 Today on the breakfast Nigerian Communications Commission begins harmonisation of short codes across all networks. We'll look at what this means and its implications for the Nigerian people. And also on the breakfast, INAQ, as INAQ postponed the Governorship and State Assembly polls to reconfigure the beavers, appeal court rules on INAQ's request to vary order permitting political parties to inspect poor materials. And don't forget, we'll go through today's national dailies who analyse the biggest stories of the day in off the press. Alright, it's a beautiful, beautiful, brand new day of Thursday, the 9th of March 2023. Nigerians were meant to be preparing for elections on Saturday, but I guess you know what has happened. You're welcome to the breakfast. My name is Kofi Bartels. And I am messy. A Boko has got to be back on your screen. Yeah, messy. We have to find you for being away yesterday. What did you bring for us? Oh well. You brought beavers? I mean, the FCT is different from what it is. Legations are taking it very chill. So you would really assume that, you know, a Buddha is different from... So you think that a Buddha should be peaceful, but that's not the case. I feel like you're really, really going through a daily struggle because of traffic. So much. You know, a Buddha is a bit quiet and you're just, you know, peaceful. But even at that, you know, you find that a lot of people are pretty upset. Things are not going very well. People are very frustrated. And you can feel the frustration at every point in time. In a Buddha? Yes. No wonder the opposition Labour Party had the highest votes in that city. I was listening to the radio my way to work this morning and someone sent a message to one of the stations, which I monitored, saying that the fuel sketch is biting hardest in FCT. And that's very correct. This is the center of government. This is the seat of government. And that is where you have the most, the impact of incompetence of government the most. It's, you know, or let me say failure of government agencies, you know, the most. I mean, I remember a video someone filmed, the user generated video, you know, social media user, filmed of black market petrol sellers with their jerry cans selling just opposite NNBC Tars last year. That was just an irony, paradox of sorts. All right, we'll start to look at the top trending stories of the day with what happened at the Ajigunle Akeri Motor Spear Parts Market in Olodia Papa, or Ajigunle Papa Lagos. You can see the fire service operators, officials doing a yeoman's job trying to put out the fire. But I think it was too little, too late because the fire we started at about 3 a.m. had done a lot of damage and one life had already been lost. The police in Lagos state through the CP says that they have started an investigation into suspected arson at this fire incident at Akeri Motor Spear Parts Market in Olodia Papa, Lagos. That is what they're saying. They started that investigation yesterday morning. The CP, we told, you know, had ordered that investigation and came in a statement through the spokesman of the police, police public relations officer in Lagos state, Benjamin Hunde, who said that though the fire was put out around 3 a.m., a 65-year-old security guard lost his life in the incident. This was already public information, but police had to officially confirm this fire incident. It's a spare parts market in the Ajigunle Papa axis of Lagos state. And we saw the videos on social media, a lot of spare parts burned beyond recognition. And, you know, traders in those who have shops and have materials they sell, they're lamenting loss of their products and items worth billions. The traders at the market, you know, said they lost goods worth millions of Naira, and that some group of gunmen came there at about 2.30 a.m. and set the market ablaze. The gunshots were fired and a 65-year-old security guard lost his life to gunshot injuries. The Lagos state fire and rescue service issued a statement before the police statement. This was earlier on Wednesday. And they said the deceased male adult had a gunshot injury. And of course, this now therefore filled the speculation that this was a deliberate attack. The police have also given a hint that this may have been a deliberate attack by saying they're investigating arson. So that's that, that's that. But they're asking for information. They're calling on the public to exercise restraint while the police conducts its investigation. And Kofi, you know, with the issue of fire, for every other time we talk about fire incidents in Lagos, whether in Lagos or outside of Lagos, the conversations seem to be the same. The thoughts will never change as to we being very proactive, ensuring that we avoid it. Now in most cases, there are issues of arson where you have someone who's responsible for all of that. But is it not possible to have a system where we can actually ensure that, you know, those who are involved in all of this are being prosecuted or arrested? We have to know because these things, the fire doesn't happen by itself. If someone put the fire there, then we can't say that, you know, the entire period passes on. And then we just move on like nothing happened. And then those who should do the needful are not able to do that. The police should be able to apprehend those who were behind all of this. So that's one of it. But on the other hand, we say that any fire, you know, fire would happen, such as an accident. Is it not also not important that we educate ourselves? I mean, we do the needful. The fire service does not just exist to take out the fire or fight fire, as it would be said in other