Welcome once again to the breakfast here on PLOS TV Africa. Our first major conversation this morning is going to be on the viability of the Nigerian state. After a conference that was held yesterday we were able to pull in one of the speakers, Ms Victoria Ibezim Oheri, who's the Executive Director, Spaces for Change. Thank you very much for joining us. Good morning Ma. Good morning. We're to have you here. Let's you know the conversation concerning Nigeria's viability has been going on for a long time. There's people who have looked at our current situation and said that they don't believe Nigeria would survive the next 10 years. And there's also people who say that well they've heard the same thing since the 90s and still Nigeria continues to thrive and continues to exist. What are your thoughts on Nigeria continuing on the path that it currently is on? Thank you. Good morning listeners. I think the conversation that we've had yesterday is a reflection of the resilience of Nigerian people. If you look at the 50 answers in that book called Remaking Nigeria 60 Age System Voices, you found out 60 contributors to that book all had a litany of lamentation about the country. This is not the kind of country they booked for. Many are in their 30s, many are in their 40s, many are in their 50s and all these years they had hoped that things would get better. That things never got better and things continue to take a downward spiral. But despite all of that, people still have faith and confidence in this entity called Nigeria. People were still expressing solutions. People had felt that someday some solution, some ahead of the thinking called solution for thinking to push out to be brought to the table. And the kind of leader, the right kind of leadership they might somehow, I think the solution is in and give a kind of country. Would you describe that as blind optimism and people who just feel like being positive thinkers? Do you think that they really believe in what they are thinking concerning Nigeria? Because we've had this hope for a long time that someday Nigeria would have the right leaders and the right people would get into power. But the system doesn't seem to be changing in any way to allow for that to ever happen. Yes, it's unfortunate that many do not share that optimism. But a lot really do. Some people have definitely overcome Nigeria. When I say people have overcome Nigeria, what do I mean? I don't know whether you've had that picture that says that everybody in Nigeria is a local government.  So when people get to that level, when they become a local government onto themselves and still pay taxes to the government, it gives them some kind of optimism that somehow that there could be some life at end of the horizon. And they still hope that other people will get to that level when they become a local government onto themselves. So maybe it is that same threat that gives a number of people optimism and hope that other people will get to that level of position for themselves. Okay, I want us to now begin to analyze these key issues in the Nigerian state and all these factors are threatening the viability of Nigeria. Let's begin with the secessionist agitations. There's the Biafra Republic, there's the Odu Dua Republic as well. What do you say to these secessionist agitators who believe that, like you've said, we're a local government onto ourselves, we're benefiting almost nothing from the government and that a separate state is a solution to their problems. What do you say to that? Yeah, I think the educations are symptomatic of the niche failure of government. Over the years, there have been demands. They have started as demands to demand. They have started as non-barland campaigns. They have started as invitations, a special of holy branch to the federal government. Let's have a conversation around this injustice, that injustice that over time we have seen that the government has identified from violence. Look at the situation in Boko Haram. Boko Haram started as just a group of young, you know, and the public sector making demands. Nobody took them seriously until they mistreated into a full-blown and certain group. Government started paying attention. Look at the Niger Delta militant. It has exactly the same story. Then, we're beginning to hear about agitations in the South East. If it is not well managed, we can find ourselves also in the same situation. So, it is quite unfortunate. All the agitations that you see in different parts of the country, whether it's on the road, whether it's the scandal, whether it's the violence. It is not an agitation on the government. Two things differently. We cannot continue to do things to create this country as held on and moved on in the last five or six weeks. Okay. Let's now introduce our next guest, Mr. Amadou Sheh, who is a professor, assistant professor at the American University of Nigeria, AUN. Good morning, Mr. Sheh, who thanks for joining us. Good morning. What's your name? Glad you have me here. Okay. So, we're talking about the viability of the Nigerian state. We're aware that, you know, these are conversations that you had yesterday. I want you to basically tell us, you know, when we look at the kidnapping menace in Nigeria, how bad would you say it has become? And do you really fear for Nigeria as a country and for the education sub-sector in the country? Yeah. The issue of kidnapping and insecurity in this country has gotten to probably a very alarming stage.  