 Nigeria's Federal Inland Revenue Service has announced that it collected over 10 trillion naira in taxes in revenue or taxes tax revenue rather last year. This is the highest revenue intake in its history. Now what was responsible for this feat? Stay with us to find out. January cervical cancer awareness month will have a guest in studio to enlighten us on this disease that presents a significant public health threat to women on the African continent. And we have a look at today's newspaper headlines to take some of the important ones with analysis coming away in all the press. We're back with the program plus TV Africa's The Breakfast. My name is Kofi Bartels, a beautiful, beautiful Tuesday, Wednesday morning reaching a live from our studios right here in Victor Allen Liga. Sometimes it's like that, you get to forget which day of the week it is, there's a lot going on in life, man, it's not my fault. All right, welcome. We have a lot to talk about today on flying so unfortunately mercy is under the weather, but we'll do our best to make sure that you enjoy the program. We have two very important conversations coming up like we said. You don't want to miss it, so please sit back, relax. If you can grab a cup of coffee or tea and then have a wonderful time on the program. Well, we start things over to look at what's been trending. This one is not really too new, but it's still worth talking about because I think you and I can learn something about this. Before I say too much, let's roll the tape. All right, while we wait for that tape to be rolled, a video surfaced a couple of days online, it captured the moment, the moment. Some will describe it as a shocking moment. Two officials of the Liga State Traffic Management Agency, popularly known as LASTMA, or like we call them in Lagos, LASTMA, they were almost hit by a driver they were trying to apprehend. In some parts of Lagos, you have a dedicated lane for the bus rapid transport system. You can see that video, it's courtesy InstaBlog, but it's user-generated content. You can see on your screen that the driver of a Sienna, this is a Toyota Sienna, tried to hit one of the LASTMA drivers, officials, rather when he tried to stop him because he was driving on the BRT lane. You can see the vehicle is behind the BRT. If you look to the right of the lane, you will see that there is a heavy traffic on that lane. You can see heavy traffic. What the driver must have been doing was to try and play a fast one with the BRT lane to get out of that traffic congestion right there. And of course, it's against the law in Lagos State, you're liable to be arrested and prosecuted and you either pay a fine or you spend jail time. In fact, your vehicle can be confiscated. An auction, like some months ago, we saw that Lagos State Government was auctioning some vehicles or other for violating traffic laws. So what is shocking is that the man attempted to hit the LASTMA officials. You must spare a thought for these guys who do this work, either the police or LASTMA traffic control guys, because how hard is it for you to apprehend a vehicle with your bare hands, nothing, you can't even chase them. You have to stand in front of the car to stop it. Somebody decides, hey, I'm going to hit you today and run away with it and you do that and your life is in danger. Well according to eyewitnesses, the driver was to be arrested, like we said, for riding or driving on that BRT lane. Some people on social media will be saying, oh yeah, I hit them. You should have hit them. It serves them right. Oh, look at them, only, and all those kind of things because people don't like LASTMA officials. They're not really popular. The public rating is quite low, you know, the public rating of LASTMA officials is quite low and it's for reasons that people say that they are usually harassed by officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Agency. They're usually harassed by them, they're treated unfairly, they try to take advantage of minor issues to make money from unsuspecting or innocent drivers, car owners out there. But I think, I think that another reason, and I would say this without data, but this is my thought, another reason that the LASTMA officials are not popular or have a low public rating is because of the kind of way we are as a people, you know, custom in. You want to look at how many people out there have driver's licenses, I don't think they check all that, but you want to look at that if you want to say everybody bring a driver's license today. If you don't bring it to you, you pay fine. I'm sure government will make more than the amount of money we've seen FIRs made last year that was a record. I'm telling you, people don't like to be in the laws, you know. You're meant to be in lane, you don't want to queue, in fact, you don't like to queue in this country. One of the most difficult things to do is to queue. I tell you what, I went to an African country, you know, for a vacation and I took a public transportation, and I went to a place where I was meant to queue for a bus, you know, the people that the citizens were queuing, and I just majestically walked up to the front of the queue, you know. When I walked up, because you know here, you have to force your way, you know, when the bus comes, all right, you have to wait for the bus, because everybody will fight at the entrance, the door of the bus, to enter, you know, say you have to push, kick people out and force your way in, or if you can climb through the window, you climb through the window. So I walked majestically to the front of the queue, you know, to hustle my way into that bus. It's an African country, I majestically. Today, I went to this bus, I already was, I already prepared my mind as to what to do, you know, to edge people out and get in. Then I remember, oh, I'm