 As Nigeria's electoral commission distributes permanent cards to voters around the country, the exercise has been riddled with delays and allegations of underhand tactics by the electoral power. Vetsas Okoye of the Independent National Electoral Commission joins us this morning on the breakfast to look at this and other issues. And Nigeria's largest city, Ligas, has been facing what some describe as a housing crisis for some years now. How can the housing deficit? Can Ligas be reduced? Stay with us for a conversation on this. And in off the press, we'll take a look at the latest headlines on front pages of today's national dailies. And we're back with the breakfast. It's a beautiful Thursday morning, reaching it live from our studios. And Victor Allen Ligas, my name is Kofi Bartels. You're welcome. We have a very, very fantastic lineup of discussions for you. This morning end, we implore you to sit back, relax, and have a fantastic time with us, of course, right here on the breakfast. Again, you're welcome. Well, as usual, we'll start with a look at what's been trending in the social space across all the social media platforms. What has got Nigerians talking? We call it a top trending segment. And thousands are still asking the African Music Awards to disqualify Nigerian musical artist, Brahimo, over what they've termed his hate speech. Of course, on Tuesday, we brought you some analysis and discussion of this in a top trending segment. In the conversations that are still ongoing, people are still talking about it. As of Tuesday, when we raised this in a top trending segment, the petition on change.org asking Afrema to disqualify Nigerian musical artist, Brahimo, from its awards had garnered about 4,500 signatures. As we speak, we're hearing that over 8,000 Nigerians or over 8,000 people have signed that petition right now. And of course, they want to prevent the man from winning one of the eight Afrema awards. So one of the awards are the eighth Afrema. That is the African, all African Music Awards. He made some contentious comments about the Igbo ethnic group in Nigeria, not just one, several. But Brahimo began receiving fire, a lot of fire, after he publicly expressed his support for one of the presidential candidates that of the all-progressives Congress, Shiwajibor Latinable. And of course, he received a lot of fire, especially on Twitter. And like I said, maybe that got to him. Maybe that got to him. And he began to use the F word and those kind of slurs against ethnic group in the country. This ethnic group, he was largely perceived to be in the majority of those who support the Labour Party's presidential candidate, or in the majority of those who are not in support of the all-progressives Congress. That's the perception. So it's a core political and social, it has a political aspect to it as well as an ethnic aspect to it. Now according to the petition, Brahimo, by not receiving the Firmah Award, will send a clear message to him, that's a musician, considering those derogatory statements against the Igbo people in Nigeria now. An Nigerian named Charles Ogundale, who is not from the south-eastern part of the country where the Igbos are from, they have their home there, Charles Ogundale took it upon himself to start a petition against Brahimo, who is an alternative musician. So that's what we have as we speak. This is what the petition says, quote, Brahimo recently put up a series of hateful messages on Twitter toward the Igbo tribe of Nigeria, going as far as retweeting a tweet which said that all Igbos are senseless. Some Nigerians signed a petition to prevent the musician from receiving the award after Brahimo was nominated for the songwriter of the year last year. In one of his tweets, he wrote F, or more Igbo, which translates F, the Igbo people. His actions, the petition continues, one which sparked this unity, hatred, and multicultural in the multicultural nation that Nigeria is. The petition says, preventing him from winning the All-Africa Music Award will send a strong message to him and people like him that he can't get away with such a blatant ethnic bigotry end of quote. So that's what you have there. Some Nigerian celebrities have been coming out to help, you know, Brahimo to apologize. Excuse me, one of such is, on a personality, media personality, Daddy Freeze, a family of Kool FM and Nigeria Info who also, you know, asked Brahimo to apologize. Paul Koy of P-Square fame, public called Wood Boy, also had some things to say about Brahimo and really went hard on him. Without mentioning his name, we must point out. Some people on Twitter have been asking, were I able to stop behaving like a child, you know, excuse me. The conversation is still ongoing. If you check out his timeline, he's been going hard, you know, he's been going hard and refusing to relent. So we can safely say that the genesis of this is his support for Pola Amitri publicly. Like I said, on Tuesday, Brahimo, like Peter of P-Square, like Paul of P-Square, and all the musicians who are supporting one presidential candidate or the other, Brahimo equally has a right to support