 Rebaidu tells EFCC to block funding of terrorism, kidnapping and banditry. A very good morning to you, you're welcome to the breakfast on PLOS TV Africa. My name is Rimeh Paul Singh. And my name is Nyam Ghul Agad, you don't forget we are also going to bring you what the papers are saying this morning, on the honor of the press. We welcome you to a bright and beautiful Thursday morning. The 21st of December. OK, so it's going to be a very important, very interesting day on the show this morning, especially as the federal government has said that today there are going to be some things that will happen if you intend to travel to your villages. OK, there's a lot to talk about that later on. So let's just keep our fingers crossed, but we're glad that you were able to join us today. That's right. OK, we'll go to our top trending. I think just take the top trending. Let's see, what is it that that's happening today in Nigeria? OK, so our first top trending today is federal government slashes public transport fair by 50 percent. The federal government of Nigeria on Wednesday said it is slashed public transport fairs for Nigerians by 50 percent. Well, this was disclosed by the Minister of Solid Minerals Dili Alake during a press conference on the presidential intervention in public transportation to celebrate the Yotai season in Abuja, the nation's capital. According to Alake, the intervention will come in on Thursday, which is today, December 21 and end on January 4, 2024. However, the minister said air travel was excluded from the initiative because the initiative was targeted at the masses. He noted that President Balatini will approve the gesture in the demonstration of his love for Nigerians, adding that the move allows Nigerians who want to travel to visit their loved ones and hometowns to do so without stress. And the extra burden imposed by the high cost of transportation around this period. Alake stated that the president, Tinnable, has directed the Police Department of State Services, DSS, the military and other security agencies to work collaboratively to ensure the holiday period is safe without any security breach in any part of the country. That is amazing. I mean, I love it. I can see your face here. I'm already I love it. I think it's a good initiative. It's nice that they're thinking for Nigerians. And we know the high cost of transportation in this time. I mean, moving somewhere to my state will cost you almost 20,000 are just to go and coming back another 20. So that's 40 K. But that is good that, you know, prices have been slashed. However, this is where, you know, you get dicey. This is for the the federal government bosses and trains. Oh, so OK, another thing we did not take here is that, you know, trains are like at zero cost, which is great. But how are the masses supposed to access this? That's the question, because most times everyone is moving on public transport that is, you know, made by private people. So your normal boss guy on the street, that's how people are moving. But how are we supposed to access this one? Because I'm sure they're talking about the federal government transport system. Yeah, now you can speak. I'm just looking at you and say, oh, this is a positive Nigeria. I think it's a scam. That's a personal view. I think it's a scam. And then what do they mean by saying the policy was the move was targeted at the masses, masses don't travel by air. So they have segregated, they have now had two groups. They the masses that can go on the road and the trains. And I don't know what they call themselves, the people that can go on on air. No, those are the privileged masses, privileged masses. So we all don't deserve that. I wonder what happens to the people or what happens to the people who decide to stay back here in Lagos? There are people I have a neighbor who usually went home every weekend to meet his family because the family is in Badagri. Now he stays somewhere here within the heart of Lagos. And then he for the past how many months he's not been able to go. He goes there once in a month instead of once every week because of that. So now even within Lagos is a distant relationship. If your family is far from where you're staying. So what happens to those people? Why were they not considered as well? OK, I'm also asking the question like one of the NLC head of information said, he said, government is killing a cow with its mouth. And we Nigerians are eating it with our ears. It's just it's just all they're hearing it. So after this show, I'm going to go to some parks to see what is really happening if it is happening at all. Why didn't they give us the names of the various companies? Surely it cannot be every company in Nigeria that is operating a luxury bus. They also said if we read further, we could have seen where they said that we're going to be doing one trip per day, one trip of how many buses. So if I have a hundred buses in my fleet and I'm doing one trip, am I doing one trip of the hundred buses or am I doing one trip of one of the buses