 And good morning. Once again, thanks for joining us on the Breakfast here on Plus TV Africa. Let's go back a little bit in history to the year 1957 on the 12th of July. For, of course, in recent times, you know, a lot of people have celebrated the helicopters and the aircrafts that carried the presidents of the United States. I know that I've seen a couple of documentaries on these things also, but it was on this day on the 12th of July 1957 that Dwight D. Eisenhower became the first president to ride in the newest advanced aviation technology, which was the helicopter. Although, of course, experimental military helicopters had been tested since 1947, it was not until 10 years later that a president considered using the new machine for short official trips torn from the White House. He suggested the idea to the Secret Service, which approved of the new mode of transportation, seeing it as safer and more efficient than the traditional limousine motorcade. During his second term, he used the Bell UH-13J Sucs to fly to the presidential retreat at Camp David and to his farm also. So basically, this was the day it started, but there's some there's some parts of it that I want to also quickly share concerning this story. Yes, it was praised by other people. The Secret Service also enjoyed the fact that, yes, it was a more effective means of transporting the president to and fro. It also was safer based on the aviation records back then, since 1940s when they had started flying. But first of all, the aircraft was purchased with about $201,000 back then. And then also, it cost or it took the president only five minutes, you know, to move from the, where's it now, flying from the national airport to the White House took five minutes, but if it was going to be driving, it took 10 minutes. But here's the thing. While, you know, the president, Eisenhower, enjoyed all these privileges, there were still people who criticized the president for wasting taxpayers' money to save five minutes. So they basically were saying that, yes, he was trying to save time, but instead of, you know, him saving time is also also wasting taxpayers' money, you know, for his own little comfort. And I'm pointing that out because I want us to reflect back here in Nigeria to see the amount of wastage of government funds that we think of every day for reasons that are not even as important as moving the president. And yet, you know, nobody even bats an eyelid. Nobody cares. National Assembly doesn't care. Nobody, you know, bothers themselves. But for those five minutes that the president was able to save, moving from the airport to the White House, that was going to cost, you know, maybe a little bit more because he was using the helicopter, they were, people, the American public criticized the president for wasting taxpayers' money. I want us to always remember to have those things in mind when we hear about a renovation of the National Assembly that's going to cost billions of Naira, where we hear of the number of aircraft the Nigerian president still has, you know, in service, where we hear of the amount of money that it costs every state governor to move from one location to the other because they have to move in a convoy of about 15 to 16 vehicles, including armed, you know, policemen and an ambulance and whatever else and all of that. Every single day that they wake up and breathe and do their regular day-to-day activities, it's costing Nigerian taxpayers millions and millions and millions of Naira, and those are the things that we should imagine. And also the per diem and the number of aides that have to travel with a governor or with a president any time he has to go to the UK or go to some other country for some, you know, random flimsy thing. Whoo, interesting. Interesting, first sitting president to ever, you know, ride a helicopter. And yes, regarding that criticism about, you know, saving taxpayers' money, it was a whole story. It was a whole big thing. The White House Press Association did put out articles criticizing the president for this, you know, talking about how just because he wanted to save five minutes, you know, that he had to waste taxpayers' money. So yes, it does make sense when you look at it, you know, in light of what's happening in Nigeria, how they go on medical trips, all expenses paid, taxpayers' money, you know, just the contrast is just stuck in, you know, just I want everyone to look at, I just imagine what it costs every time that the state governor moves in Nigeria. And I'm talking about the cost with regard to petrol for all those SUVs, including the ones that security and police and those SUVs that will stay time and time again that they even kill people, cause accidents because they drive anyhow and just blow their sirens because they want to chase people off the road. So every time that the governor needs to move, they have to have that full convoy about 12 to 15 vehicles on the road, including the motorbikes, which always have to be, maybe it's part of security protocol. But how can you imagine how much it costs the state every time for four years that the governor moves around the state? That's an example of what we're talking about with regard to wastage of money. We're going to be bringing, one of the conversations we have this morning luckily is on Nigeria's their profile. And I'm hoping that we can get into, you know, talking about how the Nigerian politician himself, Nigerian state itself continues to waste money and has no plans, has never even, in any day imagined that maybe we should try to cut down on the amount of money it costs to run a government in Nigeria. No, no, no. The emphasis should be on borrowing or would be on borrowing from their perspective because Nigeria is poor and doesn't have enough resources. I mean, that's what Ahmed Lawan said some weeks ago. Moving on now to our next big story, going back in time. On this day in history, the 12th of July in 2012 was a very sad incident that occurred, a tanker explosion that cued, you know, tens and tens of people, over 100 people, confirmed dead and about 90 something, you know, non-fatal casualties in Okobi in River State, Nigeria. And what happened was that this tanker explosion occurred because this truck was trying to avoid hitting a car or two other cars and because of that it veered into a ditch. It spewed its contents into the ditch and Nigerians all ran, you know, it's not today that we've been hearing stories about Nigerians trying to scoop fuel from, you know, a tanker that fell, so they began to scoop fuel and somehow, someway, you know, a fire was triggered and it just cued over 100 people. It's just a very sad incident. Yes, 121. And that's according to statements from the Nigerian National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, the Federal Safety Commission of River State gave the same figures that 121 people died and that death toll was initially put at 95 but it was confirmed at 121. It's just a sad reminder of lots of things that are wrong with our country. First of all, the roads, bad roads was one, I mean, back then, let's have seen the road then in River State, how bad it was, you know, and how trying to avoid hitting another car, trying to avoid that collision, and then the mentality of our people, the poverty, because if those people were able to do, they won't be running to scoop fuel. It's just so sad that this is something that happened in 2012 and this year, last year, we're still here in cases about tanker fires and people getting burnt in the process. Yeah, so there is still that. I think, you know, with regards to these types of disasters, you know, and people are Nigerians making similar mistakes, you know, I think the biggest one that has been in record, I don't think there's anyone that has been bigger than that is the Jesse fire disaster that happened in Delta State in 1998. About 1078 people died on record and that was, you know, after I think it was a pipeline explosion or pipeline leakage, I believe, that people in worry in Jesse community went to, of course, once again, scoop petrol and then, of course, there was an explosion, a thousand people died on that day. It's still a national disaster, but the points to note are the fact that, you know, even in 2021, you will still see similar incidents, you will still see people rush into a tanker that falls on the road to scoop petrol or scoop crude oil, whatever it is, that it is carrying. So we still have those mistakes. We still haven't learned a lot of lessons. Poverty is still a major factor in some of all these things. Even if they know better, they should know better and I know that they know better of how dangerous it is, but you can't tell a hungry man not to try, at least, you know, some way that he can make some money or make some, you know, put food on the stable. But yeah, sad story in Nigeria's history, 2,200 plus people died. 121 people. 121. And of course, on this day also, in 1957, President Eisenhower took the very first helicopter ride as a president, you know, in the United States back then. That's all we have for you today. Stay with us. We're moving into our first conversation, first major conversation, Nick Agoule will be joining us to have a discussion on Nigeria's debt profile and where we might be headed with all these loans that we currently are taking and how we can, in any way, successfully pay back these loans. We'll be back.