 The Lagos State Governor of Babajideh, Song Walu, sets up a five-man panel to investigate the cause of the equally building collapse and make recommendations. Kidnapped staff of the University of Abu Dhabi, their relatives regain freedom. An Ethiopia's government asks citizens to prepare to defend themselves as Tigray and rebels advance on the capital, Addis Ababa. With that, we say good morning and thanks for joining us on PLOS TV Africa this Thursday morning. It is the breakfast. And I am Usaugi Ogbama. And I am Masiya Bogbo. It's good to have you join us. Very interesting. Thursday morning, our top trending story is this morning, a move even outside Nigeria. We'll start here in Lagos, where of course the Lagos State government did name a couple of the survivors of the Iqoyi building collapse yesterday. There's still, of course, a rescue effort still going on. The last time that I reported in yesterday was about 21, 23 people confirmed dead, unfortunately. But nine people of course were named as survivors and there's still search going on for more and more survivors. And of course, I've been saying this, how important time is in this regard. Every second, every minute, every hour that passes, the chances of finding a survivor continues to reduce. And we hope, because I've seen pictures. I saw a young lady's picture that was put out on social media by her friend and I think her young elder sister or so saying that she was one of those who worked for the company and was on sites on Monday when the building collapsed. So there's still a couple of people, family members still gathered around hoping that there would be some good news. The current challenge right now is we need to hasten up. We need speed. We need to, whatever it is that we're doing. We need to just act fast because the more we keep waiting, the more, you know, time we're just under the pace we're working on, we might just lose everyone. Like you earlier mentioned, and like we have been saying right here that time is of the essence and every time, every minute actually counts. Now, I'm listening to the governor yesterday making some statement when he revisited again. He did mention the fact that some measures have been put out, especially where they have to put out oxygen, you know, and then maybe water so that those, you know, because looking at the situation now, the building that actually collapsed, you know, the people would be gapsing for breath and all of that. So I think it's OK. But the point right here right now is we need to double the effort. We need to do more so that we can actually rescue because the more time is going, the chances of having people survive is very slim. It's just I mean, every single time that I see these clips or I see those pictures, I am I am stunned as to, you know, the magnitude of this. This this is so so over time. And sadly, well, it's a good thing. I think, you know, that Nigeria doesn't get to experience a lot of natural disasters. So these aren't things that we normally experience, you know, every year, every six months, you know, there's a landslide or an earthquake or something like that. We don't get to experience, you know, things like that. But we eventually, I mean, what I'm saying that is because as a country, we're we're not that country that is 100 percent prepared for disasters. We are prepared for rescue, prepared for some of these type of incidents where you can tell that the agencies that have been set up for disaster management, you know, have lots of experience with dealing with these things. And so they know what to do with the next time it happens. We don't get to experience this a lot. And so I sadly do not think that these people who are on ground there would give 100 percent of what is, you know, when they say world best practice with regards to rescue, I don't think that they will. Sadly, no, it can happen. That's because when you talk about leveraging on other people's experience, truth, like you rightly mentioned, we don't get to experience all of this disaster. But the point is with all of the disaster that we have experienced, like I mentioned earlier, and I would say this is not the very first time we're experiencing a collapse, a building collapse in Lagos State or in Nigeria. So what lessons have we even learned? That's the point. What lessons have we learned? Why haven't we been very proactive? Why haven't we thought about the fact that, yes, it happened the first time. It happened the second time, thought time, and it's going to happen. I'm sorry, it's really going to happen again. But why are we not learning? Why are we not saying, OK, what do we need to do to curtail the number of persons? I mean, at the time when the synagogue church, I mean, the what's it called again, that particular residence collapse, 160 something died. Yes. What are we doing? Why haven't we learned from that past experience so we can be better? So we keep waiting and acting as if we live in a different space. So once again, once again, anyway, let's listen to what the governor said yesterday, we have a quick track to play with the governor who was on ground yesterday, made some statements and we'll share that with you. For us to get to the to the real issue of what had happened, I've set up a high powered commission of inquiry. It's a strong professional investigative panel that are consisting of everybody from outside of government. It's a five member with one secretary that is also external and they've been given in a clear terms of reference, right? Later today, I will be meeting with some of them and will identify where they're going to work from and we're going to give them a 30 day assignment for them to wrap up and tell us, indeed, you know, professionally what had gone wrong here and who are the culprit and what do we need to do? I have Tamplana Tio Ainde, who will chair. He's the current president of the Nigerian Institute of Tamplanas of Nigeria. I have Dr. Akin Tilo Idris Adelike. He's one of the foremost structural engineers in the country. Is the best in class as a structural engineer. I have Aki Teteinkav Ubudairu