It is now a collective problem for all Nigerians because, like, we no longer, schools have been raided. School officials have been kidnapped. So, no one left, you know, traditional rulers, everyone is in the same problem. So, I would say that the problem cannot, you know, be underestimated because it's so, it's so alarming that we are all afraid of our lives and our property and our security. Okay. So, would you say that, see, the way it's going, right, we saw in news, you know, this morning in Kaduna that about 222 people have been kidnapped and, you know, scores of people killed. With the way Nigeria is going, do you think we can actually survive the next few years? What's the, you know, likelihood with all the optimism that we want to have, you know, in faith that Nigeria can survive? And the, you know, local parents, the way we say it, Nigeria go better. What's the possibility that we're not going, you know, towards a downward spiral? I don't think this is an issue of the next two years, because when we talk of next two years, we may lose our human voice to make it, you know, more of a political voice. That is a sudden of, you know, government and when it's gone, our problems are gone with it. That is not correct because we, you know, we committed the same problem with the Jonathan administration. People thought that, okay, if we vote Jonathan out, you know, the North will be secure, you know, places would be better. That is not the point. The truth of the matter is Nigeria will survive. I don't know how difficult it will take us. I don't know how, you know, how bad it will get to before we all realize that it is a matter of humanity, a matter of the Nigerian state, not a matter of a political party or a government. It's a matter of all of us coming up together and secure our lives and call our leaders to question. But I do think that other countries have survived even worse situations. Smaller countries with fewer resources, with fewer human capital, with fewer workforce, with fewer number of people that can solve the problem. Now, as far as I'm concerned, I'm optimistic. Optimistic. The Nigerians will come together and ask the real questions, you know, and bring forward the right leadership that will take up this problem and solve it probably once and forward. But I have never doubted that Nigeria is going to come out of this problem even stronger because we were into even deeper problems and we came out to a better nation. When, how, those are the questions, but not, you know, where? We will certainly survive this. All right. I'm going to go back to Victoria Ibizim or Harry. The Nigeria will survive narrative. I think both, I'm going to have both of you answer this, but I'll start with Ibizim. The Nigeria will survive narrative sounds very, very interesting, sounds very positive. Everyone likes to say that, you know, and, you know, believe in it. But Nigeria has been surviving. The challenge is that Nigerians are survivors.  So what do you think, you know, about Nigeria surviving in a better situation? Nigeria has a country surviving and thriving with our economy, with our infrastructure, with healthcare, with security, with education, in every aspect whatsoever. Why can't we have a Nigeria that is surviving in those directions instead of a Nigeria that is just surviving against all odds? I would like both of you to start to share your thoughts on that one. And I'll start with Mrs. Ibizim or Harry. Okay. Thank you so much. I mentioned yesterday at the lecture that the way Nigeria economy currently structured, it is designed, not designed to succeed. And what is that structure that I talked about? Number one is Nigeria's accessible attention to kudoro. And the second is the unity system of government, which we practice. I argued that the unity system of government is strangulating space. So all the tensions we have seen in the northern part of the country, in the southeast part of the country, in the southwest part of the country, in the south part of the country. Look at the underlying recall. We have a bourgeois population that are idle. Any country with that number of citizens that are idle will include at any moment. So with the unity system of government strangulating space and letting the fiscal capacity of space, it has made it impossible for states to create wealth. So if you look at the agencies, if you look at the budget, every year the federal government is letting one agency, one commission, cutting off one board, that is primarily the only way of making jobs. There is no incentive for even the government to create jobs. So for Nigeria to really try, for these applications to end, we must find a way to keep young people safe. And for the country to get its way, we need to wind down the economic dependence on the center, need an incentive structure from negotiating interest, for building compromise, and for ensuring that every section of the country has equal rights to make use in the kind of Nigeria they want. It is not something that would be protected to any group. Because we are a general society, a multicultural society, we should understand that we have basic principles, identity, conviction, and beliefs. And if there is no mechanism for negotiating the differentiated interest, it will continue to be difficult for Nigeria to talk about a new country that states can work. So these are the two recommendations I gave on the yesterday at the lecture. I still think that a new construction that gives autonomy to the regions gives more power to the states that makes the center less powerful. That is the kind of country that would allow the federated union to achieve the level of free freedom and the international capacity to address the need of their local population. Let's hear from you now. I'm asking about Nigeria surviving like you mentioned. I said that Nigeria will survive. The only challenge is that we continue to survive in the worst conditions. And it also feels like the opportunities with which we can make that change don't seem to be in existence. I think we must have lost Mr. Sheho, but we're going to reconnect with him in a few seconds. But still with Mrs. Victoria Ibizim, you've just brought up the conversation on restructuring. We don't lack ideas on what must be done to fix Nigeria, but we don't seem to be doing any of those things. So in what ways do you think we can force or Nigerians can