a presidential candidate that he likes. This is right, nobody can take that away from him. But Brahimo, in exercising his right, need not allow the criticism justified or unjustified from people on social media to get to him. It's really a toxic space. And as a public figure, you know, certain things should not be heard from your mouth, you know, or seen on your timeline. It's not allowed. And I don't know if Brahimo is aware that what he's doing is actually wrong. It's against the law. It's against the law. I mean, excuse me, sorry about that. The current, some of the current cyber crime laws that have been put in place by the program and do not allow hate speech, you have hate speech laws as well, you know. International conventions on hate speech, you know, international conventions that promote healthy conversations and against ethnically-laced speeches are all there. I don't know if Brahimo is aware that he's breaking some of these international conventions and norms, these international norms, I do not know if he's aware. You know, we know that sometimes musicians do certain things to trend, you know, certain things to be accepted by people. But this is not one of them, you know. You can have a sex scandal. You can release, you know, a tape. You can have a beef, like they call it, with your colleague. All those things are safe things to do. When it comes to attacking a tribe or an ethnic group in the country or attacking people based on where they come from and insulting an entire tribe, I do not think that is the right thing to do to trend. I'm not saying I'm sure Brahimo is trying to trend, but you know what? Some of those who are attacking him are not from the Southeast. Some of those who are against his presidential candidate are not from the Southeast. They're from the Southwest where he comes from, you know. So it's important for him to understand that it's not about Igbo or no Igbo, all right? Some people who are from his part of the country, the Yoruba ethnic group, are in support of the candidates that, you know, probably he is looking at as being the one who can challenge his own presidential candidate, be it Peter O'Bee or Tikko Abuwakar, excuse me. Some people who are from the Yoruba ethnic group who dominate the southwestern part of the country where Boala Ametino with the APC presidential candidate is from, some Yorubas are not in support of Polatino in the APC. So I think it goes beyond an ethnic thing. And gone are the days when we used to see musicians in the country being the ones who unified Nigeria, you know, being the ones who promote unity, you know. For instance, the legendary Sonia Kosos who sang, which way Nigeria, which way Nigeria, you know. These are songs that made you think about the country and think about consciousness, you know. Or is it the legendary Oye Kanwin who sang, one love, keep us together, all right? You know. It's what they call it, Raskimono, all right? Who sang Under Pressure? Under Pressure Nigeria, Under Pressure. These are conscious songs, conscious songs. And Bremo has some conscious songs, you know. He has some conscious, you look at his music, he has songs, conscious songs. Songs about the country, you know. He even sang a song about HIV and AIDS and all those kind of things. He has some conscious songs. But, you know, gone are the days when musicians were seen. And now they claim they campaign stage and they are after money, all right? I mean, we can look at Majek Fashek, look at the song he sang, you know, about the state of the country, the state of Africa. Look at Bob Marley, look at Lucky Dubé. So I don't know if we can say that Nigerian musicians no longer sing consciously, act as a conscience of the nation. Should I go on? What about the legendary Baba Fela? Aniku Lakbo Kuti. Whom Bremo, I'm sure idolizes because he look at the style, they're the same. Now, will Fela be proud of Bremo if Fela were to come today? And what he's doing? I think if musicians need to have a rethink on their method, because money isn't everything. I'm not saying Bremo is looking for money, but I'm saying that, you know, sometimes when they go out of their way to support a candidate, it could be, you know, perform on the stage and campaign for him and get paid, is their job, is their right. Sometimes they also need to realize that Nigerians look up to them and they may be the ones to be able to speak truth to power. May God help us and they will live that, that. Let's go to another one. This is a bizarre one and that's something that is like nothing you've had before. Or there are a few things you've had that are like this, ever before in your life. Oh, Lord have mercy upon us. Pastor Fakes Own Kidnap collects 600,000 Naira ransom from members. Pastor, Pastor Fakes Own Kidnap collects 600,000 Naira from ransom from members. I think that Raskimoto's song really goes into this situation, under pressure. Wow. I mean, who could have thought? One day you go to bed thinking you've seen it all in this country. When you wake up, you see another one that proves to you that we have not even started. So this happened in Joss Platter