 The arrest of Nandikanu and Sunday Boho puts Nigeria in the diplomatic spotlight. The United Kingdom is asking questions and the Republic of Venice isn't for operating on an extradition request for a Boho. We'll be talking about Nigeria's place in the international community. In Nigeria, in diaspora harassing our women's football team, the Falcons in Austria accuses them of playing for a terrorist government. And the usual of the press and today in history will also come your way this morning. We'll say good morning to you and thank you for joining us this Thursday morning on the breakfast here in Plus TV Africa. It is back to work for the whole of Nigeria after the public holidays. Good morning, I am Osawi of Mawa. And I am Annette of Phoenix saying good morning to you and thank you for joining us. Good morning Osawi. Morning to you, how are you? I am great. Big stories today for Top Trending. And where do we begin? Chimamanda Ongosia-Diche in Aba and Nigerian Women's Scene in Austria. Okay, let's begin with the home story. So Chimamanda Ongosia-Diche unfortunately lost her mother. She is the Nigerian writer we all know and love. You know, author of books like Americana, Papuaibesca, Half of a Yellow Sun and those bestsellers in our bookshelves at home. Now, Chimamanda Ongosia-Diche, like I mentioned, you know, lost her mom and they went to Aba for the burial. And she, a video, you know, made the rounds, went viral on social media where, you know, she was dressed in her native attire. She was speaking in Igbo language and she was addressing the Catholic Church community that had come, you know, to, um, for the burial ceremony. And in her message she basically criticized the priest for calling her out when he could have done so in private. So she explained in that video that, you know, she granted an interview a while back where she was asked about her opinion on the Catholic Church in Nigeria. And she mentioned that, oh, she does love the Catholic Church and that the only thing she didn't like was the fact that, you know, parishioners could sometimes be forced to contribute money and that she felt that giving money to the church should be optional, should be if you have and if you want to give and you shouldn't be forced. No one should be forced to give. That was Chimamanda Ongosia-Diche's opinion. And she went on to say that, you know, when she had been speaking with the priest to finalize details of her mother's burial, she had spoken with the priest many times, so he had ample opportunity to speak with her in private to say, you granted this interview, I watched the interview, I heard what she said about the church forcing parishioners to contribute money and I didn't like that or I felt, you know, she said he could have done so in private, but he waited till the day of her mother's burial and used that opportunity to criticize her in public in front of the whole church. And she mentioned that she had angrily walked out but she came back because of the love she had for the people of Aba and that all her writings basically centered about the Catholic church, community, you know, people of Aba. So people have been talking about that. People said, you know, violence should be met with violence. If he, the priest now, had felt it appropriate to bring such a matter to the public, to the church and worse off, the occasion of her mother's burial, then that she should also have the liberty to call him out on that occasion while others said, you know, they loved how calm she was while, you know, even going ahead to criticize the priest and others said it wasn't fair, you know, the priest is the priest, he is that spiritual father, he should be respected. You know, so just different sides there, you know, people commenting about, you know, Chimamanda's backlash of the priest. Well, I belong to the School of Thought that doesn't necessarily put any person beyond criticism. And if you err in any way, it doesn't matter if you're a priest or an Imam or whoever you are, you should be called out. And, you know, there is no, you know, there shouldn't be any silence for someone who errs, for someone who does wrong particularly because they had a church or they're Reverend Fathers or they're priests or whatever they are. For so long we've heard about sexual abuse in churches, in the Catholic church, you know, outside Nigeria and it's very, very difficult for us to point out, you know, specific cases where people actually have been prosecuted and you know, have been jailed or something like that. And even here in Nigeria, when a pastor or a church leader says something that is completely wrong, you know, or doesn't make a lot of sense, people would always throw the, you know, touch not my anointed line at you, you know, and say, oh, you know, it's a fight, it's a priest, you know, you shouldn't. You know, but I belong to a completely different School of Thought, you know, and if you say nonsense, you would, you know, be addressed outright by myself. But that's me. For Chimamanda, I feel, you know, I think I remember when, I think it was a dad who died when he passed and she had made a statement saying, no, my father's gone and so, you know, now I'm not going to be holding back any of my thoughts or any of my emotions concerning people who have come from me or who, you know, secretly hate me and she did the same thing with two, you know, writers a couple of weeks ago, I think, who, you know, had come out and accused her of some, you know, things, try to bring it down basically. She did the same thing. So this is basically the same, you know, energy that she's given out. If you come for her, she will, you know, address it, you know, and address it, you know, in the best way that she can. She's not going to be holding back anything or trying to, you know, respect anybody, you know, anymore as long as you've disrespected her, she would probably much do the same thing, which of course I respect for her. And also the priests in Nigeria always have this air around them, you know, like the demigods. It's not necessarily making them all bad people. They're really, really good priests. I grew up Anglican, you know, and I've