 On the breakfast, 18,940 suspected drug traffickers arrested in the last 20 months, comprising 17,444 males, 1,496 females, including 21 barons between January 2021 and July 2020 to this. As according to statistics from the National Drug Law and Frostmour Agency in Nigeria's Drug Enforcement Agency, I will look at the details of this and of course the problem of drug trafficking in Nigeria. Also on the breakfast, the launch of the special Argo Industrial Processing Zone Programme can banish food insecurity in Nigeria in less than a decade. We will be talking about how this can happen as we proceed. And of course we have a daily look at what the papers are saying this morning and it comes with a great deal of analysis right here on the breakfast. And we're back with the breakfast on Plasticity of Africa. It's a beautiful, beautiful Wednesday morning. We're reaching you live from the studios of Plasticity of Africa right here on Victoria Island, Nigeria. And I can confirm we have no flooding on VI this morning. We have a flood watch. You should please a camera. But those are flash floods, yes. It's a normal thing we've been having before. You know, maybe we should place a webcam outside, you know, just to monitor and give updates per hour. My name is Kofi Bartels. And I am messy, a bookboy. It's good to have you join us this morning. All right, all right. And talking about the flooding, yeah, another thing that is affecting quite a lot of people right here in Lagos. It happens to be a small matter of few cubes. You know, they've popped up again, mercy. And of course I'm sure your way to work. The traffic was a bit more. It certainly was because on my way to work I have at least on one particular street at least five to six filling stations. So you have to look at the map. And then you have to try to navigate to see how to to overtake overcome the traffic jam. But yes, indeed, a few cubes have resurfaced Lagos. And it's got people talking. It's got people talking. Maybe later we'll look at what Ipman has been saying. You know, but there is a current suspicion that is connected or related to fuel scarcity. You know, sometimes there is no scarcity. We'll just go for a cube, you know, out of panic. But this is not panic buying. Seems the fuel is not running as much as it should run. Finally, it showed that many filling stations in the city, the mega city of Lagos, are currently experiencing long queues. Like we said, you know, I think this started the view is that it started on Monday on Monday. And the indications that the situation might get worse any time soon. So I mean, if you have your jerrycars go stuck up and but you have to do it safely. All right, don't go and keep it in your house. You can put your generating set putting your car and all that one of the news outlets sent their reporter to town. Plus, if you also are sending a reporter to town, but on because this is a trending segment, we want to take what people are saying. Okay. I think Daily Trust sent a reporter to town. And the reporter went to Bova's filling station along FRSC via your road, Ogunusi, near Lagos Ibarra Expressway. They also observed the same Ogunusi road outward Lagos. This is really far. The NMPC filling station near Moli, phase one gate is also reported had a long queue there, almost extended to Latif Jack on their road. For those who know Lagos, that's a long queue. The situation is not different. We're told in Ikeja, the mobile filling station are getting me. While many filling stations are along the Kauru Road, that's quite a long road. Lagos Ibarra Expressway were not even dispensing fuel at all. That's it. That is, as we say, in this part of the world. No day, not even dispensing fuel at all. So it's a very, very worrying trend, and people have been commenting on this. But I think the comments and the attention has led to questions being thrown away of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria. And this is what they say. They're saying that the increase in the queues is related to some aspect of flooding. Flooding right here that has affected access of their tankers to the petrol stations in Lagos. All right. So apart from that, the queues are also bringing about an increase in the pump price of the product. And Ipaman is coming out to say that they are not in support of this situation. They're blaming it on the price hike regime by private depot operators. All right. So the depot operators are the guys who stole the petrol. So the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, they've said that they're not in support of the hike. They're not the ones behind the hike, but it comes from the private depot operators. All right. And some more reports, for instance, the Sun sent a report out to, I think this is Buleigba, all right. It's a part of Lagos Station. This is a total filling station at New Okoba in Buleigba. And they said that what they saw was that they were dispensing petrol in the early hours of yesterday. But motorists, especially those who bought into Jericans, had to part with an additional mercy, 1,000 Naira, an additional 1,000 Naira. They also sent their reporters to Ooba. Ooba is, I think, in the Greater Ekeja area. And they also said that the majority of the filling stations in Ooba were not dispensing fuel at all. Now, they spoke to a marketer at the Apapa depot, Mr. Akimambali decoded him, saying that the petrol shortages was first observed last week, Wednesday, all right, but wasn't the weekend. Now, we, in other parts of Lagos, experience it from Monday. Some will say even from Sunday. Now, according to that man at the depot, this is what the Sun quotes him as saying, that he says that there's been a drop in supply from the NNPC Limited, that's the Niger National Petroleum Company Limited, which is the importer of last resort. So that supply has gone down. And of course, it's come with an attendant price hike from the acceptable price of 148.17 Naira per litre to 178 Naira per litre. Now, that, of course, will spill down to the end buyer, the final buyer of the product at the retail center, what we call the petrol stations. All right. So that's what we're hearing. We'll need to get some more details to really find out if it's true that the flooding is really, really truly behind it. Some are saying, of course, there's a US dollar regime, you know, an issue behind the scenes. Merci, over to you. Well, I think that it's a time where we need to carry out a lot of investigation because we know that usually, for instance, we're experiencing