigeria is so blessed that we are in the heart of Africa, we are in the heart of Africa, connecting South America, not America. And at the same time connecting Asia through our international waters. But what do I know? I don't know anything. And this we put at the S-part and once you see something, because then you will be looking for ways and ways, means to find TV stations or to find journalists and the rest of it. All right. Yes, yes. I think I'll join Sambu say it's not a portion. All right. Let's go over to the punch. Dear Dhamma, your indexions have come and gone, but the reverberations are still being felt. The front page of the punch captures the latest development at the top left corner. Buhari suspends a Dhamma wreck, orders security agents probe. What are your thoughts on that? Bearing in mind the constitutional procedure that is to be followed from all of any wreck and so on and so forth. First, first and foremost, I look to banter your colleague, give with, um, with tabula's self-declarection that affected the legal and how it was promptly arrested for declaring himself the winner. With that, there's no doubt that he commented a crime. It's a crime against the state except proclamation of winning an election in which the rightful winner has not been declared. So she too, she faced the consequences. However, on the issue of the wreck, I think that I've advocated this Cofino that we should take away INEC from the executive in the constitution. In the constitution, you see INEC is regarded as if it's starting under a section which is called a certain executive body. I think the National Judicial Commission should be responsible for the hiring and firing of people in INEC that we need to establish independent, but it's usually, however, it's still the president that calls the shot. If it's the president, he will place the pipe at the case, the tone. That's my take on that and that's cause for reform. And in that, the client assembly should look into this and should take the decisive step in taking INEC away from the executive and making INEC to be under the judiciary because you can't, you can't be the one appointing the body that will super tent over your election. However, on the, on the, on the. Yeah, I was just going to ask you, you know, judiciary because, um, all right, but who had the National Judicial Commission? With that 10 degree, you believe that there's a measure of independent. But who had, who had the National Judicial Commission? And then who appoints the head of the National Judicial Commission? Justices now, little justices, little justices. We believe that they should be able to do the rightful thing. However, there's another which I want us to look at the, from what happened in that time, you can extrapolate that because how many people have lost their election as a result of complicity on the part of the return officer and the electoral officer in charge at as of assembly election, at as of rep election on senatorial election. Other elections which we did not, it was because there was too much spotlight on Adamawa. That's why we were able to see the drama. And it was because the returning officer did not play games. If the returning officer had played games with the, with the, with the wouldn't be here in these stories. There are many cases like that. Cases of elections that were declared that we've seen protest. You know the election of Nassarama State. You saw the drama that surrounded the declaration of election result in Katna State. You saw the drama that surrounded the declaration of, of, of result in Enubu State. We saw the drama of Abia State. Gubernatorial elections, I'm talking about Gubernatorial elections of, of, of Abia State. You saw the drama. So from that, you could extrapolate and come to a conclusion that the entire election needs investigation. So it's not yet to rule. Let me borrow the Swahili Swahili. It's not yet to rule when it comes to election and anybody trying to gloss over and say, oh, you know what we did decisively with Adamawa State. It was because somebody was not complicit. We saw complaints and complaints and complaints and complaints. That one of, that one of Nassarama, it's wonderful. It's, it's, it's, it's what Fela Nikolapo calls government magic. The one of Karnu, the one of, the one of Katna, wonderful. I know that wonderful election. You forget, you forget in reverse. That's what they, that's what they told them, the losers of the election. Don't worry, go to court. You forget in reverse state. It's the same thing with what happened in reverse state. In reverse state, in broad daylight, people are prevented from going about their legitimate right. Reverse state as DSS, as all the trappings of all security agencies. Yet, people, and people are prevented. So a party with non-face, with non-character, deputy speaker, local government chairman, they've not been arrested, they've not been prosecuted, destroyed, vandalized properties of the opposition, prevented people from going to high-necked coffees to lodge their informal complaint. Oh my goodness. And they said this election is, is transparent, is open, is free, is fair. And we saw it, the one in reverse state was transmitted live. I've given you an example, any good state election, gubernatorial election, abbey state, gubernatorial, gubernatorial election, Nassarawa state, gubernatorial Katna, and then we saw the drama in the, the, the, the, the, August state and then we saw the drama, we saw the drama we are, we are witnessing in Nandamawa state, plain, plain, plain that, and some states justify the illegality. It was because the illegality camera spotlight was thrown on those illegality. That's why we are screaming. And as I said, a lot of people have lost their election at, as of assembly level, at, as of rep level, at senatorial level, to this kind of shenanigans. That's why we have so many, that's why we have so many, that's why we have so many litigation with respect to this election. And then coffee, just give me a minute, coffee. I have advocated this. You know, there was, I didn't support violence. However, I said the kind of security they provide for themselves when they make the announcement, whether at the state level or the national level is the kind of security they should provide for each of the polling unit. The returning officer at the state level does not have two heads than the, the returning officer at the one level at the polling unit. It's