 On the breakfast, the Central Bank of Nigeria has directed commercial banks to dispense and receive the old Naira notice legal tender across the country. But what effect will this have on the cash crunch being experienced all over Nigeria? Also on the breakfast, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEG, has said the reconfiguration of the bimodal water registration system will be completed today in preparation for the March 18 governorship and state assembly elections. We'll look at some of the reactions that are trailing this action by the electoral umpire. And as usual, we'll be taking a look at what the national dailies are saying today. Bring your analysis of some of the headlines from pages of today's newspapers. All these ahead on the breakfast right here on PAS TV Africa. What a very good morning to you. It's another day of discussions and interesting analysis right here on PAS TV Africa. The breakfast is live. My name is Kofi Bartels. You're welcome. And I am Messi Bupo. It's good to be back on your screen. Good morning. Alright, lots to talk about today. I'm going to be looking again at the Biva situation and of course also looking at the latest as far as the Naira is concerned. Of course, we all know the breaking news from last night and with the central bank of Nigeria. So we have a buffer package and we implore viewers to sit down, relax and be a part of the conversation. We usually start things off with trending stories and of course we have something for you. Can we roll the tape? This is something that a lot of people have never seen before. Alright, there's nothing that a lot of people have never seen before. But it has to do with the Naira and also has to do with shredding. You know, when you have papers and you want to make waste of them. You don't want to just keep them, especially sensitive documents. You take them through shredder. Well, there was a dump site that was located of shredded Naira nodes, old Naira nodes. And it caused a lot of Nigerians on social media to express some frustration and anger when this dump site containing old shredded Naira nodes were found or was found. Let's listen to this and when we come back we'll give you more on the background and then we analyze it. Alright, so that's an interesting one. What happened there was some persons stumbled upon a dump site of shredded Naira nodes and was surprised and put it on video, went on social media and then shared it. And people are commenting saying, you know what? This is really sad. Mr. Skecity of Naira, you are wasting or throwing away a hard-earned money, if you want to call it that, money that we can use to buy stuff that can be given to the public. So that's that. And I mean, I'm just looking at it. I'm still thinking about it. I'm not sure that picture would ever leave my mind. And I'm just wondering what's really the rationale behind all of that. I mean, is there no other way that we could probably have attended to that without having to shred it, just like you have mentioned. Now, if you also look at that, just yesterday you had the CBN giving that directive. It feels like everyone has been waiting. So what exactly now happens that, you know, all of this forms. And if you look at it the way the old Naira nodes, I saw a bit of 500 and 1000 and that's gone. So wouldn't there be or wouldn't we have had or those involved had other options rather than shredding, you know, the forms as they have done. And I'm just asking myself, what exactly could be the rationale behind all of that. So, but yeah, yeah, you know, my question on my mind will be, is that a private shredded dump node, Naira nodes or is this government shredded top note? I would like to know because if it's private, of course, it'll be really stupid. Why am I saying it's stupid because it's public information that you can take your Naira nodes despite the exploration of the old Naira nodes to any commercial bank or the central bank of Nigeria anytime. All right. And then it will be redeemed in the current currency according to electrolyte. So it's there. The central bank has made that known. The government has made it known. The lawyers who challenged the central bank said it before and the media has been discussing it. So it's not people have been taking their notes to the central bank videos all over the place. So I mean, I would like to believe that is not a personal stash of cash. So I said, Oh, no more Naira nodes. I could not be the deadline and they destroyed it. Now, second thing is you remember last month there was a viral video of some destroyed old Naira nodes. I don't know if you remember that and people were making a lot of noise about it. And then it was revealed that the central bank from time to time and withdraws mutilated, disfigured and old Naira nodes from the system and prints new one. They have a budget for this. And actually there are people who are giving contracts to dispose of the old nodes. That's their contract. They have that. They pay them to dispose of these old nodes. Central bank doesn't do it themselves. So I think people should not be alarmed. Nobody's money is being shredded. People's monies are safe. I think this is an official thing that it may be the dumb side of one of the contractors of the central bank who has