 The Independent National Electoral Commission has declared an Umbrella elections in conclusive and fixes the 9th of November for a supplementary poll in Ibialla. Refuse a Kaduna state government to pay compensation after demolition of properties in Zaria. And also this morning we'll be reviewing the papers here on Off the Press to share with you the major stories making headlines across Nigeria this Monday morning. We'll say then good morning and thanks for joining us on a Monday morning here on Plus TV Africa. This is the breakfast and I am Osao Ghee. And I am Messi Bopu. It's good to have you join us this beautiful Monday morning. As always we start with some of the big stories that are trending across the country and the first one is in Anambra state. We've been speaking about this since Saturday when the elections eventually started the 6th of November. It has been spoken about for so long now and of course eventually later yesterday Ida Den has declared elections in conclusive. It says that there were no elections in Ihialla local government area. And the difference between the first and second which are of course the Afghan candidate Chukumasuludu and the PDP candidate Valentino Zibo. The difference in their figures is less than the number of registered voters for Ihialla local government area. And so Ida has then gone ahead to declare the election in conclusive. There would be a supplementary election held on Tuesday the 9th of November 2021. But you know the fact that this is also calling for a lot of concerns. I mean if you look at it our elections over time you know we always have that in conclusive election. At some point a lot of people had predicted that the elections will be in conclusive. We've seen that happen in Kanu, Plattou state, Imo state and what have you. And the conspiracy terrorists will continue to be there. And some people are thinking that you know this is just another means of having you know some element hijacked you know the system or maybe rigged the election as it is however and that's what the case is. Some people also say that the fact that we constantly have in conclusive election is just a representation of the fact that our electoral process and the system is entirely weak. But how do you even explain all of that? But it's a good thing that the election actually happened because prior to this time we know the concerns that we had. Whether or not the election would hold as regards you know they sit at home all the way by iPop and of course the election held is a good thing. To some extent looking at it one of the things that you want to say would probably come out as a plus is the fact that contrary to the kind of expectations that we had we felt like it was going to be a battleground where there would be a lot of shootings because of the personnel that we had deployed down there to ensure that it happened. But you know looking at everything it felt like it went very peaceful and all of that. But also like we have also talked about the issue of political apathy is one thing that we constantly talked about for the times that we mentioned you know we discussed the Anambra election and that also could be seen although you had one of the candidates I think Ifan Yuba saying that you know he doesn't think that there was in his word people actually turned out that was him giving his verdict. But however if we're looking at 2.5 million registered voters I mean because we're going to wait at the end of the day to see the total votes that were casted and I'm not sure that we would have 2.5 million I mean even 2 million I'm not even sure we're going to get close to 2.1 million you're looking at me with so much. I thought you should be saying 500,000 what do you mean? That's what we're going to be doing because for the past you know four years if you look at the elections I mean you always find out that there's political apathy. The way it looks I don't even think we would have 300,000 from what it's looking like. You think so we might have 300,000? Because of the ABGAS total figures currently PDP total figures and of course the AAPC yes there are the candidates you know who are scoring 800 and 200 here and there. But yeah it should I'm thinking it might just end up somewhere around 300,000 total votes and this was expected because of course people had mentioned you know that compared to the last election that there was about 400,000 votes it was expected that this would be maybe around that or maybe less you know because of the things that led to the build up to the election. You know which you've already mentioned you know the security challenges the boy called the election by the IPOB they sit at home orders and here and then some of all of that. But I would still agree with you and give kudos to the people of Anambra you know that kept it calm or through the electoral process there was no report of violence anywhere. Maybe because of the security operators that were in town or maybe because the Anambra people just didn't have any interest in creating chaos they wanted to come out and vote. There's many other things that you know would be mentioned here and of course I would not fail to mention the failure of INEC. Give them as much credit as possible but I will still point out the fact that you know it is still their failure that has led to us having inconclusive elections in Anambra. So you won't agree with me