 Welcome back. You're still on to PLOS TV Africa and the program is the breakfast. It's time to bring you off the press Sorry that we the segment delayed a little bit, but you know as it is what is making headlines is still making headlines So we're being joined by Mr. Tunde Kolaule, a public affairs analyst that will be talking with us on the on the Program on this segment, but before we welcome him. Let's just take a look at the major headlines in every Newspaper that we are going to talk about today There are four major newspapers that we are going to be looking at in the punch newspaper It's the first and the major headline there is poor Nigerians will hit 101 million without palliatives that's according to the World Bank and the riders there As you have seen the governor Governors IMF block subsidy removal demand cash transfers came for poor Nigerians and CBN Measures failed to tackle inflation in first six months of 2023 The World Bank insists we move from punch to the Guardian newspaper and the Guardian newspaper Leads with another story or the same story in different words in the Guardian newspaper 7.1 million Nigerians may become poorer as families face 5700 Naira monthly loss that is from the Guardian newspaper and then From the Guardian newspaper we go to business day business day has a major report the CBN NSA exposed in 616 million dollars debt dealings and then leadership is the last one that we're going to be looking at this morning and In the leadership the major headline is to know who governors are show Nigerians of a better future What else do we want except for a better future for ourselves and our children even the ones that are not born yet? Like I said, we'll be talking today or we're being joined by mr. Tunde Kola Wale illegal practitioner here in Lagos mr. Tunde Kola Wale. Good morning and welcome to the program Okay, well, there's so many headlines that I would like to talk about but let's begin with the punch and the punch led with that Story of fuel subsidy removal poor Nigerians will hit 101 without palliatives That's according to the World Bank and that same story is on the Guardian and there they said that 7.1 million Nigerians may become poorer as families face 5700 monthly loss 77700 Naira monthly loss because of the inflation and subsidy removal. So would like to have your comments on that Nigerians that will be poor or that will become poorer the number is going higher and higher while the Government is promising us a better future. What are your comments? But I think the world bank If taking the audience You are not good the market We know how to use to buy the price of things Some eight years ago And what it is today? We also sometimes go by public transportation and we have much the transfers that have gone up Within this short while that the subsidy was set to have been removed of us too Most of the schools are behind This could be the public universities that people used to attend almost free But now charging fees not just for tuition, but also for accommodation and when you have the challenge that we are back in our hands of the percentage of employment all over the country and they cannot be in inflation And also the front page of those of us the Nigeria There's so many multinational companies are planning to pull out of Nigeria So when you add all these things together now that you begin to agree with The world bank There's so many poorer with this removal of the fourth and subsidy There is no That the government can be that can you know push it in fact Of this subsidy removal. Why do I say that from my experience? It had government said they have increased the salaries are not that the increase is even a lot more than Maybe 5,000 hours between 5,000 and 10,000 hours for the people so far to work in most of the Public places and for the people in the private sector the increases are not more than maybe 2,000 hours per head and And the water and if you are talking about all these conditioners or money transferred that money What are we are not I'm much with the money that they give to some of these people Most of the 20,000 to 20,000 and what have them how they're not be able to push it They try to do that. It's where subsidy removal is going It's already inflicting on the Nigerian people if I were the government I will find some other ways of really provide a subsidy Maybe in the area of agricultural impute. Maybe they are for transportation Maybe with regards to medication what people now pay in the different hospitals when they do have health challenges So we are in serious trouble. Very very serious trouble Except the present government seats up and Go and find a way to relate with agricultural production There might be very very serious hunger in the land and here I like to say that we are never the fears on that There is a need to be very very and the people will become less less and we will have people become less Of course, of course they could be the next consequences which we are not praying for at all Okay. Well, even though the the telcos have said that They are not doing a price hike. We've also seen from the not Yeah, the telcos are saying right now that there will be a price hike in because of the Naira I don't This is telcos I'm not talking about this cause Electricity people Oh That they consume their wealth their services So I think it's another thought to raise a lot more not to put up for the failure in the land and then to be seen To be raising the efforts of the government not to claim for them for the government That is the reason why the government say what they are saying Sooner than later they are likely to retire it. The telecommunication company will also agree retire it because they have to put a solution to the cause of running their plans So Okay, well, it's looking really scary for Nigerians if they manufacture us Association of Nigeria is complaining that a lot of a lot of international manufacturers will leave and then they tariff in Electricity will be height a tariff in In telecommunications will be height everything else in the market will be height and the salary will not be height Even if it is it is added like you said, it might be just 5,000 Naira and 20,000 Naira, which is grossly inadequate I usually give this example that when I started working here from where I come from You can pay on a on a in a in a car regular car 300 Naira to the island now That same journey is going for 1,000 sometimes 1,200 Naira in a regular car. I'm not talking about maybe a Hailing Cap healing services or all that so which means that there's so much suffering