 Today on the breakfast, the National Union of Transport to Air Transport Employees and Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria as well as the Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria have suspended their one day old strike. We'll look at the reasons behind this aviation worker strike and the effect on the aviation sector in Nigeria. Also on the breakfast, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Ip Man says cost of premium motor spirit permits could rise to 800 Naira per litre if fuel subsidy is removed. And of course like always we will be reviewing the biggest stories making the headlines across the national dailies today. All these ahead on the breakfast. Very good morning to you. We're back with the Breakfast on Plus TV Africa, our beautiful Tuesday morning reaching live from our studios at Victoria Island Lagos. Apologies for bringing the program behind schedule due to circumstances beyond our control, but we're here and of course the show must go on. My name is Kofi Bartels. I am Messi Bokois. Good to have you join us this morning. All right. Yes indeed, mercy. Yesterday it was quite interesting, you know, the flurry of activities, flurry of sirens, flurry of convoys, crisscrossing, you know, parts of Lagos, why? Because President Mohamed Buhari was in town. There's a first story on a trending, top-trending segment this morning and indeed the president was in town to commission seven projects which include the Lecky Deep Sea Port. The Lecky Deep Sea Port. He was also here to commission the Lagos Rice Mill. The Lagos Rice Mill. He was also here to commission the blue line of the Lagos Metro Rail, which starts from my arena and some other projects as well, something to MRS, I need to get the details. But let's listen to what his Excellency President Mohamed Buhari had to say when he commissioned the Lecky Deep Sea Port. Oh, well. All right. Well, interesting. You know, the Lecky Deep Sea Port is a project that is so close to the heart of the Lagos State Governor. I was just having a look at the Tudor account of the Lagos State Governor, who informed negotiations that the president was arriving in Lagos State. The governor of Lagos State, his Excellency, he said that President Buhari was arriving in Lagos State for what he called a festival of projects, you know, whilst they're, of course, in some states. You know, they called the Governor's Mr. Project and all that. In Lagos State, the governor said that Mr. President was arriving in Lagos State for festival, what it calls a festival of projects. Indeed, it was a festival of projects, mercy. I mean, look at the projects we're talking about here. The Lagos Rice Mill Emota, which is said to be the biggest rice mill in Africa. That is amazing. In Africa. And this rice mill is a 2 by 16 metric ton per hour mill, standing on an area of 8.5 hectares of land with an annual per day requirement of about 240,000 metric tons. It's said to produce 2.5 million bags of rice, 50 kg rice, in particular, all right, let's be sure, per annum. And of course, we're hearing that it will generate about 250 direct and indirect jobs. I had to do my research. See, it was actually about 254,000 direct jobs and about 1,500, no, 254,000 indirect jobs and about 1,500 direct jobs. Let's move on from that. Don't forget, Governor Babadjuli Saulo said it's a festival of projects. The second one, like we, the first one, like we just saw the video there, the lucky deep sea port. This is, this is, you know, the first deep sea port in Nigeria. I mean, I was surprised to hear that all the ports in Nigeria, of all the ports we know, even in Lagos state, none of them is deep sea. And this is the first deep sea port in, in, in Nigeria. Merci. This is the largest single infrastructure investment by a private sector in Nigeria, in the history of this country. Okay. The largest single investment by, by the private sector in the history of Nigeria, infrastructure, in infrastructure, 1.5 billion US dollars, all right. And the governor of Lagos state also put out on his Twitter handle. He's treating like Donald Trump used to tweet, you know, to communicate with people. He says that the lucky deep sea port is a game changer spanning over 600 meters with the capacity to take 16,000 standard containers. So that's amazing. Now, you know, some people are saying, no, why is, why is government, you know, citing the port in, in another port in Lagos when the other parts of the country that needs need ports, you know, but it's instructive. It's very important for people to realize and to understand that the lucky deep sea port is not a government project. Government money is not here. Okay. There are two, two companies who are promoting this port. The lucky deep sea, the lucky free zones limited is a special purpose vehicle or SPV that was made, recently made popular by a voice note said to be Atticus voice note SPV. There's a special purpose vehicle by Tolama, which is a private company headquartered in Toloroma, Tolorama, rather, which is a private company headquartered in Singapore. And then a Chinese company also as well. So those are two companies behind this. No government. However, mercy. I mean, I followed some conversations online and on there. The rice meal is a Lego steak up and project. And people are saying, why would government spend such money to settle rice meals when we don't have pipe-borne water in Lagos? I should have used the money to measure that you can open your tap, okay, at, you know, where you live and then you can get water, you know, into your cup and drink, you know, that then why would the very legacy government invest money in a rice meal like this when we don't have housing? Someone told said his road in the limo show is not good. Why would the government use the money to do a rice meal? The rice meal is in Ecuador. And other people are seeing through the conversation online that Lagos does not have rice farms. So rice is a rice meal in Lagos state when the rice will be in Eboi. The rice is in Abakiliki. The rice is in Kibi. The rice is in Tarrabah. The rice is in Sokoto. The rice is in Quara. Why is that? That is a waste. It's a poor economic decision. So these are some of the conversations. I don't know what you think about this, but that's some of the things we've been talking about. There's a lot that's been going on, just like you have rightly mentioned. There are a lot of concerns that Nigerians have raised as to ownership. You have mentioned the China harbour. You have mentioned the, what's it called again? Tolorama? Yes, Tolorama. And the Lagos state government, they have a share of about 20 percent, if you look at shareholders of the Lake Deep Sea port, China harbour seem to have the highest of shareholding in the Lake Deep Sea port, which is 52.5 percent, followed by Tolorama, which is 22.5 percent, and Lagos state 20 percent. Then the federal government and the NPA owns about 5 percent. And some people