 We're glad to know that you're still there and watching The Breakfast on the Plus TV Africa. And right now we're going to the National Dailies to see what the headlines are. We'll begin with Punch, Punch newspaper this morning on Off the Price. Punch leads with the story, APC Big Weeks, Jossel for ministerial slots, Tinnable Names, 8 SAs. And the writer to that story is Party Chief Ten's Favo Keyamo Oma Gege Fahemi Adeye Ganduji Marafa Others. He don't appoints SAs on monetary affairs. I like he gets communication, okay, he don't appoint it rather, let's say on monetary affairs. I like he gets communication, Ribadu handles security, okay. We also have above that Naira weakens to 702 Naira per dollar, CBN Fresh FX supply likely. Tinnable Economic Advices Proposed Customs, NIMASA, FIRS Major. Fuel subsidy, NECMOLS 702 billion Naira as workers allowance. Okay, under that we have some other smaller headlines. ESCC summons Syrica, quizzes Nigeria Air officials. Prop begins as OAU student dies of suspected suicide and both tragedy, federal government vows prosecution of operators. That'll be all from the Punch this morning. From the Punch we'll move to the nation newspaper. And the nation newspaper is leading with CBN abolishes multiple Naira dollar exchange rates. The rider is market driven currency regime excites financial exports. Above the Mastery have federal governments 819 billion Naira extra budget littered with ghost projects. Student loan law takes off in September is another headline an outrage over death of 106 inquirer boat accident. Tinnable orders probe of EFCC Chairman's tenor. DSS detains Bauer after indefinite suspension. That's not the mask head. Well that's the much I'll be taken from the nation newspaper. Okay, we'll move now to the Guardian. The Guardian newspaper, the major headline there is costly rent, burial plots, no resting place for the poor even in dead. That's the big story there on page four and five of the Guardian. Posers over ministerial list as Tinnable unveils henchmen in batches. PMS marketers need 1.8 billion dollars monthly for import as stakeholders move to resolve gray areas. 18,088 blurred election results uploaded to IRF portal witness tells court. That will be all we'll be taking from the Guardian this morning. From the Guardian we move to the daily independent newspaper which is leading with Tinnable to governors. Nigerians are awaiting economic reforms to escape poverty. The writer's there says we begged to be elected. We must deliver results. And then the second writer points at doing a lot of everybody other special advisors. Petrol subsidy removal, neck reviews, labor's recommendation of 702 billion narrow salary adjustments. High cost of food pushes inflation to 22.41% in May. FG moves mass production of CNG-powered vehicles to mitigate impact of fuel subsidy removal. That is on page six of the daily independent. Over 150 antigrapt CSOs defy rain celebrate power suspension. That's on page six. FG direct states to submit report on flood prone areas in one week. That's on page six as well. That's an interesting one. Lots of interesting headlines this morning. Above the mass head you have over 65% of Nigerian men aged 40 at risk of erectile dysfunction. That's according to experts and details of that you can find on page 29. 18,088 blood election results uploaded to IRF portal witnesses tell PEPC, ICPC, VIA rains, X-jam registrar or journey day, children, six others. That's all on daily independent which is really loaded this morning. And then that's the last newspaper's headlines we'll be taking a look at as we go straight to up the press with our guests, Jida Johnson, Chief Lecturer and Nigerian Institute of Journalism. He's joining us from Lagos this morning. Good morning, Mr. Jida Johnson. So good to have you join us again. Good morning. Good morning to all of you. I want to ask him. Okay. Well, let's just go ahead and begin with some of the headlines. Let's begin with punch newspaper. Ministerial slots. People are just linked for ministerial slots and the president has already made some appointments about eight appointments which people are divided whether it is balanced or not. So let's hear your thoughts about these ministerial appointments, the likely ministerial appointments. If the appointments that he has made right now give you a picture of what is to come? Basically, if you look at, if you use the special advisor's list at the 8th out of the 20 which was given approval for by the Ignatian Assembly for the president, you understand what is yet to come because there's a mix of the old hands that you know that have worked with the president when he was governor in Lagos. For example, he was his commissioner in Lagos State. He was his commissioner in Lagos State and it seems that those guys moved into the areas in which he worked with him in Lagos State and then you have others that have worked in other states and then basically from the look of things what we are just going to see is just a slight departure from what we have seen from this special advisor. It will still be made up of people that has worked with him either at the state level or at other state government