 Let's see all the breakfasts on Plus TV Africa, Zikul and I took joins us this morning via Zoom. Zikul, it's good to have you join us complement of the season. Very same to you and Merry Christmas in advance to all the Plus TV family. Alright Dan, thank you so much. Let's start off with the leadership newspaper this morning. The headlines are quite interesting and also a bit of sad stories. Then you have on the leadership newspaper CBN Bows the Pressure Reviews Cash Withdrawal Policy. Now that's what the leadership is saying this morning. Individuals, corporate bodies get 500,000 Naira and 5 million Naira weekly limits. I'm attending to held challenges, MFLE tells reps. Quite interesting. CBN Governor should be allowed to function. That's also another writer you find underneath that. Just before we move away from the leadership, they are quite interesting headlines. APC PDP are daggers drawn over plots to disrupt the 2023 polls. Tunibu gave arms not bribe in viral video. APC campaign clarifies, I mean it's just very predictable, you know, the response. Again, Aquarium Madu loses bail bid to spend Christmas in the United Kingdom prison. Really sad. And another headline says President Mohamed Abu Hari's six national assemblies approval for one trillion Naira emergency funding. What's going on? Court orders in term for feature of XAGF's 899,000 dollar, you also find 304.5 million with 10 proptors. Well, this is some of the headlines we have this morning on the leadership newspaper. We'll quickly turn our attention from the leadership and let's look at the punch. The punch says fuel scarcity, depots dry up, Nigerians face bleak Christmas. Oh wow. Fuel queues worsen in Lagos, orders, marketers blame supply shortage, interstate commercial drivers, passengers be more on high costs of fuel and fare. To be very honest, you know, I think Nigerians are going through a lot. No, I don't think Nigerians are really going through a lot. Filling stations closed down over unavailability of petrol. Emmerthly bouse of pressure raises cash limit to 500,000 and 5 million Naira. Harassing CBN governor, Syracuse, United Kingdom law makers, advices, DSS. Buhari six fresh domestic loan of 819 billion Naira and you have debt he's 22.5 trillion. We're talking about domestic, you know, debts now. Like a front hall, Eastern Railway Projects, that's what the federal government is saying. Or Caterban Corp detained for killing Lagos motorcyclists. I remember that, you know, a sudden incident that happened in Ajah, if I'm not mistaken. PDP APC clash over alleged Tunibu rigging plots. That's what the punch has to say this morning. The nation is what we have next. And the nation says how blue light rail will benefit Lagos by Song Olu. Test running of the project begins Buhari to Kikov phase two in January. CBN raises weekly cash to draw limit to 500,000 Naira. Corporate bond is free to draw 1 million weekly. January nine takeoff dates, remands. Well you see the question of how far we have fared or how far we're faring with circulation. Because up until this moment, I haven't set my eyes on the new Naira note. So I haven't seen it, I really don't know what it looks like. Can you imagine how many persons have not seen it? And so how do you identify if this is a fake? Because there are several reports that are saying that this fake production of this currency, it's a lot of trouble. APC challenges PDP on plots to derail 2023 elections. INEK admits seeming overvoting in Oshun. That's Oshun state and Oshun state, by the way. We'll just leave it at that and then turn our attention to the daily trust before we have a Zika Uyai to come in to share his thoughts. Troops kills cause of iPop terrorists in Enugo and Eboi. And you find CBN raises individual cash withdrawal limits to 500,000 weekly. This might just be dominating all of the papers this morning. New tide, air travel is lament, delays, cancellation of flights. We can only get better, we hope that it will get better with the aviation sector. COVID-19 tests removed as Niger gets 95,000 slot. Find out what that's about. Part, SOHC kills 11 in Zaria. Federal government launches application to monitor capital projects. I mean, does this, will this cut across the entire, you know, states of the federation? Buhari's 6,819.5 billion dollar supplementary budget as deficit heats, 8.17 trillion dollar, they say he who goes, boring goes assuring. That's the very popular thing. And I'm sure that Ezeko Uyai would not be thinking differently from this. But Ezeko, it's really good to see you this morning and thank you for joining us. It's always a delight to have you on the breakfast. Thank you for having me. It's always my own pleasure and privilege to be with you. So, I mean, let's start off with the papers this morning. What is this dominating all of the headlines? It's about the pressure according to some of the headlines. I see the CBN governor has about to pressure and the review of cash withdrawal policy. What do you make of it? 500,000 are for individuals and 5 million are for organizations. Yeah, I think it is the responsibility of every reasonable leadership to listen to the people. Now, when you make a policy, it's not that you didn't have enough consultation. Oftentimes it's that there may be something could come up or there's a perspective that you didn't look at. And if the people raise that perspective, it's only proper for you to listen to and then adjust as would be in the better interest of the generality of the people. That's the way I look at it. When you now put in terms of bowing to pressure, it's like it's something you were resisting and then the people now force you to take that decision. I don't think that there was enough time for you to have said that he resisted. I think he brought up the policy and the people reacted to the policy. He went back and looked at what the people said and then reacted to what the people said. I think it makes sense. You could say that