 Welcome back. Time to look at what the papers have for us this morning. We're still watching the breakfast on Plus TV Africa. Before we delve into the papers and look at what we have on the front pages, let's quickly say good morning and a happy new year to Ambrose Igboke, who is a guest analyst this morning. He joins us live from the beautiful city of Enugo. Miss Igboke, good morning. Happy new year to you. Good morning. Happy new year. And we are enjoying the Ambrose weather in Enugo again. Oh, fantastic. Enugo is a city close to my heart. You know, very cool weather, very hospitable people. What's the fuel supply situation in Enugo this this this period? Well, first of all about the problem. The problem is the cost of fuel. There is fuel, but the cost is outrageous. I mean, as I yesterday I bought a liter of oil for 30. Wow. Wow. That's that's that's really sad. All right. All right. Anyway, let's let's look at what the papers say. I'm sure I have one or two things about fuel. That's the situation we all find ourselves in the country these days. We'll start with the nation. Very interesting headlines, but no surprises that the paper is leading with a political headline. The first one, then the big one. What Nigerians stand to gain from Tinnabu Shetima? What Nigerians stand to gain from Tinnabu Shetima is not too far from what the paper had in its on its front page yesterday. Yesterday all they had was why Nigerians should vote Tinnabu Shetima by Buhari. And today the nation is saying what Nigerians stand to gain from Tinnabu Shetima. I don't know if it's a it's a campaign piece or or something like that, but no surprises there. I'll leave it at that. More from the nation. Judiciary won't be manipulated under me says CJN Arriola. Judiciary won't be manipulated under me says CJN Arriola. DSS won't succumb to intimidation, harassment. San Waluu, who's a demon, others, Mon Aiyamu, Sigwe, huge crowd, welcomes Peter B to Onitsha. We have more from the nation. Elections were hold as planned. Federal government dismisses security threat to Poles. I think yesterday an ionic official said something about that. One adult train attack victim regains freedom. Parties okay, beavers for Poles. So it's on the headlines on the front page of the nation. Let's quickly go to the next paper, the leadership with some interesting headlines. The big one there, the kicker 45 days to go on the headline. FG dismisses threats to 2023 elections. Says there's no cause for alarm. Elections will hold as planned. Afeni Farah wants against postponement cancellation. AGF asks governors to join fight against insecurity. More from leadership. Nobody can blackmail me over illicit wealth PMB. Interesting one. Presidency, I'm not in race for Ndeegbo's turn. OB, UK keen on helping Nigeria recover. Artiku who is in the United Kingdom for reasons that are well documented. Let's leave it at that. Why we asked banks to load ATMs with new notes. CBN tears as NSCTC prays for 11 officers killed by bandits accident. Basan Jowartiku squandered PTDF money. Says Tinnable. Okay, it's the same Tinnable he went to see and to bleed for support from. That's politics you might say. The punch has the following headlines. Last lap, Tinnable campaign malls alliance with smaller parties. The riders to that to APC looking beyond PDP, NNPP, LP, reaching out to parties to adopt Tinnable PCC member, Senator Akambi. No negotiation yet. We won't step down for ex-legors governor, accord party presidential candidates. More from the nation. The punch, gunman attack and the early operatives. Soldiers rescue legors Baron. We have more NSCDC malls as Kaduna bandits kill seven officers. We'll be promises to negotiate with Biafran agitators. Entertainers, politicians eulogize. I am Osigwe as Ama founder dies. Really sad one. Blackout, a 16 die in California flooding. FG shortlist 139 bidders for gas project to female suspects detained over legors missing baby and Nigerian passport falls by 38 places in global ranking. Those are the headlines on front page of the punch. Quickly take the last one which happens to be the Guardian. They're going with a big story looking at the Nigerian currency. The Naira with this headline Nigerian or Naira redesign policy comes under pressure. Naira redesign policy comes under pressure. Some of the writers to that headline 27% of legosians yet to cite new bank notes is what the paper is saying. 27% of legosians yet to cite new bank notes. I haven't seen one of those. Do someone help me fetch one yesterday? Customers seek six month extension of January 31 deadline. CBN under pressure to extend old note demonetization. FASWA subject implementation rather to evaluation adjustment subject implementation to evaluation adjustment. So the writers to that. More from the Guardian 2023 elections as insecurity stokes fear. FGLA is concerned over cancellation. Resident doctors right government and impending nationwide strike. Afeh Babilalatas rich Nigerians philanthropists on education sector revival are some of the headlines on the front page. World Bank warns of fresh global recession higher poverty in SSA. Let's quickly move over to the analysis and of course Ambrose Bukwe is standing by. Ambrose let's start with the last paper the Guardian and I don't know if you've been able to cite or see or withdraw even the new Naira notes. What are your thoughts on what we're hearing the stakeholders and customers say? I mean the Guardian