 You're welcome back. It's still the breakfast and that right now we're talking about the newly sworn in ministers. All of them hit the ground running as it were. In their various ministries, places where I got, everybody was welcoming everybody else. We've seen the minister for the FCT, a minister of FCT, Nyesom Weke, saying that he will bring so many buildings down as long as they are distorting the master plan of Abuja, he will bring them down. He will step on toes. He will do this and that. We've heard the minister of humanitarian affairs, Betai, do saying that she was going to lift 130 million Nigerians out of poverty. How she's going to do that? We're yet to find out. We have also heard from the minister of power who is promising us that he's going to make sure that power is more steady. I do hope it's not a deja vu from the person that said that it wouldn't take more than six months to make sure light is steady in Nigeria. We have also heard from the minister of solid minerals who said that the president sent him there because of diversity, that he is the right man to do that. And so many of them, all of them in fact, are saying that there is going to be a new lease of life because they are in charge. We're being joined this morning by Mr. Nick Agouli, a public affairs analyst to look into the words of these ministers and how practicable are some of the solutions that they intend to bring. Good morning and welcome to the program, Mr. Agouli. Good morning and good morning to our viewers. Okay, they say they have hit the ground running. We do hope that they have not hit the ground running the amounts, but they can also do what the needful is. You have seen all that the ministers have said they are going to do. Would like to hear your thoughts on whatever they have promised us. Thank you very much for that question. Before going into the specifics, I would like to make a general comment. And the general comments sent us around implementation of government policy through the promises that have been made. Nigeria is, Nigeria will be 63 years old this year. And from the First Republic through to the military era to the Second Republic through the military era and I and the Third Republic. Our leaders always make promises to us. In fact, a budget is a statement of promises. And every year we have these budgets with promises embedded in them. When a new leader takes office, he makes promises. In fact, even before he takes office, he makes promises during the campaigns. And then when he takes office, he makes promises. And when he appoints those who will help him to govern either as ministers or commissioners, they make promises. But what we have seen so far in Nigeria is that these promises are not translating into reality. So my general comment and charge to President Tini Buu, his ministers and the governors and their commissioners in all states of the federation is that please transform your promises into action. Let us see your hand in terms of what you are doing, not what you are saying only. If I will use a common Nigerian palace, the promises we go to job, we don't hear promises, tired. When our promises going to translate into action, every government will say, well, we provide stable electricity for instance, and Nigeria's electricity has remained 3,000 megawatts for 63 years. It doesn't make sense. So your promises are actually not having any value if they are not going to be transformed. So that matters my first general statement. My second general statement is that every year we have a budget, like the federal government this year has budgeted 21 trillion Naira. Even though if you look at it critically, translated to dollars, it is really not big money. But at least let us see on the ground what 21 trillion can do. There is too much corruption in government circles and this corruption is embedded in the civil service of Nigeria at all levels. Ministers have come in with fresh blood. As you can see, they cannot wait to start. They are really geared for the job. But as they sit on their seats today, the permanent secretaries, the directors in their various ministries are now bringing files to their tables and telling them how money can be made out of those files. And ministers get sucked into this and corruption can no longer be termed. So my second general comment is that let the ministers call the bluff of the civil service of Nigeria. Let them be focused on Nigerians and delivering the dividends of democracy to the long-suffering people of Nigeria. As those files are coming with civil service pointing out where money can be made, they should just tell them to go and sit down back on their seats so that the business of governance in Nigeria can happen at least for once. So those are my two opening statements as regards the agenda for the new cabinet of President Unibo. Yeah, but the civil servants are like the godfathers in politics because the godfathers, a lot of people beat their chest and say, I'm going to retire all the godfathers and at the end of the day, they are not able to do this. Is it possible for the ministers to work without the civil service as it is 100% of the civil service? Is it possible to succeed without them? So it is impossible for the ministers or commissioners at the subnational government level to succeed without the civil service. It is impossible. So that is the reality. Without the civil service, government policy can never be implemented