and the rest are at the mercy of whatever is in charge? They didn't clarify all that. Then someone asked Delia Lucky, what is the cost? Because this clearly wasn't budgeted for nothing like this. So what subhead is it coming from? So what is the cost of these palliatives? Because they're still calling it palliatives. And he said the cost doesn't matter because when when you're thinking about the masses and what is good for the masses, the cost doesn't matter. Really? The cost doesn't matter. What in the first place was it that made life so unbearable and the the transportation goes so high? Why didn't you at that period say, OK, this palliative will be on fuel, for instance, you go to every filling station instead of buying for 600 Naira, you're buying for 200 Naira. That way, the people within town can move easily. The people who are traveling far. So it cuts across. Yes, you don't need to slash the transportation. So how do we get to know who really carried the people that needs? They say they have ticketing system. What if the boss that I claim that I carry people for half the price did not go at all? But I'm just giving you the ticket. So what's the what is what is the monitoring like? All these questions, they didn't answer. So I don't even know what what I will say. But I think it has come because at the end of the day will be given an amount of money that we cannot even imagine. And this is our money, money that could have been used for a lot of other things. And you're telling us that some OK, they said what worried me also was the fact that, yes, you want the masses to travel, but no mention was made of security on the road. So they had said they were speaking to the military, the DSS, you know, everyone they were speaking to. They should never show them because bandits are also listening. They are the ones who kidnap people. Even from trains that you've made the trains at zero cost. See, every train is going to have X, Y, Z, even if it's not true, but let them get to know that you say you are talking to them. Today is Thursday, so the movement has to start today. OK, so you didn't say anything about that. They the security, the definite security statement that I had from the Lealache was the fact that they had to make it 50 percent so that it's not everybody that can travel. What kind of security arrangements is that? So for me, I don't know about other Nigerians. I think it's a scam. Yes, some people will enjoy that. But where do I need to go? Do I need to go to ABC? Do I need to go to PISMAS? Do I need to go? These people, these transport companies are known. They should have given us a list of the people that they talked to. So some people in some other places are claiming that they've not had that directive. So how do we know who is who? How do you even know where to go? Yeah, right. So if if I go to a place and they say they haven't had that directive and they carry me for the hundred percent this thing, I can't even report them because they are not on the list. I don't know. You don't know what the list is. I don't know what the list is. And then you're saying foot of December, which means if I go home, if I take leave now to travel for the January. Yeah, for one month, I will have to cut it if I want to enjoy. Yes. So I I think for me, I'm trying to be hopeful here. I'm a hopeful. Yeah, we were talking and I was like, is this sarcastic or is she being real? No, I'm trying to be hopeful. But my problem here is one, the list, because we don't know where to go to to be able to enjoy these affordable prices. And two, I feel like it doesn't cut across everyone because the guy on the street, if I go outside now and I want to take a bus, it's not going to say a federal government that said what like, I will be speaking gibberish to him. It would say, give me my money, like that kind of thing. So at the end of the day, if you want to do something like this, you should be able to do something that cuts across everyone. So everyone can enjoy. This is a Christmas day. They even promised us by now we were expecting that it will have these buses, even though a hundred buses will not even be enough for electric buses. Lagos state alone, a hundred buses will not be enough. The other day, the governor of Lagos was saying federal government has graciously said they were going to support us with some buses, then we will look for about a thousand to add. So the state will look for like a thousand. You're giving us maybe 50. Then we'll use a thousand to add from the federal government, you know. Well, there's a lot to do. But I mean, if this is true and it's not a scam, as young people have said, it is a scam. We hope that everyone can help and take us. But we don't know how much is going into that. It might be even more than if they had said, OK, let's let's bring back one month's subsidy in fuel because you would have benefited. I would have benefited. I'm not traveling. I would have benefited. A lot of things would have come down because of that one month thing. I mean, for the