that you know the electoral process is actually weak? Of course it is. I mean I know I've said this over and over and over we've continued I mean we've had 20 years to build on this electoral process. Every time there's always some new laws, some new electoral you know act amendments you know that never really changes anything. They have argument over the most basic things that really should be as simple as ABC. They have they go all the way to the National Assembly to be arguing over some very very basic things that other countries have started doing since you know the 90s. We're still at this place where we have inconclusive elections and it's embarrassing that I think this is another point that I would make. Yes you might say that since 1999 but I'm saying all the way since 1993 even that we've had enough time to build on an electoral process so that we can stop having this tiny nonsense embarrassing issues. But even going abandoning 1993, between the last Anambra elections and this one there's been four years. There's been four years to plan. And you know with the beaver because also that's also another highlight. The beaver is not functioning. So it brings us back to 2015 where you had the smart card readers that were introduced as you know part of technology to help the electoral process. And I'm saying what have we learned? The question I keep asking. When I saw that post you know people complaining a lot of persons were not able to cast their votes because of the fact that these beavers were not functioning. The big question is did we have a test run? Which is likely not to be a yes. Because I saw some stakeholders saying they didn't have time to do the test run. How do you introduce such a device in an election and not have a test run? Because you found out that the functionality of that also would have actually have to differentiate a lot of persons. Okay look at the candidacy of you know Abga. I mean talking about Charles Saludo right now. He waited about almost five hours to cast his vote. How many persons would be that patient? Because he is actually I would give it to him. I mean the fact that he is the one involved is a person of interest here. You would definitely have to wait to cast your vote. But my point is how many persons will have you know the patients to wait for five hours plots to cast your vote? The big question really is what you've mentioned and that is how did we not have a test run? How have we had four years? And I'll continue to mention that. It's the incompetence that I've spoken about and I spoke about the St. Paul's Politics on Friday. How we do not point out government incompetence and you know as reasons enough you know to call out government. You know we say these things as oh you know it's Nigerian that be used to it. But these things are not normal and they should not be normal. This level of incompetence should not be normal in any way. You've had four years. Even if you introduced BVAS one year ago, two years ago. It's enough time. It's enough time in any sane society to have made sure that you at least dot all the i's and cross all the t's with whatever system. Even if you want to use the native doctors in Anamba to carry out the election. It's enough time. You've had four years. Four years. And it's not because of lack of funding because INEC is properly funded I believe. So you've had four whole years between the last Anamba election and now and you still don't get it right. And you still will open your mouth as an electoral body to say that there were no elections in Mihala because you know the logistics issues. It's embarrassing. No we also want to look at because at the time I was monitoring the elections you know in the southern part of Nigeria during the 2019 elections. And you know the issues are still the same. Let's talk about logistics and the conduct of these elections. At what time do you have these materials arrive? I mean before now we had INEC saying oh we're ready for the elections. We have deployed resources. We have our men on ground and everything looks very okay. But you know that's not the case. So we keep going in circles. We keep going in circles. It's a vicious circle. And then at the end of the day it just shows us that we're not learning anything from it because we ought to learn from our previous experience and improve on it. So we can't continue like this. Now we say that the Anambra election is going to be a reflection of what will happen in 2020. Apparently this is actually what we would expect in conclusive elections. I wouldn't do this in 36 states. If you can't do it in one state and you know finish it up in one day, how are you going to do it in 36 states? How many of the states across the country will be in conclusive? So we will still have the issues. You will still have the issues of having materials not arriving you know when they should arrive and the fact that you know some of these technologies that will be introduced will not be functioning. So all of that and then we'll go on and then elections will not be held in some places and then there will be issue of you know someone actually snatching results sheets and what have you. I heard those sorts of stories like that. I'm not sure what paper carried it. It says a supervising officer disappears with 41 governorship election results sheets in Anambra. And how did that happen with all of the security? You