 On the breakfast today, with a glamourful past shift to the south, the zoning of the presidential ticket of the People's Democratic Party PDP for the 2020 presidential election has divided the governors and national assembly members. Also, on the breakfast, the super eagles of Najir arrived Kumaasi for the World Cup playoff of the fest-leg encounter with the Black Stars of Ghana today. And don't forget, we'll also be looking through today's newspapers and analyzing the biggest stories of the day. Welcome to the breakfast on PLOS TV Africa. I am Justin Acadone. I am Merci beaucoup. It's a beautiful Friday morning and there's always, you have a lot of people saying thank God it's Friday. I hope you're seeing that already. Yes, I am Merci. You don't know how Friday is. You know, well Friday, you haven't worked Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. You can doze, you can go to the beach, you can just relax and not think about work. I think you'll be very dramatic this morning. I'm not thinking of going to Nollywood, but the thing is that I prefer the fact that Friday is here and I'm not thinking of working tomorrow. Definitely. That's good for you, but not for every other person. They will do time work, they'll try and rest on Sunday then. It's entirely not complete. Yes, it is Friday and whatever it is, you just have to find and take time to really rest. I think that should be an advice I should give to myself, right? Yeah, anyone should just find time to really rest because there's nothing like resting after having gone through maybe a rigorous week. What a Friday it is today and their trending just and trending stories are making the round to cross social media across Nigeria, across the world. Merci, more declarations ahead of 2023 elections. A lot of people are declaring, you know. Merci, do you have anybody that is clean in your family? Is that why I could support them or because it's 2023? This is where all the monies are being pushed around though. Well, I really don't think that, you know, that's not the kind of politics that we're looking forward to talking about more declaration. The reason that's making the headlines is because you have Peter Albi, former governor of Anambar State, declaring his intention. Prior to this time, you had the fact that a lot of people were saying, oh, we want Peter Albi, you know, to come through or come out. And because I think that this seems to be a trend. Now, the trend is you have people who come out to say, we want you to become president. Some people are just saying, Justin, you have to be president. Justin, you need to go out. So eventually Peter Albi and that's getting several reactions, got a lot of people talking. He's a former governor of Anambar State, like I mentioned earlier. And he's joined the race, the race for presidency come 2023. And some people are saying, oh, really, what about the Biafran agitation? What happens to it? Are you really serious? And some other person said, if you really look at Peter Albi, he never really, Peter Albi never came out to, there was never a time where he came out to say they wanted to contest or give him support. Yes, that's true of the Biafran agitation. So that was, I mean, so you can actually say there's a lot of mixed feelings following his declaration. A lot of people are thinking that this time to is not late as much as some people feel like you have all the persons who have been ahead of this. I mean, they have been or they're already out and they have talked about their intention and he might just be a little bit late. But, you know, the elections, the campaigns are yet to start. I don't even think that that's an issue. It's okay for people to come out with, you know, intentions and say they want to declare. But we'll quickly hold on to these thoughts. We take a break now and let's quickly roll the tape and look at this one when we come through. We'll continue the conversation. Please stay with us. Yeah, that's the former governor of a number of states there, Peter Obie, making his declaration and his intention known to run for the presidency come 2023 and made, you know, reactions from various stakeholders. You know, Twitter was a buzz yesterday and the Nigerians are talking. You know, Mr. D talked about the Biafran agitation and all of that. But then I still believe that if Peter Obie wants to run, he has all legitimate right to run for presidency. You know, amazingly, just on Sunday, a 35-year-old IT expert also declared his intention to be president. Some people would like to question what does he, what does he bring into the table? What is his pedigree? What has he done for the country? He has not even gone through maybe the local government, the House of Representatives, the Senate, or even, you know, the state House of Assembly. But the fact is that some people just want to see changes, you know, made in the country and they feel that one way they can do that is by trying to push themselves out and to make their voices known. Well, as much as that's very valid because the Constitution allows for everyone to contest and, you know, vie for political office vote and be voted