 And we're back with the breakfast and plus TV Africa, Tunde Kola Wali legal practitioner joins us this morning via phone in Lagos. Tunde, it's good to have you join us. Good morning. Thank you for having me. Good morning. Yes, please. All right, let's start off with the punch this morning and we'll be looking at all the papers. The punch says please present at emefeli's Abuja home stairs controversy. Please present at emefeli's Abuja home stairs controversy. CBN governor expected to appear in court today over 53 million dollars judgment debts. Please deny arrest move. And DSS says deputy governor not quizzed. Is that the right as you find underneath the caption? Subsidy federal government borrowing to import fuel says minister Zainab Akimat quoted on that and one billion dollars spent to recover territories seized by terrorist president of the federal republic of Niger is quoted to say over 500,000 security personnel to man pulling boots for the elections. And just before we move away, national assembly to okay 22.7 trillion narrow debt restructuring on Tuesday. I'm sure you want to find out what that means, but Tunde Kola Wali will be right here to share his thoughts on that. Slain lawyer buried and cleric consoles family 13 billion narrow drugs. Military had were seized at Lagos airport. These are some of the headlines you find. And a new VC promises to make unilag solution center. There's also a pictorial representation you know to that conversation. Not on the nation. You have article plan sale of nation's asset to allies says to noble. So the back and forth continues. APC candidate urges choir to sustain political freedom was a dimmer remit to noble rally. Southeast women. You see that picture of you know the rally that took place in car in choir state and that's courtesy of the APC governor's to engage CBN on narrow redesign and Buhari Boko Haram sponsors aim was to split Nigeria. Don't behave like us who giga tells the new Konoa. Oh, well, I know who and succumbed to security threats. It's also another caption you find this morning on the nation. And well, we're still at it. Another one says while we upgraded upgraded what ally it ally a day college diversity. China's population drops by 850,000 in latest survey or the writers you find this morning on that paper. Now we have this day newspaper ECW a president church will announce presidential choice soon. And I think I read you know some comment and tweet where someone's saying, Hey, why has the church not taken, you know, position or religious organization taking a position as to who they are supporting and who they're not supporting, you know, for the elections. Northern Christians already settled for articles says do gara and Muslim Muslim ticket recipe for disaster former vice president want in a kitty PDP candidate promises to patronize and prioritize human development. Inaq Hills echo as commission over dialogue with parties ahead of the elections. Inaq will hold election despite attacks on facilities. Um, I'm would ya Kubu is saying federal government Nigeria has enough external reserve to withstand global recession and shocks. It's also interesting to note and some people say this is really good because you know, just maybe we're probably might be facing another recession and cash withdrawal limit bank suspend transaction via naira credit and prepaid cards. Senate gives minister three day ultimatum to submit 23.7 trillion naira ways and means details. And, uh, moharri receive a word for strengthening peace in Africa. That's a picture to that effect, you know, the bottom part of the page or the front page of the newspaper, this day newspaper, you find that picture on the president receiving that peace award. But the Guardian is what we will be paying attention to you on easy calm at CBN as officials grapple with integrity issues. CBN DSS downplay dismiss a method is saga as speculative officials not in DSS custody apex bang and sis. Now, just before we move away from the Guardian this morning and make way for Tunde Kola will be to share his thoughts. CNPP asked to nubu article to withdraw from presidential race for alleged misdeeds. Senate demands details of 23.7 trillion naira CBN facility to the federal government. Crisis in Abia PDP over, uh, Econus absence will soon name or prefect presidential candidate we can declares. Now, these are some of the issues you find this morning in 2023. We're ready. I know chair, uh, Yacuba insist at Chatham house. Now, these are some of the, uh, headlines you find this morning on the Guardian newspaper. Let's quickly have our guest shows thoughts to the color. Well, many thanks for being with us. All right. So quickly, uh, let's start off with the punch newspaper. The punch talks about, uh, police presence at MF li's home in a Booja that has said a lot of controversy. But according to the reports, the police is saying they are there to ensure that MF li does not escape because he has to be caught today. How do you, um, you know, react to this? So I say, uh, let's take a look at the punch. The punch talks about please present at a MF li's home, which has said controversy. Now, according to the police, the police is saying we're not there to arrest, but we're only there to ensure that he does not escape. He has to be caught today to, you know, answer to some, uh, issues. Honestly speaking, I'm of the opinion that, um, the massive deployment of, uh, the police to miss a little in a Booja and like