 Welcome back to The Breakfast on Plas Sivir Africa. We'll take you through the front pages of the National Daily as usual and bring you up to speed with what's making the rounds across Baud. And we'll have Femi Losson join us this morning to analyse some of the big stories. Let's start off with the Daily Independent newspaper this morning and let's find out what's on the Daily Independent. Looking at the front page of the Daily Independent newspaper, Federal Government CBN conceder under the table NARA devaluation. That's the board caption on the Daily Independent. You've got several riders. Rise in Forex Reserve short-term FX market fix. You have analysing and say devaluation a temporary solution. NARA needs to float. CERAP acts court to stop Buharis proposed 26 billion NARA on travels, meals, others. That's been put in the proposed budget for 2022. And you also have another caption. Anambra Guberpol. Soludo cruises to victory. And returning officer alleges signing result under Dures. That's also another caption. On the front page of the Daily Independent. Federal Government moves to carb rise importation through land borders. There's also some reports saying that rise probably would have arrived in Thailand, somewhere close by. So the President is planning to have meetings with members of some agencies to ensure that we don't have this importation. Nigerian seaports operating far above installed capacity. The N P A M D is quoted to say. And the Vice President to represent Buhari at Echo Summit in Accra. That's in Ghana. That's what you find. This is some of the headlines we find on the Daily Independent newspaper. It's important that you pick up a copy and you read up all of the information. All right. And now to the punch newspapers. Anambra Guberpol. Soludo sets to win. Lids in 17. Local governments. APC alleges rigging. PDP, YPP win in one local government each. APC yet to win. We won't accept results. Apgar rigged claims APC. Also on the punch this morning. Building collapse. Lagos records zero conviction as 230, 213 die in seven years. Tribunal blames weak enforcement of regulations and corruption. Two more bodies recovered in Iqoi. Rescue efforts stop today. Wow. Politicians jostling for 2023. Eyeing on certain future says at Deboye. And send it Knox CCT for ignoring corruption cases from CCB. Also this morning. Federal government midst customs as 566,000 metric tons of India, Thailand, the rice arrived in a republic. Banks insurance firms raking 22.6 billion Naira from MDAs. Also on the punch VC mounts defense as PDP capitol do over Vasity Fihike. Salame report may go on half pay 16 months after suspension. And Yuni Abuja Kinnah victims say we trekked for hours and were fed like slaves. A 43 year old man arrested for beating daughter to death over persistent crying. And also says here Nigerians with missing vaccination cards need a fit of it and police report. Pantamese professorship asupano grills photo registrar recommends litigation. All right. Let's check out the leadership newspaper this morning away from the punch newspaper. And the board caption says. Inaq declares an amber governorship polling conclusive. That's on page four. And that's what's making the rounds across board. You also have to hold supplementary election in here at local government tomorrow. That's Tuesday. Abga candidate wins in 18 local government. Party lords president Mohammed of Buhari for non interference. And you have a civil society organization advocate use of technology in future elections. You also have the number of governorship results on this other side of the leadership newspaper this morning. And away from that. Kaduna begins crackdown on beggars and hawkers. That's on page six of the leadership newspaper this morning. And asupano class photo. Okay. Pantamese alleviation talking about the professorship. That's also what you find on the leadership newspaper. Unia Buja kidnapped victims recount ordeal. That's on page seven of the leadership newspaper. And you find a joy you'd kick over plan to scrap and DDC. Aso rock electrical installation repressed the gob 5.2 billion dollars in 2022. And you have a Greek ministry budgets 1.3 billion era for provision of community boreholes. This is some of the headlines on the leadership newspaper. It's important that you pick up a copy and read beyond the headlines. And now to the Guardian Newspapers. Anambra Gubernatorio. Soludo leads. INEC concludes poll Tuesday. Says Abga wins 18 local government councils. PDP YPP take one each. No election in Ihala local government says collision officer. I was tear gassed and locked in a toilet. Signed Orumba North local government resort under gun points as INEC official. APC 6 cancellation of poll. How resilience and determination of electorate won Anambra polls. Also situation room alleges vote buying and nonpayment of security personnel for election duty. Banks ditch costly estate investments for tech operations. And also bandits kill two of 66 abducted Kaduna Baptist worshippers in your three. FUTO ASU panel endorses pantomese professorship. And also Niger Delta agitators give federal government 14 days to unveil and prosecute invaders of Odile's home. These are the stories on the Guardian Newspaper. We'll probably just start just before our guest joins us. We'll probably just start with having these conversations. You know, of course, one of the last one that I took this morning and the Niger Delta agitators given federal government 14 days to unveil and prosecute the invaders of Odile's home. It's still very mind blowing that, you know, this is what almost a week, more than a week since that incident happened. And the federal government, the Nigerian government is still claiming the police, DSS, whoever