reports that customers are seeking an extension. Do you think the CBN should extend its deadline for the demonetization of the old notes and have you been able to lay your hand on any of the new notes? Well I thought Friday when I was on this station and I was asked about the scarcity of the Naira I said that I was not finished. I got yesterday for the first time I saw it and I touched it and I owned it for the first time. Not from the bank but from a transaction. Okay so there are so many controversies around the new Naira notes. One of them is about alleged counterfeit copies being available in the market already and that is worrisome. A lot of people have demonstrated the difference between the fake and the original. There's a video circulating around the internet right now where a woman was told us that she went to Negus Island to make some deposit and the people at the POS where they made the deposit selected the money out and said it was fake. I'm talking about the new Naira notes. I should demonstrate that that golden like a hydrographic golden stuff on the on the notes, the gold is the way you peel it it peels off. I should demonstrate that it was peeling off and that that one she said they said is the fake one and that the original one the genuine Naira note does not peel. So if you're already having those issues last time we also said that some people demonstrated that the ink from the notes when it comes in contact with the liquid particles peels off you know peels off and the CBA came out to explain that the Nigerian President and the United Nations explained that oh it was normal that because it was new that the ink that was using making it for me that explanation does not suffice. We have been using Naira notes for the decades and we have never heard of this kind of explanation. So we have been using Naira notes for a very long time and then this kind of explanation doesn't occur. So I think these feedbacks should be taken seriously by the Panatial Regulation agencies especially the Nigerian President and the CBA so that we can they can go back to the drawing board if there are errors or mistakes and they can correct it instead of being defensive all the time. All right the CBA and ARC spent to to stop giving the new Naira notes over the counter and then to only give them or load them in the ATM machines and yesterday we actually had this conversation now asking the guest analyst you know what he thought about it because I felt that if you're saying that the bank should not give the new notes over the counter but you've set January 31 as a deadline for you know the use of the old Naira. People want to go and maybe change the the Naira notes and they need it. If I take one million to the bank you say please I have this one million cash at home and give me new notes because I need it I'm not going to get that one million Naira back. Here I won't get it back. So yeah if I want to get maybe as a as an individual maybe the five hundred thousand or whatever it is I can't get it back and I don't want to go to the ATM. What do I do? Well you should ask Mr. Mefele that question because perhaps he's going down as a work CBA and gov. of Niger may ever have. I don't know because the kind of counter policies the kind of contusion emanating from CBA is something that defies logic. At the same breadth you are doing so many things at the same time that are very contradictory. You're asking people to return the old Naira notes to the banks. You are saying that banks should not give up the new Naira notes. You are setting a deadline that is almost impossible for the exchange of the new Naira notes to the old Naira notes. Yet you tell the banks not to give Naira notes across the counter. The first and primary place to collect money in the former sector is the bank is through the counter of the bank. That is the first. Now what I have done is to put a limit and set across the counter transaction the limit in this and that. Now at the same time you are saying you are changing Naira notes. People should bring back what at the same price you are putting a tap on the on the limit you can withdraw. That is counterproductive already. You are putting an impossible deadline. So I feel that people should call him to order. The new Naira notes which are used six months to exchange. I have mentioned this before that even the United Kingdom that is checking their currency because of the new king they have the picture of the new king is replacing that of the queen. They have given two years to 2024 so that the old one and the new one can go together. Again this issue of cashless economy not cashless economy. I keep saying that no economy is cashless. Every economy they want to use is cash. But what is done is you make multiple platforms for payment so that can be easy for people to pay. But yeah even the ones we are using because of the quality of internet the banks will tell you our system. Even when you enter the bank they will tell you our system is down. People want to collect money they still type ours they see my system is that you cannot evolve the transaction. So that there was an up and down link all kinds of technical stories. Is that why you want to operate in fully cash? Because people should just have to stop mounting cliches. So I don't suffer Nigeria. This cashless policy this withdrawal limit I don't have quarrel with it. They don't tell me that under four weeks I must exchange