we had earlier on the red before also to the CDN is caught in a Booja is ill and died. That kind of post on him, uh, will be sending the wrong signal, not just to my dear ones, but to the rest of the world, the international community. I have always said and advocated that when people, when public officials and individuals, even musicians who have been bringing a lot of revenue to the country are involved in, uh, issues for the government or the security agencies want to investigate them. First investigations will be done very quickly, until they have reached a turning point until they probably nearly completed the, the, the investigation before you can know when go and affect the rest of the person. Eventually he's at the heart of the Nigerian nation as a CDN, uh, governor. So when the international community and even the local community begin to see the, the CDN governor being, uh, a lot of massive police, the, the mass media, the mass media deployed to his office, to his public and aura. He's, uh, created kind of a panic and make the community lose confidence, not just, um, in our quality, but also with regard to the situation that is happening in Nigeria. Uh, if you say you want to just provide protection for much of the issues around his home and order, there are more discreet ways by which this is, uh, uh, can be done. In my case, he's the character of a checkup in the police. For example, he's the police, uh, of a security man. It was a very, very, very good. In fact, on the value of the British fans, telling us to also our Naira, the deployment of mass media and your police men, mass, you know, the, you know, who have consequential, uh, implication on the value of the Naira. And that is why I think no matter what infection he may fill in me out, uh, he may fill in me out the heart. Uh, he, the one or two, he будут have done better for the security people to undo the investigation of this matter in a very, very discreet manner. Well, but do you think this has any political undertone, maybe, uh, some people would say that, uh, an interference from the executive of government? Well, we've been hearing that there's been a lot of discordant news in the media. Some people have a name that the harassment of mentally started political undertone. Some are also the opinion that if a certain person who wants to, who wants him removed and the federal government that is behind it, what I want to say with all sense of responsibility that whatever problem they may be having today could be said to be self-inflicted. Why do I say it's self-inflicted? Here is a seasoned civilian governor who has been romancing and dancing with the politicians. It was also a ledger to pursue a private life that decided to contest the primary of the SIFI presidential aspirant. So the SIFI young governor, for the time being, is not opposed to fraternizing politicians and is not opposed to having any dealings with the police. So when you begin to stick out your neck to want to go as far as contesting, I mean contesting the presidential primary of a particular political party, are you even going to go to stick out another to restrain the security who are not from disturbing you, from contesting the presidential primary of the APC, then you are causing problems for yourself. You are causing disturbance. You are throwing the party, the politicians in the different parties who not wanting to talk. So that is the reason why I say whatever is happening today can be said to be self-inflicted. He is supposed to be aloof. He is supposed not to fraternize. He is supposed not to be seen around any political activity in the country today in the interest of the nation and the interest of the value of denier. Alright, let's see you are looking at the punch this morning. There is also another headline that we cannot move away from. It talks about sometimes federal government bores to fund, bores fund to buy petrol as the economy continues to subsidize, talking about subsidy bills. The minister had come out to say that at some point we borrow to impot fail. Do you think that this is a rational thing, an action? The country is in the West Maya. We are between the devil and the deep blue sea. Why do I say this? When we have all the opportunities in the world, when there was any lack of money from the sales of a food well in the international community, we thought that we could even go to that period of time that the money is not a major problem for us to spend. We also have diversified the economy. We have diversified the economy in so many areas, high trade, agriculture, manufacturing and war. We probably will not find ourselves in a kind of challenge or problem that we find ourselves in today in which the international community is no longer desired of using food for our petroleum products as they used to do. Every nation has its best electrical and solar energy and all those other energies don't exist. They are the only ones that doesn't affect the atmospheric temperature. So with that in mind, the demand for petroleum products in the international community is greatly because people are investing in energy. Furthermore, the crisis in the Niger data is not as big as it is today. Oil is being stolen in the market today. Where it is not being stolen, the so-called Niger data minister is making it difficult for the international community to operate. Also, you have very past interests for birds of bees and what have you. Who want to have a