 Thank you for staying with us. You're still watching the breakfast on plus TV Africa now It's time for off the press will be review in the papers this morning. Just you know what the national dailies are saying today we have Nya et al who's going to review the papers with us. Good morning, sir. Thank you for joining us Good morning, and thanks for having me always a pleasure to be with you. Thank you so much. Morning sir. Welcome Profit See he's the one. Okay. It's a prophet coming Yeah, thank you. All right today We're going to be starting with the Guardian and the major headline here says anxiety, which is you know, even the hot topic It says anxiety as CBN sucks boards of Union Keystone and Polaris banks Please what are your thoughts on this all that is going on? We have about three banks here, and we don't even know how many more might Be sucked, but what is your take on all of this the fact that the CBN has sucked the boards of Union Keystone and Polaris Bank Okay, the very first thing is that I Have been really concerned about our banks About the state of our economy About the dynamics and the fundamentals It's one thing to have a visionless, you know system It's another thing to have the Pedrating unit or the component of the system Frustrating everything that is going on. We say that the problem with Nigeria today is a problem of corruption They can never be successful corruption without the active connivance colluding and collaboration of the banks Now corruption comes in two ways either the private system or the public system Within the public system, you can be successful with corruption without the civil servants working with you But you see within this tripartite the bank is the at the apex at the bottom you have the you know civil society and on that hand you have the The civil servants, okay now none of them can successfully prosecute corruption undertake corruption without the active connivance collaboration of the banks and You see even during COVID when things were very very difficult You keep seeing the banks declare humongous and unbelievable Profits so the question is to what extent is the bank the problem of Nigeria? I Think that the banks are one of the biggest problems of Nigeria Now you can't have a system that thrives without the MSM is the micro small and medium scale enterprises These enterprises work based on the fundings of their ideas and the fundings can only go through the banking But I want to tell you that at my level Having what it takes to run a system successfully, I can't assess a loan from a bank Extremely difficult. I mean to real estate. I mean to a partnership with the federal government even with everything they can see To get a loan from the bank is almost impossible. Now if that happens to me What is the fate try to find out how many Nigerians have been able to get Facilities from the banks to do their businesses if you go abroad banks fund your idea Yeah Nigeria Banks don't even fund your your your your your investment or your Whatever it is you take to them for you to go through the process of getting a loan from a bank It's like going through the eye of the needle, but leave that alone. They will say oh they are Protecting depositors money, but find out this forex stuff. Ask yourself very simple questions Do you know that for you to get the POS working? They must have an understanding with somebody in the bank Whereas that you cannot find Money in the ATMs Yeah Try to interview the POS guys. They will tell you that they go to the banks and That the hour guy is there they sell money Do you understand me? They frustrate this is the the money that should go into ATMs are being used by cashiers and bankers To give to sell to these people to sell back to us if I can sit down here I mean I have some of the biggest Talk of any of the bands the friends, you know at the either the MD or the chief executive The or the chairman is my a personal friend I can tell you any of the top bands, but you see we're talking of Nigeria now not friendship So what the the government is doing is he I'm starting to Look at president to know who a little differently because between you and I Let's say confession on national television. I didn't really think that president will be able to look at corruption You know, it's it. I don't know. I honestly sincerely adding but they are saying things that are being done now That I'm saying you never judge a book by the cover I'm starting to see 30 certain things is doing and I want to call on all Nigerians To look beyond party leave party aside and see how they can lend weight To to the system and the president to succeed Now this is not like, you know, hero worshipping. There are certain things is doing that is wrong And I'll come here and call it out. This is wrong. This is unacceptable This is not okay. Okay. I will do that. But when he takes a right decision Something that you and I probably never expected let us also Apply the stick and carrot upload approach and for what he's done of recent There is no way that the CBN governor would have gone ahead to suspend these people If he did not get the authorization of mr. President I believe that because I mean he could have done that because of the system the way it works And then the ministers that have been suspended, you know, I think is one so far that the second one seems to be on the line And then, you know, this could not be if the president did not say go for it And I tend to see a president who is out to surprise us I pray that I am right this time around but mr. President I beg you no vex as I clap for you now Tomorrow when I see the world we know they're good for instance I like the idea of cutting costs of governance by the flights ticket and then the entourage But you excellency, you know that that is not where the problem is The whole budget for that is about 20 billion and taking 60% out is about taking maybe about them 10 11 no, I think it's 18 billion comes about 9 10 billion. That's not where our problem is You know where our problem is and where to come to cost. I saw your convoy and it was obscene You need to understand emotional intelligence and know that some of these things are absolutely unnecessary So mr. President you've taken a very good first step, but I beg of you I beseech you by the message of God do the one where my own brother the Senate president Brothers, no vex. Oh, you know this national television as mr. President has done Please also do I know you will do you are my