 On the breakfast, stagnation and power generation has continued despite the persistent increase in the demand for electricity by consumers since privatisation in 2013. Also on the breakfast, stakeholders decry delay in the launch of maintenance, repair and overhaul facility in Nigeria seven years after the idea was conceived. What is responsible for the delay? And don't forget, we'll also be looking through today's newspapers, analysing the biggest stories of the day. Welcome to the breakfast in plus TV Africa. It's a very beautiful Wednesday morning and we're still in January. All right, it's the fourth day in January 2023. I know a lot of people are not used to saying 2022 and I'm also still grappling with all of that but eventually we just get used to the fact that we're in New Year and it's called 2023. Now, just before we get to the crux of the matter, my name is Messi Bopu and it's really great to know that you are on the other side and you have joined the show. It's a great lineup this morning for us. It promises to be an amazing time to sit back, relax, grab a cup of coffee if you can or whatever it is and let's have a great moment. Well, on our top trend in this morning we set off with the fact that for 2023 the budget has been signed or a Centre 2, that's the language by the President Mohamed Abouhari. Finally, I would say President Mohamed Abouhari has signed the 2021.83 trillion Naira Appropriation Bill into law and the 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Bill as well. It's a two-way thing. Well, the approved budget was jacked by 1.31 trillion Naira which was moved from initial 20.13 trillion to 21.8 trillion Naira so that already got a lot of people talking about it but let's even look at this. Bouhari also said that this regime would speed up critical infrastructure projects and that's probably the reason why the spin and increase nationwide as it raced towards finishing the finish line on May the 29th 2023 noting that the budget is 21.83 trillion Naira and aggregate expenditure of course that increase that I mentioned 1.32 trillion Naira over the initial executive proposal of 20.51 trillion Naira the issue of you know INEC and what have you is also part of you know the reason why there's been an increase and that's according to the government flood that happened the fact that some infrastructure has been you know affected the reason why you have all of this but you know it's just quite worrisome Nigerians have reacted differently. You might also entrust you to know that the Nigerian president Mohammed Bouhari has accused just as this budget has been assented to the National Assembly of Padding the 2023 Appropriation Bill with 770 billion Naira and 58.55 billion Amid the country's 44.06 trillion Naira public debt burden he also stated that the National Assembly increased the ministries departments and agencies that's the MDA's provisioned by 58 which is what I mentioned pushing the addition to 830 billion Naira but too much let's even look at some of the consents about you know the 2023 Appropriation Bill or the budget if you like to say the National Assembly passed that budget it cannot be funded by the country's total revenue and the National Assembly also increased their own budget from 59 billion Naira to 228 billion Naira and so a lot of persons have said that our politicians are criminal they have liquidated the country with their reckless borrowing for consumption if you look at you know the 2023 budget some people have argued that the budget is too small if you look at the population we haven't budgeted enough but if you look at you know where the money is going to and what we're paying attention to the capital expenditure and the real current capital it's nothing to write him about so you say that you have uh you know the capital expenditure about five point you know so you're looking at five five trillion let's even talk about five trillion let's see that that there's an extra figure and then you're looking at real current that's the cost of running governance so but this is actually not choking for 2020 because over time that has been the pattern for us we have a located more resources or we have a located so much in running governance because when you look at the current expenditure is what you used to pay salaries what have you I mean all of the extras and what you have for the capital is what you have in investing in capital project rule construction and what have you so where does our heart really lies let's see and there's this cliche there's a phrase that says that if you want to look at the development of a country or a nation then you pay attention to where you know pay attention to where allocation is gone to I mean how much you're allocating to the capital projects and we look at that we can tell for sure that we're very big on spending very big on paying salaries and what have you and we're borrowing to do all of that because our revenue projection is not even if you look at all those also all of the assumption I mean this is a conversation we've had you know on a show very you know prior to 2023 and also in 2023 if you look at our revenue some of the assumptions in terms of oil and what have you it's not really realistic very weak and there are too many issues around it but we can only continue to talk about these issues and hope that we get it right and hope that those who are calling the shots will think about the people what's the rationale behind all of the increase I mean at this point we're grappling with revenue issues we want to be okay for us to begin to reduce you know some of the excesses that we have in the budget especially for the national assembly some other issues that are not developmental in nature but that's what it is another issue is about the fact that this fake recruitment portal and INEK has raised that alarm and they're talking about it is really worrisome because we have to guard our democracy as we inch closer to the elections don't forget that's in the next month and it's very close now the independent national electoral commission INEK has again cautioned Nigerians against a purported portal for recruitment of ad hoc staff for the 2023 January elections they say that the website and some blog below have advertised apparently not necessarily here but they have advertised ad hoc staff