Christmas season, enjoy this because they're saying it's from the love of the precedence. If I even travel home, what will the Christmas be like? Will I even have the means to make it merry enough? I don't have imagine traveling and then you still get there and fuel is six hundred or something. And there's no light because I've not had life for about two days. And then heat is wiring you. Come on. You call your uncle like or you be like transport. You go help me, you know. You went home and people are saying, yeah, this one that is staying in Lagos and he has to come with all of the money. Anyways, let's move over to our next up trending story. This one is Tinibu Submits List of SC Justices to Nigerian Senate for Confirmation. President Ballotini was transmitted the list. Well, to the Nigerian Senate recently, the list of 11 new Supreme Court justices cleared by the National Judicial Council and JC so that the legislators can screen and confirm the judges. The National Judicial Council and JC on December 6 recommended the appointment of 11 justices to the Supreme Court, a statement by the Apex Court Director of Information, Soji Oye, said the recommendation was made at the 104th meeting of the council in Abuja on Wednesday. With this appointment, the Apex Court will have the full complete complement of 21 justices as envisaged by the Constitution. Those recommended for the appointment for the Supreme Court are we have Honorable Justice Jumae Anatu, Sanky OFR, Honorable Justice Chideburi Waoma Ua, Honorable Justice Chiyoma Egundu Wonsuhime, Honorable Justice Haruna Simon Samani, Honorable Justice Moura Asiemu A Adrumeng, Honorable Justice Obande Festos Ogwinaya, Honorable Justice Steven Juna Adda, Honorable Justice Habib Adewale O Abiru, Honorable Justice Jamilu Yamana, Tukru, Honorable Justice Abubaka Sadiq Umar, Honorable Justice Mohammed Baba Idris. So those are the 11 justices that their names have been submitted. Yeah, I'm glad that the manpower in the courts will be as good as it should be. Even though I still think that there should be more than that. We have so many cases and we are short of manpower. Especially with all of the... We don't know, I think it's only lawyers and all that are not jack-buying professionally. They are living, but maybe not to go and practice law. Law is a must. You have a professional course like medicine, even engineering or tech, especially you just live because of your profession and all that. But my worry always is, why does it always have to pass through the table of the president? What business does he have with the judiciary? You make your recommendations, these people are qualified to do that. And then, why do you have to pass the lease through the president? I think there's some undue influence on professional bodies that should be autonomous. That's my only worry. So they recommend it. The NJC, which is supposed to be a body that knows that these are people and that we know they can do the job. They recommend it and it's also subject to the approval by the president. And it doesn't make sense to me, but I don't know how that works. If judiciary really has the independence that they're saying that they have, I don't know why, I don't see why it should pass through the table of the president. Yeah, because I think most times, the way Nigeria works, there's a lot of influence and connection. So even if, you know, it's been passed to the president, I think I'm going to be like, I have someone else on my mind. It's very possible. Even though they don't say no, it doesn't happen. So I think that's the reason why they need to be able to recommend their people and it doesn't have to go through the president. But anyways, I hope they can do the work. That's the priority. They come and do the job. Because we have a lot of court cases flying. With the whole election period, everyone is going to court, so hopefully they can do the job. And I don't know, are the courts really important nowadays anymore? Because if what is happening in the river state is allowed to stand, I think we're heading to a banana republic. How can a court of competent jurisdiction make a pronouncement and say XYZ is the speaker? Let me use that instance. And then you go to the president and they discuss and then they resolve that they should put aside, set aside the court judgment and do what has been decided in a meeting. Who does that? In a place where the rule of law should thrive. You cannot say that. Upturn that in a Supreme Court, bring whatever evidence, or withdraw that thing, whatever it is. But not just a proclamation. It has been pronounced and then you come and say, because we have discussed, set aside the court judgment. So I think it's a slap on democracy, it's a slap on the rule of law, which anyway is not really functioning in Nigeria, but at least do it in subterfuge. It's not like you have to put it in our face like I have the power to do this. The court says one thing and I do another thing. It's an insult to the collective sensibilities. And then even the credibility