about as we go through the next couple of days, we have got monthly range across the southern part. see see where the the actual monsoon ryans have sets in. that's a black line here. the blue line suggest the vice range around a day or 2 ahead of schedule further north. that is where we are looking at as of the heat persisting, we are still getting into the forty's places like new delhi for example, but that is down on recent values less because we have a western disturbance bring him on the web cloud and writing some showers rolling through hate warnings, have now being downgraded to amber from right. so that is some, some kind of brief rest bites in terms of the intensity of band aid. plenty of sal is there across southern positive india with the i'm on the same sets again, and that continues to be the case as we go through 1st, a recent deadly flats, inter lanka. well for the showers continuing here over the next day or so. no showers across a bunch of them, at least it stays hot and dry, getting into the full face down full many. and if we push up towards that eastern side of the american,

still into the full seats that just around that's eastern side of the mediterranean . it does stay dry for most garza so 2 degrees. the . ringback the general strength, demanding higher wages, brings nigeria to a stand still, protesters say economic reforms have pushed more people into pharmacy. the government argues that they're necessarily. so what's the who cause of the crisis

and ask because most populous countries, this is inside storage. the hello and welcome to the program. i'm several of any nigeria is a resource rich country. it has africa's largest population and it's one of the world's top oral producers. yet the nation of more than 200000000 people has struggled with corruption, economic risk management, and a weak currency. the general strike is once again drawing attention to these challenges. union leaders want to hire minimum wage and they blame or recent reforms by the new president bullet, the new bu for making the economic crisis. even worse to new boost government has scraps, fuel subsidies and eliminated multiple exchange rates. in the hopes of rescuing the economy can a general strike that has shut down the national electric grid and several airports

force the government to change course on this issue. we'll put that to our guests and just a moment 1st though, this report from it to some good food pressing forward with their demands. now you are used to largest unions have declared a general strike across several crucial sectors. forcing the closure of government buildings, flight disruptions, and power grid shut downs, talks with the government on an you minimum wage have collapsed all way. i freaking hardship on what you're spending a month in surfaces. that meant that, that as thinking about the i think they should be on the civil union say it's impossible to survive on the current minimum wage of $20.00 a month. instead, they're demanding at least $370.00. inflation has reached its highest level in nearly 30 years. jumping more than 10 percent since 2020 to the worst cost of living crisis in a generation had left many nigerian struggling to afford food. some business owners

and nephew jeff say they can't cope. you make money, make good money for which was true. but now any money you make your ticket back to the market. it's as good as working for those in the market. i know for yourself. it's the for strike to hit nigeria since president bullet to new booth took office in may. last year, he was elected on a platform to win the economy off subsidies. his government has slashed its assistance on petrol and electricity. it's the value, the national currency, the niagara which hit nigerians hard. the rank africa's largest economy in 2022. the oil rich country has slipped to 4th place may start present policies. the strategies on these programs have told the country in the right direction. all ports, ruins, presidency new booths, ministers are urging patients in the long cues of gas stations. nigerians are left

pondering how long they'll have to wait before the economic situation improves. if this i'm again for audra 0 for inside story the just bringing our guests in a would you highly, highly lose chief executive officer of nigeria, national agency for science and engineering infrastructure. this is an agency which is implementing measures to ease the effects of removing the fuel subsidy. so we want to hear from you about that in washington dc. i'm headed to africa practice of the racial group advising clients on politics and markets across africa with a specific focus on nigeria. and in my degree, northern nigeria comes up low, was an empty corruption activist founder of connected development. that's a civil society organization which helps africa achieve it. sustainable development goals, a warm welcome to all of you. and let's start, we're going to go to the ground 1st. a booge. uh my degree. um,

as we record this program, the strike has been suspended between the labor unions and the government to allow for further negotiations on the minimum wage. so highly starting with you. do you expect things to return to normal now over the next few days, with the power grid back on airports, reopening officers, reopening etc, as well. uh, yes. um, i believe every single good to know most. uh, but i think one of the things we have to accept as country you know is our reality is this events. uh, this is as a result of events that have happened in the past is not something that uh started to do. but um, seems like the issue around uh for subsidy, remove what we know. it's something that cannot be sustainable. what time you know, outages are wrapped into remove it. and you know, the question is, how do we me to get this and also how a realistic the label you know, and is,

