 Global terrorism index in 2020 rated Nigeria third-worst country with the insecurity in the world. The north-west and north-central are the most troubled region followed by the southeast region where unknown gunmen and process-session agitators have made the region's security climate unsafe. Why has Nigeria not been able to tackle the multi-dimensional and pervasive insecurity across the nation? On the breakfast this morning, we shall be reviewing the nation's security ahead of the incoming government. The U.S.S.D. code has opened the door for many Nigerians to utilize financial services improving the adoption of the e-payment system and financial inclusion generally. But the progress made so far is currently threatened by a long dispute between telecommunication firms and banks. Today, we will attempt to examine how this disagreement may impact the country's financial inclusion goal. We'll also be taking a look at some headlines on national dailies on and off the press as we have a guest join us to discuss these headlines on the breakfast this morning. Good morning and welcome to The Breakfast on Plus TV Africa. I am Maureen. My name is Nyam Ghoul and it's so good to have you join us. It's just one day before it's, thank God, it's Friday. And we thank God very much for the improvement in some of the things that we've been experiencing and saying that are so wrong, especially the traffic. But let me remind you today, our theme of discussion is private enterprise in current economic and political climate. Once again, welcome to the show. Welcome to the Enterprise Thirsty Edition of the program. What about private enterprise and current economic and political climate? So political climate, private enterprise, and we know that a country exists, a country survives, a country thrives if the private enterprise is involved in whatever development that country is taking. And so if we have a very clement climate as it were, business climate, economic climate, then we are sure to thrive. So how, what are the steps that we need to take before we get to this? And what are the incumbrances that are preventing us from getting where we need to get? Yeah, the policies of government, very, very crucial. It's been responsible for some of the flights in FDI that we've seen and so many small and medium enterprises have had to crush because of all of the problems that have been dabbled in the nation in current times. But today I'll be taking a look at some of these issues. What are they and how do we see a climate that will enable the private sector to thrive? Okay, so shortly, like we said, we'll talk about some of the issues that are be dabbling us here in this country on the headlines. But first of all, we have so many others that are kind of like trending. One of them that is on the social media and everywhere is the fact that our president-elect has gone out of the country. He has traveled out of the country. And the excuse is that he's going on a working visit. And everybody is asking, working how? You're not even the president yet. And some other people are saying that he went there so that there would be no pressure while he constitutes his transition committee and makes a list of his possible appointees and all that. He doesn't want distraction. And I'm just asking myself, how much distraction can he have? The Jagaban, how much distraction can he have? How much of these excuses that are giving us are really holding water? Because in the same light, some people are saying he has gone to do an overhaul of his body to be strong enough for the inauguration and to kick-start his administration and also... So why give room for conspiracy theories? Why not just... I don't know what your thoughts are on the travel of the president-elect out of this country in the guise of going to a place where there would be no pressure? Well, he's not yet the president. He's not just warning him. He's president-elect. And... Well, they have started a working visit to Europe. Yum, go. Listen, sometimes you adopt the sit-down look approach. And I think that's the mode I am in this morning. As some of these things unfold, he has not yet been sworn in. At least we've been told he traveled. That information was put out. Okay, so that speculation is not there anymore. Is he in the country? Is he out of the country? We've been told he's gone to Europe. So let's leave it at that. And hope that... Well, we believe, and we know that come May 29th, he'll be available for swearing in. But... And don't forget that the president himself is also not in the country. So you have the president-elect out of the country and the president himself also out of the country to see his dentists. Yeah. So my quarrel all the time is that to be ill, even to be ill, is a natural thing. Why do we always make it like, you know, like it's a big deal to be ill? There was an American president that ruled America on a wheelchair. So it's not like if you're ill, there's something else, you're incompetent or anything. But you just keep hiding it, like, okay, I'm okay. And then when you're supposed to maybe relinquish powers to your vice, if that is the case, if you're being sworn in, you will not do that. You'll be operating from another place, like our president did at one