is still claiming that they do not know who invaded Justice Mary Odile's. It is, when a foreigner comes to Nigeria and complains... Are you trying to attack me this morning? No, when a foreigner comes to Nigeria and complains, he's not attacking the countries, telling you exactly what he's... But I feel attacked at some points. I mean, we cannot be, you know, because we're trying to hide shame, now try to not fix what needs to be fixed. You know, and because we're embarrassed, I think it's because we're embarrassed that the fact that foreigners will call me and see these things and call us out would then, you know, would be inside anger at the foreigner instead of anger at ourselves or live in a country that these type of things happen. How do armed policemen, according to reports, enter the house or the home, storm the home of a Supreme Court judge in the federal republic of Nigeria and Nigerian government to date. This is a week, more than a week after that incident occurred. The Nigerian government to date still doesn't know who needs to be answered, they ask questions or who needs to be punished. I mean, make it make sense in any sane society that the government itself, you know, would claim that they do not know who, you know, was responsible for that. You know that would actually... It would actually mean that there's a way, you know, maybe the government is trying to insult the collective... That's exactly what it is. ...our collective, you know, intelligence at the end. No, we do have all of that because at the end of the day, no police officer would just wake up. That's number one. We do not live in a society where there's no government and law. We're not in a state of anarchy. That is why you have the law of social contract. Of course. I mean, so you can't just wake up and say somebody wakes up. You know, police officers just all of a sudden summed up courage. You woke up without no order instruction. Let's not forget that the security is still in the exclusive list and it's not within the purview of the state government. And let's not forget the fact that constantly people are saying, you know, let's decentralize powers. Let's have the police security issues to be handled by state government. And so no officer would actually just wake up because they are very zealous and then they just want to prove a point and just head straight there. And instruction was given. The move via instruction, with instruction, and someone gave the order. So it is really, really shameful, very, very shameful to add democracy and really bad that up until this point, we still have that kind of denier. If you look at all of the conditions surrounding how the police actually operate, you would understand that someone gave the order. So it doesn't really make any sense. We can't just wake up and say, oh, we don't know. I mean, the government is denying and everybody's denying. But you see, it brings us back to the fact that, you know, sincerity of purpose, intention is also one of the major issues. And like you would say, if a foreigner comes into our country and begins to lash us, then we begin to feel very bad. But you see, what is the NBA doing at this point in time? What is the NBA doing? Some quarters are saying that the NBA should call for the resignation of the Attorney General of the Federation rather than all of this thing. It is a very serious issue. And if we allow this order to continue to slide, then we constantly continue to, you know, promote impunity and lawlessness. It's not the first one. It wouldn't be the first one. I don't think it will be the last. When you say if we allow this type of thing to slide, it's not, we've seen numerous, you know, similar incidents like this, where eventually there's no investigation and everyone just moves on. Eventually, as huge, as embarrassing as much of a national embarrassment it is, Nigerians just move on because the government itself has moved on and it has no interest in pursuing any leads or even doing anything to punish anybody who was airing. Because they know. I believe that they know who exactly is responsible. The NBA, yes, has put out a statement. Alumi Diakapata put out a statement over, I think, was sometime last week. And of course, it was some of the things that made headlines over the week also, you know, saying that Abu Bakr Malami will be, you know, maybe lose his senior advocate of Nigeria title. That's, you know, in one of the directions. But let's assume that these were not police officers. These were dogs that had a tail or amongst them that showed police were uniforms for them. They had a person who supplied them weapons. So it would mean that till now, we still haven't been able to identify these dogs. We still haven't been able to arrest anybody or find out who exactly was responsible for that one week later, a Supreme Court judge in Nigeria. If you remember that this is very similar to, well, it's not very similar actually. The Bolaige issue was what was going to mention. But if you want to assume that these weren't, you know, men of the Nigerian police force and they were criminals, that's exactly how late Chief Justice of Federation, Chief Bolaige, died. And that's how it was killed back then, you know, old sugar messenger's government. To date, in 2021, there's still no answers. There's still nobody who has been, you know, found guilty for the murder of Bolaige. So let's, I'm just creating that scenario that maybe they are not actually police officers. But we know that these weren't thugs. These weren't, you know, armed men dressed in these. And also to add to that, I don't call, I don't control the police architecture of, you know, I don't give instructions. You don't, I don't know, maybe you do. And it's not, you