seen a lot of Reverend Fathers, beautiful people. But there's also, there's always this, you know, shoulders, you know, that touches ceiling, you know, when you're a priest. And then pretty sure that's the same reason he didn't address her privately until I'm not sure I liked what you said here and there. You know, he decided to call out in public because well, as long as he's in that space as a priest, nobody would complain. And I'm sure the church will even give him a round of applause for pointing that out. But, you know, he picked the wrong person to do that and that's why we saw what she did. And she basically said, you know, you should have, you know, said it to me personally. And also the things that he even is complaining about, aren't they true? Doesn't the church and, you know, the Catholic, Anglican, Pencoso churches across Nigeria don't they, to a large extent, put too much pressure on parishioners and church members to donate money. We have these conversations every now and then about people being forced to pay their tithes and being threatened about tithing and some of all of that. So she did actually say, you know, some truth there. People should give because they have and they are willing to give. They shouldn't be forced to give. They shouldn't be, you know, in any way blackmailed into giving to the church. They should, you know, if they feel like, oh, it's a good cause. And it's really the responsibility of the church and church leaders to ensure that their members and people who come to the church understand and see good reasons why they should give. You know, I should go home and think to myself, oh, I enjoy the cause, you know, this direction or this particular thing that the church wants to do and I would like to support it. I shouldn't be, you know, blackmailed, you know, or cajoled, you know, in any way to give to the church. And so she did make some sense in whatever, in the segment that she made in that interview that she granted. So she is giving back the same energy she's getting, you know, if you come for her, she comes for you or she addresses it and that's it. Pretty simple. I think I would like to talk about the general message that she passed, which is about being forced to donate money to the church. She cited an instance when parishioners are shot off the church, shot out because there was a fundraise and so many going on inside the church. Maybe they feel these people do not have the capacity, you know, the financial capacity to give and that's why they're shot out of the church while that fundraise and ceremony is going on. That's what she said in that message she delivered in Igbo. But we do know that in our Nigerian society, it's something we've seen. I personally have heard stories about how it's not even heard. I've been to a church in Lagos, Nigeria where this pastor, you know, when they gave the administration, he called out this man, gave some words of prophecy that he confirmed was true in his life and he challenged him to give his car, you know, saying this is a vow you need to pay to God and the man dropped his car keys and a while later he came back. He said he felt like he was brainwashed and bamboozled at that moment. He went home and he felt like he had returned to his senses and he came back to collect his car keys. I don't think, you know, when you look at that in the light of all the spiritual angles, it doesn't seem like something God loves because even in the Bible, it talks about God loving a cheerful giver. So if you're not given out of cheerfulness, if you're not given with cheerfulness, if you're not given because you sincerely want to give, I really wonder what the spiritual implications will be regarding if you'll get that blessing that God promises to give us. You know, if you're given because a pastor has instructed or forced or sort of blackmailed because in that situation it was almost like that because he gave and then he went to him and he was like, what did I just do? It seems like I had gone into a trance and he said, no, I need to get back my car keys and he went back to the church, collected his car keys and left. So I just feel that it's all about faith. So you should act as your faith carries. If your faith doesn't carry something, I don't think you should be forced to do that because when you look at it from the Christian perspective, God loves a cheerful giver and if you're not given cheerfully, we need to really question your motives. So that's where we really stand regarding... I'm sure everyone is not as deeply religious in that regard. So I would just simply say, like I had already mentioned, give if you feel like you want to give. There's nothing wrong with giving to the church. You can give all your money to the church, but that has to be something that you have chosen to do and that's fine. That's absolutely fine. Our next stop training story this morning is regarding sports. So Nigeria's women team in Austria, Vienna, simply went on a sightseeing visit on a public bus and while on that public bus, a man walked up to them. We didn't see his face, but maybe we might soon enough because the people he was addressing actually was recording a video and we might see that video later on. But he basically went on accusing these players of playing for a terrorist government. He accused the federal government, accused the person of President Mohammed Buhari and basically condemned the State of Security in Nigeria, condemned kidnapping, insurgency, just everything that seems to be wrong with security in Nigeria. And then he just poured out his anger on the women's team there on the bus in Vienna, Austria. And it really, you know, it just simply went south because there were Nigerians there who began to, you know, stand up to seem and to attack the man. And he went on to say that he's been in Austria for many years, he's a tax-paying citizen and that he would call the police on anyone who touches him or anyone who lays a finger on him. You know, but this video, just like the first one, has gone viral, you know, and people have been talking about it, saying, where is the lie? You know, people say he set the truth in the video