force the states to start to implement these ideas? There's brilliant ideas and I'm sure a lot of them were shared yesterday. We've had this conversation for decades. So in what ways do you think that the state or the citizens can force the state to start to implement some of these ideas that will bring a change to Nigeria? Ibizim, can you hear us? Yes, I heard you. I thought I'm going to speak a little bit. We seem to have disconnected from him, but go ahead. Let's hear your thoughts on this one. Yes, what we have in the country at the moment is what I call forced togetherness. So what we do sometimes say, ah, we'll remain together is because the impact in how to get about is forced. If it is not being held together by instrument or force, why is somebody being arrested and kidnapped and brought back to Nigeria? Why is it becoming a possible arrest on the Google? Why are all the groups cameraing for self-determination? Why are they being planned out? That is to tell you that the country is held together by instrument or force, not necessarily by will. But it's possible to transition from force to a position of will or rule of will of the people. And just like I said before, many people feel that they can bring in this case, in this state of Nigeria. Many people think that the incentives are right. These incentives enable them to flourish. These incentives give them a sense of belonging and opportunity to continue, to bring out or to maximize their own potential. Then naturally they would want to stay and be part of that entity. So I think the message for our leaders is to begin to ask ourselves, why is it that all of us, most parts of us, think we need to want to break away? What is it that we're doing wrong and making up between me and you and me? How am I at of being like that? Maybe if leaders have bad or less conversation, it might lead us to some of the situations that have been available for too long. The first thing we should even be asking ourselves, why is it deep bad? Everybody has been in a long form, so I got the dry-listing for regional autonomy or for dry-listing. Why is it that nobody, the government might not talk to that people? That's what I'm saying. Well, let's have you hold on. I'm out of here. Welcome back. So happy to be again. All right. So this is where I'm going now. We do not lack ideas. We're not short of some of the greatest ideas on how to move Nigeria forward. We speak a lot and a lot of times about what must be done, we must restructure, we must fix our electoral system, we must do this and that. But if we never get a government, then people have argued that the reason that they push citizens towards using the right channels to make a change is because the government itself has a hold and control over those channels. So if we don't get to a place where we can implement some of these brilliant ideas that analysts and people like yourself keep sharing, how can the Nigerian citizens force the state to implement these things for a better Nigeria? Yeah, here's how I look at it. Yesterday, if you were in attendance, Barista Femi Falana has pointed out a key solution for implementation. Nigeria is evolving. We were trying to understand ourselves as a nation. We're trying to summarize our problems and now we get deeper into even worse problems. And what Femi Falana suggested and what we'll ever work only is when people who believe they understand the scope of the problem delve into solving the problem, not as NGOs as he said, because you won't have non-governmental people in his words, but as people in the system, in the system of governance, wherever you can fit in. And that place allows you somewhere without to implement the ideas that you have conceived for the betterment of the Nigerian people get involved, whether as a politician, whether as a civil society organizer, whether as a media visionary, whether as an entrepreneurship leader, people with conscience, people with the love of the country who truly understand it because there's a difference between being empathic and love Nigeria and having the capacity and the capability to take up the Nigerian question and focus on the Nigerian problem and have the ability of putting solutions on the ground. So I think that by the time Nigerians in collective in unison agree that this is an Nigerian problem, when it is a problem during a northern president or a southern president, or whether this problem is in Oregonland, or whether it is in cousin state, or whether it is in Lagos or Ibadan, it is a Nigerian problem. Those locations are not locations on their own because they are places in Nigeria. When gas is flared in Oregonland, it affects the environment. But Nigerian environment, not the Oregon environment, if people who understand our problems in this view take control of the institutions that are supposed to solve these problems, I guarantee you, we will be able to survive, not as a difficult, poor country, but as a prosperous place where people are surviving, people live, not survive. Yes, you just touched on a very important point, talking about the view, meaning that our mindset needs to change about the way we see certain things. And one of those things that we need a mind shift about would be a certain north-south divide, the tribalistic way that the north views the south, the south views the north, looking at each other as different people rather than one united Nigeria. So how can we begin to get that mindset shift for a house man to look at the Yoruba man as his brother and vice versa? And how would you say that maybe the handling of the farmer's head as clashes has sort of worsened this particular issue of tribalism? There's only one medium through which human beings will understand themselves and live as a community, and that is communication. The moment there is no communication gap, we will be happy together. But there is no doubt about that. So what happened yesterday should be happening