 Welcome back. It's time for us to take a look at the front pages of some national dailies and after that we'll be joined by analysts who is already set to discuss these headlines with us. We'll begin with the Guardian newspaper. The Guardian newspaper leads with NPC Sean's bleeding economy raises interest rate to 18.5%. Details of that is on page 6 of the Guardian newspaper. So you have Buhari returns cabinet till May 29, 6 Senate approval for judgment debts. We'll be taking a look at that today on the breakfast. Page 6 is where you have details of that Buhari returns cabinet till May 29 and 6 Senate approval for judgment debt. Naira faces downside risk slumps to 760 Naira a dollar at black market. Concerns as Buhari allegedly waives 70 billion Naira spectrum fee for telcos. Details of that on page 3 and above the mast head you have an editorial. Buhari's fragile pieces, an economic scorecard full of trauma. That's the third edition. So when you pick up the Guardian newspaper you find out details of that and that is the much I will take from the Guardian newspaper. Okay the next one will be daily independent. Daily independent leads with Kiyamo to Buhari, ministers of state were idle. It's unlawful. The writer is ministers of state job minus for Buhari's government according to the minister. You'll find that on page 29. Kiyamo is talking now. Against what Buhari did. Cash crunch drags Nigeria's economy down to 2.31%. You'll find that on page 7. Okay another one is high chief government otherwise known as Tom Polo. Okay that shouldn't be so much of a headline where he's going to be crowned or something. Salute to the outgoing president of the federal republic of Nigeria, Mohamedu Buhari GCFR and the president-elect Ashiwubola Tinubu. Okay I'm sure that's the write-up by government Kiyamo Polo who was given the contract by the way to take care of the pipelines and make sure he works of all the thieves who vandalize our pipelines. Well the daily independent doesn't have much of headlines there but you can just see on your screen. The next newspaper is business day. Business day newspaper at least with economy slows as Naira crunch erases all gains. The writers manufacturing sector growth heats three year low in first quarter. Page 35 is where details of that is and then herder times for businesses as CBN raises rate again. Page 6 is where details of that is on business day. Explainer implication of tribunal consolidation of article or BAPM petitions against Tinubu and then in our fields to lift informal economy remittances 19 months after. Details of that is on page six of the nations of the business day newspaper. Nigeria is boiling fixing Nigeria's economy series. It's a series of writing on Nigeria's economy and they've tagged it. Nigeria is boiling. You want to read details of that on page six of business day newspaper. That's the much I'll be taking from business day newspaper. Okay the punch the punch is next and the punch begins or leads with countdown to handover fake holds last session governor's dissolved cabinet and the writer is someone who asked a point is to quit office. Gandu J hand over documents to governor elect. Okay now we also still have that that writer by government appointment Polo so that means he might be continuing as the person who is in charge of the pipelines but those where the headlines at the front page of the punch just the countdown to handover fake holds last session. So Buhari presided over the last session and then the governor's dissolved their cabinets including Somolou who was asked appointees to quit office and Gandu J will hand over documents to or has handed over documents to governor elect. Okay so we've been joined by our analyst Ezekiel Inya Etok public affairs analyst from Aquabomb state. Good morning miss Ezekiel. Good morning I like that last part from Aquabomb state I love that. You are part of your state aren't you? Yes. All right so we are going to start with the garden newspaper. Let's start with this very strong headline Buhari retains cabinet till May 29. Yes we know that but sixth senate approval for judgment debts. Let's begin with that Mr. Etok. You know I just can't get over how somebody can be so absolutely insensitive or I don't know whether to use the word ignorant or unaware of the sentiment of the nation with respect to this burrowing burrowing burrowing debt debt debt except there's something they are not telling us why am I saying so now how many days after in fact in your last your validatory session you are telling us to give approval to pay judgment debts you've been in office for eight years is it that you've realized that they are setting last things you need to grab because they it's either out of very high nationalistic instinct or intuition or out of pecuniary consideration that you're asking for over seven hundred billion for judgment debt now in court you have what they call expati you know application which is an application that you don't need to hear from the other party something needs to be done immediately even also something terrible could happen so this this appears expati now what will go wrong if the next administration that is next week can look into that matter why must it be resolved here and now is it that you have a court in it is it that you want to ensure that you can put in record that i am the one that guaranteed the release of the fund so i need to have my own because if somebody else comes to it is like it's like i'm into real estate and in our properties we have you know commission for the agents so whoever brought the buyer is the one that's going to get the commission so you want to put on record that you are the one that brought the buyer you are the one that gave the approval and as a result the court should come to you and not to the disbossing agency there's something you need to tell me that i'm not understanding because i really honestly