 Today on the breakfast, new guidelines of the all-progressive Congress, Giva Meci and Gigi Adler, 72 hours to resign or forget 2023 ambition. Just where does the pendulum swing? Also on the breakfast, it's time to show integrity. The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency and DLEA urges political parties to make drug integrity tests part of the screening requirement for aspirants. And we'll be reviewing the biggest stories making headlines across the national days. Welcome to the breakfast this first day morning. I am Justin Agadone. I am Messier Boppo. It's good to have you join us this beautiful Thursday morning. Yes, it is indeed a pleasure to have you join us. How is the weather at your end? Here in Lagos, it's been a bit chilly. It's been raining since last night. Although it has stopped better, some places are experiencing some drizzling. Messier, how was the weather around you this morning? I really don't know why people start conversations saying how's the weather. What's with the weather? Because it is a welcome change. Lagos has been crazily hot for some time. So with the rain last night, I'm sure some people slept like babies or logs of wood. While some people slept like logs of wood, others probably would have their roof taken off or maybe in the floor of their car drowned or something. Messier, are you talking out of experience? No, I'm just saying that everywhere is flooded. You know what it is. A lot of people, when it gets to this point in time, maybe we'll just stick with the dry season and just stay with sun and all of that. Because whenever it rains, it's usually not a fantastic experience. I mean, just the last rain before this one, it was really a disaster. Where you had a lot of people saying houses were destroyed, you know, floored and what have you. But we need to be on top of the game. I mean, the responsibility of protecting our environment is a collective one. We cannot wait for the government all the time. So some people would say, oh, you have the markets floored, you have everywhere blocked, you can't. But every day, it just shows you that human activity is responsible for all of this action. So the gutters are clogged. Thank God you said thank goodness. Yes, that's it. We are responsible. Mercy, we need the rain for so many things. Mercy, you don't want the greens. You don't want to eat. You don't want vegetation and all of that. And all that is because of the rain. If you say it doesn't, you don't want it to rain for one year just because of floods and every other thing. Mercy, you go home. Why do you know how many people are going through a lot? Yes, but that's the more reason why we should not throw things into the canal and free up our drainages. I know a whole lot be hopes on the citizens to do the right thing. But then the rain should rain. Let's move away from the rain. And the flood should take people's houses away and people should just perish. Okay, let's slide on to top trending. The rains are not trending right now. Burnton, the education minister module is trending. There are reports that he is speak top. He's a presidential firm for 100 million. And he has gotten a whole lot of Nigerians talking. It's all in the wake of the ASUS strike. Remember, ASUS has been on strike since February the 14th. And a lot of people are saying, what does this really tell? He is the education minister. And right now his main thought, his main business right now is to contest for presidency in 2023 when our students are at home and lecturers are just there. Seating with the federal government, not meeting up to the demand since 2000. And how do you raise all of that? First of all, we go back to the point where we say everyone has a right to contest. Because the constitution allows everyone the opportunity to vote and be voted for. So yes, within their rights, they are acting not contrary to the law. And that's it. Otherwise, the other restriction would be whether or not you're a criminal or you have any criminal records. Which would be the responsibility of the police and also the judiciary. So it's a long conversation. But however, it's interesting. But I don't understand what's going on. If you notice, there's a pattern. And a lot of people would just say it's a conspiracy theory. So if you notice the pattern that too many persons are coming out in the APC. He's also declared yesterday. I'm not partisan now. Of course, I don't belong to any political parties. But you declared independent candidates yesterday. No. The constitution hasn't given all of that. No one listened to me. That's number one. So let's forget about it. The ambition is dead on arrival. So the point is... I'll vote for you. Would you listen to me? Sometimes. No. Both alone cannot make me go anywhere. I'll gather my constituency, my interview. Okay, let's move away from that. The major thing here is... I don't know what's going on. But if you look at the pattern, especially with the APC. You found out that every minute now there's going to be a primaries for the presidential ticket. I mean, for the presidential primaries on the 30th and the 31st. So it's going to be 30th through the 31st of May, right? Am I correct? Yes, next month, yeah. And then you still have a lot of people, persons coming out. So yesterday we talked about the governor of cross river states. Now we have, you know... Education minister. So what's really going on? But normally if you look at how this goes is if you have a lot of people come out. For instance, at the end of the day, you have the elections. Then you have Justin, Messi, every other person out in the race. You know what happens? We begin to split the votes. Okay. I don't know if you get it. I do understand you. So I don't know if this is a strategy at the party level. Because there's going to be splitting of votes. So maybe just one vote will get someone there. It's... You have to split it. At the end of the day, the party will decide on just one person. No, no, no. But the APC is not saying that they're going to... It's not a consensus issue. No, what I'm saying is that even if they all declare interests and they have bought forms and paid 100 million, eventually it's just one of them that would actually in a flight... And that's because it's still possible that within this, okay? Within this particular space, you have the fact