know, a common Nigerian. So we need to understand that the IGP cannot be acting and saying, oh, he's not in the know. The federal government cannot say, we do not know. It's high time that, you know, we begin to act. That should be enough reason. In another country, it should be enough reason for you to step down, since you have no idea what is going on with your own police. So you just wake up and have a Vazilis man. Just wake up and then they begin to act in a certain way. It normally should be enough reason to point out that you have no control over the people that you are in charge of. And you maybe should go home and retire in a sane society. But we obviously do not live in such a sane society. And so we will move on as a country. We will move on and we'll continue living our lives. We have actually moved on. It says in the, it was, yeah, the one that shocked me actually, it says, building collapse. Lagos records zero convictions as 213 die in seven years in building collapse across Lagos. It says also, tribunal blames weak enforcement of regulations, corruption. It says two more bodies recovered in Ikoi and the last one, rescue efforts stop today. And that is the one that I still cannot wrap my head around. The reason that 213 people have died in building collapses Lagos and there's still no conviction is because, and this is on the punch newspapers, is simply because there is no punishment for incompetence. There is no punishment. There is no respect for the laws and there's no implementation of whatever the law says with regards to the value of the Nigerian life. And that's what I spoke about on Friday, the value of the Nigerian life that no country, no sane society loses 213 people to building collapses and still has not been able to find one person responsible for any of this. In any level of this, of the failure, if it is whoever signed up on the 21-story building or didn't sign up and allow the building to continue, if it is those people who sold fake building materials, if it is those who, you know, did a soil test and sent fake results, you know, if it is those who started the structure or didn't listen to the structural engineer that gave warnings, somebody, there has to be somebody that is held responsible in a sane society. And when you hold that person responsible, it makes every other person to sit up because they know that when one life is lost, somebody will be held responsible at any level or maybe at all levels. And this is yet another opportunity for the Lagos State government to ensure that they do not let incompetence, you know, to be the order of the day. Rescue efforts, and aside the failure of whoever it is that signed up on 15 or 8 or 21 or 40-story buildings, when we move away from those aspects and move away from whoever it is that broke the law that went on building when he should have stopped building, then let's go to when it was time for people to be rescued. Ikoi has its own very local government. There should be an office that is responsible for emergencies in that area of Lagos, in Etyos at least. Tell me why they had to wait, and remember when we spoke to the Sema DG, he said they were waiting for equipment to come from Mushi, like what concerns Mushi equipment with what's going on in Ikoi. We still have not been able to answer that question. Is that level of incompetence with rescue that makes you get there and say that your life-detecting machine is not working because they didn't charge it before they got there? Is that level of incompetence that makes us realize that this is what, when did this happen? Last week? Monday? One week later, we have suddenly declared that we are ending rescue efforts today. One week later, there will be no questions asked as to whether the La Sema and Nema itself who was meant to be at the forefront of rescuing these people, whether they actually went through standard operating procedure for rescue operations in Nigeria, there will be no questions asked. There will be no questions asked as to whether it is excavators that are meant to be used to demolish a building they are meant to use for rescue. Because when I saw those excavators, they really looked very scary and very sad because, I mean, looking at it, when you have the excavator going through, it feels like it's going to, it could pick on someone's head, it could even kill the person who is still even living. So it's really, really scary. Once again, there will be no questions asked and that is the most painful part, that there will be no questions asked at that level of incompetence that you can see spread across every single detail of this disaster. So it becomes very tiring for me because it feels like it doesn't feel like it is that we are going in circles. We are talking about the same thing over and over again, whether it's the elections, whether it's the fact that, you know, Odili's house was actually invaded and up until now, nobody has been arrested. Up until now, the government is saying we don't know who actually invaded the house. We didn't give you any sort of, you know, instruction. We have Mr. Ezekiel Ngai Tok, who is joining us. Good morning. Thanks for joining us, sir. Mr. Ngai Tok, are you here? Good morning. I think your device is still muted. You may need to unmute your device so we can hear you clearly. But these are, you know, conversations that are extremely important. If we plan moving forward as a country, if we plan reusing the number of people that are, you know, living in Nigeria because they've realized that the Nigerian government and the Nigerian system is not, you know... No, no, you see the problem with, okay, over time, this is my opinion. I don't think that Nigerians are lawless people, okay? We just seem to... Because