outside the country, I don't know, I look at people like queuing, they're waiting for their turn, I saw them entering one by one, I said, oh my God, I went back and queued, you know, took my, we don't like queuing. You go to the supermarket for checkout, people want to jump the queue. You go to the parking lot, people want to jump the queue. You have a space, say you want to enter that space in the parking lot, the security or the, you know, the assistants there saying, okay, reverse and come and enter. As you're reversing to enter your space, somebody else drives in there, parks and switch of the sidewalks, are we? I mean, I mean, you know, we, so the values, we need to work on the values. One of the reasons I say again, last month officials are unpopular or have a low public rating is because we do not like to obey the law. We do not like to queue. We don't like to do things right. We always want to use a shortcut. I'm not saying they are innocent, but why will anyone, why will anyone, you know, say things like, yes, the driver should have hit the last month officials only and things like that. Why? It's shocking what the driver tried to do. He's a public official after he, he, he caught you breaking the law. And then people are saying, yes, you should have hit them only. I know they're not perfect. I know that they, they try to make money using their uniform. I know that they try to victimize road users, drivers, car owners. I know all that, but most or more often than not, if the last official tries to victimize you or to make money off you is because you have broken the law. Okay. So we need to also help ourselves because most of the problems in this country, truly, if you look at it, it's not just about government. It's about both government and the people. If the people at the end of the day, we decide we want to do things right. We want to do things right. Definitely, it won't be as bad as it is. Okay? It won't be as bad as it is. You have to have survival skills in this country. You want to buy fuel. You have to have survival skills. Look for a way to beat the queue, beat the system. Find somebody inside. Use some petrol station politics because nobody is prepared to wait for their turn. So is it that you do something or you also lose out at the end of the day? We need to have a change in our value system. With that being said, the last law officials should also stop doing the wrong thing, stop victimizing members of the public. It is really wrong. It's unacceptable. And this is why they are public reaching its law. You need public support. You need public sympathy to be able to be a successful public institution or agency of power state. It's very, very important, very important. We see CCTV cameras all over, you know, legal state, installed by the state government. They have a state of the art, you know, monitoring center, security center. So I think that with all of these equipment, they should be able to catch, to apprehend, to arrest the owner of this vehicle, the driver, and bring him to book like we do in other parts of the world. In places like Dubai, you know, Singapore, you hardly see police officers on the road. But if you like, if you want to test if they are there, just go and break the law, you know, break a traffic law. You just hear them knocking on your door. Of course, we've come to arrest you. You did this on Susu and so date, at Susu and so time on Susu and so street. Please follow us. Okay. So that is what we'd like to see. And please, if you are the driver you have to turn yourself in. I know you won't. But you have to turn yourself in because what you did is totally condemnable, is shocking, and they shouldn't have. What if you had hit the driver? It shouldn't happen at all. All right. Let's go to the next one. This is a more political, President Buhari was in Lagos on Monday and Tuesday. I was a bit confused because he left Lagos on Monday to go to Senegal, is what I had, you know, go to Senegal. So I thought maybe that was the end of the trip. Don't forget on Monday he commissioned the largest to the biggest deep sea port in Nigeria, the only deep sea port from what I hear in the country, the Lakey Deep Sea Port. He also commissioned a rice mill, the largest rice mill in Africa as well. And then he also commissioned an MRS lubricant factory. So this is where the projects commissioned on Monday. Well on Tuesday the President was back to commission the blue rail line. All right. The blue rail line. This is the first phase of that blue line that will take the traffic congestion in Lagos State and discard it in the dustbin of history and discard it in the dustbin of history. We can also see that the President, as you can see on your screen, also commissioned the iconic, and this is very, very interesting one, J Randall Center, J Randall Center for Yoruba Culture and History in Lagos. I think I'm going to listen to a bit of what the President said. Can we roll the tape? And just listen to a bit of what he said. All right. Nothing much to hear from the President, but the J Randall Center for History, Yoruba Culture, or for Yoruba Culture and History is a very important project that Lagos State government says fits into its urban regeneration project at the heart of Lagos Island, which is a very important part of Lagos. It's close to my heart. Lagos Island is close to my heart for reasons maybe one day we might want to discuss, but I feel that that place has been neglected by government. It's a very important part of Lagos, and we need to see government reviving Lagos Island. He was accompanied by his host, the governor of Lagos State Yoruba today, Song Wulu as well as other dignitaries who were part of that commissioning. Apart from that, well, the J Randall Center will aim to engage the public. It's a very interesting