regularly across the country, crossbreeding of ideas, people talking with honesty and getting the conversation going without pre-modal emotions of their identity. And we have the capacity to do that. All right? Coming to other farmer problem which has really consumed Nigeria, it is my position. The others are victims of the same enemy as the farmers. But who can tell these people, this message, that look, you are not the enemy of the TV farmer and you are not the enemy of the flan he heard. Your enemy is that very system that did not provide the modern way of animal husbandry for you to be a prosperous citizen. And that very system that denied you the modern agricultural mechanism that will make you a prosperous farmer. And that system that does not care about the environment, which allowed your grasses and your water to get dried up in global warming. And the people that are responsible to communicate this truth to the world and societies are me as an individual, a civil society organization and you as the media. Now it begins with us clearing our narrative in this country and getting the right words to use when we talk about our problems and stopping this typical way of pointing out our problems because then we lose our human voice. Then we create enemies from France. Then we create divisions from unity instead of moving our forces all together to talk about our country in the same way Americans talk about their country and their problems and Europeans talk about their own problems and their own countries. So this is the way I said it is first conversation, honest one, followed by, you know, enlightenment on all sides of Nigeria. That we are one people, yes we have problems, yes we can solve our problems together. This is how I said. But there are government agencies like the National Orientation Agency that are charged with disseminating information to the public especially along these lines at the time when we need it most. So we need messages of national unity most more than any other time in our country's history but these agencies are silent. So really how much can the civil societies do? How much can the media do? What really is the role of the government in terms of communicating information about peace and unity to Nigerians because we need to really, you know, determine who exactly, whose table exactly this lies. You see the whole bulk actually stops at the government table, all right? We all agree with that. But then the bulk of holding the government, you know, responsible actually lies with the citizen. Okay, National Orientation Agency is a comatose place, I'm sorry to say this, you better listen because like all other government sectors and institutions, this place has not been, you know, walking towards the goals it was created to achieve. But then we do not know the internal fights and budgetary limitations. These kind of very important institutions are going through within the federal arrangement, which I always agreed with what Victoria was talking about. You're decentralizing, putting people on their toes and asking people to invest in their own lives and regions. So I think when governments fail in political history, we see that it is the people, the citizens that wake up and hold them responsible and probably it need be, you know, you dismantle the system and get a new working system going. And really I apologize, I have to leave because as you know, I am waiting for my flight. Yes, we do understand that. And we thank you very much for making time to join us. Good morning. Yeah, I appreciate it. Thank you for having me. All right. Victoria Ibizim, thank you for staying with us still. I want to go to you now and of course bring you in from the southeastern perspective. In what ways do you think that there can be some healing and bringing also more belief in the Nigerian system and the Nigerian state to people of the southeast and members of these secessionist groups? What would your message be to them and in what ways do you think that they can be pulled closer? I think a lot of proposals have been made. And the question is, all the proposals that have been put on the table, we hope that those who have been either supported me or through elections required to take these proposals forward, we act on them. So I do not see any clear distinction between the education and the policies from the institutions in other parts of the country. In fact, the education in the Southeast came a little bit late. And we recall that it had been preceded by a lot of other education from Niger Delta for a long time, other education from the Southwest. We are currently having education in the middle belt. So I think that it is not the Southeast problem. It is a national problem that is just having flashed in different parts. And the question is, it is not time for the government to look at it on the root cause of this, so this can be seen. There is a part of the country because they are having the biggest part of this sometimes. I think there has been a lot of focus on the South East, maybe because this is the first time since the African Civil War that really consistent, loud educations are emanating from that region. So people are beginning to pay attention. And there has been a tax example where they translated their education into full blown act of taxation. So maybe that is why the country is beginning to pay attention. But historical injustice in the South East has been sufficient to elicit a conversation long before now. If you look at the educational approach system, the unity school admission mark, if you look at the representation in the National Security Act, if you look at the federal appointments, if you look at the distribution of even disaster projects in the country, you will see a consistent, intentional, deliberate exclusion of the region. And if the people so excluded begin to lose faith in the federation, the question shouldn't just be the nicer part of