say, however, it's a viable project because the loans, eventually the debt will be repaid because, I mean, this project, you're finding that it's some sort of private ownership and what have you. Absolutely. But not to also discard some of the conversations that Nigerians have raised as far. You have other deep sea ports and other parts of the country that are not functional and then you're having another sea port again. You have also made emphasis that all the ports that we have are sea ports, but they are not deep. This is like a deep sea port. There's one in Ibaqa and there's one that was called Ibaqa Deep Sea Port, but now known as Ibom Deep Sea Port. However, the project has not taken off. So it's almost the same thing as, you know, if you also remember Cross River State, there's also a conversation about the Deep Sea Colour Deep Sea Port. Merci. Merci. Merci. Merci. Let's not go there. Please. No, I know we're not going there, but I'm just trying to mention. So it's, I think that every, for every time you have a project, it's very commendable. I mean, it would mean a lot. For instance, one of such benefits is that we're not going to be losing to, you know, the Kotonu port any longer. So I mean, all of the economic activities and what have you, that Kotonu has been getting. Benna Republic in particular. Yes. Benna Republic in particular, I beg your pardon, but a lot of people will get to call that. We'll be coming to, you know, Vegas and Nigeria, so that should be a plus, right? As much as there are also other things, people always expected government policies should reflect the interests of the people. I mean, solve immediate problem and what have you. A lot of people would say for every time you have a project, this project, you have people's who's interest. I mean, who, persons who are going to be, you know, benefiting and at the end of the day might not necessarily be, you know, to the benefit of the masses. But it's not in all cases, especially in this, I think that it would trickle down, you know, to the economy at large. It would contribute to the revenue base of Lagos State and of course it would also help at the time where we're grappling with finances and what have you. Yeah, but you know, let's see some, some people are, they don't want all these things we are saying, of course, they don't want to hear it. They're not happy that the ports in the Southeast, for instance, are not working. People are not happy that the Calabar port is working, but, you know, it's not in the right. The capacity ahead, the capacity that the port can take is not being utilized because of the dredging of the Calabar River. And we can talk about the port in River State or the NPA port in Potaco Township. And what about the one in the Southeast? You know, the Second Niger Bridge has sort of like, they say it's blocked, you know, I don't know what it's going to affect anything. But people want to see even spread. But like we've said, this is a private sector driven project. And the private sector, if you don't, and I'm glad you gave us a breakdown of the shareholding. You can't tell the private sector man where to put his money. You understand? There is a purpose this project was created for, which is to support the growing oil and gas industry in this part of the country. You know, there has been discovery of oil, you know, so they want to support that. But another question that has been asked, you may say you stay on the leaky corridor. I won't say where, but it's a very expensive place. Because mess is the expensive one, if you ask me. You stay on the leaky corridor. People are saying if they are going to do what they said they will do, which is to use that place to offload, or they're not going to use the roads, they'll have a way of getting things through the waters to anybody who wants to export. And then take it from the ships to other places to offload. But if they don't do that, and then they use the roads, OK? The Jebudi axis, sorry I'm stretching, the Jebudi axis, through which you can get to that leaky. The road is not good from what I hear, what I cover. Then look at Mainland, Third Mainland Bridge, through Iqoi, Victoria land to leaky. Is it this road they want to use to get trucks to? So imagine that's one way in, one way out leaky corridor messy. We are coming to work, you know what to go through. One way in, one way out. Now add all those trucks and containers that are blocking the papa. So I really don't know what I find, you know, I seem to be... We have to use it to get leaky from the house. I don't mind, you know, because there's a lot of stress. But you see, sometimes it's not because one has to be very critical, because most times when you make all of this observation, I mean it's almost like you're critical of every... But you think that road... So my point here is this, if you live in Lagos, even if you just arrive Lagos for the first time and you live around this patch, you know that the major reason people are going through all of the stress, I'll call it stress, you know, the traffic trying to navigate your way back from work or going to one point or the other, it's because of the road network, poor road network. And that's also a major concern. So what would have thoughts that, you know, the leaky project, the deep seaport is a well thought out project. I mean, it's not that we woke up in 2023 and it's something that would have been thought out. So I want to believe that they also have a plan on how they will navigate traffic and ensure that the lives, you know, the ease of movement, people can move or go about their businesses without encountering. But I know that you've raised some value points, which I'm saying, which I'm saying that it should have been thought out before this time. And we're just only crossing our fingers to see how, you know, they hope to navigate the path. But one would want to expect that the major challenge that you have, if you ask anybody, the issue of movement because of poor road network, the road network on the island and that of the mainland different entirely. So you don't have, and then you have a lot of houses. I always imagine if you have a situation, let's say there's a volcano eruption, you know, or there's some sort of, I mean, just think about anything, a serious natural disaster. What happens? Everybody that's coming from Maga is going to be, so there's going to be a stampede. People will lost their lives. Let me go for a bit to that. No, I'm just saying, no, sometimes we need to imagine this. You need to think about it. No, just that, it's normal to go for a bit, Yes, we need to go. The government said they're going to turn the access road to that port to Six Lane Highway. So maybe, I don't know maybe how many years it will take, but we hope that... Well, we need to go now because we're out of time. So we'll just take a break and we'll join our guests. We'll stand by for all of the press, please stay with us. Good morning.