place that I would like to visit now. It's been a commission. I think I should go there on the weekend and have a look. But it's said to be the first of many initiatives aimed at the preservation of the heritage of the Yoruba through the celebration and preservation of history and culture, the regeneration of decades of old public green space, public recreation facilities, and the restoration of civic pride. This is what the governor of Lagos has said in the past. He says Onikon will be the catalyst for vibrant and tourist friendly quarter in the heart of Lagos Island. That is very, very, very welcome. I mean, there's a lot of history on Lagos Island. Let me say it the way I would say it through the attitude, sinking. There is a lot of history on Lagos Island, though, a lot of history, and this history has been left to dilapidate, all right, to dilapidate. It's very important. Lagos Island needs to be restored. That is the central business district of Lagos, not Lecky phase one. Not Lecky phase one. Lecky phase one is residential. Not Victoria Island. Victoria Island is residential. The central business district of Lagos is where you have Lagos Island, you know. And you can see that the banks, the government, you know, parcels, all started from there. Now what you have in Lagos Island mostly is that, you know, the buildings, the skyscrapers, the high-rise buildings have been turned to markets, markets where people sell clothes. They sell shirts, jeans, you know, shoes, ties, socks. It's been turned to market, and it's an eyesore. There are places in Lagos Island that qualify to be Nigeria's Times Square. So kudos to the Lagos State Government for, and the Government of Lagos State for having the idea to turn O'Nicole, all right, to the catalyst, so make it the catalyst for a vibrant and tourist-friendly quarter in the heart of Lagos Island. But you see, it has to go beyond that. Lagos Island needs to be restored. You see where this center is? If care is not taken, I think, I think the government is doing well to make sure that those touts and street traders, you know, and urchins and all those hangars around are not in this part of Lagos. But it's so close to the beginning of the chaos you have in Lagos Island. I've seen people sell things in the night around that Janrando Center. I've seen, with my eyes, they put tables to sell beaters and all those kind of things. Okay? They put tables at night. So it's very important. It's very important. I mean, you can take a look at, for instance, the Tafua Balewa Square. You know, history there? The history there, Nigeria's, I think, First Parliament, or previous former parliament, is there. And there's a lot of history in that area, all right, all around Tafua Balewa Square. You go through to King's College and all those places. It's an ISO today. It's an ISO. So Lagos State Government needs to embark on the Lagos Island Restoration Project. Okay? The Lagos Island Restoration Project. Where they restore the beauty of Lagos Island. So it's no longer a place that is associated with area boys, with Agberu, always fighting and shooting and killing themselves, where, you know, people can, the banks can go back there. All right? I know they're still there, but they are more in Victoria Island. All right? Let the banks go back there. Let the corporates go back there. You know? All the institutions, the businesses, go back there. Let the international investors go back there, okay? Get the Agberu off, get and let the place resemble, you know, Manhattan, resembles Times Square and all those places. It's very important. Because you look at VI, the road network is not the one for, you know, for business. It's residential. It's residential. Look at it. It's being discarded. The master plan. I don't know. And you have skyscrapers in VI because they can't stay there. So it's very important. But kudos to the government of Lagos State for this initiative. The John Randall Center looks really beautiful. You know, I used to, you know, pass almost every day. I used to wonder, what's, what are they building here? What are they renovating here? So it's very important. Dr. John Randall was a prominent negotiation. And he built a public swimming pool in 1928 on King George V Park, later to become the Love Garden, a much-loved recreational area. And I can imagine, almost times I take a walk or drive around the Lagos Island area. I begin to imagine how it was, you know, in the 60s and 70s. Some of those areas where, you know, public institutions were, where the seat of government was, the Nigerian parliament. I, you know, you look at all these other places. I begin to wonder what it was like because most of these streets are historical. Most of them are not nothing to write home about. It's really sad, you know. So it's great. So John Randall, Dr. John Randall, was a prominent negotiation. He built a public swimming pool in 1928 at the King George V Park, which later became known as Love Garden. It was a much-loved recreational area. Now, this grand gesture was inspired by the refusal of the British colonial office to build a swimming pool for negotiations to learn how to swim. And on completion, the pool and garden of the pool and garden, Dr. John Randall handed all of the facilities to the Lagos Town Council with a maintenance purse to ensure it's upkeep. It's very interesting, lots of history there. And I just want to encourage you, you know, go out there and take a look at it and also just take your family there and all that. I'm so happy, really. I am. I am. I am. Anyway, let's move on to the next, I think we're done. Yeah, we're done, right? Okay. So we'll take a break. It will take a break. And when we come back, we'll take a look at what the people see today. My name is Kofi Bartel, sister of the breakfast on Plus TV Africa.