 You're welcome back to the breakfast on Plus TV Africa. It's now time for Off The Press. And we have a joining us today, the publisher of the podium media, Mr. Adimola Akimola. Good morning. Yeah. Thank you for joining us. Thank you. Good morning to you. Thank you for your back to me. All right. Good morning. Let's begin our newspaper review this morning with the Daily Independent. The headline reads, despite court ruling, federal government insists on licensing Twitter, others threaten to suspend Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, others. Echo as court bars government from prosecuting Twitter and users. We'll hurry or case federal government team to dialogue with Twitter. Above the headline on the Daily Independent, leaking national assembly building roof disrupts plenary. NLC to shut down Kaduna again as negotiations break down. Oil revenue court orders federal government to pay rivers aqua above $3.3 billion. Buhari 6 approval, Buhari 6 Senate approval for 895.84 billion Naira supplementary budgets. N.Sas Detainee released with her baby from prison. Buhari raises committee to address poverty, establishes equity fund. Oil subsidy caught J.O.'s Farouk Lawan seven years for demanding $3 million bribe from Portedola. Senate to grow finance minister over federal government's economic recovery plan. Buratai appointed Nigeria's ambassador to Benna Republic. All right, now moving on to the Nigerian Tribune this morning. So we'll go and find out there you see. Lai Malami, Pantami, Fashalato engage with Twitter over a ban. Twitter promoting instability in acts of terrorism, federal government alleges. Echo Escort restrains federal government from prosecuting Nigerians for using Twitter. Also, the ABC of the 1963 Constitution. Buratedola dollars, court sentences, Farouk Lawan to seven years imprisonment. And also in the early arrest, doctor and ex-soldier for dealing in drugged cookies and cocaine. Troops intercept bandits and camouflage heading for Ibadan. And a court orders federal government to pay rivers, acquire $3.3 billion oil revenue. Two killed, 13 vehicles burnt in tanker explosion on a legacy by the Expressway. And of course, what we just spoke about this morning, National Assembly roof leaks during rainfall, lobby flooded. Unknown persons cuts and takes away seven-year-old boys' hands in Quara. And one or two others, Senate to investigate NIMC over 229 million hire contract. Last year, Kaduna labor crisis, NLC to embark on nationwide strike, direct affiliate unions, state councils to begin mobilization. All right, moving on now to the punch newspaper. The headline reads, federal government disobeys all law, flouts, workers, pension, remittance. 121,543 retirees have less than 550,000 Naira in their RSA balance, says PENCOM. XTUC president, Hesela says, payments shortfall, inflation, double stroke for workers. Mushroom can generate 16 million jobs, 1.8 trillion Naira revenue, according to growers. Ex-rep Nawaan, jailed seven years over a total as $500,000 bribe. Media chiefs say, Buhari was born again, diplomat, Buhari not born again, Democrat, I beg your pardon, wants to return degree four through Lyme, Muhammad. I don't know why I was about to say diplomat there. Twitter, once ban lifted, reps say suspension dictatorial ill-timed. NG says NPC, NBC bills not to moderate the criminalized journalism. Also on the punch news paper, Pay Rivers aqua bomb, $3 billion from recovered $62 billion Quartetails FG. Nine killed, 13 vehicles burned in Oguntanka explosion, a kitty crash. Female doctor, ex-soldier arrested for selling dropped cookies, cocaine, others. Foyer says, SFU police assorted our VC over invitation letter. Guests flee as hotel on covers murdered female companion. Detained under ENSA's protester release, baby Kristen holds today. All right, and now on the Guardian news papers. Twitter's operation illegal, despite Echo has caught ruling, federal government insists, threatens to suspend Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and others. Malami Fashallah lead federal government's allegation to engage Twitter. And also over 44 billion are lost as digital and brand marketers decry continued suspension. Echo at court stops the government from prosecuting citizens from using app. All right, also aqua bomb court orders federal government to pay Rivers and aqua bomb $3.3 billion oil revenue. Farouk Lawan jailed 19 years for $500,000 bribe. And president six approval for $895,000,000,000 supplementary budget. Governors too small to decide for Ndebo on Biafra. And on to die as tanker explodes on Lagos Ibadan Expressway. Good morning, once again to Demola Kingbola. And thanks for joining us. I want us to start with the relevance of the Echo was caught ruling. And of course, flow into the deliberations between the London government and Twitter. Thank you once again for having me at this one. Good morning. If you ask. I feel a bit sad to be called a Nigerian, really. The way this Twitter on pass as trans, the way it has gone on and on, it's shameful, really. It's really shameful because we shouldn't be found being involved in things like this in the 21st century. If it was to be a country like China or Russia or Korea, we probably won't understand, but not