sincerely cannot see the urgency for you to i mean i mean the sentiment that's what you call i keep saying this emotional intelligence the nation is is living with this debt you know high propensity you know to borrow borrow borrow now we want to where is this money coming from that one who used to pay debts we are doing the borrow to pay debt yeah i hear you i hear you but this government have also in their defense said that their borrowings is still within the limit no no no no master let me say this i'm sorry to button let the media try very hard not to just be a reporting agency but to be fourth estate of the realm because i know you know that borrowing has primarily and fundamentally to do with ability to repay that's where integrity comes in so don't tell me about the economy latitude of you can borrow because you know a debt to whatever ratio no the most important consideration in borrowing is ability to repay and inability to repay we do not have that resources debt to capacity to repay we don't have and we're intelligent in Nigeria's about the most intelligent set of people globally have gone around the world and there's no way i go no meeting that i'm not i'm not respected i'm not honored because i have that thing that Nigerians have which is something good between my ears we have that red gift so nobody should come to government and tell me please how do you want to repay this because we are leaving debt for the for our grandchildren not even our children well in addition to this question of how did they want to repay it is also the question of how transparent the disbursement of this judgment thank you i agree with you there completely you see you want to pay 704 billion on judgment debts i think the first thing you will do is come clean to Nigerians that these are the debts these were the understandings that we had this were the covenants this bring everything out there's been so much shrouded in mystery and secrecy you know let me tell you something a man will come one day that will open certain rooms and we see what is inside you will be shocked that your legal system corrupts agreement and covenants for their ultimate pecuniary interest agreement assigned deliberately and intentionally to be skewed in secrecy and you know you know this thing where it is not defined clearly and it's not a mistake so that it can be interpreted anyhow at the end of the day they go back to share the money consultancies civil servants with all due respect some of them some civil servants rank amongst the most the most the the richest people and i'm not saying this as something that we don't all know how the properties in abuja more than half of it can be linked to civil servants one way or the other we know this where did they get the money from i'm a consultant you go for a business and a civil servant looks you in the eye and said boss i'm sure you know that this thing you know the you know i've maybe a billion narrow project and they will tell you that the markup is about maybe uh 400 million and in the 400 million they're going to give you about 100 million then the other 300 they will give it to our guy they would you know this conversation i've just said i want an average Nigerian consultant to tell me that i'm saying something that is wow revelation to him it's what we all know so the system is skewed such that the the the the larger society is ripped off by a few people that we entrusted with and pay them their salaries so when we talk in terms of all this corruption because politician has no power to be corrupt if they do not find allies in two places one the civil service to the banks we really need to bring god has to come have a find a way of giving us this man that will come and say guys let's draw the line enough is enough let's say this right that god has to find a way to however this money is where we're all through the issuance of promissory notes meaning that uh whether we like it or not well this money is as good as being spent isn't it um i will say so you see i wanted to be a government we are still on because you know i've said to people even especially this is this information is very important here we are today even if mr tino is sworn in on the 29th that is just the first step in four lanes so enjoy that victory with cautious optimism because the first step is that you are declared a winner there's a second step which is that you go to the tribunal and it can be taken from you even if you win at the tribunal there's a third step which is that you go to the appeal court it can be taken away from you even if you win at the appeal court it is a final stage where the supreme court look at that the version state six months after it's only about two weeks ago that mr delake can sit well and say i am the governor on that day it could have been nullified so until you get to this last stage enjoy your victory with cautious optimism and if you're a loser and you're in the tribunal keep faith alive but let's come back to the issue that the relevance here i wanted to be or i want to be a governor one of the things that you need to have in mind if you mean well is that there are certain things you need to revisit because if somebody willed my estate to you in error yes he willed it to you but i can appeal i can tell let's come back guy we are oing you seven billion that's great please exactly what did you do now you did 10 kilometers of roads at that time now what was the rate because you can go back and find the rates what were the peculiarities can you bring the drawings at the end of the day eat this stuff this road of seven kilometers of a kilometer a billion per kilometer should have been seven billion and you were given a 15 billion you yourself will know you've already collected 10 guy just close the door and walk let's not go into it so the fact that there's been a covenant there's been what it does not mean that that covenant cannot