for, there's within the Constitution a right to do all of that. But you also want to look at the issue of, wait a minute, the presidency is a serious issue. Yes, we'll understand. So it's okay. So we're going to have more peasants coming out to, you know, put out their intention at the end of the day. There's a lot to the elections. There's a lot to becoming the president or the governor. Even though we know that there's been a pattern, there's been a culture over time, but we're hoping that we're able to, you know, break that jinx and, you know, move forward. But sometimes that's because I really saw someone who said they were going to, I mean, some people would say if it was in another context, would probably be said that, you know, it's the issue of racism. So I took to my Twitter account, I mean, of course, I took Twitter and I said, as much as it's within your right to contest for, I mean, it's within your right to say, yeah, you want to become president and contest the election. But we also need to understand that the office of the presidency is not a joke, because I've seen a lot of jokes. I would call it a joke. I'm really sorry. It's within your right. Well, it feels like it's a joke. First of all, you have to belong to a political party. Now, we know the issue that we're grappling with right now in Nigeria. We're talking about the issue of having two dominant parties. Yesterday, we had one of a resource person. I mean, talking about, oh no, I have to remember his name now. Our guest on the show, Ezekiah Itok, who said he feels like the media has been pushing a certain narrative as regards who becomes certain narrative as regards political party, those who are contending and all of that. So it feels like the narrative, the media has shaped over time a two party system. Even though that's not in the books, it's a multi-party system. Well, of course, you have two dominant parties. I don't want to mention your name. Probably might just be might just be counted for some set of adverts. But we already know, right? But that's not the point. So as much as you want to look at that, these political parties, one of the things that's unique about them is the fact that or they have in common, it's the fact that they have structures. You talk about structures and ideologies at all. Not necessarily, because I don't, if they do have ideologies, I don't mind, there's always a cross-cutting. But the issue is the fact that they have structures. And so structures across the 36th local government, because those who vote most times, you see all of the rant on Twitter are brilliant, very fantastic, very patriotic. But it doesn't trickle down to you having, you know, a PVC or getting out on the day of election to vote. So those are the grassroots. Do you see those grandpas and the grandma? The ones who even do the virtual voting. So there's a lot. And what do they recognize? They're no two logos. They can understand that it's this or it's that. I will not mention. That's the point. So for those of, I mean, a lot of persons, I saw one that really triggered me and made me put on that tweet. I can't tell you, I don't know what political party. But I felt very embarrassed. I felt like, you know, we think that we're a joke of a country. The office of the presidency is not a joke. No, that's the best thing. Within your ambience, it doesn't mean that anyone here because I've seen a lot of people just come out of the country and want to become the president. Really? How? Okay, let's move our legs to a slide away from all of that, because who knows, I just might declare my intention to run. And you must see who you would support me. You'd be my campaign manager. Because I'm not, you know, partisan. Well, an independent candidature, that is. Anyway, this one goes out for guys right now. Would you take contraceptives? Because a research finding just came out and it all said that male contraceptives are 99% effective. Over time, I will talk about contraceptives. It is more of a woman thing, you know, what they usually would take. Miss, why are you giving me that face? What they usually take, you know, to avoid them getting pregnant. But right now, men can also take contraceptives and it has been proven to be 99% effective. Would you, as a man, take contraceptives? Mercy, why are you laughing? I will not take contraceptives. It's as though you're almost emasculating me. Why are you laughing, Miss? I don't know. I mean, to be very honest, I really don't know where this conversation is heading. But, you know, it's a very good one. Is it? Very good one at a time where we're grappling with population. If you look at our population, population can be a strength. It can also be a witness. And I think that for Nigeria, we have a population. If you want to really say, if you look at our population, we're really very productive. And when you have a productive population, it calls for a lot of consent. It does. So, security consent is there as well. There are a lot of issues. So, I really don't know how this would go. It sounds really funny, I must say. Let me put it to you. If you were married, would you ask your husband to