 Good morning to you and of course thanks for joining us on the breakfast here on PLOS TV Africa. It's a very beautiful Friday morning, public holiday across Nigeria because we're celebrating Nigeria's 61st Independence Day and of course we're going to be having loads of these conversations this morning for everyone who got to watch the President address the country this morning from 7am. Pretty interesting speech. Indeed, good morning to you. Welcome again to the breakfast. My name is Annette Felix, looking forward to really unbundling the President's speech. We just listened to that really lengthy cover just about every aspect of our society. We have been covering for the President to speak and he has spoken on key issues that affect all of us. And I think I want us to begin with, begin from the bottom, right? He mentioned, one of his final speeches, this was in his 100th point, that no government since 1999 has done what the Buhari administration has done in six years to put Nigeria back on track. We're looking forward to getting our guests to really analyse this statement because even though there are definitely lots of high points of the Buhari administration but lots of people argue that there has to be a balance to that conversation which means bringing to the table all the negatives really that have occurred while Buhari has been in power in the past six years. So him making that assertion to say that no government has ever done what he's done in the past six years since 1999 really would be its subject of debates really when the conversation starts proper, don't you think? Yeah, so I don't expect the President to go on live television and say that they failed. So it's expected that he will make those type of statements comparing what Nigeria achieved between 1999 and 2015 and in the last six years there's a lot of people who would argue that of course we've basically gone 50 years back in the last six years. And of course you just mentioned that there's a lot and lots of achievements. There's also people who would argue that they can't really see anything that is different. I think one of the first things that I would like to bring up this morning really is how inspiring is the speech because besides the things that are read out there's people who will mention that this is not even a live speech, it's recorded, it's pre-recorded and so besides the things that I've mentioned in the speech how inspiring really is the speech when you see your President speak to you. How many people look at those things or look at the last 30 minutes of the President speaking and say yes, I believe in Nigeria, I believe in the things that the President is saying and I'm looking forward to the beauty and the things that he is promising. That's one angle and he also made mention that Nigeria's unity is non-negotiable. There's many, many arguments about those things. We are going to be joined this morning by Mr. Poonabo in Kottaria and of course we'll be having a review of what President Muhammad Abari has of course spoken to Nigerians about this morning. Good morning, thanks for joining us sir. Good morning, Jedeh Janssen. Good morning, it's a pleasure to be with Jedeh Janssen, good morning. Good morning, Jedeh Janssen. Happy independence to you, to all Nigerians both at home and in the hospital. All right. To the dawn of a new season. Thanks for joining us, of course Poonabo in Kottaria will be joining us later, my mistake. Jedeh Janssen, I want to start with the thing that I was just mentioning and that is really watching the last 30 minutes of the President speaking to Nigerians did you feel inspired? Do you think that a lot of Nigerians have looked at that and are excited about how far Nigeria has come in the last six years and where we might be headed? All you need to do is for you to do the content analysis and the textual analysis of the President's speech, speeches, the one he made on June 12th, the one he made, the series of speeches he has delivered, we just discovered that they are the same, they are just recycled speech. They are directed to so and so, we have engaged, we are going to make, they are just promissory statements, no clear court policy direction. Those speeches, they are just, they are just rhetorics, rhetorics playing on words and intelligence of Nigerian food scarcity. You talked about the price index of food not going up, best find that you have made economic gains in terms of growth, in terms of your GDP, the middlemen that are trying to, that are responsible for that, or the own personal gain, in a sense you have directed, we keep bearing directed, directed, directed in those speeches. For me, I was not inspired, that's one too. I don't understand why it's not limited to this particular President. That's been the practices, and I think it's something that started in the era of military regime. For them to address us through recorded speeches are not speeches that are delivered live towards where body tones in. In the past, you know, we used to listen to these speeches in the night, this time around, we just sit down and record the speeches. That's why sometimes these speeches are not inspiring, because every Nigerian knows that these speeches are recorded, and so we can give it to you whenever you want it. That's my trick on that, and then you just took out what the President said concerning Twitter. We have a Twitter set of a presidential committee. You engage them and then they will return. The President talked about the Gertrude, and I've asked many people, when you devote too much focus and attention on the Gertrude, what happens to the boy chat? Who's going to marry