the situation. The question would be, how do we address these injustices? If those injustices are addressed, then we can begin to look at the method of attrition. It's hard to stop somebody and not dictate to the person how to cry. You might slap me if I resolve them here. If my slapping starts being, you might choose not to cry. So the question is, how do we end people? How would discourage people from even trapping or that sort of thing? Yes, Mrs. O'Herry. And another question is, how do we proceed with the 2023 general elections by assuring Nigerians that their safety is guaranteed with all the amendments that have still been made at this time so close to the election regarding transmission of results, regarding how water will be conducted? So how really should we be expecting an outlook for the 2023 election in the light of our current realities? Yeah, I think a lot of trauma is going on asking people to go and vote. Beyond voting, you are probably aware of the concerns, the resistance from the political class about electronic transmission of results. And it's been concerning because within the civil society is seen as one of the methods of ensuring electron transparency. So it is not just a civil society to respond to. You know, most times when people talk about energy, it looks like NGOs are like foreigners or they are not Nigerians. NGOs are a method of Nigerian citizens who want a formal structure of putting forward their own recommendations and making contributions to the governance of the country. So when people say in depth for NGOs or the method NGOs are using, NGOs, in my opinion, is not so different from when you can change the world with citizens because it's made up of Nigerians who are making also contributions to the development of our society. So NGOs have primarily made that push for electron transparency. I think it is a collective responsibility for all of us to continue to push. And I, there are evidence to show that if we continue to push the government will listen and something will keep. Yet today, the National Assembly rejected the nomination of the Africa Lacan debate that citizens resisted for being too practical. It was primarily citizens, concerned citizens, interest groups, kind of citizens, and got non-governmental organizations that met that pitch. And we saw how it ended. That nomination was wrong. That shows that if we continue to push, to get that with consistency and with consensus, it means that something will definitely go to the state. Still staying with that major point you just mentioned about the viability of the Nigerian state and elections and how they should be independent and the people conducted them should be non-partisan. Do you think the Nigerian Senate might have reacted differently if citizens did not oppose her nomination? What is important is that that nomination has been caused. That is what Nigeria has to care about. We still report saying that it was an account of federal character and not necessarily participation. It doesn't matter anymore. What matters is that the demand of Nigerians to make sure we have some diverse empire during the electoral process. That was what that campaign was about. We need to have neutral, objective persons presiding over the election. People that do not have any partisan attachment. That is a necessary ingredient of free and fair election. So that was what happened yesterday. So irrespective of whatever on the current or whatever, imagine issues that the public was actually. All right. Quickly, just before you go, I want you to also share your thoughts. You had made statements with regards to some type of restructuring that you described earlier. So I want you to quickly go back to that and talk about how you feel that may be achieved in the next few years. Do you think that it is possible that we might get to that point where the government agrees that it is time that we do some level of restructuring to put Nigerian as a Nigerian state in the right direction? Well, in the next few years, I have made a prediction of what will happen in the next few years. But what is the final conclusion that election will happen in the next few years? Maybe if we have the right people in power in the next few years, things should begin to change because the current administration seems to be operating on its own. It's a particular mindset that we are not seeing signs that they are coming to put out for federalism or restructuring of the entire country. I am very much aware that they could not know the tendency of restructuring. For instance, they know that it will stimulate regional competition. They know that it will stimulate creativity and sharing of best practices, the mission of the kind of experience of having the best republic. They know that constitutional and human is needed for us to achieve and grant fiscal autonomy to the constituent units. And a constitutional amendment process is currently going on. And that issue was not possible. It's not part of the primary issue that the Senate has dealt with. You know that the Senate has conducted public hearings in different regions. This autonomy of the reasons was not on the table. So if you say within the next few years, I will have my doubts that within a few years time, like 2020, hopefully, hoping that we make this time, we hope and insist that our goals come and the right kind of leaders do my thing and give us the promised one by March. Okay. Mrs. Ibeza-Moheri, we can't talk about the viability of the Nigerian state without considering where she stands economically. And we recently heard news this week about Nigeria's debt, debt servicing, debt to China in the trillions of Naira. Do you think that, you know, still talking about the question of Nigeria's survival in the next few years regarding the direction she's headed economically? I don't know any other solution that will make Nigeria work beyond the Nigerian state itself, looking beyond