 Welcome back to the breakfast and plus TV Africa. It's now time for Off the Press and we've invited Mr. Adi Mola Kimbola, publisher of the Podium Media. Good morning. Thank you for joining us. Good morning, Adi Mola. Good morning. It has to be here. Fantastic. Let's begin with the Nigerian Tribune newspaper. The headline reads, inflation pushed 7 million Nigerians into poverty in 2020. That's according to the World Bank. It says, unemployment fuels crime in security. No Gazette established grazing routes in Nigeria. That's according to Orlani Pekun. Land use acts vest all powers on land in governors, not federal government, he adds. And Falano says, grazing reserves law of 1964 was applicable to northern region. Also, Lagos assembly to investigate last two VC crisis. Tweets are found at Dorsey liable for NSAS losses. That's according to the federal government. We're not clearing your rots. APC replies BDP, justifies huge debt profile. Also, Fulani threat, tight security in Asaba, Agbo. Cards reopen after two months. All your governors moves beggars to resettlement center. Second batch of 3.92 million AstraZeneca vaccine doses expected in August. MTN says we may not guarantee regular services over rising insecurity. Appeal court to decide Jagada's case against Akiri Duluth today. And lastly on the Nigerian Tribune, corruption, high profile Nigerians after my life. That's according to the EFCC boss. All right, from the Nigerian Tribune, we'll move on next to the puncher news paper this morning. The banner headline, there is a military bombard bandit in northwest and north central forest. There are two riders there. NAF bomb killed 500 cows, 200 missing. In Nassarawa Alleges. Now, report of 1000 cows killed on realistic. That's according to NAF and troops comb cut senior forests. There are several stories above the must head of the puncher news paper this morning. Let's start with some business ones. Inflation pushed 7 million Nigerians below poverty line. That's according to the World Bank. Oshiba Joe test rides locally assembled electric car. It says innovation. Fantastic. Most stories there this morning. NLNG trains 7 or train 7. 10 billion dollars investment begins. Buhari won against delay. How minister London 37 million dollars through property deal. That's according to the EFCC chair. Now, just beside the must head reps confused as EFCC am confide on designing allies and assets and Nigeria expecting 3.92 million COVID-19 vaccine doses. In July, more stories on the puncher this morning. Pastor kidnapped by Boko Haram 8 months ago freed in Bono state. Woman arrested for the fraud and Oshun politician of 2.6 million Naira. Also in the news this morning. Couples among evacuated beggars in Ibadon. Politics. Now, we're not aware of our appeal court has shifted election suit judgment. That's according to Akeridu and the People's Democratic Party, the PDP. CEO abscond as Forex firm allegedly defraud 52 investors of 122 million Naira. Our right experts blame insecurity as a Greek import exceed export by 503 billion Naira. Those are the stories you could find on the front page of the punch newspaper this morning. Those are very big stories on the punch. Moving on now to the daily independent newspaper. The World Bank says Nigeria needs reform to curb inflation and to spur recovery. And also the World Bank says inflation limiting growth fueling crime stands at 17.93% in May. Also post 7 million Nigerians below poverty line in 2020. Above the headline on the Daily Independent. We care tells Buhari you can't surrender your security duty to governors. $3.3 billion D SDR of $3 billion euro bond to boost Nigeria's foreign exchange position. Crisis rocks Abga as OKK Oye claim championship position. OKK fixes July 1st for Anambra, Cuba primary. Oye says it's June 23rd. Buhari wants NLNG train 7 delivered speedily. Court resumes full activities after 8 weeks strike. Head of EFCC Bawa says I've been receiving debt threats for heading EFCC. Buhari six joint efforts of West African countries to fight insurgency. OKK's employment of dead NYC members siblings. And lastly on the Daily Independent newspaper. Yahya says I'm the right man for chief of army staff. Quail this insecurity that's according to the reps. Alright Guardian has the economy on its mind this morning as its main story. Rising prices weaken disposable incomes despite easing inflation. That's on the front page of the Guardian. With some writers here as regards at the figures inflation in May stood at 17.03%. More stories there are just below the must head. Nigeria others for clinical trials on Novo Lhasa fever vaccine. OK Yoruba elders with state support for Tina Bush presidential bid. And of course Evo Congress once against another civil war. Evo CP arrests the five policemen for alleged extortion. Alright more stories there on the Guardian. AstraZeneca cocktail trial fails as Nigeria gets another 3.92 million. Vaccine doses with several writers there. Nigeria to receive a second batch of doses. Reopened vaccination for first COVID-19 shots. WH or NPH CDA one of third wave in threat in Africa. And high exposure to malaria explains low COVID-19 cases. And of course death. Those are the