that is going on Or that will continue to go on in the land and all that and in spite of this the government is Is promising us that we are going to have a better future. Do you see this better future or you think? It's just like a political gimmick The tools Is that what is happening right now in the hiring and firing Maybe soon happen, but it's not yet happening the kicking out of a mess in the kicking out of power And the few of these so that people is nothing not to conclude that we begin to see a revolution in totally the Nigerian landscape As I was saying This is a government is going to create a better future for all people not to step on so many tools One is that The course of government would have to be reduced a very very drastically You and I do know That a lot of us have been advocating for a long time now I wish you have a unique and unique camera and a display top That is to say much the Senate and the House of Representatives And also this is the number of people that are going in there our case is also that People in some of this place in the assembly in the state and the local government should be taking only sitting at now and say I'm not a fellow is an all these In a jimbo page that they get Take a set like a kitsi set I don't see any reason why a kitsi set cannot be tested in allowances for For the House of Assembly member and then you also go to some of these How many laws you didn't make in the year what is the impact of the law that they even make Most times I've always said the times without number They don't manage debate the principle of the law When they have a lot to make They give you to win money as the wind drafts me to drop those laws and after we have drafted them They they take the draft to the assembly and debate the principle of law and then the impact of it Is that the reason why you should be paying this couple of jimbo allowance for their big jimbo pay for all these people So that is one area The second area is the court of contacts in Nigeria Is one of the highest in the land in the world The also content media one of the highest in the world So the government would have to look at the course of contact in Nigeria And make sure that that's entirely booked up You look at the paper each time a contact is awarded you watch the television This is to the radio if you're denominated in Delio Why is it denominated in Delio when most of the component are going to this content nothing come from above You want to construct roads You take the granite from here You take the cement from here You take the sand from here Yet all the construction in Nigeria all physical construction in Nigeria today is denominated in Delio Furthermore Look at even what is happening now A descending president is appointing jimbo staff These these press secretaries and what have you We are a central part in all those ministries and transporters That you go to including the national They are ready to receive a service Who are trained to do the work of these people that the police are again recruited There are people who could do the work of jimbo staff and the jimbo staff There are those who could do the work of the press secretaries There are those who could do the work of the protocol Emma So the new government would have to look at this in Nigeria And find a way to pull down the cost of governance very very discounted of course In addition to what the government is doing with the refinery The government must also find a way to re-sustain the alien refineries There are some refinery dollars in the parts of the world that have been there for more than a year And those refineries are still functioning In Nigeria refinery are not 60 years old So why is it that we cannot make them workable? Furthermore the government is also taking the wrong steps and the wrong direction By saying that they are issuing prices for people to import particular products in the country If you say you have delay, if you say you have removed subsidy and not It should be a free foreign affairs Whoever has the resources should be able to go In some international market and move forward to Nigeria But then you begin to do a legacy regime again You have to a little corruption into it because people will have to love it to get those prices in And people love it to get those prices and not that of course the cost of the lovely will pass to the average cost Furthermore it means that if somebody else could find some sources of bringing fuel into the country In a cheaper manner they cannot bring it because they don't have the fuel And you and I do know the more you have the better in the country The the the the possibility that you cast the The prices the prices in the different institutions all over the country the better for us These are things the government could do To really turn the landscape and the landscape of course we have to invest in agriculture We are not doing enough in the interests of agriculture A nation that cannot feed itself Like uh In North Korea, you are not an independent nation when you depend on Importing everything that to partially require to eat and drink in the country. It's great to speak So whether the president will be able to walk the talk Be able to step on the big toes of all these past caps That's why all over the country. I am here to see it Okay. Uh, well, we are just uh Hiring up to to to touch a lot of things that we need to touch In both the punch and the guardian we have Stories that will suggest that um the ministerial list is not prepared At all in in punch. We hear that apc kokus a neck will meet on july 10 Which gives us the idea that if they are meeting at that time maybe is to Look at the the tentative list of possible ministers And we also have seen in the guardian the lobbies storm bodilon for ministerial appointments Because yesterday the president was back in town And he got to bodilon so everybody is now moving to bodilon to do the lobbying For who will become what minister and all that so What does this tell us there was some speculation that there were speculations that immediately after salla Maybe the ministerial list will be out. I may be wrong But this gives me the impression that until july 10th We will not hear anything about ministers or the list that will give us the ministers. What do you think? We're in the elections are concluded as popular and it looks to have a government exploring It is logical to expect that a politician who have worked for the people who want to give us elections and know that We'll be waiting for their payback Packages So if people are lobbying for those instead of