and then others that are just new that are coming on board. But from what punch in his paper has projected, you are still having, if you are still having people like Ganduji, Fahemi, Adiei, Keiyamu, Omoa Gigi. These are actors and players in the last, in the last, in the last, okay Adiei was with Jonathan administration. Fahemi was with Bwari administration before he went for second term. Ganduji was governor and then Keiyamu was also a minister and then Omoa Gigi was the deputy senate president for the night. It seems as if the more things changes, the more they look the same. If we still go around this set of people and then we are complaining about the rock that has happened in the last eight years then, well, that you should just keep open and open and open. It might be a situation whereby the new hope becomes an hopeless situation because what we need are younger, dynamic, resourceful, energetic, highly intelligent, cerebral and not people that there are political packages to be to be heading ministries and departments and agencies of government. But if you are bringing people that still have political ambition, that still have some political packages, you load government with a lot of with with with a lot of burden, political burden and for them to really work in making sure that we are able to deal with some of the challenges that are left behind by the Bwari administration. So that's that's just my take, my take on that because if you go to every ministry, every ministry seems to have one issue or the other presently. You see the president suspended the central bank of not suspended them, the EFCC chairman, and then we don't know the extent to which the suspension we go. The EFCC had already invited the erstwhile minister of aviation at the Syrica and then other management staff of of the Nigerian here. So it's just, it's just, it's just, I just want to implode the president to be circumspect and then to be circumspect in the process of appointing his his cabinet to to to to spread his his night beyond those that has worked with him in the past. So that's that's just it because I don't know I still go with this. You are suspect. Ganduji, Marafa, Kayamu, Oma, Gigi, Adie, all of all of these people have been, I've heard one position or the other before. They are not the best Nigerians. Are they the only one in Nigeria? I think we should, we should move here. See, hopefully some of the names you're calling will not come up when the list finally comes out. But let's move on to the next another headline. Sometimes those stories, sometimes those stories are planted, those stories are planted by their heath in order to put them save in the conversation. We know how this thing goes. Yeah. So we'll just wait and see what the authentic list would look like. Hopefully some of the names you just mentioned will not be there. So still staying with the punch newspaper before we leave the punch newspaper, let's look at this headline EFCC, some on silica quizzes in Nigeria officials. Yeah, it's it's it's it's it's one of one of the things that is still surprising to me is what are the safety nets we put in place with respect to checks and balances with government officials either elected or appointed, abused in the process. Don't forget the Thunderbury administration. I think the accountant general of the federation was arrested of of of of was allegedly accused of fraud, arrested and then the case is in court with respect to how he was able to to siphon huge amount of money. And then you begin to wonder how is it possible one individual to go ahead and circumvent an entire process, an entire nation and and and then is able to to get away with blue mother. Well, the more you look at the Nigerian hair issue, this is just Nigerian hair. What about other ministries? Just imagine us doing such like, so you silica and then control what he has done in the aviation ministry. What happened to other ministry? If you look across all the ministry, so what are the safety nets we have put in place? Now you have the legislature that you serve as as a check and a balance on the excesses of the executive. You have you have the media which has the accountability rule and the watchdog rule to investigate and to throw to life things that are happening. But what we have seen is that it seems that everybody would just turn blind blind when these people are in office. And as soon as they leave office, all of a sudden everybody becomes becomes an intelligent officer. Everyone becomes interested in seeing what in performing the function which the which the state and the society requires them to perform as far as I am concerned. We respect to, you know, let me just respond a bit to what you said. The media has been in the forefront of extreme some of the activities of some of these ministries. We must not, we must not forget to admit to that truth. Well, I will engage in a debate to respect that. But the bottom line, the bottom line is that when the priest dog becomes a reward dog, when the when the watchdog becomes the priest dog, and when the watchdog becomes the reward dog, then you turn your blind eye to some certain things we need to do. I'm not saying