 As Nigeria marches on into its 62nd year of nationhood, we'll evaluate the systems and structures of Nigerian federalism. How can micro, small and medium-scale enterprises in Nigeria access the digital economy we have a discussion on integrating Nigeria's MSMEs into payment gateway services? And in-off-the-press Upunaboh and Kottaria joins us for in-depth analysis of today's new spearheadlines. Very good morning to you. We're back with the breakfast and plus TV Africa. It's a beautiful Monday morning, reaching live from our studios on Victoria Island Lagos. My name is Kofi Bartels. It's an interesting line of topics we have for you and we just encourage you to sit back, relax and enjoy the ride. As usual, we will have a top training segment which is a look at the most important conversations and conversations that are attracting the most attention in the social space, talking about online social media platforms. And that's what we bring you in a top training segment every single day. Nigeria marches 62nd year of independence from the British colonialists on Saturday. And we will have a crack panel from discussants here on an extended version of the breakfast. And it was quite an interesting time on Saturday. Well, of course on social media, I love Nigerians took to the spaces, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and others to express their thoughts on the day and the significance of independence. A lot of organizations, corporate bodies, sharing flyers, e-flyers, wishing Nigeria a happy 62nd birthday. But I think the highlight, we can say the highlight of that day was the Independence Day ceremony that held in Abuja precisely at the Eagle Square. It was a parade to mark that Independence Day. And of course, we can see clearly videos of the clip of the president arriving at Eagle Square in Abuja. This has not been, had not been possible some years ago with terrorism being on the increase. We had the Independence Day parade being held within the walls of Asarok villa. So I think it's a good sign. It's a good thing to see that we able to have the parade with the president and the armed forces out there at Eagle Square, Abuja. President Muhammad Buhari led Nigerians from various social strata to celebrate that 62nd Independence Day event which has marked all sorts of activities including military drills, as you can see, artistic performances. We had military fly past by the Air Force. We had the paratroopers, you know, gliding in the helicopter team. You can see a former president, Dr. Goodlock Jonathan there, Vice President Yemio Shibajo, Senate President Ahmad Lawan, House of Press Speaker Femi Bajah, yeah, Mila. The newly sworn in or newly read approved confirmed Chief Justice of Nigeria also there as well. Justice Olukayo de Arriola, he was also there as well. Secretary to the Government and Federation, Boss Mustafa was there, Head of Civil Service of the Federation. Dr. Fola Shadeyemiyeh was there. Several ministers, Service Chiefs are all there. Heads of Security and Intelligence Agency members of the National Assembly and also members of the Diplomatic Corps. On some days leading up to the Independence Celebration, we had some paratroopers. These are those who use the parachutes, having, you know, if you were a woman, you'd say, what do you feel, you can see a dog coming down with a soldier from the helicopter. That's quite amazing. I wish you could watch that again. They wilded Nigerians, you know, with the military display. See the dog, yeah, coming down, you see. And, of course, this dog will probably help the soldier for a search and rescue because that's what they do, probably to help trace, you know, some kidnapped persons made by terrorists. And, you know, some people have been asking, oh, OK, if we have such an array of talented soldiers, what's going on with the banditry and terrorism? What's going on with the victims of kidnappings in different parts of the country, especially in the Northwest, what's going on? If we have such, you know, military might and military power, firepower, then what is the problem? What is the problem? It seems to be a disconnect somewhere. Thankfully, the one paratrooper was able to make it successfully from the skies and to land without bashing into someone's car. I think it was on Thursday or so or Wednesday. There were some paratroopers who were trying to, they were set to have been rehersing for the Independence Day, you know, festivities. And, unfortunately, they didn't land too well in Abuja. They ended up landing in some parts of the central business district or central area, rather. Some hit people's cars, some landed on trees. You know, one was hanging from a tree, you know. Passes by had to go rescue the paratrooper with his parachute from that tree as it was dangling. It had to help him down. You know, so some people were laughing and saying, how come the paratroopers couldn't land successfully? And they drew us out as to the course of that. But on the day, Saturday, it was a video of one particular paratrooper landing successfully with a green-white-green parachute. And a voice could be heard on the background saying that, you know, what this guy, they called him out of retirement. And that led to some people, you know, making a gesture of the whole situation. So they couldn't find a paratrooper to successfully land the green-white-green parachute. They had to go call someone out from retirement. But, you know, we will never know the real story, you know, from this distance. You will never know the real story, you know, from this distance. But the major highlights of the celebration at Eagle Square, you know, included parades like you've seen, much passed by the nations, military forces, some paramilitary outfits. You had cadets of the Nigerian Military School, members of the NYSE. That's a youth service call. Like I said, the Air Force did a couple of displays