my new Nara note to the old Nara note. At the same time you are telling the banks not to use. I didn't imagine you should protest against this kind of thing. Well Mr Bokeh the CBN has given some explanation as to why it's directing the banks to give out the new Nara notes only through the ATMs. On the front page of the leadership is a story of left corner of the front page of the leadership. Why we asked banks to load ATMs with new Nara notes a new note CBN. Now I just read except she says the Central Bank of Nigeria has explained that the reason it directed banks to load their automated tele-machines with new notes is to ensure that the redesigned Nara notes are made available at all times of the day. It also reminded banks of the implication of not compliant with the directive of loading their ATMs with the new notes. The paper says this is just as it maintains at the January 31, 2023 deadline for the removal of the old notes in circulation remains sacrosanct. This is coming with 20 days left before the January 31 deadline date. The paper says the apex bank has explained that the additional features of the new Nara notes are to curb menace of counterfeiting and to ensure a strong and effective legal tender in line with the mandate of the bank on best practice. So they've added some features. I don't know if those features have come after the complaints of people or not. But it's so funny Mr. Bokeh because you've seen from what people have said they're not going back on that January 31 deadline. But so if they're saying you should load only 200 Nara notes languages, you don't care Nigerians are not going back. Who employed you? Is it not time for you to say you're telling Nigeria you're not going back? Are you a military detector talking to people? What is wrong with this crop of public servers? We own you. We employ you there. And then if you are putting notes in strength, we'll tell you that we tolerate it and tell us you're not going back, especially when they contuse the leadership like the TVN leadership. Who are there to tell us they are not going back? We employ them. They are public servers. So they should stop using that kind of language, especially when they are very competent at managing this kind of transition they are bringing or not. They are highly competent. If a method has tried this as when it was FB of Venice Bank, I'm sure Jim Morvia would have fired him. Is it because it's a public office? All right. Well, a question that has been on my lip since yesterday is if they're saying the banks should only put or load the ATMs at only 200 Nara notes. So how are we going to have access to the 1,500? The best way to exchange these Nara notes for people to have the Nara notes is through the bank. They have placed a limit on the ATM withdrawal. So if you want to go to do market to buy something or you want to buy something across the corner of the street, you will start going to, you don't have the cash to do that. If the senior governor is tired of the work, if she just resigned and leave, all that should be done. All right. Let's look at what Pitobi is saying. The papers have given some good coverage, you know, to his campaign yesterday. The nation put it this way. Huge crowd welcomes Pitobi to Onitsha. We have the leadership newspaper saying, Presidency, I'm not in the race for Onigbo's turn. I'm not in the race for Onigbo's turn. I think another paper I saw, he said he's not representing Biafra, but Nigeria. Another paper, apart from leadership, the punch newspaper has this headline, OB promises to negotiate with Biafran agitators. What are your thoughts on his recent campaign rhetoric? I didn't quite get you. Okay. What are your thoughts on the statements he's made so far? The first one, of course, like I said, the nation informed us that he was in Onitsha, where a huge crowd welcomed him. On the leadership, he said he's not in the race for Onigbo's turn. That's Pitobi, the LP presidential candidate. He said it's not in the race to represent Onigbo. And then in the punch, he also went on to say that he is promising to negotiate with Biafran agitators. Well, first of all, OB stands for competence. OB stands for a paradise sheet for ideas. OB stands for hope. And that is why a lot of millions of Nigerians across religious divide, across political divide, across religious divide. In fact, OB even has more followers outside the Igbolans than in Igbolans. So people who are trying to pigeonhole him into Southeast or whatever are being just mischievous. The momentum, in fact, one of the most fanatical base of OB is at those things. And this is not an Igbo stage. So people should stop, people who want to create a propaganda of ethnicity arrogant are failed. In fact, it's so funny that, let me not say it's so funny, it's so intriguing, that people, members of other political parties are indulging OB. Hopefully, some states, they will say our political, our party, both for the governor of our party, but when it comes to national vote to be. So that kind of momentum was seen last in 1993. We have not seen that kind of momentum. It has always been a one-way show for ruling parties over the years 1999, except the disruption that happened in 2015. And then it was a struggle for the Igbolans to make the 10, 2019. But this time around, there's a vibrancy. And for the first time in a long while, politicians who are contested for presidency are not just going around the