the media is not, it's an industry which I believe, which I belong to. I think we need to do, we need to do much more than what, what we, what we are doing presently. You go see, you can understand what I'm saying. Now the same style, the same playbook that Barry started within in 20, in 2015, when he first came in, when everybody begins to praise Barry's fighting corruption is doing this. The same playbook is being played out again. The same playbook, the same narrative that was used there is what is being used. And it's our own responsibility as the watchdog to throw such light to it. For example, the president has taken one, two, three, four, five steps within two weeks. Let's take the issue of the student loan. Let's take the issue of removal of subsidy. Let's look at one, two, three issues. And then I've seen comments, I've seen so many comments. Look, when people are elected into public office, they are not meant to be praised. They are meant to be put under public scrutiny. If you come into public office, you offer yourself to sound the people. Are they, are they going to clap for you for, for presenting this program today? Once you leave, once you leave the set, are people going to clap for you? Oh, you've done well today. No, it's your job. It's what you apply to do. And that's your responsibility. We are meant to put scrutiny. We are not meant to be a press dog. And a lot of time you go, just open the pages of newspaper. You see the media pressing and pressing and pressing for doing the basic, the basic of what they are required to do. Okay, now that you've touched on the student loan, let's talk about it. It's on the front page of the nation newspaper, both the Mastery app. Student loan law takes off in September. Now that itself has generated lots of controversies. We've seen some of the articles on it, the conditions given for this loan. And many Nigerians are wondering who and who can qualify indeed for these loans. What, what's your take? Have you looked at it? What's your take? One of, one of the things you always look at is the way they make what the requirements for you to get the loan. And there's a system we have always put in place in Nigeria, which favors the people that will implement the policy. That is the civil servant. Is it a requirement? One of the requirements that you must get a lawyer with 10-year practice or a civil servant with level 12 and above. Now these are the people that are going to execute the policy because who are those that will be in the front line of executing the policies? You have set a trap for corruption. You have set a trap for corruption. So some level 12 officer can just use his name and use 10, 12 students to collect money. What I see, various programs that government have done that you require to get a guarantor that you have a civil servant as guarantor. What has been the outcome of such, such programs? There are numerous, numerous failed programs across both. And then if you look at the conditions that is provided, is it to help an African Nigerian or is it to help highly placed Nigerians? How many downtrodden Nigerians can meet up with the conditionalities provided for in that loan? And I keep asking this question. Why is the president in a hurry to sign this bill into law? Because one, he does not have an attorney general yet. He does not have an attorney general yet. So who is giving him the counsel to sign? Who is putting, for example, the student note was, was, was, was sponsored by the speaker of the night, night assembly. Even before he left the speaker, he was appointed as, as the team was staffed to the president. And then he ensured that the president signed that bill into an act. He's one of the first assignment to sign that bill into an act. As the president, as he sought legal counsel with respect to sign this, this, this, this bill. And this, this bill were passed by the night assembly. The president, Muhammad Bari did not sign them into law. Why did he, why is he in a hurry signing this bill into law? And there are a lot of things that we don't know that we need to know. Is there an attorney, does he have an attorney general that has advised him sign this or don't sign this? And these are some of the areas which I thought that, okay, the media will look at it in that direction. If you throw like, to all of this issue, why? If it is so important and so crucial, you have not put in place your cabinet, you have not put in place your cabinet, you have not put in place your advisory committee, you have not, yesterday the president just inaugurated the National Economic Council. These are issues that should be table first before the National Economic Council. They looked at it and then they report back to him. These are, you bill have been the first set of assignment given to them. And then within, let's say it gives them two weeks and within one six weeks into his administration, all of these decisions he has taken, all of these bills he has ascended to, and then ascended to when there's an holistic view, not a narrow view by some select few. Okay, let's leave that. It's unfortunate. Some people are saying that it seems to be looking for validation and so