 with different directives being issued on the reopening of the nation's universities. We look at the latest developments regarding the strike by university lecturers under the ages of ASU. Also on the breakfast Nigerians have become used to the words national greed collapse with yet another nationwide power failure. What's the way forward for the electricity sector in the country? Let's go have in-depth analysis of some of today's newspaper headlines in off-the-press. We're back with the breakfast. It's a beautiful Tuesday morning, which you live as usual from a studio in Kerala, my island leaders, my name is Kofi Bartels. And I am Messia Boko, it's good to be back on your screen and thanks for joining us. All right indeed, it's been a whirlwind day. We'll have discussions regarding that as we introduced earlier with our guest panel of analysts for both subjects, be it the electricity situation in the country or be it the ASU strike. But Mercy, I have one question for you. Do you have power yesterday in your sister power went off or what? Yes, so I slept with power and I woke up with power. All right, all right. You slept with power as power supply? Of course. So what is the whole talk of? No, but I think that at some point, you know, everywhere was, you know, we're running generators and what have you just to ensure that everywhere's lit. But it was restart and that's according to reports that the TCN also said that at some point power was restart. So we would always go back and forth. Well, for me, there was so, so, so, power supply throughout. I keep telling you about, I don't want to tell you where it is. I won't tell you, but we have been constant power supply. If it goes for like maybe two minutes or one minute. It comes back. I will definitely, you know, give the authorities. All right. Anyway, we begin with a top trending segment, which is a look at the conversations happening on the social space online, those trending issues to bring them on the air just informing about them and share our thoughts basically on them before we get into a major conversations on the program. The first one is, you know, some chatter or rumors or reports alleging alleging we need to stress, we need to stress that these reports are alleging that the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress may have left the shores of the country to the United Kingdom for medical report. Now, we don't have evidence of this, I need to point that out, but it is being reported by one particular news website where they said that the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, whom presidential candidate has taken a few days off before the commencement of a political campaign is expected to start on the 28th of September, I believe. He is taking some days off to go get checked. We don't have this information, like I said, but this paper, this publication is citing multiple sources saying that the candidate left Nigeria at midnight on Saturday for the city of London and they are even going as far as giving the hospital where he's going to be, which happens to be, they're claiming it is the central London clinic he's sent meant to see doctors there yesterday. They quote the sources saying that he left Nigeria at midnight on Saturday. He ought to have launched the presidential campaign council today, but it was postponed till Wednesday for the president to return from the U.S. However, it has been postponed indefinitely. They also cite or quote the sources saying that there is massive affection within the party currently, well, I don't know if this is connected to the fact that the All Progressive Congress postponed the inauguration of its 422-member presidential campaign council which was scheduled for Monday to Wednesday. So that inauguration will hold on Wednesday, I don't know if they, too, the rumor is connected to this postponement, but that is what we have. But however, Bayou Onanoga, who is the spokesperson for the APC presidential council, said in a statement that members of that council are expected to participate in a special prayer session to usher in the presidential election campaign. So it was, I'm sure, a bit surprising to some people that that was postponed. So yes, indeed that is what we have. I mean, if you look at last year 2011, this candidate, presidential candidate, spent over 80 days, according to some reports that have been counting days, because I certainly haven't been counted, but they say, they say, they say he spent over 80 days patronizing hospitals in France, the United States and the UK, where he underwent surgeries. So for those ones that weren't hidden, he had a hip, I think, or some sort of leg surgery. He underwent surgeries, you know, just to get better. They also say he was flown out of the country some days before Christmas in 2020 to Paris, France. And there were speculations about his health then, all right. So this is what we have as a first sub-train, we won't take too much time on the background. Merci. Well, so I mean, if it's anything to go by, also, I mean, looking at the reports that the council, the campaign council that would have been inaugurated have been postponed prior to, you know, the exact time that it should have been launched. And then they also reports that he's not around, but we haven't also gotten, you know, reports from maybe the aid of the presidential candidate, or from his camp saying, hey, we're not around, and what have you. But if that's anything to go by, I mean, it's quite, it's calling for a lot of concern among those who are within, you know, the party itself saying it's supposed to be a campaign that starts to this, what, at a 27th, if I'm not mistaken, and so that's a Wednesday politicking or campaigns would eventually start. But like if you rightly mentioned, we will not, you know, take so much time on that. Now, moving away from that, Nigerians react to a Twitter poll very hilarious. And I think that Nigerians are very comical. Not all, but some Nigerians are comical, especially when you go on that bed app. It's quite funny. I really don't know what's the origin behind, or, you know, the brain behind that particular poll that came out, but I just think that it was just one of those mischievous thing and hilarious thing that Nigerians, you know, get to engage in. So that was a comparison between Beyoncé and Choma Jesus, and you know that Beyoncé is Beyoncé. I don't know how to explain it. She, you know, she's a fantastic and amazing singer, as you can see, and she's done a lot of songs and what have you. And then you have Choma Jesus, who was a gospel artist, who's also Nigerian. So I just think the Nigerians are just trying to be very hilarious right there. And so they did the comparison and say between Choma, who's popular. So the popularity between Choma Jesus and Beyoncé was what that Twitter poll was about and trust me, the reactions right there are very, very, very calm. If you're having a hard day or a bad day or a hard time, I think you should just, you know, just go ahead and check that poll and look at the comments that are underneath it. It's just for, you know, like, that's what I would rather say. So it's been really, really funny out of that. I think that the entire essay that out of 29, I don't have the facts right now with me about 29, 29 votes, they're