 Good morning to you. It's Christmas day. Welcome to the breakfast on Plus TV Africa. We're super excited to be spending this Christmas morning with you. My name is Ruben Paul Zib. My name is Nyangul Agadje. I was just thinking about the song a long time ago or some time ago that I My voice is not so great but managing. Okay, the song I was thinking about was this one that they were saying you know Mary didn't have a place to stay that she was lying in a manger. How did they sing this song? Are you sure that's not from somewhere in Cross River State? Oh, you know I'm not, I'm not, I'm not only doing like that on a Christmas morning. Yeah, so there's the verse. Mary with a baby Jesus they had no harbor so they lay on a manger. So now I'm just thinking Mary who had the baby Jesus had no place to stay they were in a manger and I'm thinking about what we go through for someone else's birthday and that I saw yesterday a couple was you know almost fighting you know because the Christmas gifts didn't come the way they should have come the Christmas allowance didn't come the way they usually come and all those kind of things and I don't know how that family will be after now. After all the fighting well they'll settle. After Christmas is over what do you have to do you settle and you move on and then you realize that a new year is coming and all the money that you spent in Christmas you're like what am I going to do in this new year and trust me January seems so long. Yeah it's January seems so long that you're like where is all my money but then yes I mean it's nice to celebrate you know during the holidays. I love Christmas personally I love the lights I love the fireworks last night I think okay it's about 12 a.m. this morning I saw the fireworks going up it was so beautiful I love the fact that everybody is super nice and I was like Merry Christmas everyone wants to give you something there's just something in the air like the atmosphere is so calm and peaceful and I really really love that and that's something I love about Christmas what do you love about Christmas? Yes basically the same thing Christmas just just puts love in the air you know even some people who may not have smiled the whole year I think at Christmas they just find time to smile so it's really lovely when this time gets here and like you said the lights and everything even though the government tries all the time to make sure that the fireworks do not work anymore the street lights no no not the street lights fireworks and the bangers and all that they don't yeah because of the hazard that it poses the security purposes is what they give but I also know a time when a friend of mine was lighting these fireworks and all that and one of them the last one that he had on his hand in his hand exploded and he now has two fingers on that hand the right hand so there's so many things apart from the security you need to be careful if you have to light it and you know the type you're lighting and how safe it is for you to light it but I like the fire like I love how beautiful the fireworks look but then I think one thing for me is just how Christmas is celebrated and everyone is so happy and so considerate even the air seems to change you know and the weather is quite cool as well so it's a bit foggy but when you wake up in the morning it's just the haze and everything like it's really beautiful and I like I said it's the feeling that comes with it for me is the fact that everybody's considerate everybody loves one another everybody's looking for a way to make the other person smile and that's what Christmas is all about Christmas is all about sharing love and giving after all as a christen that I am Jesus Christ has given to us you know for the sake as a savior for redemption so in this season of Christmas you're also to give to other people to make them happy and smile so we hope that you're doing that this morning we hope you're making people smile this morning and you're just fighting love and cheer all the way today yeah I'll be on today as well I have this I have this philosophy that there's a Jesus in every religion it's just that we christen want to own Jesus like he he belongs to us Jesus has no religion in fact if you read the bible you can comfortably substitute Jesus's name for love and just you just keep on talking about love and in any religion where love is paramount there is a Jesus inside there so whoever you are whatever faith that you have whatever religion that you have if love is the focal point of your religion that is who Jesus is it doesn't have to be that you have to go into a church before you can do that but if you have love set less love then you have Jesus so this season is for you whether you're a christen or not a christen but by the way for those people who actually profess the name of Christ I think you should even show a greater example let people see Christ in you let Christ never be out of this season that's the reason for the season and so you live by his tenets and everything that he stood for okay let's move over to our top training obviously it's the christmas day special I feel like a pastor right now it's a christmas day special today and we're just celebrating christmas right here in the studio but we're going to talk about president tinnable's speech where he's charged to us on christmas day so the president you know as obviously talked about christmas and how the nation might just be better so I'm sure you've read that story what do you think about it okay let me read the story for you so president tinnable has congratulated Nigerians on the christmas day celebration assuring citizens of his administration commencement to alleviate their sufferings tinnable and his christmas message to Nigerians on sunday expressed optimism that the nation will witness a new dawn of prosperity be confident that by the strength of our joint endeavor we will shortly emerge into a new dawn of prosperity peace and irreversible progress he said he asked Nigerians to spare a moment of remembrance and prayer for the men and women of the nation's armed forces bearing arms to protect the country he prayed that god protect them and bring them back to their families he also called for the commemoration of the memory of those who in their service have paid the highest price for the nation while fathering by father praying for god to bless their souls and comfort their families and loved ones the commander in chief also showed Nigerians of its administration's commitment to ease their burden so yes that's his christmas message and obviously he said we're going to alleviate your sufferings hopefully you know when he said let the poor breathe i'm hoping that this is what's going to happen in this