Nigeria, not a country that tells itself as a progressive democratic country. And if the Echo was caught as intervened, what exactly do we have to gain as a country in pro-tracking this Twitter issue? I very much believe that the president is being wrongly advised by Malami, who I dare to say as consistently displayed is class ignorance of the laws that guide democratic structures and democratic institutions. And the same thing with the minister of information, Adilai Mohamed, who I see as someone who is a bit arrogant professionally and who has consistently dragged the name of the nation into the mud on issues like this. In the first year stands, we shouldn't have gotten to a stage where the Echo was caught with the one adjudicated on an issue like this. It's something that we should have used common sense, we should have been able to resolve. But I haven't gotten to that stage and once the Echo was caught as intervened, we do not have any moral or legal justification for continue to hold on to this position that Twitter has to be registered. Okay, so by the time we register Twitter, what government is trying to do is to bring Twitter under the same law that guides TV stations in Nigeria so that Twitter can be subjected to censorship, which is not going to work. Okay, there's nothing that has been said on Twitter that it's not been said on Facebook that it's not been said on even the print media. So like I said last week, government should stop chasing the shadows. Let's see the real issues that are confronting us as a nation. So I would expect that this issue should end here. The Echo was caught as intervened and as a leading Echo was country, we should respect what the court has said at this point. Good thing that the government has put together a team to discuss with Twitter. And I sincerely hope we are not going to that meeting to dictate terms that are unreasonable that will continue to portray us as a country that is parkour in the 21st century. Unfortunately, lots of Nigerians are doing well out there in the diaspora and we are just ashamed with the way the country is carrying on this Twitter issue. We have more to lose. We have more to lose. People think that Twitter has more to lose. Maybe in financial terms, okay, Twitter may lose some ad revenue, may lose some other subscription, but in terms of reputation, Nigeria has a lot to lose. The collateral damage that this issue is doing and that it has cost on our brand, you can't even quantify what, you can't place a value on it. So for God's sake, let this madness stop. Let this arrogance stop. So Fashola, Malami, Pantami, Lai Mouamedi should go to that meeting with the mindset of reconciling. We've made a mistake. Let us not go there and dig deeper. We've made a mistake. Let us go there and appeal to Twitter. No country has ever won a media war, especially a social media war. You can't win it. You can't win it. All right, Mr. Iphone Mother, many more interesting stories we've seen on the papers this morning. Taking a look here at the Daily Independent Newspaper, we also see a threat by the Nigerian Liberal Congress, NLC, to shut down Kaduna again as negotiations breaks down. Remember the NLC strike, that really shut down Kaduna state. Lots of other unions' associations in the state, participated in the strike, the airports, the railway services, electricity. But they eventually decided to negotiate. But now NLC's president, Aiba Wabai, saying that the Kaduna state government has failed to basically honor the agreements that they reached in the MOU and that they're going back to the streets again. Do you think that NLC should have had a better approach to this? Because we spoke about this when we were calling off the strike, that it's just something that is temporary, that they will go back to the streets again. And that's what we're seeing now. How do you think labor unions can get a holistic response from the government? So like ASU, for example, now, that they're threatening to strike again because the federal government has renerged on the agreement. So make sure that they fulfill this, rather than call off the strike, go back to the streets again and continue that cycle. Maybe we should ask ourselves, why was the strike backed upon? Why did we allow it to get to that stage where there will be a strike? The weak government officials clear in Nigeria, the behave as if instrument of government is instrument of question. It's an instrument of blackmail. They carry on as if the organized labor should not have a say. Where there are external laws guiding a particular transaction, we should stick with the laws 100%. You do not shift the goalposts in the edit where the march is going on, okay? If you look at what's happening in Katuna State, it has also been due to the stubbornness of the state governor. Someone who believes that the executive of government has the final say in everything. I don't think labor woke up overnight and says we're going to go on strike. I mean, if you trace the history of what has been happening between labor and the state government, you'll see a lot of insincerity on the part of the government. You enter into an agreement, you do not feel that agreement. You do not respect the terms of the agreement. For God's