be reviewed with with the intent to ensure you know property and transparency and accountability and where that is correct the least you can do is tell this guy this is where we are we are oing you let's start to restructure our debt and pay you this way that way they don't come and tell me bring this seven hundred and four billion for me to pay for covenants that we had let the new administration come and interrogate those covenants and then be you know conscientious enough to know what is right and do it and if you don't have the capacity to do it appeal to the people and restructure it that is integrity that's what will inspire confidence in investors to come in and say oh this government they are doing the right thing the right way most of the people that do business with Nigeria are people who are fraudulent i'm sorry to say that because a lot of people who mean well when they come in the terms and conditions don't favor them so they go back so all these bogus figures that they give us i think that i pray that missa shibadu sees this as a national commitment and not an entitlement and and and a means for him to reward god for how god has been messageful and gracious to him over these years if he takes that as the hallmark or as the matching order of his administration we will get many things right but if it is an emi local mentality then i'm sure i'm sorry to say we are in for a rough ride but god still has a final say i like it that um you're very faithful and you're saying god will do this god will do that we believe in god so much and uh god will rise for us one day i don't know when the Thanksgiving of the president-elect will be is it right now after the inauguration or after the tribunal gives his final judgment i don't know what that will be uh but um i'm glad now you are an architect and you do real estate you keep telling us that and we know that to do real estate it will also mean that you'll take a lot of loans to do what you need to do and then pay back and that is why you know so much that um the key thing in taking a loan is your ability to repay now ability to repay also is tied to the interest rate in spite of the bleeding economy the monetary policy has or the mpc has raised the interest rate to 18 18.5 percent without consideration of how the economy is and what the people are feeling so for you who takes loans to do your real estate i'm sure it affects you and it affects a lot of other businesses how do you think the economy would fare after the mpc has raised this interest rate this high i'll tell you this for free i really don't know you know there are people who have just been in government for the past 20 years benefiting from government they take free money i think that we need to i don't know how we can do our leadership recruitment such that anybody that's not had a private sector you know experience should not be vested with government governance responsibility because some of this we really don't know what business doing business is all about they really don't understand they just take money from contracts they take money from around understanding they take money and they don't know what wealth creation means i sit down here as a businessman and i just can't you know in business you say the circle must close the circle must close which means you take money you execute you sell you get back the money you return the money at that return the money is when the circle closes and if you cannot if i do my real estate analysis and i'm building houses let's say a hundred houses at say a hundred no let me come down a ten ten million that's about a billion then i'm asking myself i'm going to take a billion now how much am i going to build the houses and the building types and the environment how much will i sell the houses now the people i'm going to sell do i have these numbers within the time frame that i'm getting this because if if at the end of the i finish i get the money i finish building i don't get the buyers with the capacity to repay the money at the end of the day and my price differential does not give me the margin to cover my cost of building cost of consultancies cost of running my business and give me a margin cost of the profit to return it i don't do it i don't do it there are so many types of buildings i will not do in akwaibom as good as because the numbers will not add up those buildings they can add up in abuja because i have the numbers they can add up in legos because i have the numbers it's just you thinking right as a businessman not just coming into government collect the loan collect the loan don't worry bring collect the loan no and people and civil servants are telling you how to package the loan and you collect the loan and at the end of you're not asking the most fundamental question how will the circle close now coming back to the issue of interest rates how do you do business to start with you are telling me that then your margin must be above 30 percent if you are collecting at 18 percent 18.5 your margin must be above 30 percent now which house am i going to build so that at the end of the day cost of materials cost of management cost of you know funds i will have a 30 percent margin to be able to match the cost of interest it's not going to work so i'm asking myself is ikiel why do you want to go and borrow money why don't you just see how you can appeal to people and market what you have and then use the money that you market to be able to earn that that's incremental you know building of the estate is not as good because if you want to do an estate of 50 houses and then you can just build one at a time one at a time at five houses people are not interested in moving in because you don't have that ecosystem for people to have that community but if i borrow money out of the 50 houses to do 30 at a go now you discover that you because of the inspiration that the people see of the