season and even next year as well in the spirit of christmas i forgive him and forgive all the politicians that have made me and everybody who's in nigeria angry but it doesn't mean they have to go back to doing what they were like i said uh about the transport scheme for instance it's a scam i have something to say about it it turned out to be well i don't know what i would like to say just so i was having a conversation with my hairstylist yesterday and he said he was supposed to travel and most of the people in his group were supposed to travel and when they were going to travel they went to one of the transport companies but guess what it was this still the same price so there was no 50% off and i'm like if the government has said 50% off how come they're still paying is there like oh maybe first 100 people to come is it only some people but i don't even know what anyone who has gotten that discount the 50% slashing price yeah so i'm waiting for when they're going to come next year and say oh yes we cater to five because i mean the the um they were looking at catering to five million people right to say that five million people are going to enjoy this 50% slashing price so i'm waiting to see the five million people because i've not seen one they don't even think through this policy the people who travel out of Lagos alone are more than five yeah and then you're saying throughout the country five million people yeah so so what are you even saying i said it from the onset is a scam right now they are in pursuit of the former minister of humanitarian affairs who said she was feeding children and all that and they now discovered that they had more than 100 accounts where money was being siphoned and luxurious things were being bought houses and everywhere they were buying these things and said they were feeding our children so now we have that okay so tomorrow you will still find out that if another government comes and they want to probe they will also find out that there was a scam somewhere here when they were talking about whatever it was that needed to be done the statement was very ambiguous we didn't know if every company that was contracted will be doing these trips every day with all their fleet of buses we didn't know that they just said they will take one trip one trip of one bus or is it one trip of a hundred buses if they have that we didn't know anything about that and it took a lot of time before we even knew that companies we kept saying it here on this program before we knew the companies that were earmarked for that i mean that was just five or less just five companies transfer companies to 28 routes for five million people i'm just trying to do the math here like how does that even work it doesn't but the money that will be spent for that tell me about it oh dear so someone is going to did you see so that was the message i saw um i don't know how true it is so i'll say allegedly by one of the former one of the politicians let me just put it there and it says most times the politicians feel that um embezzling money and being into power is god's blessings so you're entering into power you're like oh god has blessed me because i can now steal money and then he he went on to say that we have a lot of people in Nigeria so we're going to sacrifice a few politicians a few corrupt politicians by you know maybe putting them into prison or whatever that's that's fine but we should that's well that was what he said but then he's like most times people see it as god's blessings when you come into power and you're corrupt and you start to start fund money but it's not god's blessings you that's not an avenue for you to go and steal and say god blessed me that is you stealing out of your greed that is you stealing out of wickedness that is you stealing because you don't just care about the masses so never see it and also insecurity you don't even know where the next meal will come from if you don't steal yes so if you are a politician right and you're going you're going to into politics or you're going into power and thinking that you were you're going there and stealing and saying it's god's blessings no let's not kid ourselves it's not god's blessings it is you just being wicked and I think it's time for you to repent and I'm saying that because it's Christmas well we will find time to forgive you but we will not forget forgetting and forgiving the they usually don't go together for for humans the beauty of forgiveness is not your forgetting it is the ability to be comfortable even when you remember that someone did really something really bad to you I can remember it but I can still relate with you that is true forgiveness not because I've forgotten so I won't go and take drugs to forget everything and say I forgive you that means I've not forgiven you I just forgot about it so politicians whoever is in the corridors of power and even the ordinary people who are not politicians because we know how it is this morning when we're coming to work I had to take a bus coming to work and the person the driver had upped the price for at least 20 to 30 percent of the of the of the transport and he kept saying no to no dear route so this one where they do say now Christmas that they do for them so I'm even helping yeah so either he forgot the fact that there are no much vehicles on the road but they also are not much passengers on the road so why not just in the spirit of Christmas say I'm slashing it for instance hey don't tell you that there's no fuel no fuel fuel that is no fuel that we are we are we are manufacturing fuel that we are you know potackle refinery is back so I expect it is going to start that there will be a slashing price is going to start production and then I don't know why I'm talking about next year and I don't know if it's just me like the optimistic part of me that feels like oh with all of these things coming hopefully next year maybe 2023 was our year of famine and then 2024 might just be bountiful the thing is whether whether things do not get better we are going to adapt we are going to evolve to that state where we will find that as the norm whatever is happening right now we'll get so used to it we won't be counting it as suffering anymore but you know coming from for instance coming from less than 200 naira for a liter of fuel and then getting to 600 naira in a very short space is quite uh so Jun is something that was quite interesting while I was speaking to my stylist yesterday more yesterday afternoon um so we were talking about the the 50 percent slash and bus prices because I'm like oh if you're going to travel you should use this um transport company because the government has been able to slash the prices and then he's like no