 Today on the breakfast, National Executive Council of the all-progressive Congress APC PECS 100 million nears the cost for its 2023 presidential aspirant to obtain form, spark and mixed reactions among Nigerians. Bandits kill three, abduct several in simultaneous attacks in distant Rumi community of Katsena. To be lied to the point, I ask Boss Eric Tenha at his new manager to replace interim Rob Rankinick at the end of the season. What lies ahead for the club? And as always, we'll be reviewing the biggest stories making the headlines across the national data. Good morning to you. Thanks for joining us. This is the Breakfast on Plus TV Africa. I am Justin Acadone. I am Messi Bopu. It's good to have you join us this morning. Yes, it's Friday and we are thanking God as always. And I'm sure lots of people have great plans for the weekend and Messi is doing something great this weekend, right? You're sleeping, you're resting, and you're going to the beach. I'm sleeping great. For me, I'll be going for a wedding. Okay, that's fine. All the best. More to say. Let's just slide into what's trending. The wife of the president Aisha Buhari is in the news and this time around, she has invited the presidential aspirants to break fast. That's if-tah. Messi, this is something good, right? And for more, we are here. The aspirants who are supposed to come, are not supposed to come with their mobile phones, except for Vice President Yemio Shiba-Johanda, right? Why are you going like that? Because I don't know what's going on. I don't even understand what's happening in the country. The truth is, this has also generated a lot of conversation in different spaces and that's why we're talking about it. Some persons have said, what is really going on? And they know that some persons will not. So there's been a comparison. They say it's protocol. It is protocol that when you have the president or you have the vice president and you have, you know, maybe the first lady, I really don't know whether it's written or can't categorically say, because I'm not in ass or rock, so I don't understand the happenings and the doings, you know, in the presidency. But of course, it's been stated that if you have, I mean, if the president or the vice president or any other person was going to be hosting personalities, then they're not expected to come in with their mobile devices, right? But one would say if you're asking, that's because it's an event that's going to have a lot of persons come in. I really don't know what's the rationale behind not having, you know, mobile devices around because it's the wife of the president. But some people are saying that there's a political undertone to all of this. It's just a disguise. If you remember, it's in public space. The wife of the president has not been very available in the Nigerian space. As a matter of fact, there are some quarters that have reported that the wife of the president has relocated from Nigeria since 2017. And that's it. No, you need to go check that. These are some of the reporters. She's not been in Nigeria since 2017, and she usually just shows up. She had relocated with some of her children. She doesn't live in Nigeria. I really don't understand, but it's okay. It's not like there's anyone in the constitution that would say the wife of the president shouldn't vote. I mean, one would just expect that if your husband is the president, then you should be beside your side. Of course, where else can you be? The constitution does not make any provision. I mean, there's no provision for the office of the First Lady. No, there isn't. Yes, there's no constitutional provision for that. But by virtue of being the wife of the president... Yes, morally, you have to be here. You are the first woman of the nation. I don't know. This small conversation doesn't probably lead us anywhere. So right now, with this particular one, I'm really surprised. For me, I'm asking, why would the wife of the president invite presidential aspirant really? She wants to have a tail-toe with them, so they could actually drive a conversation of maybe unity. Why? Why are you asking me that? Why? Am I her spokesperson? Sorry, this is some of the questions that I'm asking. I mean, it's been a lot of thinking. They talk about the state of the nation, the polity. In what capacity? In what capacity? If you're talking about breaking the fast, if you look at the activity surrounding it, it's a very spiritual activity. Of course. Most times, when they break fast, they pray to break the fast after a long time without food and all of that. But on the sidelines, you could actually talk about what's going on in the country. I'm not just talking about that. They're going to talk. Since, from what we understand, let me even just read the people who have indicated interest. So you understand what would eventually fall out from them. So far, those who have indicated interest to contest the 2023 presidential election, the vice president, Professor Yemi Oshiba-Jo, former vice president, Atiku Obuboka, the old progressives, Congress, National Leader, Bola Akmatenabu, former governor of Anambra State, Peter B., and former president of the Nigerian Senate, Ani Empires, Ani Mambukalasaraki, then Nesomweke, David Umai. We have a blend of Christians and Muslims. Yes, it's a combination of everything. Now with the restriction on the mobile phones, do you also expect the vice president not coming with his phone? No, the vice president is actually exempted from that. The former president, how about the former president? Don't ask me that. I didn't get the memo. I didn't make the rules. I mean, the former vice president, Atiku Obuboka would be present there. Yeah, he would. Are you sure? I'm very interested. From what was gathered, it would not apply to vice president Yemi Oshiba-Jo, governor and minister as well. So every other person, including the former vice president, which a lot of persons have queried. Some people are saying they're not sure if the former vice president would be in attendance, but we're going to be monitoring this event. Of course, we'll bring you up to speed with what will be happening as it actually happens. I'm really interested. I wish I could be part of that meeting. If you went in there, you could go with some spy camera or something that I could record. Why are you trying to do my cover? You said you're finding it interesting and not allowing you to use your mobile device. I'm sure you'd look for some spy gadget. So you have bloated my cover. I love my mission to this council. So we're going to talk to your commentary since I'll be here. Let's move on. Also, the former president of Nigeria, Chief Olusha Gorbason-Jo is in the news, and this time around, he is calling for state policing. He is actually bothered about the issues of the state of antiquity in the country. And he is calling for state policing. This is not the first time the issue of state policing has actually taken front burner. This time around, it has been renewed. State policing, a lot of people have actually said one or two things concerning state policing. How it might be abused by the state governor. But other people are saying that if it's actually in place, people, the residents will be able to actually take this issue of security, you know, like their own it, like their own, and they'll be able to even monitor police themselves better. So you're very correct