with some of the aircrafts recently procured for various anti-terrorism fights. If we have what's going on, why not crush the terrorists for crying out loud? There were also cultural displays, you know. The President closed, the ceremony was closed, rather with the signing of the anniversary register by President Buhari and, of course, the three hearty chairs by the parade and finally the firing of the 21 artillery volleys for the national salute, the national anthem and the march of parade. You can see Ayesha Buhari in the picture by her husband, Ayesha Buhari, who recently apologized to Nigerians for the state of the economy and insecurity. No big, small thing. Anyway, that's that. The President had some things to say, you know, over there. The Progressive Congress also had some things to say over there. We'll leave it at that. All we can say is happy birthday in Nigeria. And it was good to see that at least we can have some of these parades at the Eagle Square without having to hide within the walls of Acerokvilla because of terrorists. You know, that is, that is, that was good to see. All right, let's move on to our next trending story. This one also quite interesting as well. I mean, talking about the ASU negotiations, the ones that have been put together by the, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the House of Representatives in general. Video surfaced online showing that, showing the Minister of Labor and Employment, Senator Dr. Chris Ingege, former governor of Anambra State, walking out on the meeting with the permission, with the permission of the Speaker. The Speaker of the House of Representatives is trying his best to see how we can intervene to bring a solution. Because even if you look at the history of events, you know, the chronology of the events as far as ASU's strike is concerned, this current seven-month strike, including the warning strikes, the negotiations haven't really gone well. It doesn't seem like there is a meeting point between the both parties. This led the President to call or to hand over the negotiations to the Minister of Education asking him to lead the negotiations, also saying that the Minister of Labor and Employment, whom you are seeing on your screens, should also be a part of it, but that the Minister of Education should lead the negotiations. Well, it seemed like it was a from frying pan to fire situation. As the Minister himself, Adam Adamo, has been described as an arrogant, arrogant individual by some. They say that his arrogance probably would also be a stumbling block to, or the alleged arrogance of the man would be a stumbling block to negotiations. He hasn't met with ASU till date. I think the only person who may have met with ASU would be the Minister of State for Education, and that was at a meeting brokered between the Union ASU and the federal government. The Minister was invited, he sent his Ministers of State. He hasn't really met with them. So, of course, we know that ASU has been in court with the federal government talking about the National Industrial Court. It seems confusing because, you know, on one side, the Minister of Employment is taking an answer to court, citing certain sections of the Trade Disputes Act as amended. Whilst the Minister of Education is trying to see how they can implement the Professor Nebricks Committee report or panel report by forming another 40-month committee to look into the recommendations of the Nebricks Committee, this committee led by the Minister. It has nobody from ASU there, but you have some VCs and Pro-Chancellors and education stakeholders there. Now, so these meetings and the process, brokered by Speaker Femig, by Javier Mela, seems to be the only avenue where ASU can sit down and have a listening ear because it's being confrontational. Is it from the Minister of Education? Confrontational. Has it been from the Minister of Labor and Employment? Confrontational. And this confrontation, you can see, it came to a head. It was really evident when the Minister walked out on the meeting, you know, walked out of the meeting. So, of course, I'm sure that we should not expect no results, no resolution if this is left to Adamo-Adamo, Minister of Education, whom you're seeing on your screen, or left to Chris Ingegate, Minister of Labor and Employment. There will be no resolution. Absolutely nothing will come out of this. Absolutely nothing. Because, I mean, for there to be a proper negotiation, someone has to listen to ASU, all right? Someone from the government has to sit them down and say, we hear you, all right, we want to solve this. Can we reach an agreement here? But not that high-hose approach of the Minister of Labor and Employment, Senator Dr. Chris Ingegate, and the Minister of Education, Adamo-Adamo, not the high-hose approach of these two men. It won't solve anything. All right, so in the meeting, this was held on Wednesday in Abuja, all the stakeholders from both parties were in attendance through reservation. I must commend Ingegate for going. I must commend Ingegate for going. Adamo-Adamo has not gone. I'll be surprised, shocked if he attends these meetings. Of course, credit to him, he's been selling his Minister of Safe Education. I dare Adamo-Adamo to attend any of these meetings. I can guarantee he won't go. If he goes, I'll be shocked, all right? I'll probably have to present on TV that day without my tie. That's as much I can. I won't shave my hair or anything. So what happened was that the meeting seemed to create another deadlock situation because of the walking out of Ingegate. He called out the ASU president, Professor Emmanuel Sodeke, for calling on Nigerians to vote out APC in the 2023 general elections because of the ASU strike. So that's what Ingegate said that Osodeke had made such a statement before and he didn't find it funny. That was the premise on which he walked out of the meeting. Of