State. A pastor based in Joss Platter State in North Central Nigeria or in Central Nigeria, Al Barca Beatrice, is his name. He has been arrested by a privilege of the Platter State Police Command or the Niger Police Force in Platter State rather. For staging his own kidnap and demanding ransom from members of his congregation. Excuse me, according to the Police Public Relations Officer in Platter State, he said yesterday that the pastor was arrested along with his collaborators. Following intelligence reports after church members paid 600,000 Naira ransom to secure the cleric's statement is what he's saying. This is really, really, really bizarre. Now, the statement from the police read in part. The Joss Platter State Police Command has again uncovered the nefarious act of one pastor Al Barca Beatrice Sukuya, male of Jenta Apata in Joss, who on several occasions staged his kidnap with his courts and received ransom from sympathizing members of their congregation. According to his previous kidnap, the police have been said of 14th November 2022 and 30th November 2022, where the sum of 400,000 Naira and 200,000 Naira were respectively paid by his sympathizers as ransom was released. The incidents triggered suspicion. Okay, the police says through incredible or credible intelligence, the clergyman was invited by the DPO of Nasarawa Gong, police station. And the investigation commenced immediately, he says in the course of the investigation, it was established that the suspect has been conspiring with his gang to stage his kidnap and fraudulently collect ransom. Oh my, oh my, it's quite a bizarre, you know. There's another story I remember if we could collect from Bialsa State, where one guy who normally goes on Instagram to give motivational messages, inspirational messages, was arrested and what the police found out and exposed was that he had been involved in kidnapping in Bialsa State. You see, some of the things we see in our society these days don't get carried away. I tell people don't get moved, I tell people don't get impressed, don't get worried. Be content with your life, be content with your life and pray for God to help you get better. But don't look at the other man and say, this guy is doing, I must catch up, no, no, no. Because some of the things we see, you don't know where it's coming from. People are doing all sorts of things in the name of God. And we all need to be careful. Some of the things that we hear, I mean, I'm Christian. We hear from the pulpit these days. It gives a lot of worry for me. Why, because I read my Bible, all right? And a lot of people these days, you know, go to church, all sorts of churches, they don't read their Bible, so they don't know. You know, someone just says praise the Lord and then you jump. But the interesting thing is all these things shouldn't be a surprise because even Jesus himself said in scripture that in the last days many will come in my name, all right? False prophets will arise, many. He says many, which means that majority of those who are out there saying they're pastors and prophets and all that are fake, majority. Because Jesus said many. It is a few. He said what? Many. So, a lot of people are being deceived, a lot of people are being, you know, let us stray. You know? And most times it's because of what we want to hear. We don't want to hear the truth. People are not ready to listen to those who tell them to stop stealing, to stop corruption, to stop cheating, to stop lying, to love their neighbor, all right? And to work hard. To work hard. They want to hear that. They want to hear the one who just tell them all the beautiful things that they want to hear, okay? But at the end of the day, the Bible tells us that, you know, Sikhi fests the kingdom of God and its righteousness and all other things shall be added to you, okay? Therefore it means that if you get a visa, your pastor prays for you, you get a visa and get a miracle and you travel to America and you don't have righteousness, you're not saved. It's not going anywhere, you know? So, we have a lot of people parroting themselves as pastors and bishops and prophets, apostles and most of these people are fake, fake. I mean, someone stands up today, I'm a Christian, all right? Don't get it twisted, but I read my Bible, you know? I don't read it as much as I should, okay? Because I need to read more than that, but at least I know my Bible, yeah? I read or I read, but I think I should be reading more than I'm reading right now. And, you know, but people don't read the scripture to know and the Bible says that you would know them by their fruit, okay? So, if someone is telling you, be doing A, B, C, D, E, what kind of fruit is a person, you know, exhibiting? If you're meant to be a pastor, how should a pastor be? How should a prophet be? How should he live his life? You know, and some of these pastors today are doing questionable things, questionable things. They're showing you the fruit in your, before your eyes, but you can't even tell because you don't know that the scripture says a pastor should not do A, B, C, D, E. So, these are the issues. It's