when they are lobbying to be commissioners in the different states of the federation It should be expected. Nobody goes campaigning for people. Nobody go investing It is all money competition I will not be expecting some paper time One way or the other the area I think we should be concerned with is that the Nigeria needs So we may have Ministers for more the country's state of the federation including a budget Do you need advice for more the states of the federation? Including a budget and my own opinion. It is not necessary The party is just focusing that the different ministries should be collapsed and that is the number of ministries make it fair How to do that? We don't have more than maybe 15 Ministers So the different parts of the country and then you have the same number of corresponding advisors are not a city in which the constitution has described That you must have the minister From the different parts of the for more the countries of the federation including a budget is part of the The cost Part of the high cost of running governance in this country because when you look at some of those They are not adding value to us. And of course who recently Mr. Faisal Keremo who was a minister of state has come out to say that we don't need The portfolio of minister of state in any of the ministries In the Netherlands that they are not even being used as a spare tire If somebody has been a minister They are state for about the four years comes out to say that kind of a thing and then we should listen to him So these are areas we should look at and not so of course The salaries and allowances that are paid to those ministers are not that we require to pull in the higher values are vocated that the ministers the position are not that should be any of the salaries of the people who serve them including the president and the vice-president and not the minister These the permanent secretaries are any of the um apothecally Five hundred thousand era in the month Then the ministers could be maybe six hundred thousand era in the month and then the president and what have you Also, um, it's something that is a a little bit higher and In a private life When they eat when they transport them say when they have visitors To finesse it from their salaries and not that the beach will be picked up by the Stage because that is what you have to know where they come The major state or taxpayer will pay for it when they sniff the major taxpayers will pay for it When they are angry with their wives or spouses and not the major taxpayers that they want to pay for those things In other climes and other places and now that the president of the united state for example Will pay for the dinner that is given to his friends and relations. He will pay for his own medication If he is traveling out at his official duty, he pays for it and if he uses state Machineries are very good to move around. He would have to rainbow state for those things Those are the kind of thing we require to do in this country to turn the country around Yeah, I was just worried that at this time this time there shouldn't be lobbying We should be hearing definite Statements that the list is ready if they're still lobbying now and the meeting is on on the 10th of July That means 60 days mighty laps before we find that List anyway At this time That all those things Like I was saying there's nothing wrong with lobbying What you've got to say that We set up a standard say do you want to be limited? These are the qualities that I want to see in the next start. These are the things that we want to have These are what is expected of you If we want to do some kind of interview for some of these people Another It is one of the matters nothing that we miss those In these those standards are set another then that we could get appointed as a minister But what happens now is that The governor's The synergy out of the party and the policy as another We push them on Next of the people that they want to appoint as a minister Whether they have the required qualification or they don't have it And that has not been too helpful at all Okay, let's move to another thing back in Lagos here Something that will be replicated in every state of the federation in the shortest possible time Is that motorists will be paying one thousand Naira for proof of ownership certificate from july Apart from the fact that maybe all the other taxes that have been paid by motorists will not be cancelled before that july They the the statement is coming now and july is within this week So I don't know how you feel about that paying one thousand Naira from july Honestly speaking Overtaxed And I asked you when you have a vehicle you take the vehicle you You get a vehicle For which your name is in the sky So if you have gotten a vehicle particular in which your name is described another What kind of proof of ownership again do you require why do you have to pay for proof of ownership again? Most of the vehicles are registered in the name of their owner So I am of the opinion That this is just a way of me to really really start for the government Which is like a personal additional burden on those who are either equal to the country And I think don't think that is really really necessary Another important burden on people we should be finding a way to really reduce this score You do prove to me you'll register your vehicle to bring me out You also will have to take it for some money I kept saying in some of these places to make sure that they are worth moving They were supposed to be moving around And that also cost some money And then you also ensure that you have to obtain For some of these vehicles Okay, um before we wrap up there are two Issues here I would like you to talk on very briefly First of all 2023 poll INAG EU observers disagree over conduct of presidential election We can find that in the leadership newspaper EU INAG have disagreed over the conduct of presidential election And we also heard that one of the commissioners there's an national commissioner for information. I think First as Okoye was saying that the glitch that happened in the uploading of the presidential election should not be blamed on INAG They should not be blamed because of a glitch that happened in the uploading of the election results of the presidential election That was conducted on February 25th. So I'd like to hear your comments How the EU observers are giving one report and INAG is disputing that report and one of the commissioners Is telling us that we should not blame them for a glitch that happened on election day It's a very complex