 To do on the breakfast, the organised labour-sick policy change of importation of petroleum products into the country rather than the reduction in the prices would have in-depth analysis as we proceed on the shore. Also on the breakfast, ahead of the February 25th and March 11th elections, experts urge Nigerians to push for health security, especially for the primary healthcare. And don't forget, we'll also be looking through today's newspapers analysing the biggest stories of the day. That's a beautiful morning and thank you for joining us on the breakfast and plus TV Africa we're reaching your live from our studio right here in Victoria Island, Lagos and as always we start off with a top trending conversation. And just so you know, my name is Messi Ebopo. Well we're tired of what Nigerians are talking about and that's very popular, it's still been in the news but you know different dimensions and different reactions to it is the Supreme Court suspension of the CBN's deadline on Naira note swap. The Supreme Court yesterday temporarily halted the move by the federal government through the central bank of Nigeria to ban the use of the old Naira note from February 10th 2023. A seven-man panel led by Justice John O'Korro halted the federal government's plan in a ruling in an expatriate application that was brought by three northern states governors that's of Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara. February 10 deadline for the currency swap that was announced by the CBN of Nigeria. You have governor Eroufai, Nasi Eroufai of Kaduna State, Yahya Bello and Matawale, Bello Matawale of Zamfara. Reporting political parties who have threatened to boycott you know the February 25th election should the CBN extend the deadline. You know that. So I mean against the fact that you have this governor's going to the Supreme Court you also have political parties who are saying per venture the CBN would extend the deadline for the Naira note swap I mean 10th of February is almost here right maybe tomorrow there will not be part of the elections. So it's a lot that's going on in our system. Now this is as the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory restrained the president Muhammad Buhari, the CBN governor, Godwin and Mayfily and 27 commercial banks from suspending and stopping or exceeding or interfering with the currency exchange terminal date. So there's a lot that we have to grapple with now. But one of the things that's been stated this is one thing that Nigerians are talking about. I mean if you look at you know Twitter space which is very popular amongst all social media is that there's a trend, there's hashtag, there's trending and that's the Supreme Court still topping the chart even on point till this moment. And a lot of persons are asking what exactly this is, what does this mean for Nigeria. So don't forget that you have those who have actually approached you know the courts and are asking that there should not be an extension for the debt line, I mean don't even try to do that. And also on the other hand the Supreme Court has a ruling and now this is where we are. So what exactly is the implication for all of this. However it's important to know that this is a temporal halt. This ruling is just temporary and they are still you know another hearing. So they're still going to be hearing as we proceed I mean sometime in February okay. But some persons have said that if you look at the summon it probably would have been very important and very clear to note that it had nothing in it that the Supreme Court shouldn't have entertained this you know, entertained whatever the suits that was being filed by these governors in the first instance. Because reading through the original summons the Supreme Court should have dismissed the case on the spot because the summon lacks any form of substance and it feels like we have decided to continue to devalue the practice of law in Nigeria and everyone seemed to you know discontent and subsist in order of the Supreme Court and what have you I mean there's a lot that's going on okay. But this is very very unfortunate it's very unfortunate. We also hear some people who are asking that the president she uses veto power his veto power to override the ruling of the Supreme Court and do we think we want to set that precedent we're also worried about the fact that we have set a precedent already by politicians political class you see every other time we get to approach you know the courts approach the Supreme Court for cases where we should have just you know let it slide and we know that the Supreme Court is has a final say I mean the laws whatever the ruling is is is the final court in the land and so whatever it is that the ruling or the judgment whatever it is you want to however you put it is final and is supreme and cannot be contested because after the Supreme Court then you probably have to go meet God you know to decide your case but we move away from that fingers across we can only you know ask and pray that we do the right thing we have to be guided by our conscience and we can't continue to act differently and expect a different result but this holds a lot of confusion for Nigerians what exactly would happen should we go ahead and spend you know the Naira note what exactly is the CBN saying there's no response however we've not also had any response from the president what another that's very interesting is that you have Erufai the sitting governor of Kaduna State who's gonna head to let's let me quickly see if I can put out that he said you can continue to spend the old notes reasonable will reverse decision when he wins following the Supreme Court's temporal stoppage of the central bank from withdrawing the old notes from circulation right this is what it is and some persons are thinking that this is not entirely this should not be the case really how can we continue encouraging impunity encouraging disregard I mean it's a lot that's going on and when you want to look at that you ask yourself how exactly are we faring with our with our democracy and especially with the judiciary as a judiciary been bought over what what is really going on and do we even need to begin to think about the ideas that people are suggesting that the president should exercise his powers and is that the antecedent that we want to it will make nonsense of the Supreme Court and we can't continue like that as a people but we would definitely continue to bring you all of the developments as we proceed now another interesting conversation as we inch closer to the elections all of this would have an implication for the elections let's not forget the NMPC has promised to end fuel scarcity in one week so let's see how that becomes I mean what's going to become of this promise it probably will not be the first time over time we've had the government saying that we have enough petrol it's not the issue of scarcity we haven't enough to cater for the needs of Nigerians the petrol scarcity been witnessed across the country CBN is I beg your pardon the NMPC saying will reduce from next week right and this statement came on the heels of renewed efforts by the Nigerian national petroleum company limited that's the NMPCL to maintain 450.92 million litres of weekly evacuation of petrol to different filling stations across the country and I remember that at some point there's a report where if you look at our consumption rate for the petrol what we consume as 8.1 million you know liters of petrol that's what it is that I'm sure it probably would have increased because of you know population and the demand for it I mean the more cars you have the more people increase I mean the more houses