had to dispose of old nodes before now. Okay. So I think there's nothing to be alarmed about, you know, in this situation. If the government says they're going to increase the central bank says they're going to increase the amount of liquid in circulation or amount of currency in circulation. They're going to increase it. There's nothing that stops them. If they say they're going to reduce it, they reduce it. There's nothing that stops them. But your money is intact. Okay. So I don't think this is a problem for me. I don't think this is a problem. Moving away from that, let's quickly take a look. Now, as we inch closer to the elections that was postponed, or if you like to say to the 18th of March, it was supposed to be on the 11th of March. Now, this weekend, all things being equal, that election would happen. The governorship elections and the state House of Assembly elections are in some state, not entirely, because they are some states that are not within that calendar. Now, a lot's been going on. Politicking has not ended. And so we have seen the state governor who has been really, really on the news, I mean, almost everywhere. Now, this one is quite interesting because he went to church. So let's take a quick look at this video where the governor of Lagos state went to church. Okay. So I'm being told that we don't have the tape to roll, but according to the reports and all that we saw, he visited two churches here in Lagos. And apart from the churches, there's been other places that has been visited. I mean, sometimes I see this picture or pictures and I begin to ask myself, could this be a photoshop or is this real? Yeah, yeah, messy. So you're absolutely right. The governor of Lagos state is a Christian. He goes to church. Okay. So I think we can see, can we listen to what? Okay, let's listen to this and then we'll come back for the analysis. I just got the, you know, I didn't know it was going to come, but it's a pleasure. Sometimes a government is also a government in Christ. Yes, it's also a government in Christ. Praise the Lord, hallelujah. Please, we may have our seats. All right, but the pastor said something which I'm hoping we can still air. You know, he said something which I'm hoping we can still air. What he said was about Governor Boajili Somolu, you're welcome to church. Great to have you here. He said as a pastor, I wasn't aware that the governor was coming to service and I was happy to have him. You know, he's a governor of the state. That's number two. He's a brother in Christ. So you're welcome. The first step we rolled, if we can do some silent rolling. Now, you see that the governor was doing a meet and greet at the church. Fantastic. We see the governor doing some meet and greet at the church. We can see that he's greeting the congregants. Mercy. Can you see the surprise on some of the faces out there? Some people coming out and being shocked. Oh, the governor is greeting us. Some persons say, ah, why is the governor so desperate? He's going out to greet church members, you know, look at how desperate he is. But you can see, passability, though, of harvests as international Christians. He must put a dozen out of the church. Okay. Also beside him. And I said to people yesterday, what if, you know, the governor was leaving and Pastor Boajili was... So, Pastor, please, I have to go and greet my members. This is what I do after every service. The governor said, oh, I'll come with you. Okay. Or what if the pastor said, oh, God, your accent is, can you come with me? I'm going to greet some members. I'm sure they'll like to meet you. You know, what about that? So people cannot sit down in their bedrooms and paint a story. Oh, the governor went and then started begging to greet people and wanted to... No, we don't know. You can see the pastor by his side. Kofi, see, you and I, I'm planning not to... Because from the way you're sounding, I'm almost laughing, but I don't want to laugh. It's not because, you know, I shouldn't laugh. You should prolong your life. So my point here is, Kofi, please, and please, and to every other person. Let's not even try to make a fuse about this. The reason why we're even talking about this is because it's extraordinary. I mean, yes, we know he's a Christian or every other person is a Christian. So how many times, you know, has he been to church and or just visited any church within the past home years? Let's look at it before 2023. It's a question. And so that's the reason why everybody's talking about this. And if you walk in church very well or you understand how the church operates, there's a unit called the Meet and Greet Tango. You're the one who said it. These persons are usually outside to welcome people when they come to church and also greet them when they're out of church. And that's it. So I wouldn't really understand. Now, in a typical church setting, because I grew up in church and I understand the dynamics of church, especially the Pentecostal churches. Now, this is not to even say, oh, there's anything wrong with what he has done. But, you know, this is speaking to the fact that there's a lot. This might just be because he is, you know, vying to come back or to retain the position that he's currently, you know, holding. That's been the pastor. I beg your