oil in the efforts for economic independence. And ingeniously exploiting all that abundance across the United States, especially in one power. So it's amazing, except some have came on that. And when I talk about manpower, I say that I proceed upon the premise that the world has been moved away from an oil economy into a knowledge economy. And what that means is that countries, irrespective of whether they have natural resources or not, they're beginning to mine the potential of their citizens. They are beginning to truly harness the human that they have to reach, you know, the kind of potential that they desire. So that is something that I think is through the mission. And if you look at the Petroleum Industry Bureau, it's been talking about using 30% of NNP, NNP, NNP profits. So as small oil in the frontier basin, which is to say, the Nigerian government is not even thinking of new ways of economic independence. It means that on one hand, they're talking about economic diversification. And on the other hand, they have only used their resources to perpetuate only crude oil. They are not thinking beyond crude oil. They can't see the future of Nigeria beyond crude oil. So there are so many things that need to be transformed, many conversations that need to be had, and many changes that need to come about before we can have that conversation about independence from Nigeria. Thank you very much, Mrs. Victoria Ibiza-Mohiri. Great points there about Nigeria. Really tapping into her manpower and, you know, truly looking away from all to diversify the Nigerian economy. We thank you and appreciate you for joining us on the breakfast this morning. Thank you for having me. Have a great day. And we'll say a big thank you for staying with us all through this Wednesday morning's edition of the breakfast here on Plus TV Africa. Remember to catch up on any of these discussions you may have missed with Victoria Ibiza-Mohiri. And of course, I'm receiving a lot earlier on our social media handles at Plus TV Africa on Facebook and Instagram. Sing with our YouTube channel. You should subscribe at Plus TV Africa and Plus TV Africa lifestyle. I am Osao Yee of Bama. And I am Annetta Felix, urging you to have a very warm Wednesday morning. Bye-bye.


In Akisi's states, the government under the leadership of Governor Biyodin Oyabanji has rolled out the palliative measures to cushion the effects of fuel subsidy removal by President Bola Tinibu Addressing Newsman, the chairman of the committee and state commissioner for finance akin to the Oyabadi said the government has approved demands of NLC and the immediate implementation. He noted that the government has approved the payments of salaries and pension arrears and also provide a free transportation for civil servants and students. However, Chief Ten of the PDP Shegun Akinwumi said the government should have representatives of other political parties in the committee before approving the sharing of the palliative. Designed to the inclusion of 10,000 persons in the Ulerawa Health Insurance Programme with immediate effect, a food distribution program that will commence this month being led by the Honorable Commissioner of Agriculture, the distribution of inputs to farmers as well as financial support to small businesses and our informal sector. And if you want to do something like that, they should consider the leadership of other parties because it's a national thing. It's not a PC thing, but they never did it. Nothing like that. They didn't consider anything. They only made arrangements to satisfy their


My name is Bohumela Augustinova, welcome to Destination Hometown. Part of our Worlds of Creativity series will be Colors and Flavors of India. It will happen June 7th from 6-8pm, it is family friendly and it's free to public. We will have, we've been working with a couple of artists from India and we will have Bollywood dancing, classical Indian dancing, there will be henna tattoos, rangoli, that's when people do ascend designs on floors. We will have a photo booth where you can try sari and take photos. There will be slideshow about India's a lot of hands-on projects as well. So you can paint different types of cups and there will be Indian games and you get to learn how to dance. Oh and there will be Indian food. I think a little bit of everything. I think that people when they think of India it is such a rich cultural, culturally rich place and when I think of India I always think of the smells and the colors and and that's where the title of course came from but I think that it's going to be overall great experience. I think you're going to walk in and you're kind of going to be absorbed into the culture and what we're trying to do is for people to have a lot more one-on-one interactions, get to meet people from India, having more of a part of this event. I'm not just watching something that's happening on TV or reading about in a you know in a book and we've been really lucky to work with some wonderful people, very talented artists and they've just been so incredible to work with and they have brought so much and more that we've been expecting from them. They will also be teaching some classes here in July so we will have a flyers for the classes that we'll be offering and different types of Indian art will be here on display so people can see the arts that will be teaching here in July. When they come in this space is open and anybody can come here you know it's yeah as I said it's a free event we hope as many people as possible will get here. Anything you can learn and experience from different culture is good for you no matter where you're from, how old you are and I think that having the experience of this one-on-one contact when talking to people who grew up there and being able to work with them or dance with them there's just such a unique and wonderful opportunity for everybody and I don't see why anybody wouldn't be part of that.