Nigerians outside of Nigeria are very law-abiding, and you ask yourself, why? Now, there's a system that works. If you talk about laws and implementation of those laws, we seem to have too many laws. And like one of our guests had mentioned, you know, in the course of the show, as at last week, when we were talking about regulations and codes and what have you, like he said, he said, we're over-regulated. We have too many laws. But with these laws, laws without implementation would just be, you know, mere musical instrument and they're just nonsense. It doesn't make any sense. Because if we have these laws that we're not implementing, people are not arrested, how many arrests have we made? People who, we continue to encourage and, you know, encourage impunity. We continue to encourage lawlessness. And because nobody's punished for doing a thing and somebody is emboldened somewhere, you know, to act in that same way, and they're like, nothing is going to happen. Nothing happened to Mr. B. Nothing happened to Mr. C. And that's why it's going to happen. Like I mentioned earlier, you know, prior to this time, I said, what's on the street? The people already. I mean, I'm on the street and I hear people say, oh, well, it's nothing. It's just the big boys. If you notice, the big boys are involved in this issue and it's just going to be another issue of the big boys. I will sort it out and nothing will really happen. And to find out that, you know, a lot of persons have lost their lives whether it's one, whether it's two, even if it's somebody's leg that got broken in the cost, it is a human being. And we should be valid. You know, it is important. But like I would always say, it is quite tiring and very, very depressing that we have to talk about these issues over and over again because it is the same problem that is trickling, you know, the same problem that we keep seeing in different aspects, you know, of the economy. And up until we, you know, up until we make up our minds, you know, to be very sincere and begin to act, the government needs to do it, you know, because there has to be a political will. All of this is going on. Who is going to enforce it? Government is responsible for enforcing. So should we go and enforce the law? No, we're not. That's not our responsibility. And so we will continue like this until we have a system that is, you know, functional, until we have people in the system that have the political will to do the right thing. And doing the right thing is not about talking. In the Bible, those who believe the Bible will say, faith without works is dead. And so it's like saying you believe and you're not doing. You can read the Bible and don't practice what the Bible says or, you know, read the Quran and don't practice what the Quran says. It doesn't make any sense. Sadly, you can get those people in those positions if we don't have a better electoral system. And so, you know, it feels like, you know, every time that you try to answer the questions that you're asking, there's always some roadblock. There's always something that makes it... And how do we have a better electoral system? Who are the persons who control the electoral system? The same people that you want to... It's painful. I mean, it's really, really painful. You know, and I've seen people say, oh, that the legacy government should be sued, the forescorp, you know, property, you know, developing company or whatever should be sued by these families. And you can't knock them for saying that, you know, because it is somebody's incompetence. It's somebody's failure that led to the loss of these lives. You know, we're talking about 40 people that died on Monday now in this disaster. It is someone's failure and incompetence that led to, you know, their debts. And you cannot ignore those failures and you can't ignore that level of incompetence and just keep on moving and act like those lives don't matter. Mr. Ayatollah, good morning once again. Mr. Ayatollah, can you hear us this morning? Yeah, no, I can hear you. I can hear you now. Okay, now we can hear you too. Good morning. Thanks for joining us. Good morning. Nice to be with you. All right, so I would like that you probably start with the conversation on the building collapse. It says on the punch there, zero convictions as 213 die in seven years. It also goes on to say, two more bodies recovered in Ikoi and rescue efforts to stop today. Let's bring you in first on that one. Yeah, the very first thing is that we run a country where we really understand what government is all about. We run a country where those in government think that we elect them to take care of themselves and their cronies and the things that are important to them. We run a country where we don't understand that the law is faceless and that we need to have a sane society where people must fear and respect the law. As in this country today, any man that can afford to build a 21-story building, any man that can afford to build a structure that can kill up to 30, 40 people at a goal must be a big man of some sort. And those people seem to be untouchable and I think it is sad, absolutely so. I think the earlier we realize that government is faceless and to serve the larger interests of the generality of the people and that anybody that is given the privilege of serving, yes. Can you turn on your video? It seems to be turned off. I see. I'll confirm that. Go ahead. Go ahead as you have to sort that out. Yes. So we're saying that if we run a system when we... I don't know if my video is on now. Yes it is. Go ahead. Yes. If we run a system when we realize that government is a sacred institution that is faceless and provides the larger good for everybody and that the law is also faceless, where