thing moving and the number of people before you know people have come into the estate now that will attract more people and you'll be able to do more so business people are no longer doing business in a way that is sustainable they are doing a way they can afford because if i go carry loan at the end of three years that estate is no longer mine the bank will take over the estate people are not thinking like business men and economy runs on business men not government every economy runs on business men the private sector initiative even the employment how many people are employed by Nigerian in Nigerian government or everybody all the civil servants put together i don't know if they are their mother one million or something but how many are we 200 and something million people so the question is what runs the system what runs the economy now you have to find a way of encouraging production production can never happen at a scale where you don't have you know very very single digit interest rate it encourages production it is that production that oils the wheel of the system is that production that will now give company internally generated revenue which is what we're talking about where you get your international rate internally generated revenue from if not taxes what can you have taxes when the companies are not running how they come can the companies run when they'll be working for banks and they are not interested so they're just cooling down and all these projections they mean on taxes they don't meet it because the system is just not working i'm a private sector person and the worst thing you want to do at this time is you tell me to go to the bank and get money at high interest rate when the any power of the people is less so how they're going to get money to buy my houses for me to be able to sell and repay the interest and have more magic to continue my business i don't know it's it's it's a discussion that is just not adding up with me at all this economy this our governance we need to rework it and remove so much politics from governance let me end on this note because i know there's so much and the time is not you see the day we come to discover that we have two systems one is called politics the other one is called governance politics is like the engineers they get dirty they knock they push they do all sorts of things do you understand me to get the aircraft working that is politics engineer they speak loud and say they are loud they are dirty they are all sorts of things when the aircraft is ready comes governance like the pilot the pilot works on setting protocols of making sure that you are precise you are focused you are professional you are ethical those are the fundamental those are the guiding principles of the pilot those are the guiding principles of government and people that come into governance that is why i hated emiloko governance is not entitlement he's not the right let him discover let him come now and say i wanted it because i have an understanding of government and governance and i will forgive him and apologize to him and come and do things right round pegs in round holes no longer reward system and then you'll be able to refocus nigeria and move us in the direction where we are no longer bringing politics into governance but we are bringing even governance into politics so that our politics is even better organized and more focused mr tock yeah round pegs and round holes that takes me to the next headlines on the daily independent k m o to boharie ministers of state were idle it's unlawful minister of state job minus for boharie's government that's k m o speaking there please respond to that two things two things number one how is it that on the day that they are telling you thank you goodbye that you now discover that you know you were you were what you were doing was unconstitutional why why today why today have you just discovered you should have told us wow that last night i had a dream the dream led me to read a section of the constitution that had not read all the while not being not mining that i'm a senior advocate of nigeria nigerians this is the dream i had the office of the minister of state is unconstitutional it shouldn't have been and then nigerian will say wow what a dream thank god for the dream then we'll look into it but if you have almost known this why did he keep quiet number one that number two you have effectively told us that you have been doing something that has been unconstitutional and getting money as a man of honor as a man of integrity and can you reform all the monies you have occupied in that illegal office so that we now know that this is you are really really this restitution and you are really really a man of integrity outside of those two considerations then um but also i think that we must agree that he has brought up a fundamental issue which i agree with you are taking as a minister from a quiet bone state and don't go there and become a junior minister no instead if you must do that split all the works responsibilities it doesn't it doesn't you're not going to pay more you're not going to add more and i can have 100 offices only that i bring down all the monies that have been spending all and share it amongst the people you can no longer have five cars every minister can have a maximum of two cars or three so that you can bring down and give them the responsibilities and let them separated over it and give the report so he's got a point but one wondering why he had to wait all this while before he can make it would make that point well wait and see whether this incoming administration is going to also go ahead with the job for the boys syndrome that we've known our people to have been engaged in thank you so much mr is equal and yet talk thank you for your time every well that's the much you have for you on after the press do stay with us the breakfast continues in a moment