stories on the Guardian newspaper this morning. Alright I just want to start with the Guardian. That's where we just left off. Let's talk about this for one minute. Rising prices weaken disposable incomes despite easing inflation. Let's talk about this for a bit now. Nigerians are really worried. What do we make of all of this? We go to the market. We plan to spend about 5000. That's what we spend ordinarily daily. Or maybe when we go to the market. We find that even the 5000 I cannot even buy half as much as what we ordinarily would have bought. So where are we really headed? Thank you once again for having me. These are familiar stories. These are reports that we get to hear about Nigeria day in, day out. Starting with the story on rising prices. I think basically the reality of Nigeria's situation is the fact that we are a consuming nation. Okay, we don't produce enough to take care of our needs. When you don't produce enough to take care of your needs, demand will have stripped supply. So even if you increase salary 10 times, the rising costs of production will continue to make a mess of that salary increase. You look at the way things are in Nigeria. Even in the agric sector, we are not producing enough to meet local demand. No talk of exports. Okay, I keep telling people, exchange rate is not magic. It's a very simple law of economics, demand and supply. The demand for dollar has stripped supply of dollar. Basically, we import virtually everything. I mean, that has become a cliché now. We're not producing. We're not producing because, one, the cost of production in Nigeria is very high. Electricity is not available. You have to be your own local government. You have to provide your own security. When you factor all of this into the cost of production, there's no way Nigerian companies can price their products and services competitively. That's why prices keep going up. And most of these factors of production, they are denominated in dollars indirectly because we don't produce most of these things. We import, okay? So you look at the poultry sector. The poultry farmers said about a month ago that they are barely able to meet 40% of local demand, domestic demand, 40%. So the remaining 60%, what happens to that? People have to import. That's why frozen chicken is still being imported in Nigeria today through Benin Republic. And when you bring that in, it puts pressure on the cost of producing local chicken. So just like the World Bank said, we need to embark on reforms. What kind of reforms are we talking about? We need to focus more on the productive sectors of agriculture and manufacturing. If you don't manufacture for local consumption and for export, prices will be consensualised. So the solution to Nigeria's economic problems is for us to be more productive. When we become more productive, cost of production will go down. Prices of goods and services will also go down. As long as the average producer in Nigeria is struggling with ancillary cost that government ordinarily should bear, prices will continue to go up, okay? Virtually everything in Nigeria today has gone up. Not because direct costs have increased, but there's indirect costs that manufacturers and producers need to factor into whatever they're doing. And you can't blame them. They go to the market, they buy stuff, they have to find a way to spread the cost. So I align with what the World Bank has said. We need to embark on reforms. Let us look at the long-term effect of what you are doing. Let's look at the bigger picture. Unfortunately, in Nigeria, most of our policies are focused on the short term. Government is under pressure to bring exchange rate down. Government is under pressure to ensure that inflation goes down. In Nigeria, the annual 10-year inflation figure is over 12%, which is one of the highest in the world. Switzerland has the best, which is less than 1%. Okay? Any country that has the kind of inflation rate that we have, we have problems with exchange rate. Because right now, Naira is no longer being seen as an attractive store of value. Most people want to keep their investment in foreign exchange. And what happens when they do that? It puts pressure on the Naira. Everybody wants to acquire dollar, everybody wants to buy dollar and keep. I don't know what the rate is as we speak. If things go the way they had, if we continue with this, maybe we are talking about $500 to $1 before the end of the year. $600 to $1. There's nothing the CBN can do. We keep blaming the CBN. The CBN is not going to manufacture dollars. The CBN is not going to prevent Nigerians from importation. So we need to come up with policies that address these issues. Let us look at the list, the list of prohibited, imported items. Let's add more products to that list. And let's see how we can encourage Nigerians to patronize major Nigerian goods, including education. Almost everybody wants to send children to Canada, to the UK, to the US. That is foreign exchange that is being depleted. Almost everybody wants to acquire foreign items. That is foreign exchange being depleted. These are issues that we need to address. And when the World Bank is calling for reform, the World Bank is simply