climes, firefighters. Rescue cuts, let me say. Rescue cuts from trees, stranded cuts and all of that. It goes beyond that. It's also expected that there's the part of education, educating the people, informing them behaviors and action and practices that we can take, that people can practice, people in these market places, what people need to know, and also having a fire station in the market. Nothing stops that. I mean, it's a very sensitive market, a market where you sell spare parts. That's a lot for a country that does not be gone, you know, the production of our vehicles. I mean, if you're talking about spare parts of automobile, that's a lot. So when we think that we'll be very proactive, why don't we have the relevant security or have the necessary, so let's say it's an arson and we're not able to apprehend or arrest whoever is behind it. But can't we even have a fire station in this market, close us to it so we can qualify the shortest, you know, notice of whenever it happens. That's on the one hand. But also, the issue of security, and I feel like this continues every other time because people have not been punished. We feel too helpless. We don't know. We don't investigate. It reminds me of a time where, you know, robbers attacked my house and then I thought that when the police came to the robbery scene, they were going to be having tapes marked the whole place, you know, just like barricades.com and they spent the whole building. I just think I saw a lot of movies and I'm just too ambitious right there. But that wasn't the case. The police say, okay, this IA happened. Yeah, okay, okay. They don't go abby. Yes, okay, that was it. That's the end. So I'm saying we can't continue like this and expect a different result. I think we can do better. And that's it. So, yeah, you've said it, you know, we always ask what the, what the, I mean, how the fires could have been prevented, especially if you have some sort of fire station nearby. You know, should we have fire stations in the market? Should we not have fire stations in the market? You know, et cetera, et cetera. You know, it's very, very important to have some sort of, you know, something nearby to help. But I think it's not too bad because there's a fire service station in La Papa, you know, and it's 14 minutes drive, at least in high traffic from that fire station to where the fire incident is happening. In case, in this case, fire happened at about 3 a.m. So it may take them without traffic. Yeah, maybe about 10 minutes or less than 10 minutes to respond. You know, sometimes that time is on a, but it's close by. So, so if you have a fire station in the city, I can say it's not just the market, but everything around. Then I think it's good. But the thing about these markets is the way they're built as well, you know, they are built in clusters. I've not been to these, I carry market people, but they're built in clusters. And you have, I can imagine Balogu market messes, there's a fire inside. You have to break some shops to get there. You know, messy, I went to Balogu market to do some shopping, some time ago, someone took me around. I was looking for particular items. And when we were supposed to leave, we came out at a part market that was going to help us come out at that Aqanbao area, okay, to access Carter Bridge or something like that. And we passed underneath the market, those shops that were burned that affected the Aqanbao bridge, the integrity, their co-bridge. And you see the cluster of shops under the bridge, they're built, it's a town, you know. But you know, you would always blame, and I know it's not the time we don't like to mark on blame games, but we need to look at where, where this is coming from. You always look at authorities who allow these traders to build their markets in clusters, because the more they are, the more money their boys can make and send to them. You know, we need to build proper markets, build proper markets. And then when you build proper markets, you provide water for legotians. I don't know whether the current governor in his campaigns has said, has from his water, you know. But I think those want to remove him as saying, well, in 24 years or so, these guys haven't given you water, we'll give you water, you know. So if you have water in Lagos, man, if you have water in Lagos, this is a source of mega cities, a sense of excellence, you know. If you have water in Lagos, you can have water hydrants at these markets when they are properly built, okay. Have water hydrants at these markets. And before the fast service comes, you can break it and use the water to see what they can do, you know. Secondly, I know under Fashola, Lagos cities have very strong safety culture. When Fashola was governor, you know, you go to office, they will find you. If you come to the office for inspection, and your HSE things are not there. And I remember I wasn't in Lagos. I wasn't in Lagos. Well, because of how it was, I knew. Because this time I come to Lagos, I see how frantically the offices, the co-organizations are trying to make sure they put the signs there like now. You come to this office, you know, you see how we have a lot of signs everywhere. When you're climbing these staircase, you tell you, hold the rails, you see the signs. You know, watch your head, and watch your step. We have all these things here, everywhere in this building. You know, it's just like when you go to an oil company, you know, you see all these HSE things around. They spend money on it. You know, they pay their, the department staff a lot of money. So is the current administration Lagos, is it big on health and safety and environment? You know, are they keeping up to those standards? So that you make sure that if all the markets take shops, they have their extinguisher. It's not like going to sell, look how government basket. I don't want to do that in Lagos. But that's because it's a big thing. It's a big thing. It's not like going to sell government baskets. This ref is dumb. They won the bottle last year. Then it's still there. We'll bring another one. See, he must buy. No. Okay. You have to have fire extinguisher. And look at the safety. That's number two. This issue of arson is so sad that the 65-year-old security man died. If you listen to one of the interviews that the trader there granted, said, now, our old papa, where they play with us. So they know him in the area. And he was shot needlessly. 