point. There was a vice president here in Nigeria. For documents and everything we've taken to him in London, why does it have to be that way? That's what I ask myself. And the second question I'm asking is, the courts have said that they will do speedy trial or hearing of the matters in court for that so that there will no frivolities that will be brought by lawyers and all that. And they said the former governor, Lalong, cannot represent the president-elect in court. He has to be around. Now there is hearing on the 11th or so, which is about, is it today or tomorrow? No, not today. I think the case he has with the petition with the Labor Party has been postponed if I remember correctly, has been shifted. But it will come before he comes back, which means he cannot be there and that case cannot be heard, because if he must be present, that means the case will still be postponed. It will be adjourned until these adjournments will happen until May 29. And when he comes, he's sworn in, and then there is immunity. And then you cannot try him, and a lot of things will come into play. And so how is this process going to be transparent? How is this process going to show that the judiciary is serious about what they're doing or is it that we are going to resort to an interim government or something that will extend the life of this tenure, this administration, because there are some basic questions that need to be answered before the inauguration. Indeed, there are some basic questions that need to be answered. But as I said, Nasi, don't look, because we have to wait for that day when the case is coming up again at the tribunal to say, oh, he's not in the country. He's not in court. He's sent another representative or he's evading the process. So for me, I want to wait and see what happens that day. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt and see whether he's going to be in court or not. The judiciary is not unaware of the fact that they have been watched, especially with what happened in the UK recently with the Ike Kweromadu case. So the judiciary in Nigeria, the Chief Justice of Nigeria knows that this is not something that is in the dark. Matter of fact, you know that some of the petitioners have asked for this to be televised, but whether it's televised or not, Nigerians and indeed the world are watching to see how Nigeria's judiciary will save their face, will redeem their integrity, redeem their image, because we know that this judiciary has received lots of knocks. Some people have said that they do not trust the judiciary. Some are treading cautiously, especially the petitioners, and they are saying, well, we trust the judiciary, da, da, da. But we know that they are also speaking with stiff upper lip on the matter. Yeah, because the world was watching Professor Mahmoud, for instance, and he did what he did. He didn't care whether the world was watching, because we wouldn't be in the position we are today. A lot of people wouldn't have needed to go to court because it would have been glaring enough that who won won, who didn't win, didn't win. But things didn't quite work out the way they were supposed to work out. But the world was watching and the people actually came from far and wide to monitor the elections, and a lot of them went back disappointed and started talking from their countries and saying that it was just a sham. But the question is, do our people even really think integrity? Does it ever occur to them that if you are in a public space, you should think of integrity, you should think of legacy? A lot of people just, okay, let me survive these, let me do what I need to do. If I die, I don't die, I go. Man die, I go, woman born, I don't die. That's what happens. They don't think about a name that they're living. So long as they're living a fat bank account to their family, it's okay to them. So I'm afraid I just hope that they will think integrity, they will think legacy, they will think a good name that they need to live. Well, let's see if they will. We'll just wait and see how all of that unfolds. All right, so the top trending for this morning, Tribunal dismisses, APP petition against Tinnable's victory. We did talk about that party withdrawing, you know, and there was this, is it the controversy whether it was dismissed, thrown out, or that they withdrew? Well, I chose to go with withdraw. Let me just go with withdraw. The APP has already withdrawn the case. So there's no point even talking about the tribunal throwing it out. But if the tribunal did that, one thing we are sure of is that APP's case is no longer in the courts against the APC. Well, the justice did say it's because of their dramatic withdrawal. So it is a withdrawal. So they withdrew from that, it drops that case. Yeah, so let's not make it look like, okay, they just saw it, they had no case dismissed. That's not it. Okay, huge crowd supported at immigration office over passport collection. This is another very big issue. Passport printing. We have a printing and minting company here in Nigeria, but the passport printing was contracted to a foreign firm. Because they said that our people did a bad job and then they gave to another company outside the shores of Nigeria that could do it and put a chip inside the