brother. I trust you mr. Senate president also caught Make something remain so that poor man go breathe So since we're talking about corruption there's a little one I want to take care which says Federal government is bus 10 billion to 165 private accounts in 2022 so we know the the scandal that is on better edu right now about the 585 million narrow that was sent to an individual account a private account But we're even seeing that there's been antecedents to all of this the federal government has been dispersing Monies to private accounts in one of the whole of 2022 there was about 10 billion sent to private accounts If that's not corruption, what are we saying? Because I want to believe that if you need to do a transaction from the federal government to anybody at all There should be proof that this is a company that you're sending the money to and so obviously the money is being used for a Project or something whatsoever But how are you sending money to a private account and here? We're seeing about 10 billion being sent to a hundred and 65 private accounts in 2022 alone. Do you understand a lot of 2022 alone when I'm talking about 2023 and now How do we stop all of this? It will it will come in in the precedent? I don't want a situation whereby we're only looking at the humanitarian affairs ministry Are we going to look at every one of them every single ministry and try to curtail the fact that? There should be no reason whatsoever a ministry or even any government agency at all should be sending monies to a private account What do you think about that? I'll tell you two things One The banks I talked about yes to the ministries if you know if you have the faintest idea of How our civil service runs? You can carry a gun and shoot somebody If you have let me tell you know You know sometimes it the Bible says all things are lawful, but not all things are expedient Wisdom is profitable to direct. They are setting things. I wish I could say on air, but these are things you and I know Towards the end of the year the way civil servants retire money That does not be used is common knowledge Do you understand me? They run the biggest rocket. This comes as no news to you and I we know it There's somehow we've been turning a blind eye and let me tell you something Better a do at the end of the day. I will go to her even if she's sent to prison Even if even if please note because she's innocent as of today Yes, I will one day go to her and say God bless you because She is going to become a door that is opened to things That must be addressed decisively You know God says the son of man will need be crucified But what to him through it it which it comes so somehow Nigeria will need to be rescued But bless is that woman that is used you understand me? Maybe one word the other because You see better a do had come to create a certain image for herself We have people loved her for what she was doing We have people envied her for the way she looks and the way she's getting results Maybe we're getting at this you know kind of apprehensive because of what could come as a result when the issue concerned her There was an instant public outrage You know the outrage were in two ways one in support and you see those people that are against you are always more Vicious those who love you and care about you. They never talk, you know There was a time that mr. Donal Duke told me said he said Ezekiel My concern about running for presidency is because Out of every ten Nigerians Seven love me they care about me. They want me to be president Out of the other three Two are just well well, but one Hates me with a passion cannot stand me and will and you guess what the seven that love me are quiet The two that are here and there are just watching but that one that hates me will make so much noise that this Seven will run away. He said Ezekiel and we end up probably losing because the good people are quiet and complacent and Docile while the bad people are vicious Nigeria is not as bad as people think oh It's just that the bad people are extremely bad while the good people are very docile They are very complacent. They don't you know, I don't want one, you know I contested election the number of people that came to me, you know, you are the best governor You know, you're the best. They will not say the openly I challenge one of them. I said, why don't you write this thing on facebook? He will send me a long list of the things I've done for him in this country and blah blah blah And I say why don't you post he say yo, yo is in my languages. No, and I'm like why What are you afraid so what am I trying to say because it was better a do There has been this reaction and this reaction is the beginning of many things to come When you talk of 10 billion paid into this number of accounts, that is just like one ministry That is absolutely nothing But if it can be used as a point to make a statement that going forward I was addressing my staff at in two days back and one of them in particular told him, you know what This is 2024 Everything has happened in the past. I'm going to draw a line. I'm not going to look back But I beg you as from today No more If we want to look back in Nigeria, we will not make progress because too much one word the other it will come around to you So my own approach is let us make haste, you know, um, what there's a way make haste Slowly, okay. Yes, let's apply wisdom and let us draw certain lines While still, you know, let me end on this because it's very important that I animate this and we know I said this before and I bring it again. It should be what every leader should apply In a car, you have a windscreen that goes from one end to the other top to bottom the whole front is windscreen, okay But there is a small mirror Put at the top here called the review mirror and two of them by the side small small small, right Anybody that drives a car with the review mirror is sure to crash But you cannot drive that car without that review mirror and the side mirrors They help you to navigate So we're going to keep constantly looking back at setting things But let us not drive Nigeria with the review and side view mirrors Let us keep driving with the front mirror But we need those paths to bring setting people back to give account while we now use them to set the templates going forward That's my prescription for a new Nigeria that works for all Okay, um While we move to the next uh newspaper, let me do a carry forward carry over So in the the guardian