take contraceptives? I don't know what that means. I don't understand. But, you know, it sounds like a brilliant idea. It is a brilliant idea. Very brilliant idea. We need to begin to... We should leave the contraceptives to you. No, I think we need to begin to control. This is actually another form of Beth control. When we talk about Beth control, we push it, you know, to the other side of the gender. But it's very brilliant. And there's a two ways to do that. It's been found 99% effective. That means that, you know, we're at it right now. And I think that Nigeria should embrace this. We need to get to a point where we begin to control the children that we put out. I don't want to say chunk out. If you say chunk out, it feels like it's production process. It doesn't sound very human. I mean, very sarcastic and very funny about this one because it's so funny. But I think it's a very brilliant idea. Trust me, whoever came up with this one did very great. And Africans should begin to embrace this. Yesterday. Yesterday, so that's our video. I don't know, did you see that video yesterday? Which of the videos? So, there's a video that was put out yesterday by... Ah, God. So, why everybody's name is skipping my mic? You're getting old. Which is okay, all day is acceptable. So, yesterday you have this, so you have a musician. He's very comical. He's always expressing his concern and crush for DJ Kopi. Yeah, I'm trying to remember. Age again. I remember that stuff. I remember his, what the name is very popular for. And he talked about that people should begin to have children that they can cater for. Children that you're planning for. I wonder why people have so many kids. So, if you have male contraceptive right now and it's been found 99% effective, boom, it's the solution. It's the answer. No, we both take the men and the women. No, I think if it's 99% very effective, then that's the answer to all of the problems of having children everywhere. Because yesterday, when I watched that video, it was a valid statement. If you look at our population, I say that we have a population that's growing, not at the same where we have production. And it's affecting us. So, some people have said that the Nigerian population is unproductive. And when you have an unproductive population, that means you have a population or you have a group of people that I do. And when you have I do people, what happens? They say, I don't mind if the levels are short. And so you begin to look at the crime and criminality in our society. You begin to look at, no, just take a walk. Just go around the streets of Lagos. And you see a lot of persons who are just sitting out, just doing nothing, really. And so that's a lot. So I think that Africans and Nigerians would embrace this one, despite the cultural bias and religious sentiment that we might have. It's really a good one to see that we're moving away from having the other gender, having the contraceptive and having the male gender. No, we are, we're both... Dustin, we need to move away from this now. Marisa, you and I will take the contraceptive. Not like we are a couple or something, but... I don't understand. I think that's a brilliant idea and it should be accepted. You know, Nigerians should embrace this one. I feel that the category that you're paying attention to... Okay, fine, we will embrace it since it has been proven to be effective on men. But just in case the men do forget to take the pill, the women should also take it as well. I'm just saying. No, I think if the men take it, it will go a long way in solving the problem. And then we would just become... I get all of that. I get all of that. But then again, we should go on. Ghanaian president slushed the salaries of the ministers by 30 percent. Talk about cutting down the cost of governance. I think we should actually be borrowing some leaf from that here in Nigeria. Mercy, we have like a lot of paraphernalia or roughies in the country. I will over time talk about the bogus page, jumbo page in the country. Ministers are getting a 30 percent slush in the salaries in Ghana. How do you react, Mercy? Well, I think that this is very brilliant and it's very logical of, you know, the Ghana is a nation and of course, having President Nana... Akufuadu. Akufuadu taking this decision. Brilliant one. That's fantastic. Now, and if you want to look at the rationale behind all of this, is that the West African country, this Ghana has adopted the measure to reduce spending as the country struggles with higher fuel costs and stored progress on new tax. Which, like I say, it's fantastic. The essence of this is that the financial problems and, you know, the financial problems of the country, this is supposed to help, you know, with the issue of salaries, help, you know, reduce cost of spending, which is actually a very logical thing to do. I agree. When you have, at the time when, I mean, there's a lot that's going on, you know, the cost, inflation is on the high. Right, yes. It's okay to look at your spending and reduce it. And which is, you know, I must say I'm proud of Ghana, I'm proud of what the Ghanaian president has opted to do. I