course, Speaker Fermi Bacabiamela don't envy him. He has his work cut out for him. What time will he have to focus on legislative matters? But hey, this is very important as well. He called on the aggrieved parties to shave their swords. He kept banging his gavel on the table to try and get the house in order. But of course, it wasn't possible. Emmanuel Sodeke had a chance to air his views at the meeting. He lamented that the salaries of the lecturers are paid from the office of the Accountant General of the Federation, which is not the order of the day in other countries. That's what he said. So he put that out. At the turn of the Labour Minister, he said, quote, Mr Speaker, it is serious that the ASU president has said that the government kept children at home and the Nigerian people should vote them out. You know, when someone now replied and said he didn't say that and he stood up and headed for the exit, asking angrily what did he say? So I mean, this begins to ask, will make people ask the question is the federal government really sincere about ending this strike? Is the Nigerian government really sincere about ending this strike? Or just trying to push things back to the next administration? Maybe looking at the humongous amounts involved, you know, the ASU deal. Probably they want to hand this as the first assignment of the next administration. Who knows? Who knows, who knows, who knows. All right, let's start. Let's move on to the next trending story. It's really funny if you ask me. The next one, flooding in the country really has been an issue, a problem. Really sad scenes and pictures from across Nigeria of different parts of the country being flooded. And the latest, of course, we're looking at Quarra State and Kogi State, you know, pictures and views flooding the internet. A very sad situation. Well, the Quarra State Fire Service said on Saturday that it recovered two bodies, two bodies from a river area, the Akere Biata area in the Lowering the Quarra State capital. You can see pictures on your screen, really sad situation there. The two corpses according to a statement signed by the agencies head of media, publicity Hassan, they currently were recovered from a river opposite or Lucio Lassaraki Abattoir along Sobi, Army Baraks Road in the Lowering the Quarra State Capital. Really sad one. Now, he also said that findings by the fire service revealed that the car carrying the victims fell into the river while the driver was struggling to navigate through the flood. He also said that it suddenly got stuck while the flood pushed the car and its occupants into the river. Oh my, really sad, really sad. Fela sang what I know get enemy, but you know what, the hazards that can come away from simple thing as water. It's a natural situation of an act of nature and I think everybody needs to pull together to see how they can help in one way or the other. We see what's happening in the United States of America where the government and even private individuals non-government organizations are sending relief materials to Florida that has been hit by a hurricane. So I think we also need to think about these parts of the country that are experiencing a flooding and see what we can do to support them, you know, government and even those outside government. It's very, very important as well. Now apart from Quarra State, we also have Kogi State where residents have also been suffering the effects of flooding, ravaging different parts of that state, you know, and it's worsened the situation with the scarcity of portable drinking water. I don't know how we can help the people in Kogi State but it's a very dire situation, indeed. I saw a report in the Ponsonist Repair earlier that talked about that they said the correspondent went around the capital of Kogi State, Lokoja, and according to that report, they say that Lokoja, the Kogi State capital, is a worse hit and because of the flooding, people can't find water to drink, water scarcity. The flood we're told affected the state water works where water is processed and pumped for public consumption. So for those who are wondering how flood can affect water scarcity, I mean, if everybody has or can create water scarcity, if everybody has a borehole where it seems in Kogi State they have pipe-borne water. I never knew this before now but from this report that I'm citing which we saw, it seems like there's a pipe-borne water in Kogi State. So the water works are found difficult to pump water because of the flooding and that has caused water scarcity in Kogi State. The paper says that the new, at Gadumo, new layout, one of the areas close to the River Niger, with many of its residents affected by the flood, the pumps were seen dry, a situation that some of the residents said had remained the same since last Saturday. It's a sad one, water is very important. So according to the paper they say that an official of the State Ministry of Water Resources who spoke on condition of anonymity said that, quote, we can only treat and pump water for public consumption when the flood leaves the area. So that will be till the flood goes out. I don't know what the residents are going to do, how they're going to cope. The flooding in Kogi State has been described as the most devastating since 2012. In fact, they're saying it's more devastating than the floods of 2012 that we saw in Kogi State. I remember that one. Even helicopter pictures, we had aerial view pictures of that. It's really sad and hopefully they can get all the help. They need water. It's very important. That's it on our top training segment. Our thoughts go out to those in Kogi State and other parts of Nigeria where we have floods and we hope that the necessary help will get to them as soon as possible. We'll be right back after this break. We'll look at what the papers have to say. We'll be right back after this break. Please stay with us.