about, Choma Jesus was stopping the chart as against Beyoncé. And we're talking about Beyoncé here. But of course, like I said, for me, it's very comical and very hilarious. All right. Congratulations to both artists on having their time on air. Final training, top training story this morning. Of course, a protest by retired Nigerian soldiers, you know, over salary issues, pension issues, you know, amongst the rank of those serving, also those who are retired. And the military, they went to the streets in Abuja yesterday. I mean, I don't know, we can't roll pictures of that protest. Can we roll pictures of the protest? Well, these are military veterans you can see on your screen there under the ages of retired members of the Nigerian armed forces and the coalition of concerned military veterans. They stage the third phase, what they call the third phase of security, debarment allowance, the third phase of their protests, rather, over the nonpayment of their security debarment allowance, amongst others, their security debarment allowance, among others. They went to the Ministry of Defense in Abuja yesterday. You know, they pitched a tent at the Ministry, actually blocked access to the Ministry of Defense, located at Ship House on Olusek, Mobasa and Joe way in Abuja, the FCT, probably taking the cue from nuns who have now, you know, become accustomed to blocking roads. So they blocked the road. And they are saying that these are the issues we have. Please pay us what we are owed. Security debarment allowance. I don't know if you've heard of that before, mercy. But a spokesperson for the group, I think he is the national secretary of the group that has retired members of the Nigerian, rather, the coalition of concerned military veterans, yes. He said that the protest was to demand the payment of the security debarment allowance owed them by the federal government. He also said that the Ministry of Defense had refused to disperse their allowances, despite major approvals by the president. He said pay them, but the man has refused to pay them. He said, quote, we've had meetings with the Defense Minister, but he appears to be headstrong, heartless and unperturbed concerning the grievances of retired military officers as he never paid, nor should any interest or concern to pay these allowances, especially the security debarment allowance. It's interestingly, President Borahari has approved the payment of this allowance, but Magashi, that's the Defense Minister, has refused to make the disbursement. So, pay them their money so they can go home. I just like how you put it, it's very simple. It would really be very sad and unfortunate that for these persons, I mean, we're talking about soldiers who have been involved in economic war, from Sierra Leone to Liberia, peacekeeping missions, whatever, I mean, you can go on and on, do they really have to, you know, protest under the rain after serving their nation and going out there to defend, you know, the territorial integrity of the country, and then we'd have to come back to protest on paid allowances. I think we can do better. The big question for me right now is, if the President had given an approval for these funds and allowances to be paid, why then is, you know, this busman being held onto, who is actually holding it, what's the problem, you know, with the Defense Minister, exactly, why are they not being paid? The President has given an approval. I think we can do better. And this will go, you know, a long way in solving the problem of insecurity that we face. This men who have actually given their time, their, you know, time where they were quite young, giving it to serving their country and would actually come back, it's quite tempting because at the end of the day, might not necessarily be an excuse, but if you look at, you know, the security challenges and situations that we're faced with every other time, you find that there are different persons who are picking arms, and so I'm not sure we want to, you know, get to that point where, you know, these persons will be allowed to consider picking, taking arms to begin to fend for themselves. Let's also, you know, respect the time and effort that has been put in, in simple and short, pay them what is due, that would be what it is, but that's the much we can take this. Yeah, but before we go, let me have a bit of time, the, the, the, the, the debarment actually, you know, means that you excluded from certain rights, privileges, possessions, you know, practices that you meant to have, so I'm suspecting that these, these protesters or these protests or the debarment allowance are for those who probably, because of injury, you know, because of one factored order whilst in active service, are not able to actively work in the military again and earn a living, and therefore they have to be given something to sustain themselves, or maybe the families of those who are, who have been lost in combat, who are fallen soldiers, who, who have to be given some sort of allowance because their family members died in active service, and at this time they would have been fending for their families. Most of these will probably be breadwinners. For instance, I see that there was a lady who spoke at the protest to reporters, Anna Nanven, she's quite young. She said that her husband is a corporal who was killed by Boko Haram terrorists in, in 2015 during an attack on military barracks in 2015. You look at that, that's quite recent, you know, so she said she had received only one debarment allowance, it's birth meant, you know, so I think the husband died. So since the husband is demised, he's received only one, he died in 2015. I think that this is sort of allowance in, it's not a pension alone, but it's also an allowance, apart from the pensions, the, the debarment allowance probably being something that goes to the family of those who died in active service, who probably at this time would be in active service if not for the death, or probably are injured and cannot work and would be in active service at this time, if not for the, the, the injury. You know, but it's, it's really sad if we hear that the president has approved such an amount of money in the means of defense, he's not, has not disbursed it, then that, that's quite a shame. And I think we shouldn't be hearing things like this at all, at all, at all. Well, yeah, like you have rightly mentioned, it is not what it should be and it's very unfortunate that it has to be this way. I mean, what happens to people giving up their time. And I think that this is one factor that over time discourages a lot of peasants from being part, you know, of a system, several systems, or even, you know, different sectors, because of all of this. How do you explain the fact that over time, there's an agreement, if people actually work and they're entitled to all of this benefit, they should be given. I really don't know what the excuse would be, but we're hoping that, you know, the president will be in the know of this, that the approval that he had given for action had not been taken based on that approval, maybe something will be done. We can only do better as we turn 62. We'll take a break then when we return with time for us to go through the pages of National Daily's, we'll call it after press, please stay with us.