So there was a little bit of rumbling last week and at the beginning of this week that Bernie Sanders was considering the possibility of dropping out But thankfully it appears that that's not going to be the case because the New York Times released an article Where according to his campaign his closest confidants, he's gonna stay in the race He's gonna compete and if there is in fact another debate in April he's gonna show up and he's gonna fight for the nomination and I think that that really is important because this is an unprecedented time Before this crisis happened the nomination was an entirely different race and now that it happened and we're kind of all Experiencing this together. We need to hear different ideas. We need to hear different approaches So I think it is important that Bernie Sanders stays in allow the rest of the country to make their voices heard and you know There's some logistics to figure out. How do we Institute vote by mail in time for these primaries? Will they be postponed? There's a lot to figure out, but Bernie should stay in and if you haven't seen it check out my video I will provide you with some reasons in that video as to why I think you should stay in but Joe Biden was asked whether or not he'd be willing to debate Bernie Sanders and Quite frankly. He says no Secondly Bernie Sanders campaign has said that he would debate if there was a debate in April Do you think there should be another debate in April and would you participate? My focus is just dealing with this crisis right now I haven't thought about any more debates. I think we've had enough debates. I think we should get on with this, but So he's focusing on Coronavirus what exactly are you doing because you went MIA for almost a week after winning three states on March 17th and Now you're too busy To participate in a two-hour debate three maximum, but most likely two-hour debate like what are you doing?   It's very slow So Biden knows, you know, he doesn't have this wrapped up yet Bernie Sanders isn't mathematically eliminated So if he debates Bernie Sanders and it goes horribly wrong It goes anyway that you know his last interviews went it could be bad for him It could be enough to change the dynamic of the race now I don't necessarily believe that any debate with Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders could be as catastrophic for Joe Biden as That Mike Bloomberg debate was because like that was a different time in America even though that was like a month away Now everyone is glued to their televisions looking for information on COVID-19 mainstream media isn't going to talk about the Democratic Party primary They're going to pretend as if it's over so it's going to be harder to get everyone's attention But still, you know, even if nothing it changes When we see this debate and Biden has another solid performance you still have to do it because this primary isn't over and Since the last debate and last couple of debates things in this country and the world have changed Dramatically, so of course you have to you know show people That you're still, you know, you're in tune to what they're dealing with and if anything Joe Biden needs more practice before going up against Donald Trump in September if he is the nominee So I mean this is just going to help you But I mean we all know Joe Biden is scared his team wants to hide him away and I'll admit I think that's a good strategy if I were working for Joe Biden I never would but if I were I would hide him away as much as possible from the public because the more he's out the more Visible he is of course, you know the more chance that people will see him face plan or make a gaffe or say something stupid But I mean he wanted to be president. So This is what you have to do now Bernie was asked about this in an interview with CNN Anderson Cooper asked him What he thought about Joe Biden's, you know, disregard of the possibility of a debate and Bernie Sanders I think made a really strong case for another debate Vice president Biden was asked about whether there should be another debate in in April. He essentially said, you know That the time has done for that I'm wondering what you made of his response. Well, I you know, I don't agree with him I mean, I think that what is happening right now, obviously, it's a very strange moment for any campaign And that is state f the state I think Pennsylvania yesterday or today is delaying their elections Kentucky has delayed their elections in New York state Considering delaying their Elections so we got a strange moment, but I think you know one of the things that I think the people want is especially in this Unprecedented crisis in modern American history is to hear the ideas of candidates as to how we got into this disaster Why do we have such a dysfunctional health care system? Why do we have an economy in which half of our people living paycheck to paycheck scared to death tonight?  