saying, let's just look for home-grown solutions to our problems. Our solutions are not going to be imported. They are home-grown solutions. So basically, that is the way I look at it. Another big issue here is a story we're seeing on the punch newspaper. And on the punch, it reads that military bombards bandits in northwest and forests of North Central. So would you say this is something that the military should have begun long ago? Because they're saying that they're carrying out air raids every other day now to make sure that they, you know, basically smoke out these bandits that are terrorizing Nigeria. But Miatia lies now saying that the Niger Air Force bombs killed about 500 cows and that about 2,200 others are missing in Nassarawa. But the Niger Air Force is saying that the reports of about 1,000 cows killed is unrealistic. What do you think about this? The success or failure of efforts in the northwest, north-central will be judged or determined by the peace or otherwise that we enjoy in the next three months. If you tell us that you are bombarding the forest, that you are pushing them away, you are killing them, and one week later, this guy comes back to kidnap two of the students, then there's a problem. So this is what they've been telling us, oh, they've pushed them away. You remember when this government came in, they said the Boko Haram has been technically defeated. I don't know what that means, but Boko Haram has come back powerfully. So for me, I'm not going to assess the military based on what they say in the press. I'm going to assess them based on what happens in that area in the next three months. If we do not get to hear about Boko Haram kidnapping or killing people, then I would believe that yes, they are indeed bombarding them, and they are making headway in the war against terror. But don't forget that propaganda is a very effective tool of war. So every military, every security, all over the world, the military uses propaganda to fight war. But in Nigeria, let us wait and see what happens in the next one month. And I certainly pray that this bombardment is going to lead to the annihilation of Boko Haram, not that we will hear. Alright, let's also talk about corruption, fighting back. The EFCC chair, Bauer, also made headlines in some bailies, and this morning when he talked about how he has been getting him death threats from various quarters, he also talked about how a particular high ranking Nigeria, you know... Yes, minister, actually. And he talked about 837 million, you know, those in land deals. Can you just talk about this issue for a bit? Now, let's talk about the fight against corruption, how Bauer has done since he stepped in as the chair of that particular anti-graph term agency. Yeah, for me, Bauer has been talking too much. He needs to keep quiet and do the work. It is to be expected that when you are the head of an anti-corruption agency that people will threaten you. So it's not a new, it's not the first head that will be threatened. So he should not focus and avoid all those distractions. It's too early for him to be complaining. He's barely six months old. He needs to deliver results. Okay, corruption will always fight back. That happens all over the world. It is for you to keep your focus and measure that you do whatever is expected of you. All right. And for God's sake, you don't come into the media to stay in minister. This is that. Give us facts and figures. If you have to, when you have concluded your investigations, then you move to prosecution. Enough of this media trial. Enough of trying to look good. Planting stories in the media to give the people that you are working. When in fact you are not doing anything. So we want to see results. When you say you want to see a result. When you say you want to see a result. Specifically now what areas are you looking at? You said that he's been barely six months since he has, you know, chairmanship of the EFCC. What specifics do you want to see? It's been just six months according to what area? He's telling us about the minister, right? Yes. Okay. We want to see the minister prosecuted. That's the result that we want. Move ahead and prosecute. You don't need to tell us. Let us wake up one day and hear that this minister has been arrested. You have enough facts and figures to prosecute him. And the prosecution goes smoothly and the person is jailed appropriately. What you find in Nigeria is that we have laws that are not being effectively executed. The laws are there. And so someone gets arrested for corruption for the next three years in case of drugs. And at the end of the day, it gets a very light sentence. So our laws, the way they are being implemented, actually encourage corruption. We are rewarding corruption. I think we've had a lot of discussions here before. Oji Kalu today is literally a free man. And there are so many of them as there in the Senate who looted their states. Nothing has happened to them. But we should know that the EFCC job that has been given is a very serious job. It is not a job that should be done on a piece of newspaper. We want to see people being prosecuted. That is the result that we are expecting. So if you