 On the breakfast, peasants living with disability decry continued systematic exclusion from a political process and governance despised policy framework. Also on the breakfast, days after the release of the redesigned Niren note by the Central Bank of Nigeria, millions of Nigerians have not physically seen or transacted business with the notes. Don't forget, we'll also be looking through today's newspapers and analyzing the biggest stories of the day. Welcome to the Breakfast in Plus TV Africa. It's a beautiful Friday morning and how Fridays are fantastic, a lot of peasants look forward to having Fridays because it's just the beginning of the weekend and then you can let your hair down and do a lot of things. It's still the holiday season, so if you're still having a holiday, happy holiday to you and to those who have resumed, welcome back to work and it's great to know that you have joined us this beautiful Friday morning. As always, we start our conversation with a top trending. Just before then, my name is Messi Ibupo and the lineup is really interesting. Now for our top trending, the first conversation is about the issue of the new Niren note that has been out and of course, how many days since the release of it, a lot of peasants have not seen it. So it might interest you to know that a few weeks due to the deadline given by the central bank of Nigeria, that's a CBN. For the use of the old Niren notes, a cross-session of Nigerians across the country have lamented the scarcity of the new Niren note. Now, don't forget that the CBN stipulated January 31st, that's 2023 as a deadline for issuance and circulation of the old note, the 200, 500 and 1,000 denomination of the country's currency following the introduction of the new bank note as of January 4th, 2023. Some Nigerians across the country have lamented the scarcity of the Niren note with some calling it a scam, especially as they're reporting that it fades if touched by water, okay? Me. It's only like, I haven't still seen it even when my producer had said I was going to see it or my director, right? I haven't seen the note, I haven't transacted with it and I have been asking, who has the note? Can you please share with me? Can I see it? Can I touch it? And I feel like I have been marginalized somehow. Well, Nigerians have lambasted the president, his administration, of course, Mohammed Buhari, for spending a huge amount of money on redesigning the Niren note and that's because first, in the instance, a lot of Nigerians were not, didn't agree to it. So there was a lot of objection to the design of the Niren note, but let's even begin to look at some of the issues surrounding it. The redesign of the Niren note cost Nigeria 218 billion Naira and why are we still saying, have you seen the note? Have you not seen? A lot of persons have seen it, orders haven't seen it, there are different conversations about that and it's about three weeks down, a new Niren note is fully not in circulation. If you go to the ATMs, I use that a lot, you can really have these ATMs, this borsing or dispensing the new notes and so what exactly is going on? What is responsible for the scarcity of the new note? What is the way forward? There's been a lot of conversations back and forth with the new note. I've had a lot of persons saying, siting stance of going to the bank and then probably wanting to withdraw 60,000 Naira and out of 60,000 from the counter, they have been given like 5,000 of the new note, they have been made to write their names and what have you without stating the amount. So it seems like there's something that's going on that Nigerians do not understand. Others have also said that if you want to see the new note, you see them in parties, that's where they have been, you know, when you go to the parties, maybe wedding and what have you, different ceremonies, people will get to spread this money. Others have said, like some experts, they have argued that the reason why this note is not in secular relation, which I'm even finding difficult to understand is following the injunction that has been given by the court and the CBN is going on. So the question you want to ask or what should be on the minds of everyone is when we get to the 31st of January, what happens? If you're still with the old note, especially when a lot of persons have not gotten the new one, what is going to happen? Would there still be a means of transaction? Will it be acceptable? Even with the new note, you still find a lot of argument in terms of business transaction. So many persons have reacted differently to that currency or the new note and some people say, oh, I don't know it and they argue about it and then it's very lengthy and someone has to say, oh, this is a new note, a lot of explanation. So were we really ripe for this? Or even if we were ripe for it, what's the essence of this note? As much as we've said that, yes, it's supposed to help curb all of the corruption and fraud that's going on in the financial sector. But how far have we fed with the implementation? Have we been able to do the need for that is really very saddening, especially as we are in the new year, right? How can I identify for someone as myself who's not saying the new note? How do I identify which is the fake and which is the original? It's very difficult. So yes, I think it's something, there's a lot of work that needs to be done. The CBN, the government, all hands must be on deck. We need to get back to the drawing board and rejig and think about it and come up with another solution. Or maybe we'll probably have an extension because you can't spend 218 billion nair and then you don't wake up back to say, hey, we're going to discard it. That's never going to happen. That's a lot. Now, another top trending is the election year, selection period. In no time, we're going to have the elections on the 25th of February, the presidential elections. And of course, the governorship elections on the 11th of March with State House of Assembly. Now, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, said he had received the last consignment of bimodial voter accreditation, which is called the beavers, the beavers' machine ahead of the elections, the general elections. The INEC chairman, Professor Mammoud Yokobu, and the commission's national, as well as senior officials received the beavers as the NAMDI, as Zikwe International Airport in Abuja sometime this week. The INEC has said that this is the last consignment of it. And, well, they are ready for the elections. The reactions on different social media and different spaces, a lot of persons have greeted these reactions with excitement. Nigerians have expressed hope. Nigerians have expressed excitement. People have said that, hey, with this, we're sure that our votes would actually count. The acceptance of it is quite commendable. People are very excited about this. And let's see how it pans out for all of us. Well, it brings me back to 2015 when there was an introduction of the Smart Card Reader. And one of the major issue that we encountered with that reader was the fact that it malfunctioned in a lot of polling units. And it also contributed in affecting the outcome of the elections because a lot of persons were decent franchise, to some extent, due to the functionality of the Smart Card Reader. Now, some people say the technical know-how was a major issue because in a case where you have a new technology, those who were supposed to or those who were responsible for manning these card readers had no, you know, they didn't have enough knowledge on how to operate the device. And so it really affected the outcome of it. We want to believe that the beavers, those who will be working, the ad hoc staff, INEG, every other person have gotten enough training. We don't want to hear that you're supposed to take off, you know, the whatever it is. You know, when you buy a device, you have to do a lot of unpacking, right? So we want to believe that there's a lot of training that has been done. People know what to do. They know the right buttons to press. And we know what to do. So we don't get to a point where we begin to complain that, oh, the beavers didn't function. There's one or two issues. There's also concern about the network service providers, all of that. But INEG sounds very confident and very ready for these elections. Fingers crossed, and we also want to believe, you know, that's the case. And just before we call it a wrap on the top trending this morning. Customers have decried the disparity in the prices of the PMS, that's petrol, falling observation in difference, that's the price of petrol in outlets. Some have alleged that, you know, these outlets and independent marketers are selling differently, right? And this complaint came from Oka, right? That's in Anambra. But apart from the fact that, you know, those in Anambra are complaining, it's a conversation that's been going on for a very long time. They express worry that while independent marketers' outlets were struggling to sell between 300 and 320 naira per liter, the tank farm owners' outlets were comfortably selling this product at 200 and 220 per liter. And then they wondered why the marketers, who could control the price like NMPC megastation, cannot sell. They're not selling because lack of the product. They lack the product and that's why they're not selling. I mean, to be very honest, the disparity is so much. And also, if you look at the cost of transportation, it has gone, you know, it has gone up. And there's no uniformity in almost anything because you can't say for sure. What's the cost of landing? How much are people buying for? And you know, what have you? So it's so much stress. But I remember vividly, not just in 2022, that Ibe Kachuko had said that the patrol scarcity and price instability will only stop when the federal government removes the disparity between the pump price and the landing cost of the product. And that's very simple. But how can these things be? We take a break when we return and we'll be looking at the front pages of our national dailies. GD Johnson will join us to make sense of some of the headlines. Please stay with us. Good morning.