no matter whose office is God, you do the crime, you do the time. Once we do that, then we start to realize that the big man has to comply and cannot get away with Blue Mother. The only reason why we have people who... that so many people are being killed over this short period of time and not one person has been convicted is because all these properties are owned by untouchables and the earlier we eliminate that concept of untouchability from our governance lexic on the earlier, the better it will be for all of us. I think it's sad that people will do the wrong thing and they couldn't be bothered because they know they will get away with it. And I think the time has gone for us as citizens, all of us to wake up and say no to this. The moments that we start to hold government accountable by coming out to interrogate our recruitment processes, to that extent we will be able to have a country that is sane. For now, I think it's very sad what's happening. All right. I think with the time we have, you can also get your views on the Anambra elections that have been declared inconclusive. There will be supplementary elections on Tuesday. It says there were no elections in the whole of Ihi'ala local government area. Go ahead, please. Yeah. Certain technicalities about the election that we must understand and the technicality is that the moment that the results you have, even if one man has won so much and the result that we don't have kind of means that it can assume that one person wins the whole vote. If one person wins as, I mean as inconceivable as it is, then INEC must walk within the parameters of the law. So, though Soludo-Afga has seemingly taken it, because of their volume of votes in Ihi'ala, they have to unnecessarily do that. I'll just call this like going through the motion. That is the first thing Nigerians should understand and they should please be patient with INEC. Secondly, I think that there's something that is starting to happen. This question of decentralising the governance struggle with people restructuring, people are starting to think about it because the only reason why even PBP will not make such impact in Anambra is the fact that the Anambrarians are starting to say let's hold on to our own. This concept of taking us to the centre is an evil wind that does no man no good. Let us hold on to what we have. Hold up responsible because this centre is filled with leeches which has come to take and go away. I think there's a mindset reset that is happening in Anambra states and that is going to largely affect the governance on people are going to start to ask if we take something and hold our own instead of all this centre belonging to the centre that has benefited no man instead of the centre always coming in to pick what we have in our state. And thirdly, I think that everybody should learn the lesson that if you do not go out to vote whatever is the vote that is declared that person is going to win even if it is by less than 10% of the projected voter population. And to that extent I think that the southeastern easterners have shot themselves in the foot and it's just about managing a bad situation so to speak. And for what INEC has done I listened to them very well the logistics people were afraid and refused to give out their vehicles and even the people that were trained on the day that were not able to come out on that day and they had to do very quick I think that INEC should be commended because they found themselves between the rock and the hard place and for what they've done so far I think it's a lesson for all of us to look at it and decide that going forward we must be careful to ensure that we participate fully and avoid distractions in coming elections. Okay, let's quickly share your thoughts on another headline on the Daily Independence Newspaper says the federal government CBN conceder on that table narrow devaluation and you have some experts saying that devaluation of the narrow is a temporary solution what are your thoughts? Again I bring it back to I always look at the big picture governance is not a quick fix mechanism it is not the reason is that any genuine investor looks at your thinking process and they are like if I bring my money into this country how am I assured of their monetary policy so when we do all this quick fix on the table kind of moves we are inadvertently hurting the country we need to sit down get a pool of very sound economists and look at the way to future sometimes we need to take a very hard decision just to make sure that you have investor confidence and a long run you know better for each approach I think that makes more sense but we have the central bank a lot of times getting involved in politics and they really should be to be saved from all these political considerations so that they give us monetary policies that investors will look at and have confidence that issue that animation of confidence in investors is extremely important in governance and for you to have a system that is secure a system that people can come in and put their money in it and you need investors in every system for you to be able to have an economy that is buoyant and I am not comfortable with the way that the central bank deals with monetary policies alright Ezekiel, yeah I talk, thank you so much sadly we have to wrap up here thanks for your time this morning and we wish you a very beautiful and interesting week ahead thank you thanks for having all the best chairs here absolutely alright we'll take a short break when we come back a little bit of history and then we would of course be moving to our first major conversation for today which is the Annambra elections exactly what happened over the weekend we'll talk about it when we come back