a flood, a disaster in Nigeria, whether or not the spin and emergency being declared, it's important that we pay attention to it. But I feel like it's also within our culture, like our practice and behavior for people to take advantage of any circumstance, you know, just to profit. And that's what it is. Because if you look at, you know, the hike in the prices of goods and services most times, it doesn't follow the natural laws of economy or economics that you were being taught. And at some point, you begin to ask yourself, if all of this, like in Nigeria now, you could really say that we're experiencing high pie inflation, it's all about do we have agencies to regulate. So I feel like this is part of, you know, default settings. We take advantage of the situation, but not to make nonsense of, you know, other factors that could be responsible for the scarcity. We understand our inability to meet up with quota production. We understand everything that's going on, revenue, revenue issues and what have you. We also understand, I mean, these are issues that you cannot ignore. But we also understand that, yes, we're going through a situation. And at some point when we had the flooding, because, you know, you have Lokoja, it divides. There's a navigation between dispatch. Yes, exactly. So that can be a major concern. I think you've said, you've hit the nail on the head, Mercy, that you've said that we need to do a lot of investigation. Truly the floods are affecting it. But what we can say for sure is that there's been an accusation or an allegation from the Independent Petroleum Markets Association of Nigeria that the private depot owners are the ones who have increased the price, the ex-depot price. And the Ipman members are not going to lift the product as much as they used to. You know, they're staying away. And that has caused scarcity. It's just causing queues. Because if people could buy from maybe 20 petrol stations, they can now buy from maybe 10. You know, in those 10, everybody now is going to go there and cause the queue, you know, maybe five. So the private depot operators need to tell us what exactly is going on. And one of them, like you said, and the Papa Tank farm guy, imitated by the Sun, said an NPC, which is the importer of last resort, was not delivering the products. So they have to tell us why. But if they're not delivering the products, does that mean you increase it? What's going on? Exactly, yeah. So I thank Ipman for telling us maybe the truth, or at least we would like to know if it's the truth. But this means that they're not lifting the product like they should. So I also say that there's always that human element, like I rightly mentioned. There's always a human factor. There's always, I don't want to say a Nigerian factor, because it might be encompassing, it cuts across. So it's a default setting for human beings. We tend to be self-seeking, our interest and what have you. And so at the slightest opportunity, we want to profit. You know, I hope this is sorted out as quickly as possible. Some driver was telling me a cab guide. I think a day or two ago, it's December, they want to do the normal thing. They want to return with their scarcity so they can make their money and all that. But we'll keep monitoring the situation right here on Plus TV Africa. Well, quickly, let's move on to the next up trending. And this is quite interesting, because it talks about the university and the students returning to the classroom, shortly after the strike was called, eight months, exactly eight months. And so a picture made it to the internet yesterday, soft-faced, and I read the comments. I saw a lot of people excited. Some students made a lot of comments. Hey, can I transfer from a certain university to another university because of what was seen? So a university lecturer was reportedly to be a gifted student who attended his first class with $100 following the suspension of the strike. And so there was a Twitter handle. There's a tweet that actually made it. Okay, so we had a tweet that shared on Twitter, the user was identified as peter underscore pen10 who disclosed that the lecturer gave out of the note to 10 lucky students. So $100 to 10 lucky students. A picture made the rounds online captured the student holding the note while in the office of the lecturer identified as Dr. BC. And so the tweet said, Omar, one lecturer for arts in University of Ibadu gave 10 students who attended his first class $100 each. And that's what it is. So that then the comment started. But however, what's interesting is that there's been a disclaimer to that. And so BC also tweeted saying, my attention has been drawn to your Twitter, a tweet circulating that I gave $100 each to 10 students. This is not in any way true. Please kindly disregard. Thank you. So I'm just wondering those who went on to say, oh, I like to be part of this coffee. Interesting. And I think it's important we have to be pointed out that the man debunked that allegation or that rumor that he had been sharing and dishing out in $100 bills. I mean, we would ask who haven't been on strike. I'm sure he'll be a person of interest. Maybe EFCC or some agency to know, okay, how is he able to, because I mean, lecturers are even crying for transport money to go back to school. No, lecturers. Oh, really? Well, I mean, I also said it. So there was no crying for transport money. I'm sure they still need their money. So, you know, if he's sharing that, maybe he should also maybe tell, he would have had to tell, you know, the lecturers how the secret, you know, shows road, like you say, in this kind of. I think since he's debunked it, that's that. But if authorities would like to investigate, it's not bad. Because debunking it alone is not enough. You have to call the person who alleged and I want to deny it and you see them down and you get to the bottom of it. But if a lecturer shares $100 bills with students, maybe it's trying to make life easier for them. I don't know. I don't know. But anyway, mercy, let's move on quickly to our last top training story. Someone is claiming on Twitter, which still doesn't allow us to edit our tweets. They need to do that quickly. If you're listening to Twitter, please, please, please. All right. This is very important. Yes. And that he's claiming real Ola Uda claim that commercial buses were set to go and strike on the 31st of October, 2022. And says, please guide your movement to avoid being stranded or robbed by area boys. This is a good advice if this news or room