65-year-old and you're a security guard. That means that you're really hustling to provide for your family. And I won't be surprised if this 65-year-old man, the security guard who was killed, is a breadwinner of his family. So that's the life that has been taken away. And, of course, the support given to his family is gone. So it's really sad. Now, who are the people who went to burn that market? Because now, it's not as if we have to say allegedly there was a... And we're not going to do it allegedly here. Because we know that someone died from guns. So allegedly, guns were defied. We don't know. Is it true? This one, we know that some boys or some gunmen went there or no gunmen. Okay, went there and defied shots. Why did they fire the shots? Of course, they didn't know when they were leaving the fire. So something has happened. So I know that there are speculations that, of course, this is election period. The governorship elections are just a few days away. Or where a few days away at the time, maybe supporters of the ruling party in Lagos state are trying to intimidate the bull-speaking community because most of those who trade in this market are from the southeast. But I would urge caution. Let the police conduct the investigation. Let's not rush conclusions. However, in the recent days, may I say, tribal sentiments have been whipped up by those who are merchants of division. All right? Merchants of division because they profit from divided-room tactics. And so they whipped up these tribal sentiments in a bid to see how they can get votes their way. And it's not right. And this has led to... to... it's heightened the speculation that there is a sort of a tribal aspect to this asset. But we can't tell. It's always important to wait for the police to conduct his investigation. Like I said, in the case of the Chris Langale, we have to wait for the police to conduct the investigation. And then we can take it from there. So our hearts go out to the traders who lost their goods very sad. And also to the family of the 65-year-old security man, the papa who lost his life. Our hearts go out to his family. It's very sad. Very sad. I mean, apart from the fact that you have raised the issue of whether or not this is... it has any political sentiment and its advice that the police would do the need for relevant authorities. But there are also some other issues that we need to pay attention to, like you have mentioned, the administration of this market. And that's why local government need to be... local government need to be up and running and very effective. The autonomy of local government should not be debated. If you look at the laws and the constitution and in terms of responsibility, the state government has no business in market administration and what happens around and some of these things. It should be within the poor view of the local government as a thought tier of government. And that's what it should be. And we hope that in 2023, as we're going to have new government, that this government will pay attention to ensuring that we have the thought tier of government running in full scale. We're talking about financial autonomy. So they can take responsibility and act and do the things that they ought to do because this is also within the poor view of the states to take. But just quickly, for the want of time, we look at another one. It breaks my heart to bring this to you. The two Nigerians arrested at an Indian airport with cocaine capsule concealed in their stomach. According to this report, these two Nigerian nationals were arrested for concealing 167 capsules of cocaine at the Mumbai airport in India. Now, how did they find out to, you know, there were several reports to the Indian TV where the officials from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence said that these passengers were arrested by police after they arrived at the international airport via Lagos in Addis Ababa and that was on Friday. It was stated that the DRI officials took them to court and demanded that they were examined by a doctor because they may have hidden drugs in their bodies. Now, after a medical examination, you know, which confirmed that two Nigerians were hiding cocaine in the stomach, they were purged or they had to get them to get it out. You know how these things work. And then they took out 167 capsules over three days. So, this capsule, according to the DRI official, this capsule contained a total of 2.97 kilogram of cocaine worth of RS 29.76. Hmm. It's all that. So, I mean, if you... I may not even know what this is, but... What is that? I don't know. I know where you live, near where you live. So, we go... That record boss, they had Marwa... Kofi, do you know that that particular day where the arrest was made on my way to... Yes, on my way back to the house from the office, I saw the NDLE. You don't need to see the NDLE when