of the court now is hanging in a balance. Whatever you say, you can... Our guest yesterday was saying that sometimes people just go to courts, get judgements that will favor them and it may not even be important enough. It may not even hold water. So people begin to see the courts like that. Then what's the hope for the common man? I think what's happening in reverse should never happen. It should never happen. Alright, so our final top trending. NCC orders telecom operators to bar unlinked SIMs. The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCCS director telecommunications operators to implement full blockage of all subscribers identification module SIM cards, not linked to national identification numbers NINs by February 28, 2024. The operators including MTN, ETL, GlobalCom, Nine Mobile, among others have been lettered to carry out the exercise as directed. As of August, well 2023, the telecoms operators had 220 million subscriptions of which MTN had 85 million, GLOW 61 million, ETL 60 million and Nine Mobile 13 million. The mandatory NIN SIM linkage exercise began in December 2020 as directed by the federal government. The telecoms operators have already lost over 20 million subscriptions as some subscribers abandoned their lines. However, operators with several promo packages including free airtime incentives recovered some lines as more Nigerians registered for NIN. However, findings show that about 10 million are yet to be recovered. The new directive mined costs operators more subscriptions. In a letter to its shareholders and made available to journalists, MTN disclosed that it received a formal directive from the NCC to implement full network barring on all phone lines for which the subscribers have not submitted their NINs as well as those whose NINs are unverified. MTN said this was part of an industry-wide directive that requires phone lines for which the subscribers have not submitted their NINs to be bad on or before February 28, 2024. The firm explained that NINs have been submitted but not verified. Such lines are to be bad on or before March 20, 2024 where five or more lines are linked to an unverified NIN. Similarly, it disclosed that where less than five lines are linked to an unverified NIN, such lines are to be bad on or before April 15, 2024. The telecommunications firm explained that this is a follow-up to the NCC's directive on April 4, 2022 requiring operators to restrict outgoing lines one-way barring for subscribers whose lines are not associated with NINs. MTN said it is further engaging the effective subscribers through all channels to encourage them to submit their NINs for verification. Reacting, the Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria, Outurn, has appealed to telephone users in the country not to wait till the last minute. The telecoms buddy appealed to the subscribers to enroll for NINs or submit their NINs through the appropriate channel advertised by members to avoid full suspension of services by the set deadlines. Oh, well, I... Has that happened to you before? Like, you did not link your NIN and then you find out you're trying to make a call? Or sometimes you even link your NIN and then you're trying to make a call and you find out that your number is bad but then you have to go to your operator to link it again. My experience about this NIN linking and all that is the fact that I wasn't leave at the time that we were saying we need to link our phone lines to NIN and I spent my entire leave trying to get my number linked. It was that crazy. You go to the place, the network is down. Yes, the most times. They don't have the infrastructure to do this and I don't know why it hasn't been a continuous thing. Why is it at this time we're still talking about linking numbers to NIN? But my concern is this is supposed to be a security issue. Like, you link it, we can always find you and all that. Crimes are still being perpetrated all this while. How have they used the linkage of this NIN to any security situation that they have been able to to arrest? So talking about this NIN, fine, I understand that the federal government, they're trying to gather data. But what are you doing with this data? First, you came with BVN, then you came with NIN, like every single time they just sleep and wake up and there's like something else needs to be done and Nigerians are moving to go get that stuff because, for instance, the NIN now, you need to link your NIN to your phones, you need to... I wanted to renew my passport. You would not believe that it took me almost two months because I had... My middle name wasn't in my NIN and so I needed to be able to have the NIN to renew my passport. Now, because my middle name wasn't there, I can't renew my passport. Guess what? NIN's portal was down for over one month. Every time I go there, the portal is down. In fact, one of our colleagues here had already told me, prepare your mind, because that portal, every two business days, it is down. So you're telling us to go link our phones or do