far the things he's doing, we do not understand what it is, whether he had insight into these bills that he's signing into law, not just the education bill, not just the scholarship scheme that he's, not scholarship, the law scheme that he's talking about, but other things that he has signed into law. How much of the insight does he have into these things? That's the word insight. You need the benefit of insight to have the first insight. So now some people are proposing, his economic team, whoever that is or those are, are proposing a merger for customs, NIMASA and FIRS. Do you think that would be a good move? Well, for example, we have too many agencies. There's no doubt about that. We have too many agencies. There are multiple agencies and then what we need, what I think the president needs to do is to go back to the onsite report. We should not be in a hurry. We need to study that report and implement what that report recommended. We have too many agencies. Too many agencies performing the same function. Custom is a revenue generating agency of federal government. FIRS is a revenue generating agency of the government. NIMASA is a revenue generating agency of the government. So if you look at the responsibility and the core functions of this agency, more or less like they are the same, in a sense FIRS should be an umbrella body for all of these agencies. But my take is it's good for us to downsize our size government and also in terms of the ministry and agency and in terms of the personnel in order to reduce the cost of the cost of governance in Nigeria. That's a step in the right direction. But I advise the president to look at the OSEA report. That report is comprehensive, is thorough, and then we need to implement that report. There's no need for us to set up another committee to look into it. Something has been done. Government is a continent now. Something has been done in the past. Let's look at it and adopt this and then it will be good for his administration and it will be good for the entire nation. All right. Let's look at this, which is very much out there. CBN abolishes multiple Nira dollar exchange rates. We took a look at this in that yesterday. But give us your thoughts on it. Well, it's a step in the right direction. We'll be waiting for this. We'll be waiting for this and because a lot of people have made money through roundtripping and a lot of people have made money exploring that loophole. It's only an idea that you have multiple exchange rate. I don't know whether dollar has multiple exchange you know, whether pounds telling a hero has multiple exchange or the Chinese yen or the Japanese currency. So it's a step in the right direction and it's something we need to do to strengthen the Nira. One of the things which I have said was yes, is that the reason why the elites and the political class will never pray for Nira to appreciate is because their assets value are in dollars. Most of their assets are in dollars and they are stored in foreign countries. So, for example, just imagine a situation whereby 100 Nira is equal to 8 dollar. 8 dollar is just 15 Nira to 8 dollar. All those that have stolen money from Nigeria that have deposited their money in different foreign accounts, what do you think will happen to their money? So, it's just that we do not have the will. I'm sure with the resources we have, if we have the political way and we see it to be just a matter of time, Nira to dollar shouldn't be more than 15 Nira, 15 Nira to 8 dollar and hopefully we'll get there, hopefully we'll have the will like some of us have said. Some of the actors and players are at national level now. They've been in government. They've achieved whatever they want to achieve and the president says it's life long ambition. Probably for the first time in his life, he will look back and see that, you know what? I have to leave a legacy behind, beyond building a political legacy. I must leave a national legacy, legacy of reference that people can point to and say, oh, at least this man needs something for this nation and not for himself. So, I think that I pray and I pray for him and that he has the political way to see through some of the policies that have been highlighted with respect to a monetary policy. And one good thing is that I saw from the composition of the teaching cabinet, a special advisor, is the separation in the sense that bringing a younger person and then and hold on to the financial aspect and then younger or to the monetary aspect. So, hopefully bringing what he had to do and then the, I think, I can't recall his name now, if I'm a commissioner in New York state. So, I think that the two of them should be able to provide guidance with respect to how we achieve some, there's a need for us to have a stable currency. This is what gives confidence in foreign direct investment. It's also what gives confidence in Nigerians exporting their produce outside of Nigeria. They can compete comparatively in international trade, when Naira is stable and does not flop treat like second, every second. But as it stands now, Mr. Johnson, the Naira is exchanging for, the dollar is exchanging for 702 Naira and some