that we want you to become the flag bearer. You want me to? But because... No, I'm just citing, for instance, now. We want you to become the flag bearer. Yes. But because we cannot come out to say we want consensus, and that's because we're going to offend a lot of persons in the party and also other regions. And so we just say, let's leave it open. So we leave it open. So we leave it open. And then we have a lot of people come out to say, hey, we're also... We want to become president. Not necessarily that they want to become president. Because I don't understand. They know they cannot win the... They cannot become the flag bearer of the party. But they come out. So why? What's the intention behind all of this? So it's going to split the votes within the delegates. It will actually do that. So you probably would have a group of persons who would say, okay, we want a certain person to become the flag bearer. And all of the attention will be pushed in. And these conversations are usually not... I get all of that, but mostly the concern for me here is that those who are responsible to govern the space of the country are no longer doing that because of the interest group thing. We're even going to discuss that more later on the show. The APC New Guidelines and the ministers and those who have political appointment being asked to resign. They have better like three days to do so. So they can actually decide if they want to contest or if they want to stay in government and face the business of governance. For instance, we have asked to be on strike for over two months. And discussions have been stored over time. I know that he has the constitutional right, the minister that leads to contest for the presidency. But the fact is that I feel it's morally wrong, although morality doesn't really count in most cases in Nigeria. Morality is not law. But the students are at home. Letters are not teaching. And the content right now is never about how to fix this promise about your personal ambition for 2023. Maybe he thinks that when he gets there, he's going to solve the problem. Why doesn't he? He should do that right now. We probably might not just be within his entirely not in his space. But he is the head of education in Nigeria. So everything be hopes on him. If lecture is on strike, first of all, everything points to his direction. So everything points to his direction. You also cannot forget the fact that if you look at it, you ask yourself, what's the budget for education? That's also another issue. So as much as it might feel like he's a king in his space, he's not really a king. But not holding brief for him, it is what it is. Politics, I mean, interests, no permanent friends, no permanent enemies, no permanent interests. And that's what it is. But if you look at the APC, and if you look at the fact that every minute, I mean, just before we leave this conversation, we might just have another person who's going to be declaring. I won't be surprised. They are interested in coming. They have barely three days to do that, because from their constitution, they have to do that 30 days before the primaries. But let us move on away from the APC, away from those who are declaring their intention to run for the presidency. You'll docheies in the days. In as much as I don't like discussing people's private business. When it comes to private business, we talk about it. Justin, you don't need to become very organized. She's organized. Yeah. I have my dogs in the room. But the thing is that phynaetograms are coming at him because of what he said about his wife, or his first wife. Right now, what we hear is that you'll docheies announcing on his second wife. It was everywhere. And he talked about his son, that he got through his second wife. But what many people were talking was that there was a time he was just pouring a whole lot of praises on his first wife, how the woman stood for him for like 15 years and all of that. And why? Mercy. The story has changed. You're smiling. Because there's a lot to talk about. I mean, a young man is this Yola Doche. A lot of people have respect for him and not also looking at the fact that he has come out to political ambition. Right? But you know, in Nigeria, we have not really incorporated the issue of, you know, your personal life. I mean, that into your political chase and race. In all the climes, it would be a very big deal. It would be a big issue. And it had always been, you know, a big issue. But let's just continue to say that we're a developing nation and also our democracy is very nascent and so we have a long way to go. But this isn't public space. You know, it definitely means that it's going to be a public conversation. At the time where he had constantly talked about his wife, 16 years. I mean, he mentioned on that particular tweet the best thing that has happened, and she's never stressed him out. But trust Nigerians to do that all of this. No, no, no. I mean, how do you even explain? I mean, look at it now. How do you juxtapose all of that? So you say 16 years after you put up a tweet and say, your wife has been fantastic. The best thing that's happened to you, 16 years. She's never stressed you. And then two seconds after, this 2022. So we have you saying you have a second wife. He also has a tweet. The good thing is the internet will never forget. Tweeter will never forget you. All of your tweets, including my tweets. So sometimes I'm very careful about the tweets that I actually put up. Because, you know, this space for them. I put out tweets. I tweet, boy. You know how you can do tweets. You know how you can put out tweets and 20 years after from now, the tweets will come back and haunt you. True. So people have actually gone back again to that tweet where he tweeted about. I mean, to a comment that he put out on social media talking about, oh, it's not a big deal. If you are a man, you have a second wife. It's not that you were a man. It's the fact that you are breeding confusion for the next generation. Where did we hold you now? There's no correlation. Any people say there's no correlation. Where did we... Oh, no. You know, but the wife... I don't know what to say. I mean, it looks to me very confused and tired. You know how it is in an African society tradition. A man can decide to marry as many wives as he so wishes, so long as