issue and most times when INAG caused an electoral act to pass And then I'd like to make it a guideline As you find out that the average media politician immediately begin to walk and find who posed to identify whatever good intention, whatever good plan, whatever good program INAG might have put on ground to ensure that they have a rich free election I give you one example The situation in which a regular of the people conducting the election are attacked that ban those votes that are carried away That is not within the powers of the INAG and to control It's not within the security people that can help INAG to meet or control that kind of a thing in the vote But where people are buying votes as the treaty had to happen It is not within the powers of INAG to stop people from buying votes Only the security people can rein in those who sell and those who buy votes But with that as it may INAG cannot be totally exonerated from the fiasco that was the last election that we had there in the country I'd say this is the result of a responsibility to own what is given what is also expected There was nothing INAG asked for that they were as given and they had assured us that they are going to conduct a free and fair election without the help of the chief They are for the buy votes and then the buy votes were voted and I remember before the elections were conducted even the people in the National Assembly asked us about the efficacy of the buy votes the INAG people were assuring the National Assembly people and the INAG people and also the electorate that the buy votes is the each free in order to ensure the safety of the elections and what happened so again not the pay this also told us if I forget that for every buy vote that is not working there is a square one to complement it to replace it if they want that these millions people is not functioning properly so if you have gotten all these assurances and you have the carnival of people that were in my neck as the chairman and then as a commissioner than one of them the kind of a killing that will go from them will even be getting it at all I agree with you Hugo that the conduct of that election is in the path of what the Nigeria people expected there for my head and then the man who is chairman in there he is the king in there and he will say what did you convert former with Jega the man who was former lady in Zora he is the former that has been with Diakko every election that Diakko does is he got in there as always been with him standing in one controversy or the other the kind of integrity that we saw when the guy was in charge he has not been saying that kind of integrity with Mahmood so to that present and order I neck should be very accountable but whatever losses that might have been with regard to this election and of course too the security people will also share a path of debate because we should not affect our men to also serve as the policemen for the different police groups and then the policemen ask that we are going to do the country okay just take a final question now before we wrap up from business day we've seen the story that Nigeria's new due diligence rules draw mixed feelings remember that the central bank of Nigeria says that anybody who wants to open an account with any bank now the banks may require to get their social media handles and all that while some people especially the money lenders are happy about it some people are asking how much of inclusion will be if this policy is going to be implemented and if it's going to be implemented will it be a hundred percent or there will be some waivers that much is not clear to the public so and then who can open an account must you have social media handles or if you do not have social media handles you cannot open an account so these things are still shouted in some kind of mystery I don't know what your comments are briefly before we close well the comment is that I grandmother who is in this village and their father who doesn't have the social who doesn't have the social media account not like you yourself have asked who do not be able to open an account and for today they open an account with some of the microfinance I because the procedure over here is very very simple where you begin to to this all this complication into it and all that you are taking money for circulation and asking people to go and start putting it back under your pillows or in your in the pot or in some boxes you have to put it in your house and all that which will have the very corresponding effect negative effect on the on the economy more importantly some of the things that the government or the figure is introducing is the foundation of the privacy of the indigenous people because it already has the dvm it already has the mentioned identity in the number of water flow and of course when you go to the bank to open the bank account your picture your passport photograph are put in there you are not taking your fingerprint and water flow so these are all the things that already there are no more that time will be again they are asking the dealers to be providing their social media account before you can open the account for them in fact asking them to provide some of those information and know that they might have full opinion and then there are such persons and also compromise the privacy of the indigenous people which the constitution as they are the indigenous people let me give you an account I was watching a foreign television and put it on the go and the america people are protesting very directly with the issue of a series of camera being installed in some public places with the issue of state identification a case that the police are using that state identification case is inconvenient or similar to the driver we are in the country and we also complain about fingerprint and water flow mostly they are complaining they are complaining that please please compromise your privacy with the consumers and give it to them it's almost sure now those gadgets are not the case here okay well that's that's the much we can take this morning on that segment of the program Mr. Tunde Kolawole so this music is quite on the surface okay that's how far we can go on this segment we'd like to thank you this morning for coming on the program all right thank you thank you for having me okay that was Mr. Tunde Kolawole a legal practitioner here in Lagos that joined us on of the price so that we can x-ray some of the headlines on our national national dealies I will take a short break and when we return we'll go straight to our hot topics stay with us