pardon. Now, you hear me saying he's been the pastor. That's been the governor of Lagos State. I don't see where this is coming from. Now, usually in churches, the churches that I have seen, and, you know, the doctrine seemed to be like the practice if you have someone very prominent visiting the church. There's always where the pastor takes them to the, you know, their offices and then they sit down and before you say XYZ. They're not usually in company of people and then they, you know, zoom into your cars and they're out of it. So it's very, very difficult, including very prominent pastors that visit all the churches, you know, to have them stand and greet. How many times? What was the last time you saw that? So I don't think that if people are beginning to express concern and then they are beginning to wonder and saying, oh, this is an act. Apart from that, within the past few days, we have also seen, I'm asking if these pictures are real because I don't want to believe them. And not to say that it's not possible to happen because I have seen pictures of him making, you know, like in the salon, he's in the phone shop fixing the phone. He's in the car, you know, the mechanic stores is fixing what exactly is responsible for all of this gesture. Just as we inch closer to the election. So I'm not sure, but I'm being told that we have another table. Merci. We will go over to Zion, the Zion prayer movement outreach. Have you heard of them before? I haven't. The Zion prayer movement outreach is from what I gather, one of the churches, the church in Lagos, one of the largest Igbo dominated population. Let's take a look. Thank you very much, Zionists. People of God, thank you very much, thank you very much, thank you very much, thank you very much, thank you very much. Thank you, thank you. On behalf of the government of Lagos, I want to first thank God Almighty, the giver of life, the Lord yesterday, today and forever, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the one that was, that is, that will always be, the words of Sharon, the I am that I am, the King of King and the Lord of Lord, for bringing each and every one of you here today. And secondly, I want to thank the man of God, my very good friend and brother, the great evangelist, Zionist of our time, evangelist of her. I want to thank God for his life. I want to thank God for his ministry. I want to thank God for the friendship that he has showed to me. And I want to thank him that he has continued to put us in prayers. And I'm here to say things for myself. I've sent people here on two, three occasions and I know that indeed, the Zionist God is with you. God Almighty brings all of you here together. I want to thank you and I want to thank him. And I want to say that it is indeed an honor to have allowed me to come in here this afternoon and I can see the great work that is happening here. These are men, these are women that have chosen for God and miracle, this ministry will continue to grow from strength to strength. And the man of God is anointing will not diminish. Your prayer on him will not diminish. He will use him for greater and bigger things in this ministry and so shall it be. For us as a government, you know I'm your humble servant, I've come here to thank you, to say to you that I am a governor and I will work for all of you. That's a little prophecy there. Mercy, I wish we had the opportunity to see when he walked in through the ministry. Oh, we need to hear the song they were singing. They actually were singing some nice Akanshawa music, you know. Yes, and then the old people were dancing and then they switched it to a governor's name. Really? And then when he went in, it was so overwhelming, the love the governor was shown, the overwhelming support, you know, in love. And then they were singing his name and it was so, the governor could not help but had to dance. Oh, you know when they said David dance, you know the difference in David's dance sense and all those dance was that David took off his clothes. That's the only difference, but the governor really danced. You know, I saw some clips on some comments on Twitter. Someone took the governor dancing and then cut a part of where the crowd, you know, waving their hands. Just a second or two seconds or three seconds. And then she said, oh, that obedience were rejecting the governor, which was a blatant lie. The question is who went to put that video on Twitter? And then who put that caption that obedience in the church were rejecting the governor. And then they put their hands over it. In reality, they were actually dancing, waving their handkerchiefs. And then, sorry, Messi, another thing is people said, oh, he's going about to this church, this church is because it's election time. For crying out for God's sake, when is campaign time, what do politicians, do they sit at home? You know, when is campaign time, do politicians sit at home and drink tea? They call out to campaign. But interestingly, evangelist Ebu Khaobi of this Zion prayer network outreach, he said that someone has been participating in their services, in their program. So some years now. He sent his chief, he's a chief of staff for Secretary of State, Comments of the State. Sometimes he'll send a commissioner with a speech to