passport, all the blah, blah, blah, blah. I don't know why that has to be. If the government facility cannot do it well, why not ask the questions? Why is it the way it is? Why shouldn't they have been an improvement? What do they need to do? How can they get the chips to insert inside it and all that? And they still took it to a foreign company. Do we not have a Nigerian private company that could have done it? We have tech companies that could have at least collaborated with the printing and printing company. And how is it that we find ourselves in a situation where no government agency seems to be working as they should be? Because we Nigerians just like those kind of things. I'll give you an example. There was a time somebody wanted me to be a resource person in Benway State. And I now said, okay, to come from Lagos is, I have people that can do the same thing that I'm coming to do here in Benway or somewhere in Cross River that is very close. So I can talk to them for you. It will cost you less. You know what they told me? It has to be from Lagos. Because if you're coming from Lagos, whatever will be on the paper will show that you're coming from so far. So your transportation, your accommodation and everything will also skyrocket. It gives us some money as well. And I was looking at him like, okay, are you being serious? Which means it is not my services that you want. It is the opportunity to inflate the prices. Beautiful. And that is just how it is in most, if not all government offices. And Nigeria is bleeding for all of this. I was watching the news yesterday and I saw the situation with the prisons. Oh, don't. It's even more congested than a can of sardines. Yeah. And to see fellow Nigerians like that. And when I saw the statistics, those are waiting trial. Are much, much, much more than those who have been sentenced. And you say, is there any agency, government agency that's working in this country? Well, the government says every prisoner is entitled to, is it 14,000 a set per day for a prisoner? And this may be on paper is true. I've worked with the prisons. I was doing some kind of evangelism. I was a cut case for them. We had a branch of the church in the prisons. And what I found out was numbing. Like, you couldn't think this kind of things happen. Define the kind of beans that they cook in their prisons. No, just put it that way. The kind of beans cooked in the prisons in Nigeria. In fact, they have two names for the kind of soup that they cook. One is when I check where they call it. And there's another name for another type. You know that in the prisons, let me give you an example. In the prisons, everything is supposed to be provided for them. The tools to learn a trade, when you're in prison to come out and be several lions out there. They put those things there. The people, let me not just call the waters, but the people who are in charge, just share them. If you're going to visit, maybe for evangelism or anything else or an outreach, you will be the ones to bring toothpaste, which the government provided. You'll be the ones to bring a brush, soap, and everything. But these things were provided by the government. Well, as soon as they land, they are shared. Some of these waters, their wives have stores. They have shops that sell some of these things and maybe get a few other things to just add. And I saw all these things. And then they will cook a pot of soup, like a drum. Like a drum. And then they will put one iced fish, one mackerel. And then after the smell, entice the soup. They will now remove this one iced fish. I'm telling you from an experience I had practically. They'll remove this fish, put it in a different and smaller pot and make soup for the head water. So the rest of them, let's say 100 or 150, will just smell the iced fish and then the head water, who is not a prisoner, will be the one to enjoy it. So terrible things like that. And then you are in the prison but they know that you have six months left. So they will now say, okay, you can go out. If you go out, when you come back, you settle at the gate, maybe 150 at that time that I was there, 150 or 200. So you can go out, be a barber. You can go out, be a trader. You can go out, do manual jobs and then come back so long as you have the settlement at the gate. Because they know that if you run away, they will say you escaped and they will look for you. And so if you were supposed to serve three years and you're left with three months or six months, if they catch you, it's another three years. They know you're not going to go anywhere. So they let them go. And those people are the ones that will come and they have the opportunity to cook their own kind of soup inside the prison. So while every other person is eating their aroma as it is, they have the opportunity to cook another soup because they have their fish, they have their meat and all that. It's a terrible, terrible thing. You see their living conditions. You see their toilets. You see everything that is in the prison. If you go there as an innocent person, because a lot of them are. They're going to come out damaged. Damaged. That's the word. I even understand that even the government does not know exactly how many people are in our prisons across the country. They don't. And in that prison where I have this experience, 85% were waiting trial. 