of an expected strike by commercial drivers is anything to go by. Remember they had complained after the counterparts in Alaba, in terms of talking about their fellow businessmen complained about the activities of area boys and Aguero who extorted them illegally. The bus drivers also found their voice and said, hey, we're tired of paying in all sorts of amounts to Agueros and Roads. We pay local government levies and stuff already. Why should we be paying these amounts of money? This gentleman has given solid advice. If there's a strike, know that area boys, Agueros or Robbers rather, sorry, who want to use that as an opportunity occasion to rob. So please be careful. Is there a transport union, seven day strike looms in Legos? You know, that exclamation sign like a prophet of doom. But indeed, let's go to the news sources. It's true. He saw the news and put it out. It's true that Legos drivers under the ages of a joint driver's welfare associate of Nigeria, you know, nature was a vacuum messy. They have threatened to boycott the roads from October 31, 2022, just a few days from now, of our alleged extortion by motor parks and garages management. This was what they said sometime last week. And they issued a statement, you know, calling for seven days of mass protests and total boycott. And they are seeking an end to what they described as excessive extortion and harassment of drivers at various bus stops, the garages and parks in Legos as well. And they're asking the government to intervene, you know, talking about places like Badagrima or two, they're talking about places like Seme or Jigbo, Ikuodu, Ikeja, agribus stops in other places. They pay as much as 50,000 or 5,000 Naira. In some places, they pay as much as 7,100 Naira. You know, if you know how much this guy's paid messing, you do the calculation, you know, you'll be astonished as to how much, you know, Legos state makes from transport levies every single day. So if the boycott is anything to go by, I mean, if it's really true, then it's going to be a lot on those who are moving from one destination to another. Now we also, you can talk about, if you look at the spirit where there's strike, I beg your pardon, no strike, but season of strikes, yeah. Well, season of strike, you could also look at the issue of felt the cues and the fact that those who patronize public transportation have no access because a lot of persons are queuing to get petrol for the vehicle. And so the road is almost not there. It would be very, very dangerous for those who would want to commute from one point to another point. I feel like for every time you have a comment being made, whether or not it's true, whether or not it's false, there should be an investigation. No one should take anything lightly. We should just be on top of our games. Our guard should always be up as a people, as a country. Every other time there's a report, just let the guards be up. Let's investigate. Let's find out. Relevant authorities, quarters, everyone, all hands should be on deck. That's what it is. But it will just be a lot if that happens. And if we talk about extortion, I witness that. I see that every other time. I don't know, but it might just be very genuine. But every other time you have people paying so much, do these persons even factor the current reality of the country? I mean, do you even think about what we're going through at the time? You're showing inflation. Because if you're already taxing or you're collecting from this person, there's a lot of taxation or extortion from this vehicle, these persons who are drivers, this person who are into commercial business, right? If you're extorting from them, do you know what that means? It would actually trickle down. The implication is that the fare would actually be on the high, and that would be on the people. So it's an extortion that's not just to those who are transporting, but you're extorting the Nigerian people. And the question would be, have we also been able to factor what the current reality is? So with the fact that we're experiencing inflation, double-digit inflation, and some would say it's high-pay inflation, does the salary structures meet with the current reality of the people? That's what you should know. So for those who are standing on the road and then you're extorting whether it's a government structure or it's illegal, so we'll have the agrarians and what have you, you need to understand at the end of the year that you are extorting the people. The people. I think that we can do better, right? Yes, indeed, Merci. We can do better. The reason I started by saying nature was a vacuum is that the NURTW would have been the avenue to represent the interests of the drivers, the commercial transportation workers. The union has lost its focus. They become a tool of oppression, suppression and, should I say repression, an extortion of the drivers. If you go to the history of the NURTW, they were formed years ago when different union drivers unions in the country were put together by the government of Nigeria back in the day. So let's have something national that we can always reach out to you and something structured. But now we see that they become a body used by politicians to win elections, used by politicians to steal ballot boxes and to chase people away. They become groups that are run by thugs and associated with people who are into several dangerous gangs that we call cults, cult groups in Nigeria. And the drivers, the people who do the work themselves can't even have a say. The people who do the work themselves are not represented. What are the welfare of drivers? What are the things that affect them? So these people have turned on the drivers and the drivers now said, okay, fine, who is going to represent us? And they have come up with their own body called the drivers, joint drivers welfare association. So they can look into their welfare. And I think it's good on the drivers to take the destiny of their hands and say, you know what? You know if it's enough, you don't represent us anymore. And this is what we want, you know. If Aso can go on strike, I'm sure the drivers can go on strike and say, we no agree. So it's interesting to see. I think we will suffer a bit, but people will suffer a bit, but it's something that needs to be done because this will have complained for far too long. We have to go and of course we'll take a short break when we return. We'll be looking at what the people have to say this morning with analysis from our guest. Please stay with us.