is a partner with one of the leading architectural firms in the country. They have done several, several, several developments like this. I have Builder Godfrey, who Godfrey is also being identified as one of the foremost builders in the country and was recommended by the Nigerian Institute of Builders. And I have Mrs. Bumi Ibrahim. She's a lawyer and she's also a property player who understands and know from a legal perspective what should be the remits, you know, of government and also a developer of this multitude. To be the secretary of this panel, it's a gentleman called Mr. Ekuntayo Onojopi, who is also a lawyer and works with a private law firm. Oh, the Lagos State Governor, you know, speaking about the five man panel that he's setting up to investigate and find out exactly what went wrong on Monday in Ikoi. I really hope that we get the best out of this. You know, sadly, we've lost more than 20 people. I'm hoping, you know, that they continue to do what is necessary and they give the absolute best that they can resources, finances, time, whatever it is that is necessary to ensure that whoever is still buried under that rubble, you know, will be found. It just really, really breaks my heart. Well, I hope that they did that. And also, you know, the Lagos State government needs to know that the people believe that this is just going to be another thing. They're big boys. That's the word that this award you find on the street. They are big boys. They're going to cover it to cover it up. They're going to just find a way. I hope that's not going to be the narrative. So they need to know that that's what the people think. People are thinking that, you know, it's just one of those things. They are big boys. Everything will just go down. I think I'll hold on. Nothing would happen. I think I'll hold on with regards to punishment if there needs to be punishment. I'll hold on to, you know, to those thoughts till we're done rescuing people. So let's let's deal with the most important and that is saving lives after, you know, saving lives and as many lives as possible. Then we can now get into a conversation on who failed here and whose lapses led to this collapse and this disaster. And also, maybe, maybe look into the timing with regards to the rescue operation starting. We can look into those. There's so many details to this that I hope that we do not ignore as a country because that's who we are as a country. We eventually just say, OK, two weeks later, everybody's moved on. Exactly. So people actually think that, yeah, people actually think that those extra details will not be out and nothing will happen as usual. And that's what people think. So I'm thinking this is the point where the government needs to, you know, do otherwise. You know, when someone is expecting you to behave in a particular way and then you shock them and surprise them. So we'll get there. It's not also trying to push the government into punishing people that don't necessarily need to be punished just to show that they're working. You know, so I think I think we'll get there. Let's focus on saving lives for now. In other top trending stories this morning in Rwanda, the, of course, President Abiy Ahmed has declared a state of emergency seeing that, of course, the Tigray people's liberation front, the Tigray rebels, as they're popularly called, are fast advancing towards the capital. This is not very different from what happened in Afghanistan, where, of course, diplomats and, you know, and, you know, government officials eventually had to flee the country. That is currently what has been recorded or reported from Ethiopia. It says diplomats, government officials, and, you know, whoever else can currently flee the country as the government has declared a state of emergency and ask the people of Ethiopia to pick up arms and defend their country from the Tigray rebels. And I'll quickly mention that Abiy Ahmed is a noble piece, you know, a prize winner. He eventually became president and people have criticized him for being the same thing that he campaigned against when he was, you know, what a noble piece prize. He became, you know, pretty much similar to the same terror that he, you know, campaigned against. Those are some of the things that people have mentioned. And if you've been following the fighting in Ethiopia, if you've been following the stories and following, you know, the moves that Abiy Ahmed has made in the last one year in his bid to rid the country of the Tigray rebels, then you might, you know, get to sense that, yes, people might be right with those claims. There has been, you know, food blockade. There has been bombardment of the Tigray area. There have been so much of, you know, abuse, you know, by the Ethiopian government in its bid, you know, to fight against the Tigray rebels. I don't know how this will turn out, but it doesn't look good for him at this point, you know, because I remember, you know, a while ago, when I used to see these stories, I used to say to myself, is he sure he's doing the right thing? Does he really know exactly what he's doing in his fight against the Tigray rebels? But it doesn't seem to have turned out very good, because currently, if they approach in the capital, it means that Ethiopia is going, is very likely to fall if nothing is done as quickly as possible. It's just a reminder, saying, you know, the people should pick up arms and defend themselves. Sounds like something we've read before in Niger, you know, some governors will say, at this point in time, you need to defend yourself. It just also goes to show that the issue of security, it's a global issue, but at this point in time, you begin to ask yourself the international bodies. I mean, for those who begin to preach global peace and prosperity, what is going on? Why is there no intervention at this point in time? What is happening? I think that this shouldn't be breaking news, but, you know, the West doesn't really care. If there's no particular interest that they have, then they don't really care. You can keep yourselves in your country. That's your personal