know with all of the security that we have, a person that we have deployed you know. So it calls for, it can be very depressing to be talking about these issues because it feels like we're not even you know we're not getting the point and we may never get it. However we say we're developing nation, we're developing democracy. We hope that we get there someday. It shouldn't be enough you know as an excuse for incompetence regardless. You know and you know I've spoken about incompetence you know from Friday when I was on Plus Politics I was speaking about the eco-e-building collapse and the level of incompetence that has been shown in every single detail of you know handling that disaster every single part of it. The fact that you know they got there and their life-detecting machines were not working because it wasn't charged. Anyway also on top trend this morning we're moving to a story where a foreigner visited the you know the Immortal Muhammad International Airport and made a short video. I'm hoping that we can play that video for you this morning where he complained bitterly about the level of corruption that exists in Nigeria's airports. I think we can let you watch this and we'll talk about it when we come back. Two hours later I'm checked in and I'm almost at the gate from my flight. Oh man you know I've been around the world and I've never seen an airport. That's insane as this one you have here in Lagos. And by that I mean it's extremely corrupt. The Nigerian airport, Lagos airport is that very definition of corruption that would pop up in the dictionary. Literally everywhere literally everything here coming in. You don't want to wait online for your COVID test. Oh pay this guy. You don't want to have your bags checked. Pay this guy. You want to cut the passport line. Pay this guy. You want to bring your Red Bulls to security. Pay this guy. You want to get some crazy British Airways employee off your back who thinks that you were specifically filming him when you're just trying to film yourself checking in. Pay that guy. Oh my god. This is very draining and very stressful here. My friends, Nigeria is not for the faint of heart. Go to East Africa for that. This is the next level. And of course that did go viral over the weekend. Got a lot of people talking about it and sharing their own personal experiences. You know just passing through the airports in Lagos. It's not the first time. I've seen a lot of similar videos and even done by Nigerians. But the level of, I think it was fun that put out a short poster saying we don't collect bribe. The only thing we accept is thank you. Oh really? What is thank you? It's not bribe but you can just give us thank you. Where is thank you coming from? Who ordered the thank you? Thank you. You know the fact that this is not the first time. Let me tell you my sentiment when I first saw the video. I felt really bad. I felt like why would this guy talk about my country like this? No really, I've just been very honest. You know he described me in his word. He said this is the first time I'm getting to an airport. The Lagos airport is insane. You know you could see corruption. He kept on saying it over and over again. And if you want to bypass your COVID test, pay this guy. If you don't want your backs to be checked, pay this guy. If you don't want this. And then I kept feeling so not really. I felt really, really, really angry. Angry? But then I had to come back to reality. That's the other part of me who have been very patriotic and feeling like why should someone talk about my country like this? But on the other hand, what he's saying is it really true or is it just blabbing? The truth is it's not blabbing. This is real. These things actually happen. And it's not just happening in the aviation sector. It happens across parts. In different sectors. You go to different ministries. You go to... I don't know how to put it almost everywhere. These happen. And it doesn't really tell good. You can imagine how I felt. Imagine how I felt. Then you know... I'm not sure why you felt that way. No, I really felt that way. I mean, this is me. I felt very attacked as a person. I felt attacked as a country. Would it have been different if it was a Nigerian saying it? No, maybe. I know where you're putting me at right now. But I don't know... I mean, if you know that these things are true, if you know that... The truth is naturally the first instinct of how you feel would be... I'm trying to be very... I mean, you'll feel like someone is trying to attack you and attack your country. Yeah. And that's some... I don't... It didn't make me feel very good. But of course I had to come back to reality. And that's what I'm saying. It was some sentiment I had a few minutes before. I just told myself, well, some of the things that he has mentioned is really true. The truth is it's true. Well, in what cases where, you know, issue of test, I mean, people have lost valuables and nobody can explain, no accountability. So it is really, really shameful. And until we, you know, we're ready to have this conversation, until we're ready to put this country straight, because usually when we talk about corruption and embezzlement and fraud and what have you, we are very quick to begin to point our fingers at those who were at the top, the governors, you know, the senators and all of that. But like I constantly say, in your little, you