you know, with regards to the demands on request. so it is an issue that has piled up, you know, over the years. and you know, you didn't expected to go overnight. okay. you re some very interesting points and then we're going to build into those homes that before we do that, i want to talk to the about the minimum wage. but before we do that, are you seeing still the effects of the national strike or has life returned to normal? now this is not normal and then life and never return back to normal. you. any of the stripes have been called out just for 5 days to allow for one of those station . you know, uh, the trucking, the impala agreed people being stuck in different cities are not able to go back to the and finally, and go back to walk higher costs of leaving high costs of transportation and even paying out of pocket for you to cation and even health care, so lives is not no need to kind of go back to normal human need. they've caught up just try and find these. is about the minimum wage union say they want

a living wage, not what they call a storm nation wage. so the minimum wage as if the sam pointed out in her report is currently $30009.00 a month. that's $20.00 a month. and the trade unions would like that to be multiply by almost 16 to roughly 500-0098 month. which raises the issue that highly the was talking about is this realistic? currently, with this $20.00 a month, minimum wage, how much is a loaf of bread? well, before today was government, the level bread was between 40500. and today it's about $1601800.00, which is over a 100 percent increase. a lot of families cannot find the family level bread and it said that the dollars cannot take $5000000.00 members to provide shelter to provide fluid, provide costs of electricity and even public transportation. so these dots show on

low income households and he said to go on as in the months roughly, how much is a tank of fuel like to fill up your car? well, if you have 60 liters, that's uh, no. depends on even the city you uh, you know, both sides uh, 604. it's an app on the top. so the 2000 down with no tables for the full time. as a public officer who and spend $2.00 a month. say that again. if you are a minimum wage, your monthly wage is not enough to fill your car with petrol. is that correct? yes, it's not enough to fill your car with pencil, not sealants. talk about sizes, and i need one of the consumables. okay, well this, this takes us to the heart of the matter and we understand at least in part why unions are saying they don't want a star vacation wage. i'm ok and let me bring you into this. the president's bullet to new boot came to power promising to fight poverty. and he's taking some pretty

drastic economic measures. but for the moment, what he has on his hands is the worst cost of living crisis in a generation. he's telling nigerians to be patient, should they be patient with him? a great question. look. thank you for having me. the cool problem here is that mentor, it hasn't been productive economy. doesn't produce much, doesn't explode much. you have a situation where 6 percent of g d p which is the oil and gas sector and vice over 90 percent of foreign exchange. and so that's the call she here. and i, i do think that in order to make the economy more productive, indeed, or to remove those distortions of a peg currency because you're not going to have competitive exports. if you have a pet currency or when you're going to attract foreign direct investment, it's me to pick the currency. and then of course the, the, the, the subsidies, i reckon so assigned cost a lot of money. and so the america pos for cost for

a 2nd pulse for a 2nd. um i want to go through this just a little bit more slowly because there are 2 pillars right to the economic reforms . there was the currency the night, right, which has been devalued twice which has lost 60 percent of its value. you were just saying the government in your view needed to remove the the, the artificial level of an ira and let it get back to closer to its market value. you think this was necessary? yeah, absolutely. and can i just say just to give some context over 90 percent of the major and the water? so these are phones i know it's difficult, it's extremely difficult for all the top 3 candidates, thomas, to remove subsidies to liberalize the currency. so yes, this is something that i think a little acknowledge has to be done. and there's been some, some, you know, talked about how we could have been done differently. i really don't think there's a way to do it any way that is not painful. the concern is that hasn't yet been

a clear direction, communicated all the way from the presidency. ready about what the group plan is for normal experts, and that's what i really would like to see. okay, and to make it crystal clear, pillar 2 of the economic reforms you mentioned, this was about removing the federal subsidies. now for context, those have been in place for decades pretty much since the seventy's and they were removed on day one of this president's term. you're right to point out that he campaigned on this. he said he would do this. he promised to do this and he did it, and almost overnight the, the cost of petrol more than doubled. you were saying this also needed to be done. it tripled this in your view also needed to be done. and just to be clear, actually they raised prices under removed subsidies at the time. so now effectively back because of the depreciating current. so it's, it's a trick in a difficult situation, but yeah,