sake, I mean, we are dealing with human beings, who are families, we are dealing with people who have stakes. There are also stakeholders in the entity called Nigeria. Why can't we just respect them? Why can't we respect the laws that guide the relationship? So on this, I stand with NLC, whatever it takes. Sometimes we accuse them of being excessive. We accuse them of holding out for too long. But in the issue of this country, tell me one thing that labor has gotten from going without fighting. Tell me one thing that government has willingly done for workers, without workers going on strike. In most cases, workers will have to beg, they will have to cajole government, they will have to threaten them before we do basic things, which I think is not right. Let's learn to respect agreement. So on this, I'm very much in tune with NLC. All right, and also now, let's talk corruption. Farouk Lawan, nine years later, has been sentenced to seven years in prison for the $500,000 bribe he received from FMIO to the line 2012. What's your reaction to that? It makes reaction really. One, I'm happy that this is happening. Two, I'm not happy that it took nine years. And I'm not happy that he's getting away with seven years, which at the end of the day, is going to end up being maybe three or four years, okay? But most people say, oh, thank God that he's even been persecuted, he's even been sent to jail. But if you remember what we said there last week, the anti-corruption laws need to be strengthened, need to be well implemented. The laws in a way reward corruption. So for nine years, the question is, where did all of nine years, all the main actors are in Nigeria. Farouk Lawan has been in Nigeria, Othila has been in Nigeria, all the information we need, all that was needed could have been got sentenced. So I'm happy that that's happened, but I'm not happy that he got a very large sentence, okay? $1,500 is a lot of money. One, then two, by virtue of his position, he was chairman of an ad hoc committee that was set up to look, okay? Circumstances surrounding forced subsidy fraud. And here you are collecting $1,500 bribe. I'm sure if he had been offered more, he wouldn't have accepted it. So for me, it is a good thing that this is happening, but I would have been happier if he had gotten a heavy sentence. We need to send very strong signals that we mean business. Seven years is a joke. It's a huge joke. Honestly, if you had gotten like 30 years, I think that would have scared a lot of people. Okay, well, can this be seen as a win in the anti-corruption battle for the current administration? Yes, it is a plus for this regime that this have been successfully concluded. But like I said last week, we want to see more of this. There are so many other cases that have dragged over the years. We want to see them to the logical conclusion. So I agree with you, yes. We should give government credit for getting this done. And we do use a percentage to call on them to do more because we can definitely do more. All right, so just related to that Twitter issue we discussed earlier on, on the front page of the Ponsonnier's paper, that story about media cheat, they had said that Buhari is not a born-again Democrat and that he wants to return decree four through Lai Muhammad. There's lots of talk about this. It's in all the papers as well. We know that in 1984, the president passed decree four. It was a protection against false accusations, decree. It was considered as one of the most repressive press laws ever enacted in Nigeria. So the saying basically that Buhari is just trying to introduce or reintroduce decree four under different guys using Lai Muhammad. The president is always comparing Nigeria to China where China, you don't exactly have freedom. So do you see some, maybe logic in what these people are saying? Yes, of course, decree four has been with us through the back door. I mean, remember, what the Buhari National Coalition of Nigeria has been doing, finding China's TV, threatening to shorten media houses. So what government is doing is basically trying to extend the decree four that has been brought back to the back door, extended to Twitter, extended to other areas, okay? And a repressive government usually regrets every act of repression, if not now, definitely years later, okay? 1984 to 2001, people have not forgotten decree four, they've not forgotten decree two, they've not forgotten the various oppressive tendencies of that government. So long after this regime would have ended, we would not forget in the early, all of this. And like the president said last week, is to be a posterity we judge him. Yes, of course, posterity will judge you because in the midst of the suffering and economic hardship that people are going through, repression is the last thing that you expect any sensible and sane government to do. This is the time for government to continuously use moral situations, to continuously use effective communication strategies to mobilize the people towards the achievement of its agenda. These are unnecessary distractions. These are things that government is fighting rights and left over the media. It's unnecessary, yes, please. Yeah, I was gonna ask, what do you know, effects this type of actions can have in Nigeria's near future? Like after this administration leaves in 2023, is there a way that institutions will be able to heal and we can maybe have a better sense of the Nigerians respect to the constitution and laws and some of all of that. Or is this going to be a way of government that will be repeated over and over seeing how this one has played out? Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely. What I see happening is what has happened in the country. If you remember under Bowery, we had Nigerian secret organization, NSO, headed by Malaji Rafindadi, okay? NSO has metapophiles over the years into SSS, into DSS, but it hasn't become friendlier in nature. It hasn't matured over the years. So when you destroy the foundation of social institutions, it takes decades and decades for those institutions to recover, okay? It has got to stick in Nigeria where people do not believe in the rule of law, because government itself does not believe in the rule of law. So it's going to take decades for us to recover from all of this. Look at Nigerian police. The way Nigerian police was used to suppress, to repress, to maltreat people on that Bowery is affiliated for. That is the way that Nigerian police is still behaving and that's what led to NSAS and all other problems we have in Nigerian police. So over the years, people managing this institution have come to believe that the only way to go is brutal force. They believe that the only way to go is for them to disrespect the human rights of the people. So to answer your question, this is going to be with us for a very long time because the government is setting a very dangerous precedent, okay? Whoever is coming in as my president will simply look at what Bowery did and say, look, absolutely, he did it and he got away with it. Why can't I do it? Don't forget that what we are seeing today, we saw part of it under president or passenger, okay? If you remember very well, he also did not respect the rule of law. He also took the laws into his hands and about the left government since when? In 2007, this is 2021 and this is happening to us. So in other 10, 15 years, this will still be there. And that's where we keep saying that we should invest in building institutions and not individuals, okay? We should strengthen the judiciary. We should strengthen the laws, governing the social contract between governments and the people so that whoever is managing any of the institutions would dare not go beyond this or a boundary to unveil all that we are seeing. It's shameful, honestly. I do not know, but I think Malame should be one of the worst performing ministers of the country that we've ever had in this country. Really, it's sad. An opportunity people like that have the years of the president. People like that have ended the trust of the president. And that's why we're in this mess. All right, Miss Akibola, turning out to look at another story we saw on the Nigerian Tribune and the punch as well. And it's also on the daily independence. So the story is basically saying that the court has ordered the federal governments to pay rivers and aquaibom $3.3 billion on the punch newspaper. It says, court tells AFG to pay rivers, aquaibom $3 billion from recovered $62 billion. So that's the story we're seeing here. And we know that from as far back as 2017, these states have been suing the federal government over oil revenue. And now they took the federal governmental court again and the court has swung the case in their favor, saying they need to be paid what they do, what they do, basically. Do you see the federal government obeying this order and why exactly this issue persists? The federal government has no reason not to obey this order. Okay, the least I expect government to do is to go to the Supreme Court, which is the ultimate arbiter in matters like this. And that's the virtue of democracy, okay? If government doesn't respect the decision of the court, it would be able to type, it would just be be given true to the reputation that it has earned over the years. And that would be quite unfortunate, okay? Once the court of law, a competent court of law has ruled on an issue, government should obey. Okay, we don't have time to go to the details of how we got here, but you remember, okay, that there are laws guiding each stage of transaction revenue and all of that. We have the concurrent list, we have the exclusivity, we have the decision list, and this clearly spurs out the rules and responsibilities of each and more government, okay? So if government is not satisfied with this ruling, yes, of course, the Supreme Court is there, let it go to Supreme Court, but what we would not like to happen is for government to obey this court order through executive lawlessness. Like I said, that early on, that would be certainly a very dangerous precedent. All right. So yes, of course, government should obey. All right, Mr. Akimbala, thank you so much for joining us this morning. We always enjoy your perspective and enjoy conversations with you. Have a great day. Thank you very much. All right, stay with us. We're gonna go on a short break when we come back. We're moving into today's history, telling you things that happened on this day many years ago.