know, area of influence and control, in that space that you are, why are you doing what you're doing? And we cannot move forward as a country if you constantly, you know, begin to look the other way. It happens. I mean, there's a time where, including security, I have been in a situation on the show where you have someone call on to say, oh, don't tell me about having checkpoints and police around the area, because what happened? I mean, this has been a situation where someone was being kidnapped, right? And these criminal elements sat on the victim, they passed the first checkpoint, because the police did not look away and say, what do you have for us? And they collected. They passed the second and the third. I mean, if you have three checkpoints, how could they have beat three checkpoints? So the point is, this is real, as much as we want to be very sentimental. I asked myself at the time when I saw the video, the truth is these things really happen. It does not just happen in the aviation sector. And I'm thinking that it's not just a call for government, but we have to be very conscious. We have to come together and say, we have to put an end to this, because the truth is, it's not President Mohammed al-Buhari that is responsible for that act of corruption in there. You are responsible. And so we have to begin to put the act together. That's the only way we can get rid of all of this, you know, bad practices. No, you're looking at me like she's blabbing. No. I'm just like... No, but I'm pained. I'm really pained. It's not in any way shocking to me, because I've passed through all those places before. I mean, there are certain places that you pass through in Nigeria that you immediately have a frown on your face. You immediately start to frown. You immediately are upset, because you do not want to have to pay anybody for anything. You pass through the airport in Nigeria, and I, personally, immediately am angry, because I don't want anyone to smile. Don't smile at me. Don't tell me good afternoons. I don't say anything. Just let me pass my luggage. Let me do whatever tests I need to do. Let me pay whatever I need to pay, and go and sit down and wait for my flight. Don't even say good morning. That's exactly how I've got to do it. And it is because of the trauma of having very, very women, men, people that are old enough to be my father and my uncles and my aunties asking for money for the most basic things. I've just seen it again. It's by the Federal Depots Authority of Nigeria. It says we don't condone extortion at our airports, or we accept this. Thank you. I'm not sure they should have put that thank you. That thank you is not necessary. It's the reality of the Nigerian system. And I wouldn't feel in any way bad that a foreigner is calling us out. We should be ashamed of ourselves enough as a country to do better. Like you said, it's not necessarily the President's fault. Nadia isn't the governor. It is Nigerians in these positions across ministries, departments, and agencies across the whole country that are letting these things happen, or the ones carrying out these levels of corruption and extortion here and there. But it is still a failure of systems, and systems to checkmate these things, because if you leave them to be the way that they are, then obviously people would take advantage of the failure of systems to checkmate these things. If someone had been sacked because of this type of incident, it would have put people in check. But of course, nobody gets fired. Nobody gets questioned. And the most embarrassing part is where he mentioned that he's been to airports across the world. He's been to airports in Afghanistan and North Korea and South Korea everywhere. If you go to the airports in Ghana, they cut two-car airports or cut two-car airports. You would never hear of things like this. But the giant of Africa, Baba himself, big for nothing, is where you go. No, you can't speak of my country like that. I can. It's my country too. It's where you go to and you get to see this. No, but on the other hand, I'm also thinking, could it be that these persons are not properly funded, they're not properly paid. There's no excuse. No, I know it's not an excuse, but I'm also trying to understand why you all of this... It's just a corrupt system. It's greed. That's what it is. And the fact that nobody gets fired for it, that's what it is. There's no excuse. If you say that, then you might as well excuse the police and the police. No, I'm not saying that. I mean, I'm just trying to go around it entirely to understand what is the rationale behind all of this behaviour and practices. But however, like you rightly mentioned, it's like saying jungle justice, the fact that the justice system and the police cannot be trusted. Let's go ahead and kill people. But also on the other hand, it's also important to understand why are these persons behaving the way they're behaving. Maybe hopefully we get to that point where we understand it. But however, like rightly stated, it is not an excuse. It is not acceptable. And if you're in this practice, it's important that you please stop it. We'll take a short break. While we come back, we're moving to off the press and looking at the major stories, and it's across Nigeria at this moment. We'll have our guests join us to, of course, share his views on these stories. More than once again, welcome to the breakfast.