unfortunate that, you know, someone who is parading as a pastor will stand up and go and kidnap himself, right? And then tell the members to pay just what he can gain. Anyway, that's where we are today. I don't know if government can do anything to help because they're also a problem to society. You know, people are being, are being swindled by people in the name of God. And it's sad to see, it's sad to see. All right, that's the end of my SEMON, all right? I think I'll put the offering below so you guys can give me some, some offering. Let's take the last one. Federal government to hire Nigerian doctors and nurses and nurses abroad. I mean, like I said, every day is a new drama. Well, the federal government of Nigeria is saying that, you know, they try to address the brain drain in the health sector. You've seen the statistics, you realize that a significant amount of nurses and doctors have left Nigeria, all right? Nigerian train nurses and doctors, health workers, have left the country to go seek winter pasture abroad. Now, even those who haven't started working yet finished their training have left to go abroad to get their final papers, excuse me, so that they can start working. I know several, I know several. United States, Canada, the Middle East, you know, UK, I know a lot of them. But in a bid to address brain drain in the health sector, the Nigerian Minister of Health has disclosed the federal government is making a move to engage Nigerian doctors abroad. And Nigerian nurses abroad, those who left the country, who, Jack, but all right? And connect them with the teaching hospitals in the country. Now, some people have said, oh, laughing at this, that, you know, they've left the country. What makes you think they want to be connected with the country again? But in some other way, if you look at this, maybe this could be a creative way of helping to address the gap, all right? The gap in the health sector. The minister on Tuesday was at the 17th edition of the President Mount Buhari administration's core card series in Abuja. And now he complained that experienced doctors were living the country. He also said a lot of doctors and nurses felt they were not properly rewarded for the work that they were doing. And he explained the federal government was trying to address the issue by improving the condition of services of medical personnel. You know, when you say you're trying to improve by improving, it means you've not yet done it fully. You are just in the process of doing it, which is not what we want to hear. When you do it, tell us you've done it. Don't forget, resident doctors are already getting set for a strike, all right? Well, he says Nigeria is not the only country affected by the high mobility of health workers. That's what he calls it, excuse me, high mobility of health workers. So anyway, is this something that the Minister of Health is just saying because he has to face a press and give a scorecard? Or is this something that they really want to do? Because if you check the archives, you'll realize and you'll find out that the Minister of Labor and Employment, who himself is a medical doctor, Senator, Doctor, former governor, Chris Sengige, he's already got a saying to the press that, I mean, we have more than enough doctors in this country, nurses, you know, to replace those who are living. We don't have a problem that they can't go. The Nigerian can even, he though, can even share with the rest of the world. So if the Minister of Labor and Employment is saying Nigeria doesn't have a problem, you know, as many doctors as want to leave can go, they are more to replace them, then what is the Minister of Health saying? I think the Minister of Health and his colleague who is the Minister of Labor and Employment need to sit down in one of the offices in Aso Rokvila and have a conversation as to what the real situation is so that they can tell us. Addressing the issues in the health sector go beyond rhetoric, all right? They go beyond just talking. They go beyond we intend to, we plan to, we will, we are, no, no, no, no. People need to see concrete action, all right? Back by a strong political will, back by vision. You know, the issues sounding, the health sector are not just about remuneration, about pay, about welfare, they're also about facilities. Some of these doctors, a lot of them are leaving because they're tired of working in such an environment. They're tired of working in such an environment where, you know, you don't have the facilities. Go to the public hospitals in the country today, teaching hospitals. I mean, Aso, total Aso, all right? Total Aso, there's a breakdown of the, what do you call it again, health insurance service or system in the country, the program. It's dead, all right? A lot of them are also leaving because of insecurity. Some are leaving because of the economy, you know? So it goes beyond just giving a speech, really. That's what we'll say. We'll leave it at that for now. That's the size of our top trending segment. Take a break. When we come back, we'll have a look at what the people have for us. Stay with us.