I don't that's not true that's not happening and I'm like oh my co-uncle thinks is this come he's like I think it's a scam too and then he was like it would have been better if the government had you know given us like a little bit of subsidy on the fuel prices and I'm like that's exactly what we talked about on our program because that way it cuts across um everyone everyone needs fuel for either your powering your gen or your servicing your business or your driving your car you need fuel but if you're just going to say transport companies so for me that I don't want me that I don't like to use transport company are you trying to tell me that you're not you're not going to enjoy it and then even air tickets are out of it so I can't fly and get that discount and air tickets are going for as much as 100 and something almost 200,000 there are 200,000 nearest tickets from Abuja to Awiri for instance 200,000 within the same country yeah it's ridiculous for a giant of Africa if you go to Benna Republic for instance and you're going to the UK the money you pay to UK is like three times or four times less than the one you pay in Nigeria so if you're paying a million in in Nigeria you'll be paying 250 in Benna Republic the giant of Africa oh we hope that the aviation minister is looking at something um but I think maybe the tariffs are really really quite high and if he can actually subsidize it even though we're talking about everything they talk about now it's subsidy and palliative yeah subsidy palliative we don't even see them when I went the last time is a very long time ago the last time I went to Ghana we went through Benna of course I went on land and one of the things that struck me was that these people were carrying money in wheel boroughs and exchanging like you know they have really changed they were carrying money in wheel boroughs so the Nigerian currency that you will use to change for the Benna Republic currency was so small and their money was so big now I think it's the reverse you know because if you're taking let's say a thousand Naira and then you have to collect something that is almost like 20,000 from them they needed to carry this money in wheel boroughs and all that but now I'm not sure it's the same case so people prefer to go travel through Benna instead of through Lagos or Abuja to the UK to America to everywhere else that they are going to and it's it's really it's really disheartening okay well let's just take one more story and then we'll be time for off the press so almost five weeks after they participated in the gubernatorial election in Biosas state some officials of the Nigerian immigration service NIS who were deployed for the poll are yet to be paid the allowances well this is coming the gubernatorial election was held in Biosas on saturday november 11 however the officers who claimed to have used their personal funds throughout the polls with their expectation that they would be paid or refunded have urged the NIS authorities not to give any room for foul play but to ensure that the allowances are paid during the last general elections NIS personnel at the state level were paid 90,000 Naira each while those at the headquarters received 200,000 to 300,000 Naira but then there were similar reports of delay in payment for all of allowances to the NIS personnel deployed so I mean in the spirit of Christmas you would expect that these people will have their payments because they need money to be able to feed to be able to celebrate Christmas to be able to give gifts I don't even think it's fair for the people at the headquarters 300,000 well the people in the field are ending 90,000 they're the ones with the hazards they're the ones with all the problems that this is sort of they're the ones that could have been killed or maimed or something well anyway that's how the civil service works but why do you keep money of the people who have already worked it happens in so many places and tomorrow when you're going to work like that and you see a bribe there's a tendency you might collect it even though you try to be upright you just remember that okay last time I did this they didn't pay me till after one year or I lost the money and then you see a bribe and you attempted to take it because you know that you have to feed your family and all that and all that they what if they it's almost like the you know it's like a ripple effect so it's like they're training you to be a bad person yes you don't have a choice it's between the how do you say the devil and the deep blue sea pretty much see the police people for instance you go to the police college and you become a policeman the first six months you work most times that I know I don't know about some other times maybe there are some one of them most times that I know these people are not paid for the first six months yeah they do slot things so you probably have to now so whatever whatever you're going to say about that but if you're not paid for the first six months that you're struggling to get a house to get these to get that uh that means you will be first yes you'll be first to do something so so you already saw your hands before they begin to pay you so it's like okay you cannot say anything anymore no matter how righteous you came into the police force it's going to be difficult to say I didn't collect bribe because at the end of the day you want to stop corruption I think the first thing is pay people their wages and pay them rights you can't pay them on time yes you can't shut change people you want a service but you're not willing to pay for that service why how do you expect the person to actually get another means of livelihood or how they are supposed to feed their families if you're not going to pay them so pay them pay them well and pay them right pay them on time and don't don't delay their salaries or don't even say I'm not going to pay at all because you hear of the salary I remember whatever your role is whether you're a leader or a follower do what you have said you are going to do if you're going to leadership do the leadership the right way if you're going to follow then follow right do not make the leader do wrong or you the leader make the follower do wrong all that as we say on social media made amnesty stop for 2023 when we enter 2024 let it be a wonderful year for all of us and we're hoping that 2024 will be a year of prosperity remember it's very optimistic I am too I am but I'll be I'll be looking at more this time to see where you're doing wrong and I'll tell you and when we tell you please do something more positive from 2024 Nigeria should witness prosperity anyways we'll go on a short break and when we return it will be time for other persons to stay with us