streets, eating corn, roasted corn or barley, or drinking sachet of water, or backing babies with wrapper on their backs, or hocking granades, or those Pagestal show that they put up when elections come. So it may be to identify with a common man. Because of OB, the discourse and the election has been raised to a level of intellectualism where people not talk about issues, how you want to calculate issues. And then because he was doing that, other parties have to wake up. So it's an issue-based election that was imposed by this people, and other people are following it. Therefore, he's right. He's not a candidate for Igbols. He's a candidate from after-law. A lot of Igbolans are even rejecting him. But Igbolans are not the Igbol citizens. They are not the majority of Igbol citizens. Igbolans are not supporting him. The government of Igbo State is not supporting him. Government of Igbo, you know. So what people say is an Igbo party, I don't understand it. So is that talk that we're trying to pigeonhole him, is that correct? And he says he's not a candidate for Igbo, he's a candidate for a debtorhood for Nigeria. And that is what he has been preaching since. And that is why a lot of you see him like that. And that's why they are rooting for him. So it remains to be seen that those things are translated into electoral victory. All right. Talking about the presidential candidate of Labour Party, you know, receiving endorsements and support from officials of other parties, the punch at its front-page lead headline is informing us that the APC presidential candidate, Shivaji Bola Ampertinubu, is considering, his campaign council is considering going into alliance with other parties outside the four leading parties, NMPPLP and PDP. What are your thoughts on this? Because according to a PCC member, Senator Akambi, they're looking at a formal alliance, it's a coalition. You think that is feasible, even as one of the presidential candidates is saying that this is not going to do it. That's number one. That's on the front page of the point. If we go to the leadership, Obasa and Joe and Atiku versus Tinibu is still on. The Tinibu camp is still talking about Obasa and Joe following this endorsement of the Labour Party presidential candidate. This time, the presidential candidate of the APC, Tinibu says Obasa and Joe and Atiku squandered the PTDF money. I don't know what you think about this. I would like you to talk about the two questions our issues have raised. And also, especially when Tinibu himself went, should I say cap in hand, or he flew a chopper to Obasa and Joe's home, country of Minota, to go and ask for his support for his presidential bid. But today he's telling us that Obasa and Joe and Atiku squandered PTDF money. Well, first of all, I don't know why APC is contradicting itself when it concerns Obasa and Joe's endorsement of PTB. One is that APC said that the endorsement wasn't consequential. So why losing sleep? Why is he talking about what happened after it has happened? So by talking about it, you are still putting relevance into it. So the media team is saying something else. The presidential candidate is saying something else. It was a big dig for the presidential council campaign of APC. When it got against Obasa and Joe, if it was irrelevant, why did it go to seek for his endorsement and support? Why did you move to every button to ensure that that happened? And that's the line. Of course, all the presidential candidates came to him and they discussed. And at the end of the day, the man said, at this point in my life, I need to tell this youth some truth. I see it. He saw it in his own perspective. And after his own perspective, he's a Nigerian. And he said he doesn't have an opinion of his own. He said he wants his voice to his opinion, as Obasa said, because he's a father. Even a father makes a decision, a king who is a father makes a decision on who becomes his heir, who will succeed him. Even a confident in corporate entities, among your children who are maybe members of the management, where you want to retire, you'll pick somebody to succeed you. In family business, in administration, there must be a successor. And so people are mine. This issue of, oh, if the father is not supposed to, who told he's not supposed to? Even in the family, fathers make decisions on those kind of issues. So it is not relevant. Why are we still talking about it? So what the endorsement is very relevant, and that is what people are generally. So about alliances, about political parties, this election is very interesting, because you cannot actually dismiss any of the three frontliners at this stage. You can't. You do that at your own peril. You cannot dismiss the LPC candidate, you cannot dismiss the Labour Party candidate, you cannot dismiss the PPP Party candidate. So people, some schools of thought, are already saying that there may be a run-off, that it can be so tight that there may be a run-off. Which is happening in Nigeria. We hear it in other countries where election results become so tight, and then a run-off is forced. But people are looking at that. It may happen for the first time in Nigeria, in terms of the election, because it's so tight. Every candidate has supporters across every region. She has supporters. Therefore, it may not be too, it may not be too out of place to say that some parties are already seeking alliances. So I think we will see more of those things come