come and read from him at their services when they invite him. So he's been going, having on good account that someone has been attending other churches. You know, programs for harvesters are here. He's been even inviting Pastor Bola Jidu to government house and all these things. Can we talk about House on the Rock? He's been going, Pastor's acquisition. He was there. The experience, he was there. The only reason someone didn't go for the last experience is because his commissioner, after Ensaas in 2021, went to House on the Rock and was booed and probably had it, he was advised, okay, stay away from, but the government of Lagos, they still gave a speech at the experience. So it will be unfair to say Samoulu is only going to church, only because his campaign, we've not been seeing him before. Of course, he's going for campaign. But the truth is that, just to buttress my point, the truth is that he has been going to churches before now. Where he has been going to churches is when he is invited to go to church. And that's on a different, I don't think that... So you say he's been going to church. It's not that you were there, and you saw when he went to these churches. Well, if you see, it's just very normal. What did you say? Should I show you? Coffee, coffee. The internet is free. Coffee, just like we're making your point. Usually in churches, it's just very normal that, in church service, especially in the Pentacles, so church and other churches, it's okay to have you. I'm sure that you probably would have been invited as a guest to honor some church denomination and gathering. And which is... No, wait, wait. I'm trying to put a point here. That, yes, he's been honoring invitation because he's a public figure. And most times, you have, like you just mentioned, a precession service, all of that, the experience. It's not that, in some of these gatherings and experiences or congregation, it's not that these persons voluntarily show up like every other regular person does. In most cases, they are usually on the list of invitations. I mean, you're usually invited as guests. And so, yes, he's been honoring his invitation, but is there anywhere that you have said that he just sat down, voluntarily, and he told you that he went to these churches? And it's okay, just like you have said, that people politic, politicians politic when there's a period of politicking. And so that's exactly what's going on. So I just think that it's okay for the people to express their concern. It's a wonder. And my grandmother would say, it's an American wonder. And you said it's not okay for people to express. No, I'm just saying that if people are saying, oh, he's actually going there because of the election, isn't it? You have also said that, you know, during campaign and politic, politicians campaign and politic. And so if the people are saying, oh, he's going to church now, we're seeing him visiting church. And did you hear what the pastor, pastor Bolaji said? And unfortunately, we're able to play that tip where you also recounted some of the things that he said. He said, I didn't know he was coming. So no, but it was a different thing when he went to Zion church. Apparently they knew he was coming and he wouldn't have been a coincident when they started singing his song. Yeah. Interesting point. Interesting point for me. I really do not have any problem. But whether you were invited, mercy, sorry, whether you were invited or whether you were not, you know, the fact, the point I'm making is this, that there are arguments out there. Some people are saying, oh, it's only because it's campaign that's why he's going to church. But he's desperate. He seems to be greeting people, shaking their hands. Then the first thing I said, we don't know how that meeting occurred, whether he was dragged there by the pastor, whether the pastor was going to do his thing. So please, I would join you. And then it just happened to be a spur of the moment thing. Conjunction. Not, I want to greet your people so I can check down the campaign. No, he actually gave a speech in the church. That's number two. And the narrative that he does not attend church functions or he's not been going to churches before now. It's debunked. Whether he was invited or whether he went to, what I'm saying is he's been going before now. Thirdly, some of these people who are criticizing Sa'ulah for going, the candidate that they support has been going to churches left, right, and center. And nobody complained about it. So, what is the hula-baloo about? You know, what is the hula-baloo? Hula-baloo about, sorry. I mean, before this, all the time, you remember that when I was like, as a person, and I really, I think that the reason we're talking about this is because it's unusual. We get to talk about what is unusual. That's what news is about. That's what top trending is about. Now, and it's top trending because this is actually what we've not seen in a very long time. How many governors have you seen? It's trending because people are talking about it. No, yes, because they haven't seen this kind of wonder. And my grandmother would say it's an American wonder. She says it's American wonder. When we see governors, I have been, Kofi, you know how these things actually work. And I don't think that