because the structures to implement them will not be there. But the civil servants are looking at the body language of the minister or commissioner at the state level as it may be. If the body language of the minister is that I am not interested in all these ocean antigens, I don't want to make money through all these fires who are bringing it to me. I just want to get this job done. If it is a water project, I want to get the job done. I want to see that water truly done for this community so that they can have water, which is actually the liquid of life. The civil servants by since such stance by the ministers, we advise themselves that the game has changed. And if, as we say, the drum beats have changed and your dance steps have not changed, you will soon discover that you are not part of the dance. So it is about what the ministers who have now entered office are going to do. Are they going to offer themselves to the civil service to be sucked into the corrupt bureaucracy we have? Or are they going to stand aloof and say I am not interested in your dirty dealings? I have come here to deliver for Nigeria and I can tell you if the civil servants see that the ministers have come to do the work, the civil servants we align with the minister and they will deliver. Let me tell you one thing. What they have said now at the ministerial level also applies at the presidential level. These 45 ministers that have been inaugurated into office. If, for instance, a minister receives all these files from the civil servants and the files contain ways to make money out of the system, and the minister takes these files to the president and the president says, my friend, is that what I appointed you to do? That you will come to me and you will still suck money that is meant to provide head care, education, infrastructure, electricity, all that for Nigerians? You know that that minister will go back to his office and tell the civil servants that I don't want trouble. Please go back. Go back. Go and bring me stuff that will work for Nigerians. So the change actually must start at the presidency. The president is the one who has been entrusted with power by Nigerians. It is the direction that he will face, that his ministers will face, and it is the direction that his ministers will face that the civil service will face. So change must start at the top, very top. I hear people who say change begins with me, change must start at the bottom. Look, change is better started at the top. If you go to a family and the father is a rogue, the mother is a rogue, and you want the children to start changing that family, it is not going to be possible. So this message has to start right from the top to say we have to do things differently. This is a different Nigeria and we want to deliver for the people of Nigeria. So that is just the way this thing is going to be. But just very fast now because we have run out of time. Sorry that it started a bit late. Just in a country where the civil service seems to be like the be all, we just had a story of directors, over 500 directors refusing to retire. It's because they know that they have strength. They know that nothing can happen to them as it were. Do you think the politicians can succeed even if they give what kind of body language that they want to give? Politicians can succeed. President Tinibu is not only the president of Nigeria. He's also the commander in chief of the armed forces of Nigeria. That means if he gives command to any of the military chiefs that were implemented, if he gives a command to the police inspector general, he will implement it. If he gives a command to the attorney general of Nigeria, he will implement it. So if President Tinibu says do this and people don't do it, consequence management has to come in. You see, I keep saying this thing. President Tinibu only needs to have a single point agenda. One single point agenda. And that one single point agenda should be rule of law, law enforcement. Once he's able to implement that single point agenda, every other thing will be added onto Nigeria. So the rule of law means bring everybody, whoever they are, bring everybody, including the president, the vice president, his ministers, governors, everybody, traditional rulers in Nigeria, the big men, the billionaires, bring them equally before the law. And I say this thing that those places where our young people are running to, they are jackmining to. They are not jackmining to a better country than Nigeria. They are jackmining to a country that has rule of law as the main agenda for government. And that is what President Tinibu needs to implement. Yeah, we have to drop it at this point, Nick. Sorry that the time has run out. We'd like to thank you. Maybe this is a discussion that will continue some other time. Thank you for your time today. Please continue this discussion some other time so that we can look into the agenda of each of the ministers as they are saying it now. Yes, definitely. Thank you for today. Okay, that was Nika Gule, a public affairs analyst. And today we leave you with this quotation or quote, rather, not quotation, education is the key that unlocks the golden door to freedom. That's according to George Washington Carver. Education is a key that unlocks the golden door to freedom. We do hope that you can have that freedom and may it work for you and our country. My name is Nyam Gul at Gadji. Let's do it again tomorrow.