are saying that a minister made 37 million dollars or whatever from property deals, what is the name of the minister? Let him go to court. So that's what I mean. I'm not aware of any other country that does media try to do what we do in Nigeria. So you believe in naming and shaming of those who are found wanting? Absolutely. Because we need to send very strong signals to people in government. We need to make a very strong scapegoat. We haven't been doing that. We have not been doing that. People get arrested, then they come up with all sorts of silly excuses. They are here. They go to the court with work here. It's just a drama. It's drama. We are just joking. We are not allowed to fight corruption. All right. So other stories I have seen here. I don't know if you would say, Farukia is also talking so much, but speaking to the House of Reps on Tuesday, he went on to say he is the right man for the job. You know, he would have his experience in the front lines to say, he should be the one charging Nigeria's fight against terrorism. Do you see it that way? Who is that? We are talking about the Chief of Army Staff. Oh, yes. Well, again, your actions and the results you deliver will convince us whether you are the right man or not. The President and Commander-in-Chief entrusted so much trust in you. He has appointed you. Go ahead and do the job. Let's talk more work. You don't need to tell us that you are the right man. What we tell us that you are the right man is what we are able to deliver. It's the result you are able to deliver. Okay? So the President has trusted him. We have no choice. The National Assembly, we've practically endorsed him. So he should get to work, want to see results. All right. We are more interested in results. Okay. Some questions came out from that particular screen in yesterday at the Joint Committee Seating. And one of them was if there was an interagency collaboration amongst some diverse armed forces, that's, you know, the Navy, the Air Force, and of course the Army. Then again, another question that was raised was the need for change for nomenclature from Operation Lafayette to Harder and Kaye. Would you say there are maybe loopholes or issues within our fight against insecurity in Nigeria? Yes. We have said it on this program that it is very pertinent for everybody involved to work in synergy, to collaborate, to fight terrorism. This is not the time to say I'm APC or PDP. This is not the time to say I'm Army or Navy or Air Force. Unfortunately, that is not happening. There's no collaboration. You listen to a wiki telling the President that he shouldn't abdicate his security responsibility. And my question is, how much of intervention do you expect a Bwari to do in Penway, for instance? Okay, there's a governor, there's a local government chairman. What have they done with all the money, the security vote that they collect? What are they doing with it? Okay, so you expect Bwari to come to Penway State to help you to fight terrorism? Okay, and you have a sitting governor who claims to be the security, the number one security man in the state. You have local government chairman who are supposed to be closer to the grass roots. So, like I've always said, it is time for us to come together, work together as a team. It is only when we all work together that we can fight these guys. We cannot fight them if we continue to operate on base of I'm APC, I'm PDP, I'm this, I'm that. We need to come together because we're talking about human lives here. Okay, human lives have no coloration. They do not answer to political inclinations. People are being killed every day. So whether you're a governor, I mean, you're a PDP governor, you're APC governor, you need to come together and form a regional security network. Okay, like the guys in the South West have done with Amatecom, the South East, so we need more of these collaborations and this need to drill down to able to look at government level. Okay, states that share boundaries should work together. That is the only way through which we can defeat terror. That's the only way, collaboration, which is not happening right now, quite unfortunately. It's not happening now. There's a lot of work passing. There's a lot of blaming. There's a lot of people dodging their responsibility and that is why there's loophole for the enemy to continue to attack. As long as that loophole is there, we can't make any progress. Okay, let's return to the Nigerian Tribune newspaper, where a story there reads, the federal government says, Twitter found a dossier liable for N-SARS losses. So we know that Lai Mohamed here speaking to newsmen yesterday, Minister of Information and Culture, said Twitter is responsible for all the destruction that occurred during the N-SARS protests because Twitter was the platform where Nigerian youth came together to plan the N-SARS protests and that Twitter allowed Nigerians to have discussions about using Bitcoin to fund the protests and that lots of policemen were killed, soldiers were killed, police stations were destroyed, warehouses, other public infrastructure and that Twitter was liable or is liable for all the destruction during the N-SARS protests. Lai