85%. It's a sad reality that we find ourselves in as a people in this country. How do we change these things? How do we change the psyche of Nigerians to begin to think like human beings? Because when you see some of the things that are being done and carried out by people in this climate, you begin to wonder, why have we become so degenerate? Why have we become so immoral? Why have we become so wicked to our own selves? It's just the will, the political will, the moral will to do the things right. And nobody should tell me that one person cannot change it. When, for instance, Buhari was coming into office, everybody was afraid of his body language, just his body language. He said his pedigree when it comes to corruption was so high there that everybody was afraid. Not everybody was. Some people were. Even the people that had money were afraid to spend the money. And then the found out, whatever they found out, and now they're doing it like times a hundred of what was obtainable before the coming of this administration. I don't know what gave them that kind of power, that kind of courage to do what they're doing right now because the things I see, they are terrible. So one man can come and change the trajectory because they know that he himself is good enough. When we were growing up, remember how it was when schools still had supervisors. Supervisors coming to the school to see how the teachers were doing, the principal or the headmaster and all that. Everybody sat up because they knew, maybe every three months or six months, a supervisor, a zonal supervisor will come. They were like mini gods when they come. In some villages, they will even donate food items, goods and all that for them. But the teacher sat up because they knew he would check their work, to check their books and everything and know whether they're working or not. Everything starts and ends with supervision. It all begins and ends with leadership. Once the head is up, the body will follow. If the body language of the man on top says one thing and his words are saying another thing, you can tell before long that things are definitely going to follow his body language and not his words. I mean, one of the officials of this administration has just been caught again in another case of corruption. And the power sector has suffered so much. And that is why electricity has become a major, continued to be a major problem in the country. And it's from one government to another government. From one government to another government. And so you ask, when are we going to get it right? Yeah, well... Because even those who come in with a mantra to fight corruption are still finding themselves with people selected or elected thriving in corruption and not letting the system work. How do you even fight corruption? Take for instance now, the frontliners for the National Assembly leadership are all having cases in the courts. Some of them have even served jail time. Someone like Ojiro Zocalo, for instance, his case started when he was, as soon as he left office as the governor. That is so long ago, till now, he even went to jail and came out of jail because of technicalities. Not that the case was dismissed, the case is still there. This is someone angling to become the Senate president. Acpabio, the same thing. He still has a court case, but he's the one that is also a front runner. In fact, anointed by the APC. Yari is another one, the next governor, who also has a case. The people who are also standing to become the leaders of the National Assembly, apart from these people that have the case, are at the background. A lot of people do not even know their names, but the people who are reigning as Nigerians will say, are all having court cases. So how do they go there to make the laws to catch the corrupt people, the thieves that we have in this country to fight corruption in this country? It's not possible, because a lot of them, for instance, Acpabio was a very big PDP person, and then he had that case, and when it was as if he was going to be jailed, he ran into the APC. The APC? The same thing with Ojiro Zocalo, who even formed a party in his time, I think PPA or so. Adam Sosumole had assured those who had sins that just come in and your sins will be forgiven. So you find a lot of them with sins who joined the APC and the sins were forgiven. What we have in Nigeria, which is a very bad problem, is that we have strong people, more than we have strong institutions. Matter of fact, how many of our institutions are even strong? And that is... How many of them are strong? And whether we like it or not, the institutions depend on the kind of people that are manning the institutions, because even if you give a gun to somebody and put bullets inside, until the person shoots it, it will not kill anybody. Definitely. It will not kill any animal. So that's what is happening here. People just use the institutions for their benefit and those who should talk are not talking because everybody has a skeleton in their cupboard. Exactly, well... It's a terrible thing. It is. Thanks for watching the breakfast on Plus TV Africa. It's time for us to take a look at the weather report. Stay with us.