the Gertrude in the future? You know all these cliches and all these buzzwords and the rest of it, every chat is important. Good girl and boy, if you train your Gertrude and you train and train your Gertrude and you leave the boy chat alone, who's going to get married to? All you need to do is for you to take a samples of it, and I'll give you an example. I'm trying to personalize things. My son will be 20 next year, he's 19 plus. If you ask him about marriage, there's what he tells you that he's not interested in marriage and he's not the only one. There are so many young boys out there. Go and ask them. He's going to ask so many ladies out there because in the last 20, 25 years you have been talking about the Gertrude. You left the boy chat alone. For me, when people talk about that, it's just following the Western world. And the Western world are facing the problem. I listened to the girls of red members talking about 70% of African-American fathers abandoning their home, leaving the room for the mothers alone and as a result of that, that has created problems. Same thing with Hispanics. I think among the Hispanics about 40%, among the whites about 30%. So basically every child needs to be taken care of. Every child needs to be... But we don't have to be carried away by the Western ideology and Western ideas and bring it back home and we think it will work. And then the president said they have just realized that the civil service is very important and crucial to governance. In our case, as I said, so they are going to make investment in that. Anyone that does not understand that now that has been president in 1983 and is now saying that in 2021 does not seem to understand what governance is a lot about. And there are some things which came out of those pitches and which created fear for me when you talk about this food index and the rest of it. And then they're talking about the commodity but they are going to... I remember that when we tell people that we used to queue to buy bread, we used to queue to buy make, we used to queue to buy essential commodities in 1983 and 1984. When I tell my sons and sons, they say that is not possible. That can never happen in Nigeria. Nigeria is full of abundance. And sometimes some of the speeches of the president tends to resonate with that particular... It recreates that particular period, that particular era. And those that are in my generation and above can relate with it. That is more or less like when it seems like so for me. So now you're here. Jede Jansen, I want you to continue with this. But what he mentioned, what the president mentioned was that the artificial shortages and the increase in price of food are caused by middlemen who have been hoarding products and that's what has led to the increase in price of food stuff across the country. So then he said he was going to send off the board. He has directed the Ministry of Agriculture. He has directed the Nigerian security agents and then the National Assembly. And I ask this question, why are they elected and appointed in the first instance? Why are they... Why do they do the presidential directive to do their job? Who are these middlemen? Nigerians. Why do they hoard this food? The price is... I am a single parent. So I go to the market regularly. What the commodity price indexes are. I know I service my car. I service my gen. It is and goods in this country. So who are the middlemen? They are the most... If you have a Ministry of Agriculture, different agencies under Ministry of Agriculture and it is possible for people to hoard food, definitely when it is possible for people to be kidnapped in this country and pay ransom and for security agencies not to locate them, then it is easier to even hoard food. That's just my take on it. The security agencies that have been overstretched in providing security will now also be given an assignment for them to hoard food. Now we close border. Now if our border is closed, where are they hoarding this food? Where are they taking them to? If our border is open, they are probably exporting food through illegal roads. But that does not occur in this particular instance. We should understand that we face these challenges where a lot of farmers couldn't go to their farm. We have not seen anything yet. I am not a prophet of doom. I just had an interaction with one of my students that has produced a farm. He had over 600 acres of farm somewhere in your state and he said he has abandoned his farm yesterday. He told me that he is going back to Ibadan to do that some people won't take to sell their farms. That farmers are selling their farm. Nobody wants to go to the farm because they are not making anything out of the farm. If you are not careful, you are kidnapped and you use whatever you make from the farm to pay ransom. Our farmers are not interested in going to the farm. So the idea is that the President can live in Asurok, operate on his Olympian hike, far away from reality, but lives based on the reports and the memo that his appointees are giving to him. But the reality on the ground does not match what the President is talking about because you can see it is clear what he needs to do is to live in Asurok and go to any markets in Abuja. We move for a felony of that office and then they come to the reality of it. If the National Assembly can do its oversight function and the Ministry of Agriculture with all its personnel can do it, is the security agency that will do it. And those middlemen, they are making life difficult. Those middlemen are working contrary to national issues. They are committing treason and felony. They should be arrested and they