whatever we want to do, but then you don't even have the right technology to ensure that we can do it swiftly, smoothly at ease. People are going, they're rushing to get this thing done and it's futile and frustrating. Because the question is, have the infrastructure developed, have they improved better than when we were facing all this? Because, trust me, when it gets to January and people begin to go there, even though a lot of people have linked their numbers to NIN, you'll still find out that it will be crashing. Because when there was cash crunch, the same lack of infrastructure made it impossible for people to do anything that they want to do. Right now, we have another cash crunch. I don't know why that is happening. At least at that time, people were rushing to get the new notes and all that. Now, the old notes and the new notes are supposed to exist together. They're still cash crunch. They are money touts now, like you have in the parks, you have the agrarians, we have the financial agrarians now. They're upping their POS charges and all that. So the infrastructure is not there. You want to make it transfer. It is not going. You want to receive your charge exorbitantly. Everything that happens here. And you just ask yourself, what happens to my pillow? Can I just not put my money in my pillow and all that? Or maybe go back to the old times where you dig somewhere in your compound and you bury your money there. And this may not be related, but the banks need to sit up. That's not exactly what we're saying. The banks need to sit up. Sometimes you go make a complaint that there are illegal withdrawals on my account and the banks just sit and look at you when they know that they can trace these funds and possibly report to the police, make a arrest or something, but they're not doing anything. So something happened to me. You've lost 250, you've lost 500,000 and the bank will be asking you papers. But this is my question. Don't we have insurance for these things? There is a commission that's supposed to insure your money in your bank. There is a commission that's supposed to insure your money, but nothing happens here. Now, I remember when I was in uni, I was in the UK and my card, I think there was a transaction that had happened somewhere in one of the Eastern countries, I think somewhere in Pakistan or something, someone had used my card and I called my bank. I never used this. Guess what? They refunded my money right back. They refunded my money while they would investigate what had happened and then they tried to get their money back. And that is how it is supposed to operate. If I'm telling you that I did not use this money or I did not sanction this, I did not approve this transaction, then you should be able to say, okay, we'll give you back your money, we'll try to recover it and that is what that commission is supposed to do for insurance on your money. But nothing like that happens here. Consumers are not protected in Nigeria. I know that it's a consumer protection agency that we know. We have so many of these agencies and commissions and personals that don't do anything. Sometimes you spend more trying to get justice than what you have lost. Yeah. So you just say, okay, instead of going to spend 500,000 to get 200,000 or to get 50,000... I might as well just leave it. Let me just leave it. But that's not even a way to leave it. Because there's a lot of things that you will miss just trying to pursue one thing and all that. So they need to sit up. Everything needs to be regulated. Even rents need to be regulated. We're having that conversation, yes. You wake up one day and say 300%, 400% hike in the rent and gives you two month notice or one month notice just because maybe you renovated the house, put tiles where there were no tiles and make the place very beautiful and it wants you out so that you can rent it. And get a higher price for the same apartment that you refurbished. Anyways, about the data. I think when we're gathering data in Nigeria, it should be purposeful. Don't just send people on the merry-go-round. We should have a data bank. We don't even... If I want to trace somebody now, somewhere in Kaffasian, how do I know where the person is? Who am I going to call? So what are we doing with this data? No, we go to the police and then give them fuel. Oh, as long as I give them fuel, then? You have to give them fuel, you know. Interesting. Because when they steal your phone, you go there. They can't actually do it. They know how to trace it. Two days they have to have your phone. But they want you to give them something. They will not have fuel. They will not because they need to drive their cars to those places, investigate, ask some questions. And then they will have to fuel their generator to look at their computers and... Please. So it's happening. Please. All right, we'll go on a quick break. And when we return, we'll be looking at whether national dailies are staying this morning. It will be over the press, but first let's look at the weather. Stay with us.