know that a couple of times we'll have the Nigerian government saying, we may consider reducing salary, you know, cutting down salaries to ensure that, you know, we have this money, but it's just paper talk, just a policy statement, no action. So I don't think this is rocket science, this is pure economics that they are putting into practice, cutting down the salaries, because if you look at the cost of running government, for instance, Niger, we run, you know, in a very expensive government. We do. Let's see if we can, if I can, you know, run through some of the statistics that's been put out, you know, by experts and researchers. Now, following this announcement, you would also want to agree with the Ghanaian government that they hope to save around $400 million through the latest measures, and that's due to inflation, which I've talked about. Okay, so, but you want to come to Nigeria now? I probably might not have all of those statistics, but you would want to also agree with me that because of having a two legislative, I mean, you have the, you know, the bicameral issues where you have the House of Reps and the Senate is expensive. And that's why when that bill was put out, you know, to have to create additional 111 seats for women, especially out of what you have already, it's a lot. So who's going to be paying for all of this? Nigerians. We will be paying for this, so extra costs for us. So I think that this is fantastic. And then if you look at Nigeria, I don't know if the Nigerian economy and the Ghanaian economy is going through the same thing, but you will just see, you know, a country where people are thinking where you have leadership that's forward thinking, and they're saying, hey, we need to reduce this. I've also talked about travels. For those who are traveling, it has to be very mandatory. It has to be very compulsory. It means that all of those excesses where you just travel and go, it's not going to happen. So they're reducing all of that. But what's going on with us? I saw something. I don't know how to write. So some documents that fly in all over social media, I think it's somewhere from Plateau State and the government, and they needed to travel. When they brought out the paraphernalia of office and the aid in how much you'll be expanding on the trip, mercy, it was over. The amount was just humongous. And if that money were just put into just maybe feeding, you know, indigent residents that will go along with you. I supposed to travel for just about a month. I saw the memo. I can specifically quote the amount, but it was really humongous. So that's what we constantly talk about. If you look at Africa, especially in Nigerians, we're very flamboyant with our lifestyle. I remember a time where a lecturer in the lecture hall asked me, how would you describe the Nigerian government? Or what would you say, what is an O&B government? I should have known that we're talking about the lifestyle, our spending attitude. So you can say the Nigerian government is an O&B government, a party government. Well, we spend so much free volatiles, the cost of running. And it would reflect in our budget. Go take a look at the budget. You see how much we are looking to, you know, entertainment and feeding and other things. You know, current, you call it, you know, when you have your budget, you have the capital expenditure and you have the recurrent. So most times, I mean, not most times, often for a very long time, look at the track record, you find out that we pay more attention, you know, to the recurrent expenditure. And when you look at the recurrent expenditure, what happens? That allocation is being taken, it's the cost of running governance. And it's really expanded over just within a year, not on capital, stuff that would last for like so long. Exactly. So we spend more money on running government than, you know, spending more money on projects that will benefit and ensure development. For, you know, the theory and the statement is that if you see a government that is very progressive, not that it's the, or the APC, I'm saying progressive government, you will say that it's a government that has, that pays attention to capital infrastructure development. Because if you pay attention, if you are looking, where your heart is, is where you begin to check where your money is going. I'm sounding like a preacher now. It just shows that where your money goes is where your heart is. So you see where the Nigerian money, the budget goes every time, is always on the, you know, the recurrent expenditure. And so that's the money we used to, you know, cater for government, pay salaries, run government. And all that, it's too much. At the time where you have, do you also talk about, you know, the fact that we have duplication of offices? That's also another case. So you have several offices that are doing the same one and the same thing. So yes, senior special advisors, senior special advisors, let's just move away from that. That is how long we can take on top trending for this morning. We'll take a quick break and when we return, we'll go straight to off the press in a moment to join us again.