people, maybe because they don't have that much insight into the workings of money, they are afraid that it is too much. Officially 702 Naira. At the initial stage, it will happen like that. And then what will happen? At the initial, if government is here, you are at the initial stage, it will stabilize. It's just something that you have, you did not allow to go with the market forces. You are regulating this over regulation and over interference. Now you are now trying to allow the market forces to control. First, there will be this fluctuation. One of the things, as a layman that I have discussed with people is that, if government is sincere, look at the telecom sector. Let's look at the telecom sector. How much did we buy sim when it was initially deregulated? Now what's sim now? So it's the same thing if government is sincere and government allow the market forces and allow active players and government does not interfere in the market and government does not create individual monopoly because what we have succeeded in doing is some of our policies over the years is for us to create, to move from government monopoly to individual monopoly. And I hope this government will not do that. One of the steps they've taken is, okay, three people have been given licenses to import petroleum product apart from NNPC. That's the revolution. That's allowing private actors and players to participate in the process. And it's just a matter of time, the sincerity of purpose. I tell you what we are experiencing in the telecom sector. What we have experienced in other sectors that have been deregulated, like the broadcast industry in Nigeria that we are now exploring is just, is the sincerity of purpose and determination of the leadership that we have for time. That means about changing the society. But I'm just trying to, do we really have, are we really that better in the telecom sector, for instance? We are now buying sim for maybe a hundred Naira. Sometimes you're given for free. And if you even buy for some money, they will give you some bonus. But the data, for instance, that we were using for a month, now it's a matter of hours. And nobody can say anything because it's a free for all thing. You determine your own rates because it's a free market. That's what is happening right now. The electricity sector, electricity as well. I can't say where you have the regulatory body. That's the essence of the regulatory body. You recall what the Obersando administration did then to force down, one, the prices of the sim to the production of recharge card. And then now we move to per second billing. So it's about those that we have given, those that we have given responsibility to, those that are meant to do oversight function and appointing the right people in the right place. You look at, I don't, you see sometimes when we review, it's just a critique of the past. And there's no way you review the past without talking about, about, about persons. And not related. You, we saw what the extra minister of communication, we saw what he did with the minister of communication. Yes, to our minister. You know, a lot of people who are put in position of authority under Boris administration that do not qualify to even head those agencies and those ministries. And I think these are the areas in which the media needs to do spotlight. As the president, Paula met, who is throwing out the names of people that we are pointing the office. If we see a square peg in a round, we need to shout it out. We need to drum it out. So if you look at the way, and unfortunately, the last administration is one of the few administration whereby we have somebody being in the ministry for close, ministers being in the ministry for eight years. You know, we are in education, for example, in, in aviation, for example, in works, for example, communication. So you can go on and on and on. Wherever you have, you thought that the level of continuity in this ministry will bring about a change. But what we have witnessed is that even in those ministries where we have continuity, there seems to be a lot of policy flip up. And then there seems to be, I don't know how we use this word, it would be too, too much. And it's just that I think we didn't get the best value from, from, from some of this ministry where we have superministers for eight years. We are still talking about the aviation ministry where this liquor was. It was Minister of State in the, in, in the, in the first term of, in the second term of Bari, Bari separated aviation from transportation because aviation was under transportation there. It was Minister of State in the first, in the first term. And in the second term, it was made a substantive minister. And what did we, what did, what did the city cash in for it? Nigerian here. Well, before we go, before we go, let's look at another headline, which may also make the blood of Nigerians boil today. Federal governments, 819 billion Naira extra budget littered with ghost projects. So an administration is living in less than one month. The administration is living, and then all of a sudden the national assembly, you know, approves the robust national assembly, approves a supplementary