take in the style of the mission that is the oil and resources. All of them in a way, just to say, as it has been reported, at almost $0.7% even though $0.5% of the fuel that Nigerian producers have been stolen and then stolen in the international market. So with that to find out in the resources of the nation, when the money is earned internationally, the revenue that is generated internationally are lost. It begins to cling to. And then you also have massive, massive consumption of petroleum and oil. And you also don't have a single refinery. Finally, talking about the capacity and order, the government will have no services. But then it has to begin to move the idea of withdrawing of revenue of withdrawing the petroleum and oil. Yes, in the refineries, we have to be working as a way so that they should be working. This oil has to be sent here, as it used to do in the international market. And this oil theft in Niger data is not of the massive care as it is today. Nigerians cannot find itself in the kind of challenges that they can find themselves in. But let me say this. Let me say this message. All right, go ahead. If you have something to do, never have any mission. Who will do your research? The most mission that something has to do with you whether it's from agricultural, whether it's from personal resources, whether it's from housing and all that. So it's a very massive, massive upriver and then the whole country can do that. So I will not exaggerate the fact that when they do, the problem might be or the problem might be facing is gross, gross property on the monumental scale and then total achievement on the rest all over the country. Because as it is today, inflation is almost at 60% and then the employment is almost at 30%. And then the food security of the nation will be in your country. Oh well, Kola Wale, are we dealing with an issue of diversification? Because I mean, you have mentioned that we have a diversified economy but the economy is diversified. The challenge here is, you know, translating whatever it is that we have to reality, to results and that's what it is. The economic opportunities, the resources that we have, translating it into tangible results that would at the end of the day impact the entire nation. So will we still say that, you know, the problem that we're grappling with is diversification because the economy has been diversified? You know, I disagree with you. If you're going to be talking about the diversification of the economy, you have to look at it from a different perspective. If you're going to have a nation to be able to produce all the food that the citizens require to reach on a daily basis, the answer is no. In a country like China and India there are massive, massive populations over one billion people and they don't defend as much as we do on the protection of their food items. If somebody informs them even they have not been able to verify that that if there were to be war in India to say that the India people always are, always half at any particular point in time through storage, they will last them for six months with their families are able to produce anything and if they were to be engaged in the war with any country of the nation, can Nigeria say the same thing? Actually almost all the food that we consume in this country especially things like rice and even yam and meat they are all being imported from different parts of the world. That will not be if you have diversified the economy. Also look at the IT. Most of the IT producers that we consume in this country most of the software that our banks and other institutions use in their respective offices they are imported from India, they are imported from China and then from the U.S. Whereas in Zoom, our children are very, very good in IT. All we need to do is to develop these children and as you develop some of these children you can pick the best students in the university, in the polytechnic and what are they and second this group who are good in mathematics, who are good in science they are brought to some of the Ivy League universities and they train them educate them on the software development on IT and some of these other areas are not and then you bring them, bond them let them sign an agreement that they work for the country, for the scholarship and give them to a certain number of years and then throw them into the economy when they are able to develop that was what we did and then again look at them assuming of arms and ammunition but you are engaging so how do we explain the fact that you know the non-oil sector as a 2020, I mean we just started in 2023 contributed 94 points 34% to the nation's GDP and that's a lot 93 94% I don't know where you go it's in the public domain I I can I'll tell you that sometimes statistics do lie but sometimes people do lie in statistics why do I say that it's the money that continues from the total for the rest of the country to be 100 dollars before and then because of the challenges in that sector it's up to about 20 dollars the non-oil sector will appear to have increased will appear to have maybe outperformed the petroleum sector as long as you are leading the studies on that perspective are lost one is not in 2020 no, no, no, no, but ColorWallet, I think that we need to move away because if you I understand where you're coming from to the ColorWallet but if we need to be realistic let's look at the oil sector and in that particular report