problem. I mean, that's the truth. They don't really care. So they are not going to be helping you out, you know, for any reason. And I know that he also is not in the best books, you know, for the West. I'm talking of Abiy Ahmed now. I will also mention that he was a member of the Tigray forces before he became president. So he was part of that movement. He supported that movement, you know, as an anti-government movement. So it feels like having a taste of your own medicine. Yes. So he supported it. Eventually, when he became president, then he now started trying to whittle down their forces and their power. And that's when all this war started. And, you know, the people, of course, of Ethiopia have become the biggest victims of all of this. I don't know how many more days or how many more weeks, you know, where this is going, but it doesn't look good for Abiy Ahmed. Neither does it look good for Ethiopia as a country. And they are not, I don't think I would describe the Tigray rebels as a, they're not a terrorist group, per se. They're not necessarily, you know, a Boko Haram or an Iswap or any of all of that. So I'm not expecting that the U.S. will say, okay, let's jump in here and fight, you know, help you fight your battles. Ethiopia is a scary place to live in currently. And, you know, and once again, I started, you know, by saying that this is very similar to what happened to Afghanistan. You know, at some point, the capital fell, the capital Kabul fell, and, you know, that's, you know, the end. Everybody knows where the country currently is. So good luck to Abiy Ahmed. We'll be here to report as much of the developing story concerning Ethiopia as time passes. Finally, here in Nigeria, back here in Nigeria, of course, it made the news yesterday and a lot of people got to speak about it, how Nigeria currently owes China more than $3 billion as a third of last quarter of 2020. We were owing China $3 billion. And this, of course, has created a little bit of worry across the country, because a lot of Nigerians are asking, what did we do with China's $3 billion? What did we achieve with it? And why we owe in China $3 billion? And also, how are we going to pay back this $3 billion to China? It's not the largest amount of money that is being owed, you know, from one country to the other. But seeing how Nigeria is currently struggling with this GDP and struggling to raise money every year to finance its budget, struggling to raise money every year to afford, because of our budget deficits and to pay back loans that has taken in the past, this is scary. And also, because of the narrative that once you owe China, you don't necessarily just owe China and pay them back. There might be some interest that the Chinese government has with every country that it is giving loans to. And we're not sure what exactly those interests are. Nigeria is not just owing China. I mean, if you look at the list of who Nigeria is owing, which is actually in public space, you find the IDA, 11.62 billion dollars. You also have the Diaspora bond, 300 million dollars. You have, I mean, the list is almost endless. You also have the International Monetary Fund, 3.50 billion dollars. So Nigeria is not just owing China. It costs for a lot of concern. It might also interest us to know that the federal government, you know, at a time between January and March, spent a total of 1.8 trillion era on debt servicing. And that's, it costs for a lot of concern. Now, with the issue of borrowing, there's nothing wrong in borrowing. I mean, we also see even, you know, developed countries borrow as well. At a time, you find out that the U.S. was also owing China and what have you. But the point is, how do you invest? Because if you invest, if you borrow this money and invest properly, wisely, would be the word. It would trickle down. What you will begin to see would be growth and development. You'll begin to see it. So what do we borrow this money for? Yes, we know that at some point government will say, we're borrowing for infrastructure. But let's look at it. Let's look at it. It's not about what we say. It's not about what we say. What about, what we can see? Just like you would say the country is out of recession. How are the people feeling it? How, because at the end of the day, it has to translate. It had, how much money do we have in our pockets? What, you know, what is the standard of living? That's how you begin to measure. So it doesn't necessarily really matter when we begin to mount all of these things in the books. Someone was saying, yo, we're borrowing for critical infrastructure. How much of this can we see? The point is, over time, it feels like we borrow to pay salaries. And that's not really good. It's like you're borrowing to have a wedding. Oh, I know a lot of Nigerians do that. But it's not really wise. You borrow to invest for productive purposes. So it doesn't really make sense. And the fact that you have a lot of intellectuals in the economic team of the president, I mean, a lot of Nigerians are very smart people. What is wrong? How come we begin to see some of these actions? Why do we constantly borrow? Look at the current capital expenditure over time. And look at the recurrent expenditure over time. You find that we pay so much attention to cost of running governance. And we pay less attention. Now, any economy that wants to grow, we rather pay attention to the cost of developing. And so when you begin to look at the recurrent expenditure, it tells you where the hat of that country is. No, you just go check all of that out. So it's really unfortunate that we constantly spend it. And we're still borrowing. As a yesterday, the Nigerian government is growing more. So where are we even going? At some point I saw this story and then I was just making fun of it that we're all owing money, including you. I'm owing. I'm owing anybody. I'm borrowing money from anybody. All right. Stay with us. We'll take a short break when we come back off the press kicks off and we'll be sharing with you the major stories making headlines across Nigeria this morning. We'll be back.