you have this need for all of that especially when the energy sector I mean we're talking about the power sector of the country has not been sorted out well don't forget that the NMPCL separately promised an improvement in petrol subsidy across the country prior to this time and not they're saying from next week they are showing Nigerians and they're saying that the federal government is determined to ensure adequate supply where you have silver calling on security agencies to prevent any attempt by elements to cause any disruption of fuel supply ahead of the generic elections who also have the umpire that's Inaq whose complaint of her concerns of you know the petrol shortage or scarcity might also affect you know the election because I mean the umpire has had the responsibility of conducting these elections and then materials have to be moved from a point from point A to point B and they have stated that yes this scarcity would go a long way to affect us I think we started talking about petrol scarcity in Nigeria as of 2022 around November if I'm not mistaken and here we're still talking about it the queues have not disappeared the queues are still very much available and the prize of petrol has gone very high people are buying petrol for 350 naira depending on where you're buying from and you just don't want to even patronize you know the black markets you ask yourself how do those in this black markets get this product what's going on the products is not available at the filling stations because you have some filling stations that are short well this would also be part of a conversation in as we proceed on the cost of a conversation this morning on the show now I'm not on the top training is that Inaq says she's going to be working with an Inaq's Yolouma led PAC committee for the election the independent national electoral commission Inaq has said that there's no other option rather than to work with the Lagos state PACs management committee for the distribution of election materials and personnel in the state Olu Shegun Agbaje was very responsible for that statement he's Inaq resident electoral commissioner in Lagos and he spoke during an interactive agency consultative committee on election security meeting at the commission's office right here in Lagos Agbaje said that working with the committee which is led by a king Sawyer who's popularly known as M. S. Yolouma would not compromise the elections because there's been several consents by Nigerians asked to the collaboration with Inaq especially for Lagos and he said we're going to work to distribute the materials now the governor of the state Lagos state to be precise Babaji Desong Olu had set up the PAC committee after banning the operations of the National Union of Road Transport Workers that's the NURTW and the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria now following reactions the presidential candidate of the People's Democratic Party Atikua Bubaka has also reportedly his wand of Inaq against the use of the PAC's committee and he raised that alarm saying that M. S. Yolouma is a member of the all-progressive Congress that's the AAPC and that's also a lot saying that there's been several solidarity rallies for the party by him and there's no trust I mean so you begin to have suspicion there's a lot of suspicion around this collaboration especially for distribution of materials the election materials in Lagos in response to this you know situation same I mean the resident electoral commissioner in Lagos right here said that the commission is only concerned about meeting up with the high volume of logistics needs for the elections and he said that the movement of electoral personnel and materials would be monitored by security agencies and party agents and observers and so apparently there's no need for worry and there's no need for fear but can we really take that out especially when a lot of Nigerians have expressed you know lack of trust for the umpire a lot of people do not think that INEC has what it takes to conduct a free fair and credibly elections looking at the patterns and the behavior also thinking that they're probably and not entirely independent and you also cannot rule out you know the statement or some of the pointers from the presidential candidates of the People's Democratic Party we expect that the umpire according to the nomenclature is an independent electoral commission and is expected that it should be independent in all sense not being affiliated if you also make reference to the electoral act is expected that they don't belong to any political party whatsoever no affiliation independence have a mind of their own so they are able you know to go ahead in conducting elections every other time and ensure that deliver free and fair elections without any interference or being on the side of another party but when you talk about that collaboration he should raise a lot of concern and just like you know Artikwa Buboka has mentioned the MC Oluwomo right here and the Pakistan Association they seem to have an affiliation I mean not seem they do have an affiliation it's very open and it's very clear that he's of you know the APC so yeah so at what point can we say that you know in the course of transporting these materials sensitive election materials including personnel especially for legal state would have no sort of you know interference I mean interests would not begin to change so it's very worrisome but you begin to ask yourself don't forget that the independent national electoral commission that's INEC had presented a budget of 305 billion for the 2023 general elections to the national assembly and the question would be is it that you know 305 billion including the 40 billion Naira which is an annual budget for the electoral body I mean it's separate from 305 billion Naira plus 40 billion I'm sure you want to begin to calculate all of that uh is that not enough for you know the empire to cater for transportation how many years from 2019 elections then we have 2020 elections I mean four years after INEC couldn't have been able to provide what it takes to go ahead and transport materials in Lagos and also transport you know her personnel without having any uh affiliation with a government agency uh responsible for transportation or monitoring transport activities in a certain state this is a lot if the people have we're talking about the fact that Nigerian there's a trust deficit in the system already so you government can come up and say this is what we intend to do but the people do not trust the system and if that's the case then how do we continue to you know give the people the reason to not trust the system or not trust the process this particular effort has been flagged of by a lot of Nigerians and they have expressed lack of trust with that particular collaboration I was saying I didn't know all the ways of you know going about this what exactly is it I mean why is it that you know the state at this point in time I don't know resources to say okay you're able to get your own vehicles why can't INEC own her own vehicles where they can transport materials and let's even say that the only challenge that they might be faced with is the the challenge of petrol why can't INEC uh say okay we have to hire vehicles and what have you these are the some of the consents that Nigerians have raised as regards this particular collaboration transporting election materials uh that's in collaboration with the PAC committee or which is led by MCYLOMA who we know is very much of the APC okay we will take a break at this point and when we return we'll be joining as ikan jai took four off the press please stay with us good morning