the oil sector contributed about let's say 5.66% when you juxtapose that to 94.34% so maybe the problem is because the oil sector is already failing we're not doing so well if we say that oil is where we earn a lot but how far has it contributed in the last year that precedes 2023 so that's the question that if we talk about the issue of diversification just maybe we have diversified the economy but we've not been able to translate it into reality develop it, maybe that's where we should channel our attention to and the conversation should be about developing and ensuring that these sectors are contributing to the nation's economy not solely because we're not totally dependent on all earnings anymore that's the conversation as much as it feels like that's where we're dependent on for all of the revenues that we're getting and generating but it's quite different and you want to agree with me to some extent you are right from my own understanding of economics and the developmental issues if you are talking about the performance of any sector of the economy it should be a measurable thing I give you an example and we are going to produce for example that will require that we eat in this country if we produce enough right at the time we shut down the border at the time the sector has formed a lot of money through the TVA so they have to borrow the program at the time some of the dams they are wanting to perform the dams so that can be closed in the past and all that the federal government is telling them to open it for the dam so that they will be able to irrigate the farmland for the farm also remember that people with all these investments that the federal government has made it's difficult for any farmer to go to the farm now because of kidnapping because of banditry and that has had this damage for the investment the federal government has made that the federal government has made and because of that we are unable to miss our food and needs of the nation I will give you one example which of our industry in this country today is producing up to the last party the big area in which is in the cement sector and not still here in the constructionary sector and the field for this is not perfect most of the raw material that we need to produce here is a lot of and also good things in this country it is only the quality and the flavor that we require so look at the textile sector colorally let's move on to other issues I totally get your point this morning where you are coming from but we also cannot take out the fact that whether we are not meeting the capacity of production in different sector however there is still some effort that is being made on this day newspaper the caption talks about the elections if I am not mistaken let's quickly look at the elections and thoughts and you have a Mephili saying I beg your pardon not a Mephili now Mahmood Yokubu is saying that INEC will hold election despite attacks on facility and you know that for the past days and months there has been several attacks on the offices of INEC across the nation do you think that this is a true statement do you believe in the statement and assurance from the electoral empire himself it is good to be optimistic if I were in Mahmood to position myself how do you call it the same thing but there are a lot of threats to the holding of the Twitter and the TV election even though it is just a few weeks away you and I will remember that even in the western and that even in the southwest of Nigeria there has been attempt to bomb them INEC offices INEC facilities have been attacked also in the southeast we also remember that several and several times INEC offices have been bombed and their properties are coming and also when you go to the northern part of the country especially the north part of the country but the northern part of the country has not been updated even not too long ago in those days which appeared to be relatively peaceful in the recent times people went in there and they did not threaten to I think use the train for one part of the country to the other all these are indicated that everything is nowhere with Nigeria and there are a lot of challenges to holding these elections come February this year more importantly very very importantly too Nigeria can be said I mean with zero effect look at the front page of the paper they are talking about Ketulin Killion debt and then the Senate is also asking but they want the federal government to come and explain how they intend to manage the that they want to also embark upon so firmly if a challenge for this election and also securities the challenge for this election because there are so many nationalities who will not want this election to hold the behavior of the politicians themselves is not helping matters there is one more thing and also drumbeat of war despite the fact that they have all been made to sign a peace agreement to sign a peace agreement to conduct this very very peaceful manner but have they been doing that the answer is no there is a problem about the places but like I said to the color we have no option other than to hold that election of course there are other acts if you think that there is any substance to all of these threats because there can just be threats but are there really substance to it do you think that the elections will not hold you have already said that the elections will hold that's on the one side because I want you to juxtapose that