they are in operation. Really? It's very scary. They were in full force. And so, you know, at the time I was like, what's going on here? I hope you are listening. Don't do drugs. Yes. So, it felt like I was going to put up a story. You know, my sense is like, okay, this... But I now thought that he could give this person a hint. You never know who is there to say, okay, let's escape. So, I just had to let this slide. So, it's a little bit embarrassing. But really, funnily, there's two houses or three houses away from mine. Okay, okay. But that's nothing to do with. That's nothing to do with. With how you are... How analyzing this... I'm a journalist. No, no, I'm saying maybe you could have embarked on investigative journalism to that house. You know, to see, you know, investigative journalism. The house is sealed. Don't worry. You can't even go there. Well, so, Kofi, that's it. And the reaction from a lot of Nigerians is that all of this... Now, let's get it clear. We're not holding brief. I am not holding brief for those who are involved in peddling drugs and will have you as long as it's a crime. It's a crime. But we don't have to say that Nigerians are the only one on this table. There are smugglers everywhere. And so, yes, I understand how we probably feel it's not holding brief for them. But smuggling and smugglers are almost everywhere. And Nigeria is also not left out. One of the things, one of the reactions that a lot of persons have shared or the concern is that all of these actions have consequences on Nigerians outside of Nigeria. And there's also Nigerians... I mean Nigerians in diaspora, that's what we're saying. So for every other time there's a bad behavior, you know, from the very populist country in West Africa, a black nation for that matter, then you have too many, you know, issues. You would never know. Well, you know, in relations with other countries when people, you know, get to go for business, whatever it is you want to look at, they're not being treated normally like every other person. So there's like an extra. And sometimes they are discriminated. So you need to understand that your action, for every time you embark on this, whatever it is that you do, tells the integrity, it reflects on our country as a people. And I think that you should think about your actions. So it's not just you. You're not doing it for you. You're also doing whatever it is that you're doing and it has a serious implication on us and on every other Nigerian wherever it is that they find themselves. So yes, it's just, you know, I really don't know what the excuse would be. There might just be different reasons, Kofi, for all of that. All right. Let's move to the next top trending story. We have Lagos releasing impounded vehicles to owners free of charge. And of course, this by way of information, you know, vehicles that were impounded by the Lagos State government through the Lagos State Traffic Management Agency. These are vehicles that were impounded due to infractions and disobedience of traffic laws and traffic rules. And you can see on your screen some of the last my officials. That's what they called Lagos State Traffic Management Agency. So you have vehicles impounded over the infringement of traffic laws or traffic infractions. You want to call it that. And we aware that some months ago, the government of Lagos State auctioned some of these vehicles even despite the plea of some of the owners who were begging the government to release the cars to them. Also, the commercial vehicles and they said that their livelihoods were affected. The Lagos State governor is also the the governorship candidate of the All Progressive Congress. So, you know, this is also some would say part of that. But the government has begun the release of those impounded vehicles for their owners free of charge. The reason the government is giving is the cash crunch that has hit the nation following the Central Bank of Nigeria redesign policy. The release of the vehicles to their owners, we told begins since last Saturday and it's still ongoing. The Lagos State Commissioner for Transport is a very busy man these days. And I'll tell you why in my analysis. He's Dr. Frederico Ladinde. He said the governor of Lagos State had insured the vehicles impounded for minor traffic offences were returned to their owners with a fines waived. They didn't have to pay any fine. That's that on that trading story. Merci. Well Kofi, I'm sure that you're also very in the know of the kind of conversational thoughts that we have right there on social media and different parts, whether on air or off air or you know of social media. It's that a lot of Nigerians or Lagosians if you like to say are querying the intention. Now for every other time there's an action there's always, people get to look at what's the intention behind all of this. So the intention of the Lagos State Government has been criticized and some people think that just how many days before the elections elections should have actually happened on the 11th this weekend but unfortunately for whatever reason Aynaka stated it's been moved to the 18th of March. And so people are already taking that with a pinch of salt. So why now? But even though you also see that the government has given a reason to say catch crunch. But people are saying oh really there's a lot that the government has done pensioners have been paid. I mean if you also look at it there seem to be constant power supply in different parts of it and so people are saying this could this really be a way of you know gaining the people's vote or asking the people to vote for them. It's just a way where the government is