the same function. It's the same function. Let them open up, let them not secure the place and see how talks, even the one they secured in Nandamawa, what happened? You still see talks and there was an outrage. There was an outrage. I saw Festus Okoye coming on here and he was, he was, he was not outraged with when they beat a returning officer at the local government, at the local government level. He was not outraged when a returning officer at the one level election does not take place at the coalition center. Election takes place at the polling unit. That's where power is derived from. It's through the ballot system. That is should be the most secured place. When it comes to the out on the security and steps. I think it was in Port Hacot where the returning officer for Fawaga, the local government area, it took the CP going to local government to rescue her and bring her with the results to the state coalition center. Well, you made a point. You said in Nandamawa state, the returning officer refused to play the game that the rec was playing. Probably that's why the results went out. But I don't know, GD, don't be too sure. You're not there. You don't know what game, whether I played any game. We don't know yet because the same PDP hailing Nigerian press, Nigerian media, hailing the civil society organizations and all but for driving home the point and making sure that they won that election. The same PDP that is doing some other things in other states acquired public state. This is not PDP APC water view. This is about Nigeria. Whoever wins elections should come to the ballot box. That's what we are saying. Look, there's no I have told you what is different between PDP and APC. Acabio was in PDP. For God knows when. Every actor, players in PDP APC, even the property today were either in PDP or APC in the past. They are the same. They have a character. They are new parts. No matter how hard it rains, it cannot take away their black spot. The way they've been doing things, that's the way they try to continue to do. And we are saying no, let whoever wins the election be the person that is declared the winner. Let the winner come to the ballot box. Just a moment as we wrap up here on this segment, there is this thing by the defense headquarters that the military will ensure peaceful handover May 29. And I'm just thinking, are all the things that are supposed to be done, done? Are all the conditions right for them to be able to do this? Are we sure of the May 29? Military are now the people who are saying they're protecting our democracy. Your comments on that as we wrap up. What is the business in coming out to see that they will do that? It's what is required of them constitutionally. It's what is required of them except something we don't know. They know something we don't know. That's why they are giving that because it's trying to see the government or another government is seamless. So we don't need the statement or that we guarantee. No, there's no need for granted seamless. In democracy, the military must be seen and not be heard. And we have seen situation whereby we have seen security agencies. We are hearing them too much. When it comes to in democracy, the security agencies and the rest of them must be seen and not be heard. And these ones, they're making too much statement. And to digress a little, the last one, you see they are providing 40,000 men, 50,000 men, yet you see violence erupting left and center during the election. If you go and sit down, the May 29 is a concern. It's then the constitution that they will be transitioned. So we don't need any assurance from them because it's seamless except we know what we don't know. It should be seamless. They are procedures for it with respect to elections have been conducted. Winners have been declared. Each user in court. So it's no longer in the hands of anybody in the hands of the court. What needed to be done by various agents of government should be done. All right. In by May 29, there is no pronouncement by the courts, which in any case, you are not going to get. The person that has been declared the winner will be sworn in. And then the procedure, the court processes will go on until there is a final determination by the Supreme Court. And then whatever the outcome, if the winner is declared as still the winner, no problem. And then if the reverse is the case, then the issue of government be effected. That's where they come in. They will effect the necessary changes that is required of them. And I think moving forward, one of the issues we put before the attempt assembly is that all litigations leading to the election must be concluded. All right. That should be an amendment. That should be an amendment we should be looking forward to in the entire assembly, all litigations. So we should conduct the election for six months. Good luck. Good luck in your hope and your wish for that. Yes, that will happen at the end of the day. But Jiri, thank you so much for your time. Nigerian politics is just a gift that keeps given. And I say sometimes to cope, you just look for the funny aspect of it and laugh away the frustration. Jiri, thank you for your time. We look forward to having you next week. Thank you. What's the name of my friend? Nyamgul. I knew it was. Come to that. Nyamgul. Nyamgul, okay, that is registered. Nyamgul is a pleasure to be with you. You are from the North Central. I'm from Cross River, Ogodja. Okay, okay. Ogodja, you are sharing bad news with us. No fuss, no fuss. You are sharing bad news with us. Thank you very much. Thank you. The pleasure is to have Nyamgul. It's my pleasure. My brother. Okay, no problem. We'll still keep enjoying the government magic together. I've been to our Muslim brothers. Thank you very much. Thank you. Yes, fantastic. All right. It was Fela Husan called Ben Maji. You know, and a lot of things he says is still true today. Yeah. That's the amazing thing about it. Yeah, the president said the election was transparent. I think it was because he voted and showed us how he voted. So it was really transparent. So I clap for him. I don't clap for him. That's the funniest thing I've had today. There's meaning to it. It was really transparent. Anyway, we'll take a break. When we come back, we'll have more conversations ahead. Of course, I've called the views of our kids in tearing order on Julio Sabure, the chairman of, should I say, the former chairman of the Labour Party. Stay with us.