up. Some candidates will step down. We are talking about the smaller parties, coalition of smaller parties. Even I am pursuing a situation where with the big parties, the big four or the big three parties, may even touch some kind of ally. I am also trying to understand whether such a thing will happen. Because when it comes to run-off, you will see how straight it will happen. Negotiations will take place. And that's the beauty of the workplace. Negotiations, interest, quest for power, and control of resources. All right. Very interesting one indeed. Let's quickly take your thoughts on the latest. As far as the Edo train station attack is concerned, that Tommy Kimi train station. Now we're hearing one Edo train attack victim has regained their freedom. This is on the bottom of the front page of the nation. So I can put it this way. One more kidnapped person has been freed. What are your thoughts on this? It's a really warring situation. It's an incident that should not have happened if the third government lent any lessons from the Abuja-Abdu-Kadruna train bound train that happened last year. If the right measures were taken, it will not have happened. We are shot by the Niger Republic operation that all the strategies have been put in place to ensure that it doesn't occur. So I don't know if they only went to Abuja-Kadruna routes to do that. But they have on the routes in other places. One of the issues, one of the things we have said is that I have recommended countless times that we should have CCTV cameras in our train stations, in our train, where people wait to catch the train, and even along the tracks. But we are not doing that. Why are we not doing that? Then we are also telling that at least there should be presence of in strategic stations across the country. There will be presence of secretive operatives. If you have secretive operatives at the airports, what can you have them at the train stations? The secretive operatives are in Mofti. Now, I also advocated that these rail tracks run through communities all across the country. The routes of that area should be constituted into local vigilantes across the routes of the track. And these are the people that will do that by intelligence and give to the nagina and forces. And when you do that, you do that all the locality, you have the local vigilantes guiding them. There will be people that will pass information that people that are not strangers among them. There will be people that will give the intel. But still it's happening. So the Cardinal says, the Cardinal bands that train happen. We closed the place for some months. We reopened and said, those things have happened. We have issued speeches, templates and said, oh, the place shocked. And all those kind of beaches we hear is over. The next thing, business will continue as usual until the next one is waiting to happen. It's a very sad development. We are not, we are always reacting in this country. We don't want to prevent things from happening. All right. Right now it's not even clear how this victim was rescued by security agents, which of the agencies involved, how they went about it. The details are not clear. It happened last night. Hopefully today, this morning, we'll get some more information. So we know whether maybe an operation, a rescue operation was conducted, because we know they've been coming the Bush or the Bushes to see if they can find these persons. Are you, are you confident with the way it's gone? You know, 32 persons kidnapped, some have been freed so far. That will have a different tale from the Kaduna victims in terms of the rescue efforts. And talking about this is tiring. I'm just thinking of the horrific situation those people that were kidnapped are going through. For no fault of theirs, their government has failed them. They are not supposed to be where they are now. And then, you know, a lot of people were kidnapped. You know, we are just having one or two people released here and there. Even those who are released, if you can read them, you hear the gory face. You hear the trauma. Some of them are never healed from the trauma, they may die. So this, well, these things are preventable. If we have done our work where we shouldn't be talking about rescue operation, because by now, we would have even prevented it from happening. So what do we allow things that we can prevent from happening? That's the reactive measures I'm talking about. So now they are requested for 620 million around some. So I'm trying to do shipping with them. And this is what I'm holding this kidnapper, because I was told it's a business. All right, so you think that maybe some of the people who were being released might be down to the negotiation, the payment of ransom. We hope not, because they don't want to see money go into the hands of these criminals. Maybe they're looking for a new Naira, who knows. But thank you very much. Ambrose Bouquet, appreciate your time. We hope that the victims will release as quickly as possible. And we look forward to having you on the program next time. Thank you very much. Thank you for having me. All right, all right. And we'll take a break when we come back. We'll look at INAQ and insecurity, when an agency official saying that the credit situation may compromise the elections next year. The government has had to say this morning, as you saw in the papers, we have a guest joining us for discussions of this. Please stay with us.