Mohamed also said that it's unfair and that's what he used. It's unfair to say that the federal government banned Twitter because of a president's tweet. You know, Lai Mohamed said that Twitter was suspended in Nigeria because Twitter has been a platform where divisive comments have been made in the country. So what's your perspective on this story here? Just to add to that again, the minister also gave some conditions as to the reinstatement as it were of Twitter. He says Twitter has to be registered as a Nigerian company. Has to pay taxes. Has to pay taxes in Nigeria and follow the licensing rules of the NBC. So how do you react to all of this? With due respect, Minister Lai Mohamed is a clown and he's a jester because he started using the real visuals. If there were no problems in the Nigerian nation would youth have gone to Twitter to tweet about what's going on? I mean, we're talking about the root and the branch approach to solving the problem. We're talking about action and reaction, cause and effect here. You are looking at the symptoms and you are abandoning the cause of the problem. Twitter is not Nigeria's problem. Twitter is just a platform. Okay, if you ban Twitter, are you going to ban Facebook? Are you going to ban WhatsApp? Since Twitter was banned, people have been tweeting. It hasn't changed anything. People have been tweeting. People have been using WhatsApp. So Nigerian government should stop chasing Pichardo. Twitter is the least of our problem. Lai Mohamed, definitely we want to justify his portfolio as propaganda or information minister and to use various diversionary tactics which have never worked and which we never worked. Twitter is the least of our problem. What we need to do is to address the reasons why people are not happy. Okay, we need to address the reasons why people have lost faith in the country. We need to address issues by burden, youth, restiveness, unemployment. Why are people angry? Suddenly, everybody wants to travel out of Nigeria. Is that Twitter's fault? Okay, so you do not eradicate common sense to yourself because the way the minister has carried on this Twitter issue is just quite unfortunate. In a decent society, someone like the minister should not even be talking. The way he is talking, he should have been called to order. Alright, let's talk about other issues now. We register, fine. Twitter will pay tax, fine. Does that stop Nigeria from tweeting about the problems in Nigeria? It does not. I do not know how getting Twitter to pay tax, getting them to be registered, how does that solve the problems that Nigerian youth are facing? How does that create jobs? How does that provide security? How does that provide employment? So you can go ahead, get Twitter to pay tax, get them to get registered. That is by the way, we will still need to come back to the main problem. The fact that governance is not delivering dividends of democracy, the fact that Nigeria is now moving forward and the pace is to be moving. The fact that the total breakdown of law and other, the fact that life are no longer safe in Nigeria, are those Twitter's faults? I don't have to do it. You are just wasting time as a minister fighting Twitter. You are not wasting time. And you are denying thousands of young entrepreneurs who use Twitter to do their business. This is a government that cannot create jobs. You cannot provide employment. The literature avenue that youth have to make money, you are denying them. A lot of businesses are suffering now. So I do not know what is the motive behind what like what I'm saying or what it's doing. But I guess grandstanding has become a state policy in Nigeria, especially among the ministers. You do the wrong thing and you will see what you have done is right. So grandstanding has become state policy. And that is where we are today. Alright, thank you. Thank you very much. Publisher of the podium media. Have yourself a great day. Thank you so much for having me. Wow. Lots of issues in the country to dissect. Lots of issues. Serious issues. The one of Twitter would always be reverberating amongst Nigerians because that's one platform lots of people get to use even with all the bottlenecks the federal government has seemingly put in place. Indeed. And I wish we had time to discuss much more stories. We are talking about investment scams as a story on the punch newspaper that said a CEO absconded when his forex firm defrauded about 52 investors of 122 million Naira. We have talked about this on the breakfast many, many times and we are advising people to always do their research, get financial advice. Exactly. So it's a shame that people continue to be defrauded. And these people just seem to vanish into thin air. Protests will begin again for this person to be fished out and to pay them back their money. But really how far can this go? You have to do your due diligence and do your own research about any investment plan opportunity before you just put in your money hook, line and sinker. Anyway, it's a wrap here on Off the Press and the Breakfast and Plus TV Africa. We'll take a break and return to tell you two major events and protests that occurred this day in history. Stay with us.