so it needs to be done. and this is why i need it to be done. and you know, we'll spend an over $10000000.00. i need the kinds of now it depends on the exchange rate of subsidies per year. and you have about the budget though, between $20.00 and $30000.00. just just think about that for a 2nd ray. this is the country that doesn't collect up to 10 percent of the cdp in revenue in taxes, that's only comparable to sales pizza around was signal money, the very little money you have using this on an on targeted subsidy. you want to get guess what was talking about how much it cost the cost to to fill your tax. yeah. how many people are driving cars who have cars to fill? it's not the most effective way to spend very little money. okay. yeah. and those numbers are so key that i'm going to say that again uh, the federal government's budget and nigeria for 2024 was just upwards of $30000000000.00. we're saying everything dollars to make it simple for everybody to follow this subsidy that the government has been funding for decades, cost $10000000000.00. so it is

a huge part of the federal government's budget and you're saying not sustainable hardly. this comes back to the point that you raised at the very beginning, you were saying also not sustainable. the real question is how do you offset the impact, right? there is huge inflation, huge damage to people's purchasing power. how do you all set that? it's your question, what is the answer as well? i think we have to go back uh you know, to the basics of the kind of means. um, if you, if you want to drop your car and see, uh if you wanted to be uh, you know, to be strong, you have to go the middle of us. uh, you do it less. i mean, and you have to go back to industrialization producing more, i did more value to your product. so, you know, before you explore the, this is something we have, you know, a few to do in the past as a country, you know, when you have to get around the world exported country, we don't, we don't uh produce or would under find this oil is just now for reasons that you have refiners like, don't want to, you know, come in,

come in tonight. i think that is what you know, this administration has been, you know, talking about, this is no going to be uh, you know, an easy right. but we have to go back to it. the reality is we're gonna continue to subsidize and we have to also grow the industries. i strongly believe in building them into the drugs. because any country that they will not do, you know, you have us, you know, significant size of the population didn't, would invest in nigeria, almost nonexistence. but how do you do that? how do you, can i jump in for a 2nd? can i jump in for a 2nd, and i promise you'll get to the end of what you were saying. you're saying build the middle class completely understand what you're saying. but what's happening right now is the opposite is throwing more people into poverty, right? if people can't buy a loaf of bread or can't filled their car with petrol or can't afford transportation to go to work, that is not exactly making the middle class that's making them poor as well. i think that brings us to the efforts made by government in order to fix this. you know, for example, you're talking about this,

the energy initiative guarantee that c n g is about one side of the cost of pitfall . and the government has been putting a lot of effort just 2 days ago at lunch, in one of the biggest cl do centers in the country where you begin to come 5 people to use uh, you know, petroleum products. and they're also being all the efforts, you know, which that's how you can have public private partnership to drive industrialization . and he's the, to the lives of industrialization, a batch of the country. like i mentioned, idea, you know, this is much like weeks is fix solution. uh, this, the issue has been palo for years and years. you know, like you, you, you mentioned in the seventy's not there's not something you come fix or when i'd rather you have to go to the root cause of these issues. and then begin to profile solutions. so somebody shows like opening up those for processing d and i was looking for alternative sources of energy. you know, renewal reviewable. energy is currently where the, where setting up an industrial part that just focusing on the renewable energy is

as a, as a to source of energy. and uh, you know, what, how do you know when you say, when you say look, add value to your products? look for alternative sources of energy. i'm hearing a plan that will take decades. well, i mean, but the immediate plan that we have, you know, of the, the moment is a c engine. you know, where you can come by to your costs to c, n, g in about 2 hours and you know, immediately it depends on the cost of, you know, this funding and this picture. and i'm so, so the, excuse me, i'm not sure everybody's gonna follow that when you say c n g, that's compressed natural gas and you're saying that cars can be converted. so that essentially they, they take c n g compressed gas, which is which means less fuel, right? people basically have to buy you less the old to run their car. is that what that is? i miss she passed. well, not so good. this is the last, not less bit cheaper. okay. let me take this back to how does that, how does that? so what i'm hearing from holly, these sort of meeting this medium term vision for how you transition measure is