should be tried. And they should be named. All right, Gina Johnson. Gina Johnson, when the President began his speech, one of the first things he said was that the past 18 months have been some of the most difficult periods in the history of Nigeria. And since the Civil War, that he doubts whether Nigeria has ever been through a period of challenges because of the COVID-19 pandemic as Nigeria did during the Civil War. That's what he said on that time. So let's get your perspective if the President's analogy and comparison is correct that we're going through harder times now because of the COVID-19 pandemic and that the President is going through more challenges than in the Civil War era. And maybe if we need to cut the President some slack. Well, the pandemic brought its own attendant challenges. That, you know, it caused a major disruption. A major disruption in the socio-political and economic life of our nation, not only our nation, across the globe. So it did not affect Nigeria in isolation. It affected, the Civil War affected Nigeria alone as a nation. The pandemic is a global destruction. Now, how did we respond to it? I agree that it brought its own attendant challenges, but how did we respond to it? What steps, what measures did you put in place for the President to separate that with the Civil War that happens between 1967 and 1970? I think it's a wrong analogy for as far as I'm concerned because that Civil War was dealt with by Nigerians and I guess Nigerians did not even go through this type of hardship we are going through now. It's pretty difficult for Nigeria. I know what I'm talking about. It's pretty difficult for Nigeria. For those of us, for you that are in the studio and for the viewers that are listening to us at home, they can tell you for a fact the kind of pressure you receive because you are working, because people see you that you are working and the kind of pressure you receive when people are calling you for relief measures, popularity and whatever you went, some of them will just call you, some of them will just say, if only you can give me 5000, if only you can give me, I just need 2000. You know, all those numerous calls you will receive on daily basis and every Nigerian receives but we don't have access to Google's allowances like the National Assembly or allowances like the Senators or political appointees who are entitled to get all of their allowances. If we face that challenge, what measures does the President do to reduce the cost of governance? Because if you look at the cost of governance in Nigeria, you discover that we have more money being spent on recurring expenditure than capital expenditure. We are breaking every rule of productivity. When you spend more, when you consume more and you produce less, the more you consume, the less you produce and the more difficult it becomes, it becomes for you. So what steps has the government taken in reducing the cost, the cost of governance in managing the austerity measure? So for me, things are difficult but not only difficult for Nigerians, it affected every part of the world. But what measures did they put in place across the globe to deal with the issue and what measures did they put in place to deal with the issue in Nigeria? Were we given palliatives? Those palliatives were ordered, just like the President said, some people ordered food and not a single person has been prosecuted for ordering the palliatives. Not a single person has been shipped, has been named and shipped for ordering the palliatives. We live with that as business as usual. We don't even know whether some of the palliatives are still in some warehouses rotting away, just like those ones that were discovered that bought about the beast in every Nigerian. And people don't understand that an angry man is an angry man. People talk that Nigerians have animalistic tendency. What you need to do is just to look at video clips when they have issues of first shortages and then you see that what usually happened when we have first shortages in Nigeria was recreated across Great Britain where people who you told were gentlemen and leaders were throwing blues at the first station. So if you don't put in measures, you make people, you return people to self-help and in self-help situation, the survival of the fittest. So I don't think there's any measure. Yeah, let me just also bring maybe one or two other things. He's blamed middlemen, he's blamed COVID-19. He's also blamed certain financiers. When he made mention of Namdi Kano on Sunday, he said that these are persons who have tried to, of course, break apart the country. They are secessionists and that the current administration will deal decisively and take decisive actions against the secessionist agitators and said that Namdi Kano and Sunday Bohol have financiers, some of which are in the National Assembly. But the angle, I'm sure you may want to spread your thoughts into some of all these things, but the angle I want to look at is the fact that the government has taken no blame whatsoever for anything. Either it's financiers or middlemen or it's COVID-19 or just anything that can be blamed, the government has gone ahead to, of course, blame them without taking any responsibility for any of these challenges. You know, the foundation of any building determines the type of structure you're going to put on that building. When this administration came into power, it took the president more than six months to constitute his cabinet. And people said the president needs to pick the best set of people to, you know, it's not business as usual. He's trying to look for the best to get this to get that. And