for you to come up with a policy, you need to do a lot more consultation and not to make mistakes on fundamentals. I would agree with that argument. And I also agree that the change from 100,000 to 500,000 for individuals is actually very much welcome. And then taking it to 5 million for corporate bodies is also proper. What I would say is that I'm in the construction industry. And sometimes paying the workers, the limit might be too meager for you to be able to pay your workers those daily wages. A lot of them may not want to go on bank transfers for one reason or the other. And there's this issue of you've done a transfer, you've gotten your account debited and yet the other person says, I've not seen it. And a lot of times they actually write it, it does not reflect. So I think that for such small amount of money, you may need to have some level of cash. And depending on the size of the project, that cash limit that they had before was absolutely on the very low side. And I think reacting to it where they have done, in my opinion, is proper and it just means that they are listening. And that's good. They could have said, no, no, we are demanding, we've said it and that's it. You don't like it, you go away. But listening to the people and reacting should be held as people who are responsive and not necessarily as bowing to pressure. Oh, well, still on the leadership newspaper this morning, I'd like you also to respond to the fact that the CBN governor had not respected or honored the invitation of the assembly. That's the National Assembly. And he's actually stated another one that is attending to his health issues. This is actually the latest report because prior to now, he said he had engagement outside of the country, of course, he was in company of the president. Now he said he's dealing with health issues. What do you make of this? Because it seems like it's a pattern with public officials where you have the National Assembly inviting them. And then there's always a tendency of not showing up. Several excuses. Ezekiah, can you hear me please? Well, we're hoping that we establish a contact and connection with Ezekiah this morning of the press. And the big one, which I hope that he will answer, is the pattern. It seemed like a very popular one amongst government officials. Necessarily governments representative, however, it has been those who are elected or those who are appointed to occupy various agencies or offices, however the case may be. So this is one that a lot of persons are talking about. Ezekiah, it's good to have you join us again. We apologize for the bad network. Ezekiah, can you hear me? Ezekiah, if you can hear me, please unmute your device. Can you hear me? Yes, I can hear you now. Loud and clear. Good. So I'd like to share your thoughts on Godwin Mephiles of the Central Bank of Nigeria and I've been very specific here, of his excuse of not honoring the invitation of the National Assembly. What do you make of this? It's a pattern among the elites, the ruling class. Yeah, so sad I was actually gone halfway on that question. I didn't know I was talking to myself like winking in the dark. Okay, they say, as you make your bed, you lie on it. He made his bed and he's lying on it, good or bad. He should blame himself. Why would you, as a central bank governor, knowing such a sensitive and highly exalted, which you want to get yourself into, into the politics of, okay, want to run for the presidency? Why would you do that? I mean, it was absolutely preposterous and in my very, very considered opinion unreasonable. You know, it's like you are an unstable person. Why would you want to mix two things? By the time you got yourself politically involved, you effectively disqualified yourself from that office because nobody would trust you again. You know, they will see you as being partisan. And even in being partisan, even within APC, they have blocks and factions. I can tell you that for free. So whatever, they will try to find out where you belong. For instance, there was this issue of him having acquired hundreds of bosses. And the question is, where are those bosses? There's a lot of conspiracy theories that he's giving it to another party or so. This loyalty is being questioned and because of that, and that shouldn't be the case, you shouldn't be talking of loyalty at this point. You are expected to be extremely neutral or did he sell those bosses and he returned them to the people he hired them from or what's the explanation? So there's a lot of things about him. And then finally, you know, health is one area that you can't really question. He might be smart by saying, I'm staying back on health grounds. You know, we are in Nigeria where the health of a public servant is a private property, which is wrong. If you are a public servant, your health should be a public property. If you don't want to be subjected to public scrutiny, then resign and leave your private life. Nobody wants to know about my health records for now. But the moment I get to be the governor of Acquirebom said, they have a right to know everything about me. I'm no longer a private citizen until the day I step down from that office. So going by that, a lot of people are saying, this guy ain't coming back, man. He knows what's waiting for him back home. And that could be another conspiracy theory. So whichever way it goes, he made his bed and he's got a lie on it. All right. Let's also look at another issue here. It's also on the punch newspaper, Central Criminal Court in the United Kingdom has again refused to grant bail to former Senate president, Ike Acquiremado. And that's on the grounds that he probably would flee, you know. That's the argument. Even after you have shorties and guarantees of what have you. The thing is, there are two sides to this story. The first is that usually the whites, let me just make a general statement, are known from carrying out proper investigation before arrest. It's Nigerians