because the argument that has been put against the use of or acceptance of state police is that we're not right for it. That's the argument. Now, you have the school of thoughts who say that if you look at the first and second republic that state police at the time was used as an instrument of terror by opponents. So in the first and second republic and as such were not ripe and ready for it. Now, you also have the school of thoughts still saying that the state police will not be able to handle the issue of terrorism and that's also another argument that's been put out by these peasants who are arguing against it. But if you remember that we had a conversation yesterday and in the course of this conversation or within the week we had talked about, some of our guests have talked about having practicing federalism. I like not to use the word true federalism because there's nothing like true federalism. No, it's because it came up because we see we're practicing federalism in the country and at the end it's true. So it's because we're not practicing federalism. That's why you have the concept and the concept feels like it's just within our political sphere. We're the ones that coined this word true federalism. Right? So we're true federalism. Federalism is federal. We're not practicing it and that's why we're having this. But if you look at it if you look at the component of it, if you look at the characteristics of a federal system of government, then you understand that we're far from it and we're not doing what it is. But you see, for all of those persons who have made these excuses against the practice, there's no system there's nothing entirely that's actually perfect or doesn't have their flaws. So because you can't actually want to wake up and say state policing is absolutely the perfect solution. And you can also not say that state policing is not the perfect solution. So like I would say there's no theory, there's no system that's actually perfect. But if we continue under disguise, we will never get any results or what stops us from crying. Maybe just jump into the test the waters as it were. It's not a matter of even testing the waters. It's a matter of we not having strong institutions. And if you look at the argument that governors would actually take advantage of these police officers to use the state instrument to begin to, you know, carry out their interests and what have you as cited in the first and the second republic, you will find that in the system is as we have strongly we have a system where we have more strong persons rather than strong institutions. Those institutions are not strong. So we have weak institutions and that's why you have an individual so powerful that they can control the institution. So if we get to a point where we have these institutions that are very strong and these institutions are not just operated by spirit. They are operated by human beings. So you have structures that don't operate in space but operated by persons. And so we need to get to a point where we have strong institutions. We can't constantly make all of these excuses. First of all, we're not a federating unit. It's in the books. That's what we are. We say to the constitution but in practice we're far from it. A federal republic of Niger, are we a federated unit? Because if we are they should have stayed policing. That's what I'm saying is just in the books and not in its real sense. And why are we afraid of this? It's because we're not afraid of challenging what it is. We have actually decided to build strong men. Why would a governor have a control? I mean would have control over it. The institution. Why would people be stronger than institutions? These things will need constitutional review over time. Because these show of governors being in charge. Although most times the laws actually have not been implemented. We know all these laws that we have in Nigeria but most times implementation is another issue. We could actually walk around that, review the constitution and the walk-ins of the state police. The United States of America that we try to follow, they are actually practicing in quote, true federalism. They are police. They have state police departments across in as much as they do that but they still have the federal police as well. But the federal police only comes in situation that is above the state. But general crimes and everything is done on the state level. And they've been doing well. I think we should actually dive into it if you ask me. Because at the end of the day it would be that you have people who understand the terrain. You would use the local men and the people around to police the community. And that's what it is. Not the fact that you would have to. And then another argument that has been put out is the fact that resources are still grappling. We have a number of states that have not been able to pay the minimum wage. So the argument also would be will states be able to foot the bills? Would they be able to pay salaries? We have to challenge them to try to generate data. There are a lot of states that are sitting on resources that have not been tapped because of the fact that powers are not being developed. And so it is really sad that we have gone through the constitutional review in 2022. And you know the part of this particular part has not been taken care of. The issue of having states being self-sufficient and sorting out their issues because it would make everybody sit up on the idea of everyone running the team. They should borrow a leave from Lagos state government because over time, you know, Lagos the way the police system or security system has been so decentralized that you find that almost everyone has a role to play. There's the network neighborhood security watch. We have the OPC somehow they still have the vigilante groups and the Lagos state there's a security trust fund which helps to form the police. I mean if you look at the constitution it gives rights to governors to even speak to the commissioner of police. Usually the argument is you have to think that we're not in charge of the security architecture. But it's within the ambience, it's within the discretion of the commissioner of police to decipher whether or not what the governor has actually said is within justice. So to some end they still have that control. But the constitution I mean it's not exclusive, it's not that they still have this power entirely. So the CP would still have to decipher whether this is right or wrong. They are still so important to the IG. The concept about you know, governors not being entirely in charge is not really, really, really true. Because to some extent they have some control but not entire control. And that's what the argument is. But we're saying that if we're a federating unit, what stops us from being a federating unit, what stops us from being a federated unit. And that's where you have states controlling their resources and you have them controlling, having state police, where they can actually handle the issue. And like you have mentioned, if you need the consent of the federal government in cases they can handle, then you can have the federal government come. Alright, that's all for top trending right now. We'll take a quick break and we'll be going straight to off the press in a moment where we will be reviewing the front pages of major dailies in a moment to join us again.