with the fact that the church is saying they will soon announce their presidential choice do you think that there is a problem with that especially at the time where we are saying hey we need to just go the Nigerian way we need to meet together and not talk about religion and tribe but can we take out religion and you know ethnicity out of our politics and election there is nowhere in the world where ethnicity and religion has ever been taken out of elections completely I give you an example the last election that was conducted in the US last year when the vision won the elections and all that most of the blacks in the US majority of the blacks in the US and then in the Spanish and Indian voted for vision they didn't vote for the Republican candidate simply because they are not too comfortable with the attitudes of the Republican immigration issues and all that for me that is ethnicity also do you find out that even in the US and in Britain for example it is a country that is set to be one quarter on the principles of religion and both in most times and all the times and all that certain people would prefer certain candidates who belong to the religious views or denomination as you see sometimes in a place like India so if the developed countries of the world for more than 400 years are still facing the challenges of ethnicity and religion I'm not too sure that we as Nigerians can reach out the way we can only manage it and the way to manage it by is what I mean is in protest by so many people and that is why some people are not too comfortable with either a Christian-Christian ticket or a Muslim-Muslim ticket politicians opt to be sensitive to the religious issues as not to disabilize the peace of the country or to leave any room for suspicion whatsoever as regards the the weekend man and the Z5C man not a honest-less figure I am surprised that the weekend has not seated the force up in that the elections are just a few weeks away and the Z5C must be announced to their presidential candidates or whatever presidential candidates they are likely to support in fact I have seen that the announcement of the Z5C is beginning to crumble why is this crumbling? in Makine for example the information that we are getting from the group is that in Makine I have said that they should vote for a people at the last rally that they had in Mapo and even when they didn't say that most of the people that attended that rally were hard and were seen to be shouting that is to say if in Makine or the governor of Russia for example even support at the president chances are that that is also going to affect his governor's election on this February 2003 you also find out that the governor of Isidatamawa or what are also going back to the article camp so for me I call out Wale that we cannot come back to the phone and support at the president and campaign especially with the effort that the northern areas are making to the governor so the question that has been on the minds of a lot of Nigerians is why has we cannot left the people's democratic party we see that as a practice that is common among a lot of peasants when you feel dissatisfied with the system then you move away not necessarily because the interest of the party is at it but still staying within the party and putting out all of these actions and move as what is very surprising to a lot of peasants but we don't have time just in less than a second I would like to share your thoughts on this the statement from Chris Ngige to Konwa like ASU that's what Ngige told Konwa on this list speaking we appear to be a nation that is never conscious of history people of my age will remember that when Obatunde was empowered in the United States and during the time of Obatunde there were so many unions all over the country thought that this time there was a strike each time there were challenges it was always difficult for the federal government for the local government to know what union to oppose and to talk to and to know what union to say please call on this strike and go back to war it was based on the numerous trade union that we had all over the country but when that happened the streamline the trade union and then with this so that they were just one solid one strong labor house that they can always approach and talk to anytime there are challenges the polition of union does not help but help so if you think it was to be alive to that aspect of our history or if the second woman was to remember that is part of our history they will remember that it is not in the best they are best in trade so talk promoting another trade union we have to go this is the point where we have to go thank you so much we have to go about one would want to begin to ask whether this is also the impact or the effect of taking out history from our curriculum would it affect those of your age I'm sure you had gone through history class and that's why you know this but we say that that's also the implication but I will come back to that conversation some other time thank you so much Kola Walee for being part of this thank Kola Walee we wish you the same thank you so much to the Kola Walee is a legal practitioner he joined us via phone this morning to bring great insight on the papers this morning right here in Lagos we take a break when we return we will be looking at another issue we are looking at the issue of labour group asking the government to stop fuel subsidy and importation stay with us