by the time the cabinet was constituted, it was even worse than business as usual because it was made up of political class, people that have been part of. So we lost six to seven months setting the records, setting the national economy on track. And that setback, this administration has not recovered from it. There are many programs I did concerning that condemning that action that the president should constitutionally was required to constitute his cabinet. It cannot run the presidency alone. It's the executive and the executive is not complete without the cabinet. That what the president is doing is not constitutional. And we have seen that, people have justified that when the former Washington state governor almost run who happens to be the minister of interior now almost run the state for almost four years without his commissioner. So that's where the game starts. When you don't, the first step to solving a problem is for you to realize an asset responsibility for whatever actions or interactions you have taken. All we have seen with this administration is to blame every other person. But if they are financiers of decisionist, no problem, identify them, name them, prosecute them, let Nigerian know because you have the intelligence, not the rookie. They are national assembly members that are financing decisionist. There are two ways you can look at it. One, you could call them decisionist. You could call them said determination people depending on whatever nomenclature you want to use. Just like we term banditry as, we term people that are terrorists as banditry and we are slow at tagging them and liberating them as terrorists. But we are quicker liberating people that are calling for a self-determination, the right of self-determination decisionist. If they are national assembly members that are financing them, fantastic. The President should name them. But the President is new to name those that are financing Boko Haram and those that are financing terrorists that even United Arab Emirates have named or identified some that are sponsoring Boko Haram in Nigeria. I think they owe us the responsibility of giving us a truthful account of what happens. That's transparency in government. Name whoever is responsible. Let us know those that want to destroy the unity of this country. Let us know those that are causing chaos in this country. But let us not citrate those that are calling for self-determination decisionist. If there is a right for self-determination as enshrined in United Nations data. I'm a friend of mine did a short interview with me yesterday and he asked me what are the gains that we have made as a country. I said, well, you know what? It wants to be together as a nation for 61 years. That's a gain. That's where I look at it. That's where all the challenges that we have. That some nations have come into existence even after our own. There are no longer nations still now. There are no longer nations still now. And then what do we need to do? We need to identify those things that have united us. And then we need to understand to identify those things and work on those things that have united us and those things that want to disintegrate this nation. We need to identify those issues and deal with it. And when people are calling, when people are a place and there is no hope in the system in the nation, they believe that, look, when we go back to your tent or Israel, when we go back to our tent, our lives should be better. When you look at the stroke of Nigeria, when you look at what is the hope for an average and every Niger, you see, we still have some measure. If they are talking about people on the street and people where, where the governors themselves are divided. We have the Northern Governors Forum. We have the Southern Governors Forum. Where is that routine? Where the governors cannot meet. The National, the Nigerian Governors Forum are not sure they are met. They are not met. Since the issue of 16 and 19, they are not met. They are not found ahead. So you have the Northern Governors Forum a meeting, the Southern Governors Forum a meeting and then you say you have a nation. A nation where you have, and the nation where you have, I'm coming, let me end it. A nation where you have, we are talking about penal codes, where you have the penal code in the north and then you have the criminal code in the south. A nation where you have Isba. Isba in turn and that can arrest anybody based on the way they dress, based on whatever they drink and they eat. And you just discover that there are things that we are doing that is causing division rather than promote, promote, promote them unity. So it is not those that are agitating alone. It is even the political actors are promoting divisions in Nigeria more than those that are agitating for. But what we have seen is blim, blim, blim, blim. When you blame others, you don't blame yourself. Issues that you are irresponsible. You are not ready. What is responsibility? Now, responsibility is the ability to respond. That's what is the ability to respond to situations and issues. Now, when you have that ability, but when you blame others, it means that you are disabled in responding to issues. And that's why we have a catalog of issues and these issues keep to be a recurring feature across the nation. Jide Johnson, thank you very much for your time. You've taken to analyze the President's speech this morning. We do have a great day and happy Independence Day. Thank you very much, Anita. And once again, thank you for your service. It's a pleasure to be with you guys this morning. Absolutely. Have a great Independence Day. Enjoy the holiday.