we have exit of multinational's death nela or death nail for local industries We have that we also have NGX records that is on the punch now NGX records 638 billion naira laws first in new year and then naira plunges to 100 or 1,082 naira per dollar After cbn two billion dollar repayment Okay, so all of these are Concerned all the economy is what is tied to all of these three That's the common denominator for all the stories that I have given you Now, what do you think the economy of Nigeria in 2024 is going to be Knowing these things are happening multinational's are leaving naira is crashing every day and then ngx is losing In as early as this in the year. What do you think will be of the economy? I'll tell you this my mother was a woman of wisdom And she used to tell me something that has remained with me says if money comes to your house and does not see his brother It will not stay That is one of the big steps I've learned about savings If money comes to your house and does not see his brother that money will not stay In which case if you don't have a savings culture no matter how it is Do you get the point you will always you will you will never prosper? Now what's the correlation of that with what you've just said? Multinational's have been in this country all of a sudden they are living Tell me how an investor Will want to come When the one that is there is living The first question is why is that guy living? You can now say that you see they used to be corrupt and because of the way We've set up a template to make sure that we kill corruption They can no longer thrive because they were rent seekers and this and that as a result they have left You can now say good riddance to bad rubbish But when they tell you that the operational dynamics in the state can no longer support, you know honest investment When they tell you that the power sector is putting so much pressure on them that they can no longer have their bottom line You know the meeting when they tell you that the level of insecurity is such that they cannot You know operate without In fact, your market is shrinking because of this or that and when they tell you that the legal system They'll be trying to get justice. They cannot get it the way things are we cannot play the Nigerian way We better just shut down and leave because we are international agencies that operate by international standards now if these are facts Then why would you if you are an honest investor coming? I repeat what i've said before I said this on a setting forum and one guy was was very unhappy I said shut down Nigeria Shut down Nigeria all this going about looking for Make your fundamentals right one year will not kill anybody I don't want any investors Look you that are in here 28 in three months no is not okay and not just 28 This are globally rated multinationals that people know who they are What are we doing wrong? What should we do? We are the challenges We now look at our monetary policies and everything our operational environment. We look at the The justice system. Do you understand? We look at the central bank policies We look at the security dynamics. Why should the southeast still have sit at home today? If I were mr. President of his advice I'll say sir Forget traveling abroad relocate to southeast one week Living south is one week break that do you know that within within two weeks you can break that Have functions on Mondays that are sit at home deliberately fix things break that jeans What is this issue with namdi can come to me? Let's talk Let's face this issue once and for all What remains is every diner die Let's face this issue once for all southeast must open up You address that it doesn't take you one month Even if it takes you one month to address southeast issues Decisively call all the leaders call all the governors call them the car and have a talk Animated let people see the first thing that those who are afraid have functions on Mondays Do distribution of things palliatives whatever on Mondays in the market Put things that we make and then flood let's see anybody fly drones Bring drones. I will tell you what to fly drones and let's see that man that will try to attack one person You can solve south is problem to go to the Niger Delta What are the issues? And all that why is that so can I have a deal with the with the with the with the oil producing companies? You know the exploring companies such that I give you a percentage to take care of it And you pay me this do you understand so that the responsibility of securing this is on your head and what is the dynamics? We now go to the north I will tell you what to do in the north How to get the young people engaged and vibrant I'll tell you how to track the system. You cannot have a situation where you say some places are ungoverned spaces I will tell you how to track this what I developed called the national eye Why am I saying all these things? Because we've got to all come together. Mr. Tinwu is not a one man that knows everything. No No leader knows everything. I wanted to be a governor. I don't know anything everything But you are the sort of thing that when ideas come the leadership in you Shows you how you can distill these ideas if you mean well And right now I'm starting to feel that the president means well from some of the actions he's taking But we have to come in I was listening to mr. Pat to tell me about two days back and he was frustrated He he he was he was he was incensed as I speak because we that call ourselves the elite We are keeping quiet and letting this With all the respect exhalations Who don't have anything between their brains most of them run the system when you talk they say oh, you are being elitist Oh, you are being idealistic. Oh, you are being a theorist Can you run a system without being elitist idealistic and the theorist? Is there any system in the world that is not run based on cerebral competence and capacity? And you are telling me that if you have brain you cannot be a politician and we are setting it That's why I mean this politics I don't care whether I win. I lose. I always win because I have decided I'll give my best to it I cannot be sitting down and and I don't even know the word to use a running system You go for political meetings and all they do is the sharing money. No political parties should be ideas party Every party should be government either in action or in waiting That's a political system and you know that Miyato is going to be a lone voice unless