economy grow the middle class. how does that sound to you sitting in my dory given that you told us a few minutes ago? how much financial impact just buying one loaf of bread has on a say a civil service salary. you see, i think that i'm so sorry. was that living in a bubble were not currently living in the car in reality of what kinds your has to offer mind. you're also dealing with high cost of electricity. i mean one alternative image, particularly booking image, was done tickets of campaign around, you know, the face of this obviously isn't, and there's nothing much i'm going to date. people have to go back and cut down trees just to cool and ensure that they, they are able to see their household. so the current value is d. a is people, the suffering people cannot even up for one defense merely date. you know, a people that say you're almost subsidy. why, you know, how many kids and how you're going to help question defect of this

a little bit. 3 things that play here. 5 days, no trusts, unity, the trust between governments and even has citizen. and that's a very important thing that ends in this whole conversation. second, government just don't have to put to communicate, since you're not targeting or up showing you that play again. because of government subsidies will saving to you as of now, it shouldn't be in a millions of dollars. why is the metric name down to the draft? you know, how we've been charged double cushing the effect of the remove of subsidy to multiple times. they sure didn't created electric power, which is what, 200 percent. and that's why i label you say, you know, we cannot have, we cannot be, is plugging it know what are you getting a police cooled off. he sold the patient so you know, you said how fast seminary and find the allowance. why are you saying we should tighten a belt? i, yes, your bills have to listen. you know, do we have figured or spending on the $30000000000.00 budget that was passed? so they gave me the present most big option and must take me to ship. but i'm, i'm, this is what the, what the minister, the minister of finance spoke to the guardian,

the nigerian paper just a couple of days ago. and he said, look, we are doing things in the immediate term, one our payments to the poor, number to access, expand, access to consumer credit, more people can get a loan and 3 grants to small businesses. and number 4, he says that they are presenting the president with an economic emergency plan to cover the next 6 months. we don't know the details of that plan and that, so that's not actually being implemented yet. so i'm going to leave that aside. but there were the 1st 3 things payments to the poor access to consumer credit grass, the small businesses. are you feeling that are you seeing any of that where, you know, not the time, this is over 365 days the boost of precedents. i'm not talking about some imagine see a program that it's still not play. it's not available. and it's not quickly coming . how many kids have had? yeah, the dresser in the northeast way being such and happen. and when governments for local and states and nationalities trying to review and rehabilitate and people who

have a feeling that impacts people. yeah. no, it's going to stunning what government at the national, not, and even other states are doing to ensure that the cushion defects of this entire crises that were part of the experience and in the country. what if the trade unions get a good deal of what they're asking for? we opened the show saying they want to multiply mat minimum wage by 16. i'm not sure that minimum wage has ever been multiply by 16 anywhere in the world. i could be wrong, but it's a big ask, what if they got, maybe not all of it, but part of it. but the government's currently saying they're negotiating to multiply to double minimum wage. what if it ended up being times 3 times 4? would you feel, would the people of my degree in northern nigeria, i feel the impact of something like that. so you see, you know, it's a be complicated. let's say they get double, you're going to put up the minimum wage. what is doing the purchasing power of that with them on each, you know, cuz when you calculate electricity took the public transportation bill,

access to education, payment from out of pocket for health care. you're literally still, this money is going to be, it's, you know, by implants are, these governments cannot ensure that when they want to produce that next falls and also a truck direct for an investment. also i've trusted a lot of efforts then. oh, and i will continue to plunge, and the must is because, you know, i mean, we don't have middle class the masses and that's a part of the war. all the money will still be eaten by infliction. america comes, i'm that makes a good point, right? that even if minimum wage has increase quite significantly with inflation at 30 percent with the courtesy having be devalued. 60 percent of the last year, just to just to stay on track with the purchasing power of a year ago, which already wasn't great by the way. just to stay on track with that. you would have to multiply minimum wage by. i haven't done the math, but by quite a bit. yeah, look, i understand the frustration receipt, reuben measure was