budget for an administration that is living. And then the, is he, he was, he was not so funny. You record the 2.1, the 2, the 12 billion, the 12 billion fire, fire truck, and the various, the various projects that all of every minister was executing towards the challenge. There was one that the Minister of Sports only that was trying to push in concerning the innovation of national stadium and the rest of it. My goodness. Some people should go to jail. Some people should go to jail. Some, some people should just, she just go to jail. She just go to jail. She just, she just go to jail because, and that's why you see the president said, the president, just like Ponto's pilot, washed his hand off it. As he said, nobody should call him to come and appear in court. That if the, I mean, President Buarrio, if they are expressing too much and they want to trouble you, you will go to, you will go to the telepublic. That's to tell you the extent to which the president himself does not even have control over his cabinet. It's unfortunate. It is. Oh, well, we don't know how that's going to be. Goes projects at this time and all that. But we also have this story, this unfortunate story that comes from choir state that people who drowned, 106 people drowned and the federal government is vowing to prosecute boat operators. And I asked a question. How much influence did you have? How much sensitization? How much help did they get from the federal government? Now this has happened. The federal government is going to prosecute the boat operators. What do you think when you hear this kind of stories? It's an executive overage. It's an executive overage. Who is going to prosecute the federal government for the various road accidents that we have for the state government, for the numerous portals we have? He's going to prosecute federal government concerning that as far as I'm concerned, what we need is for government to look at that sector and to reform that sector. It is not prosecution that is required. It's about reforming that sector. It's about looking at how to intervene in that sector. Government is making money into that sector. How do people in those communities come in across, across, across Rivanaja, across Rivanu. Those people, we have led them to be on their own. What intervention has the state government done with respect to that? What intervention has the federal government done with respect to that? It's not, they should even thank those that are even operating in that sector without any support, without any incentive from government. They are still going to facilitate the movement of good and services across that sector, excuse me, across that sector. And then what do you want to do now? What do you want to do now is to prosecute them? Without those players, without those local players, what do you think will have happened to the life of people living in those Rivanaja communities? What attention have we paid to them? Until this death do, are we even aware of people coming? You can imagine, what type of boat will carry 100 people? Are you getting my point? Exactly. And then it's just that, that one that caught our attention because they were going for a wedding reception. How many have sought an apple for those that are going for business transaction? Are you with me? Because this one that is, because this one that happened as a communal, as a communal, communal impact, because a lot of families are involved, is a per wedding. So it involves the entire community. So that's why this is it. What of those five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 people that have done in the past across the district? What did they do concerning that? These are just, part of the manifestations, yeah, part of the manifestations of the failure we've had over the years. I mean, we've had ministers of transportation come and go. Not many of them, if any at all, have paid much attention to transportation on water, you know, safety in that area. And for 106 people to drown in this. You are the minister of transportation that has never experienced what an average Nigerian is experiencing. I met you as minister of transportation. At this week, a minister of aviation, a national minister of what? The area of making former governors, ministers, I think we should, it is, once you have been an executive at the state level, you call it short. Now you know, because it's, I don't know, it's just that we're built. Yeah, we know. Let me just, let me just come to mind. Let me just come to mind. Well, I don't know. It's been daunting to analyze some of these things because, yes. Anyway, thank you so much, Mr. Jede Janssen, for your time, especially since you're a bit under the weather and you still took time to join us this morning. We're very grateful. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be with you. I'm sure you will see the Nigerian here will come, will land. Jede, you have to bring that. Thank you so much for being a part of our show this morning. All right, Jede Janssen, his chief lecturer and attorney of journalism, he joined us on off the press. We'll be back with our very first hot topic, don't go anywhere. Stay with us.