position for the 2023 January election the commission said that those portal or the portals are fake as the commission was not longer recruiting for the election okay officially website for the recruitment had been shut down a long time ago because INEK said that ad hoc staff recruitment portal was shut down on December the 14th 2022 I think it was open in about you know October September dare about that's when you know there was an official opening and we need to gather against this I don't think this should be an issue because at this point there should be some unique features there should be something very you know specific but it's also important that you know the electorate and the people pay attention to this so you don't become vulnerable and then you fall for this some of them probably will ask you to pay money and your life might also be at risk so yes it's a good one from INEK right but apart from that we'll also hear the issue of yesterday was dominating some of the papers talked about underage voters and the fact that parents would you know rick's going to jail and we say is INEK trying to pass the the blame is this the blame game how do you now blame the parents for underage voting why how did they even get how did how did this underage voters get into the register so yes we can't continue I would say that we can't act like we don't know what's going on we can't always act like you know we're leaving space and then for the ants and look for who to shift the blame to we need to put the arcs together you can identify yes I know that this is the hormones are grow are different now so you can see a child who's 10 and they probably look like they are 18 or they're about but you cannot set in for sure you would you can tell and then some people say that the issue of underage voting and underage voters have been very dominant and prominent in the northern part of the country let's pay attention to all of this I don't think I mean if you ask me to say that it's really great to say you blame the parents for what INEK should step up to our responsibility but we have moved beyond that because I mean I'm not sure that we're having you know the registration process so if we now get to a point where we say there were underage voters in 2023 election who should we blame should he be the parents or you know the umpire that saddled with the responsibility of ensuring that we have a credible free and fair elections every other time now just before we move away from a top trending conversation the issue of endorsement will not stop because another some people will say a political big you know force has endorsed pitao b for president now edwin clark endorses pitao b for president this is few days after pitao b gets endorsed by a former president of the federal republic of nigeria lucia guinobasan joe edwin clark is an elder statesman of the south south region and endorse pitao b as his preferred candidate according to him obese plan to restructure nigeria will bring unity so according to him is looked at the manifesto he thinks that the former nambraste governor is very um you know his demand for the job has a viable solution to tackling the problems you know plug in the country and what have you but um looking at it you want to say that the conversation is getting very interesting uh some people have appreciated where we're taking the conversation from it is no longer you know a party conversation it is not about the individual their personality and uh you know what they can do so he cited for instance honesty trust and transparency all of which he said will be displayed when he was governor of anambra state he also emphasized the importance of the next president being educated and experienced and argued that the southeast should be given the opportunity to produce the next president due to the region's resourcefulness and you know educated population but you know to that like other persons would say it's just the fact that if there's been an agreement over time for power rotation then it's it would just be right that power should go to the southeast being that um if you look at it in the history of all of this arrangement the south is has not been in charge uh others are saying oh it's a gentleman's agreement but like i highlighted and if you look at the thoughts of edwin cluck it's that we're moving away from all his of the apc we're moving away from the fact that he's of the pdp we're moving away from the fact that he's these his all of that and we're beginning to talk about individual's capacity um you know their resourcefulness we're looking at the personality rather than party affiliation on ethnic uh you know uh sentiment so yes i know that for sure that we will definitely in our democracy in ijo gets a point where all of this will become um an important factor in shipping the elections in shipping who becomes the governor who becomes the chairman of the local government or the councilor of a certain warden what have you all of these factors in no time it might necessarily not you know be for 2023 but i know that we're getting there and um this would become very important people would not be no longer be interested in whether you're of a certain political party but look at you know your track record and what you can do your personality and that will be the reason why you would be selected but it might also interest you to know that if you don't already know that the elections are around the corner 25th of uh you know February 2023 the presidential election would take place and of course the 11th of March there will also be another election state house of assembly and what have you governorship maybe why but endorsement whether you have anybody endorsing it doesn't really it might have an impact it will have an impact to some extent but the overall power of endorsement lies which you in which you'll vote and so if you don't have your pvc then it's important that you go get your pvc because you are um the the the endorser you are the real deal for endorsing whoever becomes president governor and what have you come 2023 of course in february and march well that's so much we can take on a top trending we take a break when we return we're looking through the papers this morning we call it off the press to the color will you join us or things very cool please stay with us