a border when it comes to my family. but look, the path to productivity is by attracted, you know, when the thing that comes up says, attraction, investments creating jobs. building infrastructure that is critical competitiveness requires money required you need to raise most of the revenue on blocks. some of the distortions, better not effective in terms of subsidies. and i think that the government needs to acknowledge that it is, it's not going to happen in one or 2 years, right? like you have an economy that don't on pronounce her for decade. you're not going to change that in one or 2 years and i and i do agree with ham's us point that. ready communication can be better, it's, it's reform is painful, it's painful everywhere in the world, but the need to be actually clearly communicated what the direction is in terms of the possible for now i'll export growth and what it takes,

why all of this is necessary and i'm kind of really draw a rallying cry around why this needs to happen, i'm having to do and actually see it's and see themselves. and that will help you with the short term fee probably shouldn't. if the government wants buying from a majority of nigerians. and if the government continues to frame this as short term pain for long term game, isn't there a piece missing? speaking to a mock is point. they need to give a timeline. they need to say this is a 3 year program or a 5 year program. so that people can at least have a horizon as well. he says this thing is like cancer, you know that to soften or what time and wait was told to get more therapy. and you see i, i agree with a bucket that, um, this communication is better, you know, from the government. and, uh, so that you're able to manage the narrative and also monday to expectations,

you know, of the people. but clearly you see all the solutions been shed. yeah. what times are they all medium, a long term solutions. and what that's changed is the fact that we've been having a quick fix for multiple tickets. you know, the subsidy, you know, would be subsidizing everything in the country. i didn't get us each not, you know, you know, to the future that we're leaving now. and, and the more we try get, you know, the worse things are going to be. so yes. busy government is put in efforts in terms of medium a long term, but what we did into shutting down because it is like c a n g a that has spoken about and also better communication. so that's a people's expectation is being managed, cassidy. and also the people need to be able to see the realities of from the cut, from the minimum wage. the label uh, you know, is asking up the label unit, just ask you those level 1200000 people. it's, we will, you know,

the entire country is budget. so why are you going to find the money, you know, to be able to do that. so we have to own on the move to the new 6 we've made in the past collectively, you know, as, as people. and then i want to get that in planning for the future. but knowing that this is not just going to disappear in the scene. yeah. you know, since i'm ok, i brought up the question of the timing. i've been wondering, did the president perhaps take these unpopular measures on day one of his presidency so that he gave him, he could give himself a long runway, has a 4 year term right along as long as possible of a runaway before he needs to seek re election and made a 2 years from now, he'll be 3 years into his term one year away from the potential re election. he can start showing maybe hopefully, right fingers crossed potential benefits of his policies. well yes, of course. um, i mean, the president understood clearly that this and cannot continue to go on,

you know, for long and the, and yeah you do it the better. but in terms of it all the time, like i'm the and the depth of the road, unless you're in the government, you know, within the system you wouldn't be able to see the how, how much time it's is required on the depths of the. busy that hasn't come up for me. they said, oh well you, she is a mock, a quick word on that. yeah, no, i totally agree with him. it's, you know, i, it was a pretty early start or anything difficult there. okay. and how does that? but i think we have about a minute left on the show. you, you, you, you, i've been looking at you throughout the conversation. you appeared skeptical of quite a few things that you've heard. oh yes, because again the government has to communicate clearly whether they've been, you know, the table is a business, they're ready to measure. we need to talk about what sacrifice that they make it because they need to be clear about their own roles and responsibilities of mind.

you know, so we're talking about the reading party, so they're not doing kaufman sooner than being really since 2016. so what has changed and what's different from what you know, so such a government have done. so for me, i don't want to hear blame, but i want to see solutions and i want to see solution on the go impact and drafted communities that i need when you wouldn't be looking long each. okay, understood, and that's all the time we have for today's discussion. i wanna think all or guess how do you, how the new america onto and how does that allow us to joining us today and thank you to for watching. you can see the program again. any time by visiting our website, that's alpha 0. com. for further discussion, go to our facebook page, facebook dot com, forward slash ha, inside story. you can also join the conversation on the x r handle at the j insights from me several then you in the entire team here in doha bye for now the

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the . ready the hello, i'm layla rog, this isn't news on our line from door coming up. in the next 60 minutes. we're getting reports of intense bombing as central guns on hospitals filling up with people reported killed at the elbow ridge camp. and there was bella and a mouse says it needs more guarantees that a ceasefire will be permanence before the exception of deal. while the us sense to