that we have been accusing them of going for the arrest first before carrying out the investigations. And this man has been arrested for this period of time and is still being kept. For me, there's something missing. I can't seem to place what it is because I would have expected that he would have been charged to court normally. Yes, he's been, but the weight of evidence would have been presented enough for him to be either convicted or released. So hanging for this long and then Tokyo bail upon bail upon bail and being refused bail, they seem to be more to eat than meets the eye. And again, they are starting to do it in a Nigerian way. If there's more to eat, come public, come clear. Because Ecuador is somebody that's not just a Nigerian. Every Nigerian matters a Black Lives Matter, a Nigerian Lives Matter. But he's been a deputy Senate president. That means one of the top ranking few in the whole country. So his case is of importance and of relevance and of interest to virtually every Nigerian. So there's something I can't seem to place my fingers on, because there's also been some confessions as per the guy has agreed that there were agreements, everything came openly. There wasn't anything spooky about it. He went and then declared in getting the visa. It wasn't through a mutilated or a masked reason. It was clear what was to be done. And then the young guy is also there. So where is the missing link? There's something I'm really not am getting. If it was in Nigeria, I would have said, oh, Nigerian way, they will keep them there. Maybe political victimization. But those things don't just work out there. So Mr. Equerimadu's case is one that I really can't put my finger as to what the British authorities are doing. All right then. Let's move away from the Equerimadu's case. There's still also another issue. It's boldly written on the punch, the first scarcity and the fact that we're out of product. Their pose are dry, are dried up and Nigerians are facing a big Christmas already. Not will, but are already facing, because, I mean, I'm really surprised at seeing the queues returning. The queues of return, you know, it's just very difficult, especially if you live in this part of the world. I'm talking about leaguers now. What are your thoughts? Is NMPC still the sole importer of this product? What's going on? As of the last time, I'm not sure there's been a policy change. But again, you see, Nigeria is a very interesting country. I would say this again. Now, the question of wealth subsidy is one that is a major debate here and there. And the thinking in my own conspiracy theory is that you get into a certain reality, a reprieve comes from a relief, and then you relapse into your short memory. They say the memory of man is treacherous. So we are having some level of hardship. We are buying it at 250, 280, depending on where you are. I think if they sustained that long enough, we would have settled into it and accepted it and accepted it as our reality. And if they can even make us to beg for it, please bring, I beg, bring. If they sustained this scarcity, we might just be able to come to a point where if a policy is taken, it's better. Let it just come. Let's move on. So if that is their thinking, then I think that they've probably reached the stage of accepting the new price, the new reality. They want us to come to a point of begging for it so that when they make it available, we can even thank them and clap for them for that reason. It's about governance style and understanding Nigerians and them thinking in terms of what you want. I don't know if you can still hear me. Loud and clear. Okay. So like I was saying, these are the strategies that they sometimes use and sad but true. Okay. A lot of people are still asking, there's a lot of question around why the minister of petroleum seemed not to be bothered about all this going on, from the fact that once upon a time in 2022, we had products, you know, substandard products being imported into the country to all this going on and it's quite saddening. Now, when you say the minister of petroleum, you start to think in a certain direction. When we say Mr. President, people are like, oh, okay. Our president is just waiting for time to expire and let him move to Dara and have his life with his 150 cows, you know, that's on one hand. On the other hand, there's something I would want to say that Mr. President is doing. It's something I've advocated for a long time. The memory of Nigerians is treacherous. Today, Gerald Abdul Salam is hailed any way he goes, you know. Not because he was so faultless or incorruptible, I don't want to look at the other side of the coin, but because he handed over in less than a year after we had suffered in the hands of our Agar, IBB and then Abacha. So Nigerians forgive based on certain fundamentals. Number two, if you look at a man like my Agar good lord, Jonathan, from a president, there are no words they didn't use on that man. He was clueless. He was this. He himself admitted that he was about the most abused president in the history of Nigeria, if not the whole world. But today, the man is smelling like a rose and the toast of international communities. Why? He gave us free, fair, credible elections, relatively. And I told Mr. President, time and time again, I said, Agar, forget economy, zero. You have failed. Forget anti-corruption. Zero. You have failed. Forget security. You have failed. Let me not say zero, zero, zero. You have failed. You have failed. You have failed. But sir, there is a golden bullet. That golden bullet is give us free, fair, credible elections and you will exit in a blaze of glory. You will be smelling like a rose. You will be the toast of the nations. That is Nigeria for you. And for the first time, I think that he's taking that advice. My prayer is that he will remain focused and steady the cost to the very end and give us free, fair, credible elections. If you look at the beavers and