trying to reach out you know to gain votes for the elections that were slated for the 11th of March. There are too many you know activities but it brings us to the conversation of government and governors and the provision of basic amenities. Now I think it's in this climb where we live that for every other time you have a government embarking on road construction the basic things are just some things that are just natural. It comes as a child and as the mother. So you say you have a family and in the family you have a child. There are some things that are just basic. It's natural and that's by virtue of being that you are a child. That's by virtue of being that you know he's my father then this is my mother. There are some duties that come to you naturally you know ensuring that you're taking care of food, shelter, clothing and what have you up until you come of age. So it's the same thing but over time the people have been made to feel that it seemed like it's a favor. So when government embarks on road construction and then they begin to loud it or put it out there and then there's a lot of appraiser oh this is so much it begins to look like government has done something extraordinary. It is what government should do. Government responsibility and that's why government exists to ensure that lives properties are protected and ensure that the people you know have what it takes to live life. I mean you are taking and taking the shots you're also calling the shots on the other have managing resources. That's what it is. So it's not different and I understand where the people are coming from. So it's on this premise that people are saying oh so why didn't this happen all the time. Don't forget also just like Kofi had mentioned once upon a time 140 of these vehicles were auctioned in September 2022 and the economy hasn't really fared well. I mean we're still trying to recover from COVID. So yes there's cash crunch. There's a lot of hardship and difficulty but you know it's not it's not different from what Nigerians have been going through. I think that's the reason why people are taking that with a pinch of salt but you know you might also want to say yes commendable of the league. Yeah you don't have too much time so I just quickly give my analysis what it's um I mean you've talked about last minute you talked about the fact that these people are saying you know saying that hey why are you releasing these vehicles at some days to the elections. And some feel this is a a ploy or a measure move by the Lagos State Government releasing these impound vehicles for minor traffic offences without payment of fines just to you know end some public sympathy and probably end some votes as the election approaches. So this is not the only thing we've seen the governor of Lagos State give interviews to media organizations and he's already been accessible for some time. In fact he didn't participate in any of the governorship debates that held in the weeks leading up to the election which has just been rescheduled. And some people asked okay I mean the governor not going for the debates, the governorship debates is he running for a second term or not you know because if you're running for a second term you're still in the election you want to be out there. And some people were surprised when he went out to give some interviews to private radio stations rather media houses not aligned with the progressive congress. Apart from that you know the governor of Lagos State the reason I said the commissioner for transport has his work called out is because he's also approved the 50% slash in the government owned or backed transportation services so you have LagBus, LagRide, I think your BRT services like ferry and all that. 50% discount you know and it's so wonderful but you see that in some of these apps you have the government like in LagRide app you have the governor's campaign message there. You know some people say okay why is this coming now? It's because of elections and you can talk about that was recently launched that is a health program by the Lagos State government and recently we're told they are feeding 5,000 pregnant women so my saying this is so close to the election why now? Another one you can talk about is Lagos State government paying 533 pensioners 1.2 billionare this is just about a week ago people are asking why now but of course it's not unexpected that the politicians to do some of these things you know to close out to the election but what people are saying out there is that we need to see you doing these things before the election if we're going to the markets the governor was in this market where he sell computers you know in Lagos Alaba market sorry he was in Alaba market some days ago and interacting with the traders because we've not seen you for 4 years where have you been? He was in some shopping mall interacting with traders as well and people say we've not seen you and there's a girl who took him for not attending the governor's debate it saves you right you know so we need to see politicians do better do these things don't wait to the election before you do some of these things and so people are saying you can't fool us we're made up our mind to vote who we want to vote if you're coming out now to give interviews about answers and explain things you should have done it a long time ago you won't fool us we are going to vote for who we want to vote for I think Nigerians are wiser now we're not we're just giving you a feel of what people are saying out there because this is the top 20 segment we have to go we'll take a break and when we come back we'll look at what the people say stay with us