regarding the content, regarding the message, but that he addressed the message to the wrong crowd because these are people who simply wanted to play, they have passion for sports, they're great at it and that's why they've ascended to the heights that they are and that they shouldn't be blamed or criticized for following their dreams or for playing for their countries. You know, they say that if he wants to, you know, express his anger, he can do that by writing letters and petitions to the government, he can do so by visiting Nigeria and visiting the president in Aso Rock and that he is a Nigerian. So why isn't he contributing his quota to the benefit of the country? So let's listen to this Nigerian, this man who claims to be a Nigerian in that video, take a listen. I want to speak to you people, please. I'm also a Nigerian, I live in Vienna, I've seen Aso here in Vienna and I'm living here for over so many years and you people are representing a terrorist organization, a terrorist government. You in Nigeria, you should be very ashamed of yourselves. Every one of you here should be very, very ashamed of yourselves. I will speak to you. This can happen in another European country that the youth are representing a government, stay quiet, stay quiet, stay quiet. A football team should know that we are not, we are suffering the use of Nigeria. Over 10 million youth Nigerian youth are abroad doing nothing and you people who are supposed to know the truth are representing a terrorist organization called Buhari kidnapping citizens, killing youths. Excuse me, stay quiet, Mr. Man. I'm speaking, I'm not causing any problem. I am speaking to these youths who have refused to recognize, no, I will. If you touch me, I will call the police on you. If you touch me, I will call the police on you. This is not Nigeria. This is not Nigeria. If anyone who touch me will get the police. This is Vienna, Austria. This is not a third world country. This is not a third world country. You are representing a government which are killing their people. You cannot be ashamed of yourself. Don't push me. When you touch me, it's strict here. Don't touch me. Go away. This is a democratic nation. Now that was the video I was telling you about. It really turned into something else. The man was eventually removed from the train and that situation has been reported to the Nigerian embassy in Austria. We had the NFF respond to that and Majo Pinnick also responded to that. He said that the incident will not in any way affect the team's campaign program and that they will remain in Austria until Saturday, July 24th as scheduled. He went on to say that they are infuriated because these are young ladies who are ambassadors of Nigeria and are in Austria preparing for major international competitions. Pinnick also said that it was a dastardly act and that they were not taking it lightly. He said the girls simply wanted to go on sightseeing. There's nothing wrong with that. They do not deserve to be subjected to such a dark tribe by so-called fellow Nigerian and his last words were, we will unmask the fellow and then take it from there. Well, first of all, I wish in the Falcons the very best and whatever sports and endeavours they are going for. But I think it's really because there's people who have their different ways of protesting and expressing their anger towards the government and they always feel like every other person should do the same. They feel to understand that there's, not everybody will be on the same wavelength with you with regards to your protest or with regards to your anger towards a particular cause. These people expect that if they've decided that they're going to protest, then everybody should protest. Same people who believe that once they say they should sit at home in the southeast, then everybody should sit at home regardless of whether you are with them or not. Regardless of whether you agree with the cause that they're fighting for or not, you should sit with them at home. So it's those type of people. So yes, it did go too far. Like Amadjou Pinnick had already said, these girls were simply playing for their country and that's their passion. And there's nothing wrong with that. They have the liberty themselves to decide, well, I don't think that Nigeria is worth playing for and I would either play for a different country or I would leave the Super Falcon, but they've decided to not do that. I'm sure that there's other ways that they can also express if they have any anger at the Nigerian government or at Nigeria itself, there's other ways that they can express that. Not everybody's going to join your type of band who are going to protest. Not everybody's going to do it the way that you would do it. And so that's where he got it entirely wrong. He's in Austria and like you said, modern 5, 10 million Nigerians live in different countries across Europe and in different parts of the world. Sometimes because, well, they've decided to find greener pastures for others. It's really because they've realized that Nigeria may not be working for them and that's why they're in those places. But I'll stop there. I think I'll just say he got it wrong by expecting that everybody should be in the same type of protest that he is on. Totally wrong. The unfortunate thing is that he's the one who's now in the custody of the police and would be dealt with according to the statement by Pinnick. Not necessarily. I don't think he committed any crime. He spoke his mind. He didn't physically assault anybody. I don't think he verbally assaulted anybody either. I have no idea what charges he's charged with. I don't think it's that serious. If it's Nigeria now, then you can imagine that he probably would be hanging in some police station getting slapped because we don't have laws that respect for people's rights here. But he knows his laws. He knows the rights that he has in Vienna. He knows what the laws are there. He knows he didn't commit any crime. Yes, he might be seen as public harassment but it's not such a big deal. I don't think it's such a big deal. Alright, let's take a break here and we'll return to After Press with Mr Ezekiel Eiatok.