sticking to the beavers, if you look at the electoral act, you might have signed inadvertently, maybe in not in error, but without really knowing what was going. But it's turning out for his good. The electoral act, the beavers, the CBN monetary policies is aimed at demonetizing the electoral process. And Nigerians may feel the pain, but it might come up to be one of the biggest, best decisions that Mr. President has taken. And as a player in that field right now, look, come and throw to me the weight of your superior argument on how my life is going to be better and not how you're going to buy my vote for $2,000, a bag of salt, a cup of salt, two cups of curry, and then you ruin my life for another four to eight years. Whatever we need to go through today to make sure that the people that want to depend on money don't see money. When they realize that the money will not come, they are going to start to look at those of us that don't have money, but have ideas, but have the heart, but have the understanding of government and governance, which are the people that are really needed at a time like this. Nigeria is a dire threat. All the indices of development and progress, we are on the wrong end of it. So we need the very best tested hands and not the richest hands. This issue of he has money, he has money has to be brought away, taken away from our politics so that we can have a future that we can be proud of. So if Mr. President can just sit on this till he leaves for the next few days or weeks, because he can actually count the weeks as days, and very soon we start counting the days as hours. If he can just sit on it, don't allow any pressure, NFL may be in problems, but don't allow a change in the system that will, for any reason in the world, tamper with the monetary policy as concerning making money not available for elections beyond a certain threshold. I think that he will end up getting people to start thinking of how they can get people to vote for them without money, without investment, which is what campaign is all about in the first instance. If you do that, people will now go back to thinking and then looking at the criteria that they are putting up, looking at the character, and the public will be able to now sift through and pick the best-seated person for the office, and Nigeria will be the better for it. Oh well, let's see how that pans out, especially when domestic debts have been increased to about 8.17 trillion Naira, with a total density of 42.8 trillion Naira. But I'd like to ask you on this recent one, the president again has applied for a six-fresh loan of 819 billion Naira, domestic debt actually, that's what it is, and the purpose for this is so he could, we can actually fix the infrastructure that has been destroyed by the floods across the different states of the federation. We're talking about 36 states, including the FCT. So yes, this is what this is for, but what are your thoughts on this really? The domestic debts now, it's a 22 point. Two things. First, fantastic argument. Nigerians are smart enough, but veiled intention. Are we looking for money to run politics? Or are we really, really bothered? Can we afford the luxury of stepping that down, knowing that two months we will not kill anybody? And let this come after the politics, so that we know that the money that we borrow now, which is adding to a very terrible situation, we really have not sat down to analyze the implication of the borrowings. Like I said, I'm contesting the governorship of Akwaibom state. And in Akwaibom state, we had a debt burden of over 250 billion. When you just oppose that with the running of government and the systems that we need, it means that we are definitely going to have to change the music and go low profile. There's an emergency. Now, if I feel this level of pressure as one who wants to be a governor, I do not know to what extent our frontline runners have looked at the debt burden of Nigeria and realize the understandings that have had on this debt and how they affect us on the long run. I think it's a major issue whenever they have a debate. Let that become one of the most topical issues. Let's address debt burden of Nigeria. Do you understand the present situation? Do you understand the different types of agreements that we've had on this debt at the public in Akwaibom, they are not public as per the terms and conditions because non-concessional debt, the ISPs, all those different dynamics must be understood because there are some debts that you're just not going to be able to touch because of how it was acquired and the terms and conditions that were there. And it may be the interest and you must penalties, penalties, penalties. And you must come and show yourself as somebody that has integrity that respect agreements with Nigerians are not known for. So don't just think you just come up and then boom, we know, we don't agree, we don't agree. For goodness sake, we need to have a certain mindset and be able to tell the international communities that we respect agreements, conventions and whatever commitments we have. It's a very big competition. But I don't know what the rationality is. We're still grappling with revenue issues as a matter of fact, revenue crisis. And then we're still borrowing. This, we're talking about domestic debts now, 22.5 trillion now. We don't think that we're going to make it. Don't we have other means of, you know, meeting our needs without borrowing? Is borrowing the only option for Nigeria, especially this administration? We have to go at this point now. Ezeko and Yaitou, thank you so much for being part of the show. We appreciate your time and we look forward to sharing more of your thoughts and any other time on the breakfast. We'll take a break and when we return, we'll be looking at the first major conversation right here. The NLC is demanding a reversal of privatization of electricity sector and it regents the water bill. Stay with us.