anybody should lose sleep over this. We already understand that politicking, people would take any strategy, any kind of form. So how about, okay, let's even move away from the church that we saw and all of that and the statement that he gave, until he was even praying, he was so spiritual. Okay, where was Professor? Oh, he said, yeah, exactly. You know, and it was, it was interesting, you know, and there's nothing wrong with that. Election period is where you see politicians preaching. My mother's one time goes to like, Bobby was, he started preaching. I was like, my God, you know, but we have to, we have to. And these messages are very powerful messages. I'm telling you. These professors are very powerful, you know. Okay, we have to go. But we need to go. Yeah, the best shops and the upper building of the old Savanna bank. You remember Savanna Bank? I hate of that name. Oh, man. Okay. The old Savanna Bank at a single market in Kanu, according to the Public Relations Office of the Fire Service, you know, they inferno started at about 2.18 a.m. These things started fairly. You know, when nobody is a weak and they received the distress call at midnight. that there was a fire outbreak at the market, which is in Fagi, local government area of Canberra State, remember? Professor Fagi, who comes on the program. I don't know if that is his local government. So they said that they send their personnel to the scene of the incident at about 2.22 a.m. to put up the fire, so as not to affect other shops. So that's that. Let me see, we just add to this, the oil mill markets in Portugal also experienced a fire yesterday, and that also started at night or at dawn when no one was in the market. So these market fires are back. And really, Kofi, just like every other time we lend a voice to fire incident across the country, whether it happens in Lagos or Kano or Buja were writers, it's almost one and the same thing. And I'm hoping that in 2023 we'll build on, all hands would be on deck. We would take responsibility. Now as for firefighting or the firefighters, we have them across the 36 states of the Federation. I'm sure that also with the FCT, but there's always a challenge as to whether we have the resources to fight this fire. Apart from having a firefighting station and what have you an agency of government, are we also leaving up to the expectation of educating the people? Are we also looking out for making provisions to ensure that those who are caught in the issue, I mean, because most fire incidents are not just, you know, accidents. You have cases of arson and what have you. And so what are we doing in terms of education? So it's okay to say, hey, we have a responsibility to fight fire. Well, it's also your responsibility as a fire agency to ensure that the fire doesn't happen in the first instance. And that's what we talk about, education and awareness. You know, whatever means that we have to reach out to the people, constantly creating awareness, especially in our markets. Now if you also look at the kind of structures that we have over time, for the lack of planning and structures, you find out that you have a cluster of structures. I mean, everywhere seemed to be very clumsy and that's also an issue. So if we grow big on it, this is not a situation. This is not a phenomenon that we should leave to the hands of government alone. All hands should be on deck. Everyone should be concerned. And I think by this we're going to have, at this point in time, I'm looking at our markets across, we ought to have fire stations in the market where we are able to take care of the fire, take off the fire whenever there's an incident of fire, set up all of the alarms, the structure, have security and all of that. But we can't continue like this because government's responsibility is to ensure that lives and properties are protected. And that's very encompassing. It cuts across everything. So every other time you have a fire incident wherever it is in the world, not in the world necessarily, but in Nigeria, you find out that persons will lose properties. I mean, persons are talking about, you have a lot of people who will be losing their goods, you know, their money and what have you. And that's not nothing to write home about. But our hearts and our prayers are with those who have lost their properties and those who have also sustained injuries. We're also asking that we need to wake up and be very deliberate about fighting fire in Nigeria. We need to move and that's the size of- Let's say, hold on, before you go, just to what we normally do, which is, I'll just give a little take. My take on that is that today's your birthday. And there's no fire here. Yeah, today's your birthday. So, mercy, happy birthday. Thank you. We wish you all the best. Midap returns. And then, we don't have a cake on set. Okay, that's fine. But we will do the cutting of cake after now. So I'm gonna sing for you. Happy birthday to you. Okay. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear. Okay, I can hear the background. Happy birthday to you. Thank you, thank you. How old are you? We have to go. We need to go. This is wincing because of that. All right, two of you write back. When we come back, we have a look at what the papers say today. Please stay with us.