people like you Come in and say that makes sense How can you run a company without parameters dynamics What is the Nigeria ideology today? in governance What is the mindset of the average civil servant? Are you aware of the importance of the civil servant that no government works without civil servant? The question is what is the thinking? What is the mindset? What is the ideology? What is the mentality where you know the disposition of the average civil servant? If it is negative, how then will you not have a government that has become the poverty capital of the world? with endowed people so I listen to you who make analysis intelligent articulate informed And yet we have a country go and look at your local government chairman. You be ashamed of yourself Go and look at your councilors and those are the blood the grassroots Some local government chairman in in an enlightening environment like south south Nigeria cannot read and write properly cannot read and dress And yet it was there. They had the politicians. Well, where do we go from here is the question because Right now like in the ministry of the humanitarian affairs ministry The the minister has been suspended and the permanent secretary is taking over And if this is the hip bedrock of where the corruption comes the civil service What do we do because it's like it's like you're now sending You're now sending a homosexual to prison for doing what he's doing So if I'm I'm gay and then you're sending me to where the Those people that That you're sending me I'm going to meet my my my pre I'll tell you this You can never no matter how close you are to a governor You cannot raise a memo On any issue Except you are either a civil servant or an appointee at a 16 level You can't raise a memo. That's what that means is that you actually cannot succeed in doing anything In the ministries without the civil servant. So the question is this better educate To what extent is the palm said that is taking over now innocent That's the thing that's the thing so now you're suspending one person and then putting it into the hands of another person You're not even sure it's not the root cause of everything that is happening Already infiltrated because everybody who is politician or is a politician is advised by the people who are in the system Or are the civil servants? So I don't even know We'll just keep faith alive and that is it and now Talking about the system that is worrisome. We also have yes, someone was um indicted once for Sex for max at the sea the suspended unical dawn still in prison after 250 million naira bill. I mean why does this keep happening? Sometimes you go into the prisons and you're looking at the people A lot of them are just there a waiting trial And nothing is being done. Some of them spend up to 10 years I can tell you for a fact because I've had that experience with people who I met While I was doing some some things with the prisons at one time in my life. So Now someone has been given bail. He has met the bail conditions, but it's still in prison It's still after 250 million naira bill. And I don't know why the system is the way it is You see, uh, the word impune. I don't know. This is a two-legged question On one hand is the word impunity We need to come to respect rule of law As as as mandatory as obligatory As incumbent we must come to respect rule of law. It's very important If you say a man is given his granted bail you give the conditions and the person meets the bail conditions Let the person go If you don't want the person to go find a way in court of letting them know that they should please Allow and besides, you know, the you know, the what happens in our in our system reminds me of the Joke about the urba man and the worry boy. Do you understand me? The urba man, you know, you should see the body and we kill you. I will finish you He removes his dress. He gesticulates and everything is going to blah blah blah. It's all sound and fury. You see define nothing Fast forward to the worry guy. He looks at you. He gives you one person guys are gonna sound you after he has already Now the Nigerian police They carry you into prison. Then they do investigation like the worry guy But the proper thing is that even if it takes two years They should in the Investigation even without you knowing when they have gotten everything that is needed for you within Won't they arrest you by the next day they can charge you because they have everything So I want to appeal to our enforcement agencies. I beg don't do worry style You slap somebody finish you say I go sound you You bring somebody to prison before you look for a what they do wrong What do we know no leave this one and as a result you are keeping the guy there to do something you could have been doing outside And guess what? Every day that man is there He is costing Nigeria 750 I hope we remember that I'm telling you that apart from Messing with the man's liberty. You are costing the nation on top They said it was They said it was 12,000 that they used to Every prisoner in Nigeria And then there was the face of the leader of the shake movement that they said they were using two million or so To feed him every day. And we're just talking about one person. So if you do the numbers A lot of people Every day, even though I know it's not even up to 500 It's not up to what Yeah, the second leg is innocent. You be sure the number of people that are innocent. Exactly. That's what we're saying Recently one of my one of the the young people that that was in my media At him was arrested and I went to see him And I spent that time to talk to some of those boys there You can tell that Some of them have no idea where they are there and some of them have been there for over four months So maybe there will be a lot of time people who go around prisons We all can't do anything my strong area is that of scholarships and education But please if you can afford to spare some time to go to the prisons and some of them is bail Some bail like 5000 naira Yeah, and then the ig has to really really tell us should we pay for bail or should we not pay for bail? I don't know. There's something about this, you know come and bail yourself. I don't understand And how does it work because that's one area we really need to look to because sometimes it's like the police Who just go is like it sometimes they even say bail is free Yeah, they can't collect 20 people put you there What you do, you don't know they say call your puto come and bail you