he can. Sometimes, he doesn't even have the money to take off the wives that you have, for a wife like that. You know, a house full of children. A wife who wants to go on vacation. It's a lot. So you have to get... No. But the wife has actually commented, right? Yes, she has. So if I start talking now, Justin would say, oh, because you're a woman, then you're starting to get very emotional. No, no, no. I'll just listen. So he tweeted that. He said, my son, everybody meets my son. I'm paraphrasing now, and I can't remember what he said. Everybody meets my son. You know, it's a fantastic grade. My second wife, okay. Where is this coming from? And the wife went ahead to say, may God judge you both. That's a lot of fire. So what do you actually infer from the wife's comment? She's not happy? She's bitter? Does that sound like she's happy? So she's bitter. Doesn't she have the right to be? Does she have the right? When you say bitter, there's something like bitter. She's not bitter. I mean, there's a lot of betrayal there. Don't tell me bitter. There's something bitter about that. Who betrayed who? Oh, Justin. Who made the spot? Why are you doing this? Well, it's quite unfortunate. But I think it's just a human thing. We're humans, and so we're bound to be, you know, on this side and this other side. And you can never tell what would happen. So you just live life and just take it the way it is. Whatever comes, it comes. Uwisha Yoledoche and his family are all of the best. But we'll slide away from all of that and move on next to the vice president, Professor Yemi Shiba Joe, who is saying that he owes no allegiance to anybody. But of course, I'm the owes of office that he has taken. You know, there's been so much talk since the vice president declared his ambition to contest for the presidency in 2023. A lot of people, you know, have come out to say that he has betrayed his principle. That's the former governor of Lagos State, Bola Ahmed Tinibu. And all of this came to the fore just yesterday. And once again, the vice president said, you know, categorically that he owes no one any allegiance, anything outside his office. I mean, he couldn't really be bothered. So the question would now be, is that a statement of fact? Mercy, who does he owe allegiance to? Do you think that's a statement of fact? Does he owe allegiance, you know, except to the people that he's wanting to protect? I'm asking you again. I also chew it back again. Well, you need to know that politics, like you have rightly mentioned, we also understand that when people come together, there's interest, personal interest is number one top on the notch. And so people would always have permanent interest. The interest would never change. And so they can have affiliations. You know, they could have friends, but these friends would actually always change. And so that's why you say, you have no permanent friends, no permanent interests. Oh, okay. No permanent. Permanent interests. Permanent interests, but no permanent friends. So it means that friends could always change. So the fact that I'm friends with you today might not necessarily mean that I will be friends with you tomorrow, but my interest would always be constant. And so if my interest is constant, then anything can happen. I can decide to have another affiliation with another. But it's a lot. So with this, the reason why sometimes I think that we need to take a break, not so much, but because this is actually going to be within the political arena, the conversation would be within the party level right now. Because with all that everyone will do, I mean, if you look at the list of persons who are contesting now, who wants to become the flag bearer of the APC, the list is almost endless. So you have the former governors, you have governors, you just have a lot of people on that particular list. But the party will decide, and that's what's going to happen. Right? So it is when the party moves there, at the end of the day, the party has a decision, then we know we have a flag bearer for the party. Nigerians will definitely decide whether or not the one, this particular candidate. So it's okay to have all of this concerns and all of that. But let's also understand that at the end of the day, even when nations come together, you have the United States, you have Nigeria, you have Ghana, you have Germany, you have Japan, they would always act in their interest. National interest and personal interest would always supersede, you know, every other interest. And that's why you constantly have the fact that policies don't really reflect the interest of the people, but reflect the interest of a certain. So maybe the elites who were supporting him in his clan and all of that. Yeah, like, speaking of supporting, all of this came out from what happened, his visit to Oregon State and how the governor, Dr. Babi Odu, said that he has their support. I don't know if he was speaking for himself or the entire people of Oregon State, but then the vice president actually was quoted as saying that he has served Buhari, that he should be the next president. It doesn't really work like that. It really doesn't. Is that a continuum? Yeah, because you actually served, you know, the president doesn't really work like that. Let's take a, for instance, I mean, let's take a look at Artiku. You remember that Artiku and the former president, Ulushiguna Basundura, you know, he was the vice president. Like you have said, it does not really follow a complete logic, you know, just because you have served with your principle or the president, that's Mohammed Buhari, that you deserve next. It still comes back to some people saying entitlement and all of that. Does it really follow? So is it like a pattern? Just because I'm not trying to, I'm just trying to understand what he meant by that he has served the president, so he deserves, you know, to be the next. Because a whole lot of things come to play. So I think that that's a comment and sentiment. I mean, it's a very sentimental comment. Okay? So it's like saying, because I am a graduate, it therefore means that I have a job. Are the best of jobs really? No, not necessarily a best of job. But just say, because you're a graduate means you should have a job. That's not even, you know, that's not even a criteria for it. So because you have graduated does not mean that you should have a job. You have to work for it. I mean, we have a lot of graduates who are out there who don't have a job. So there's a lot, I mean, a lot of work. So first of all, you have to maybe be qualified for a certain, you have to have some certain skills that employers would want to, you know, concede that and then say, I think you want to hire you. Now, and if you look at politics, like we see all the time, politics goes beyond saying you have a beautiful face or you're very popular. And then you say, hey, I'm here. I want to become president. And that's fantastic because I see a lot of people who say they want to become president. And sometimes I feel a little bit, you know, what's going on? Do you think that the office of the president is a joke? But because the Constitution says we all have a right, then everybody has a right. But it goes beyond that. There are a lot of issues that are involved. And if you look at the peculiarities surrounding our own climate, we talk about money politics. It's very big. We don't need to be very pretentious about this. Let's not begin to say, oh, it doesn't really happen. It happens. Money changes hands in our politics. And let nobody begin to say, we'll come up with evidence. We know all of that. That's what happens. So you begin to ask yourself, do you have the financial muscle? Yesterday we had a presidential aspirant of the People's Democratic. But then he mentioned the fact that in 2019 or there about, he could not stand a chance because he didn't have the money. The question is, do you have the money now? So money plays a major role. So you ask yourself, do you have the money? Let's even forget it also. Let's not talk about that. But that's the reality. On the other hand, you also need to talk about structures. Elections are not just one by saying, oh, you want to be President. Fantastic. You have worked everywhere. That's not, that's not it. So if you talk about a certain political party, you have the fact that you have 774 local governments across the entire federation. What structures do you have in this local government? So if you have the old, because you see the hype on Twitter, it's okay to have young people go on Twitter. But how many young persons have the PVC to vote? And mostly you go because I have monitored elections at the grassroot level. And I tell you the people who come out to vote, these are older people. These are very old people. Now do they recognize because it is what it is. So then look at the sign. What sign is this, the logo? So how do we identify this party? And they are being told when you see a certain party, this is a certain party. So this party that you're going to be conversing, I mean you're going to be a flag bearer. Do people recognize it? Let's not even forget that poverty is very strong for us. It's a major thing. And some people, I've also taught that politicians have weaponized poverty. So poverty has become a tool where they constantly ensure that people stay poor because when you stay poor, you don't understand the dynamics. And so it's easy for you to be given not a bag of salt, a starchy of salt, and two cups of rice that wouldn't take you a day. All right. It is actually something. But let's move on to our last and top trending for today. You remember the terrorism Act of 2013. All right now, the Senate is actually amending its mercy. And right now they are saying that there should no longer be payment for ransom to kidnappers. There are several angles to this because a lot of people would say, remember all the kidnappings that we have had in the country, you know, in Keduna, in Niger State, when specifically the governor of Keduna State had said that they would not negotiate with terrorists. But all behind closed doors, what we don't get to hear is that what actually went down, how did these people secure the release of those kidnaps? At the end of the day, monies have changed hands. But so we don't get to hear this. But what is here is that they would not negotiate with terrorists. And sometimes the parents of these kidnapped victims because they are very worried about their children, you know, they do negotiations for themselves because they feel the federal government or the state government are not really doing the needful. So they take the bull by the horns and they negotiate and they contribute and they pay ransom to these kidnappers. I wonder what would happen with development? Well, it's a very dicey conversation and some people will say that the senate having to ban payment to ransom to kidnappers, it's very apt for us. But let's even look at it now. This is actually coming at a time where you have, you remember the fact that the trains were attacked. You remember that train kid attacked that happened. Yeah, but you don't have your train. Yes. And so you have passengers who were kidnapped and so payment for ransom. The government over time have said we don't pay ransom. People, the arguments, we've tried to say, hey, we're not, we don't negotiate with terrorists. We don't pay ransom to kidnappers. But is that really the true state of things? But this is coming at a time where this families, victims, you know that recently you had all of that report and so you still have some persons who were still in the hands of this kidnappers. The kidnap that happened. And so the families are already saying that we're ready to embrace negotiation, whatever it is, we're willing to pay, you know, to ransom to get our loved ones being freed. So what's the way out? What's the solution? Will these people be able to, I mean, what's the solution the government's providing? The government enough to actually secure the release of their family members? Exactly. I mean, it's also to the point where you have families saying, okay, we're ready to have this negotiation with kidnappers and to ensure the release of those who have been kidnapped. It's a lot. But let's see how it is. We've not been very, very, very, very great with laws and implementation of some of the loss that we do have. But fingers across, we'll see how all of this develops. That's the much we can with more interesting conversation, generating reactions in different spaces. In the meantime, we will step away and when we come back it'll be time for us to look at the front pages of a national daily splicing with us.