So I think we need a good debate as to where we go Not only just now, but in the future and to my mind if there's anything that this Unprecedented moment in American history should teach us we got to rethink the basic structures of American society And that is guarantee health care all is a human right? Create an economy that provides for all people not just the wealthy. Yeah, I agree with Bernie Sanders things have changed substantially just within the span of a couple of weeks our lives are Incredibly different now. So you have to give people the option to maybe go in a different direction And you know, it's not like it's a foregone conclusion That a debate is going to fundamentally reshape the dynamics of this race a lot of people have just moved on the media Certainly has moved on but you have to have this debate You have two competitors. One of them is the front-runner, but the other is not mathematically eliminated So just you agree to 12 debates. Joe Biden agreed to 12 debates So to not at least meet the bare minimum and just suck it up for two hours and have another debate I mean come on for Bernie Sanders though He has everything to gain nothing to lose Joe Biden has everything to lose and nothing to gain But it's probably not even that serious. So the fact that he doesn't want to debate Bernie Sanders It shows what a coward he is Look if you can't debate Bernie Sanders someone who's willing to be really nice to you Then you can't take on Donald Trump And I think that he realizes that people are losing confidence in him his six-day MIA, right? His media tours his gaffes the fact that he hasn't been a leader during this COVID-19 crisis People are losing confidence in him And so there's a lot of pressure in these debates if he doesn't perform well Democrats may lose even more faith in him So he knows that there's a lot at stake, but regardless you agree to 12 at least do 12 That's the bare minimum It's the right thing to do It's the democratic thing to do and people deserve to see another debate We've had one one-on-one debate with Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden Let's at least have one more Before you try to wrap this thing up and Democratic Party elites try to wrap this thing up


There are rumors that Spotify was going to drop some massive features that were going to have game changing results for artists in terms of the engagement and streams that they get. And I'm talking about for the indie artists, but now it's been confirmed. We've received an email from the inside and I'm going to read you these three new features and how they can be game changing for artists in 2024. This is how you level up on Spotify in 2024. Let's get to it. So I'll just read the email and to be clear, right? This is actually a new email directly from Instagram. Obviously, y'all know we have a lot of relationships, work with labels some rather big artists, indie artists, all that good stuff. And they put us in contact with certain teams and certain information. People like talking to us. They like talking to us, right? And we're giving y'all the sauce right now, obviously. This hasn't been on an article yet. This is just direct. I'm excited to announce we are partnering with Spotify to test new I.G. Reels features that will enable fans to easily engage with music they discover on Instagram by building seamless ways to save and listen on Spotify. This is within Instagram. In addition, we will inspire Instagram and Spotify users to create Reels featuring the music they love by surfacing editorial track recommendations from Spotify within Instagram. And we will make it easier for users to link out and create Reels directly from Spotify. Now, that's the the paragraph, right? But let's get into the bullet points feature by feature so you can really understand what's going on. The first feature is a share to Reels option within Spotify's share sheet in all markets where Instagram audio library is available. What does this mean? This means you can be on Spotify and then click share and share it to the Reels to share your music directly. But not just you, obviously, the users. And that's the most important part. If I want to share what I'm listening to and if you're thinking like, oh, that might be a little bit of weird to share my audio. What does that even look like? This this is what they call it the rub. I've never used that term before. Someone said I heard someone say this is the rub. I'm going to try that one out. This is the rub. Basically, if you looked at Spotify, the moves they've been making over the last year, maybe two years, they've been preparing for this moment, right? Because Reels or what? You know, that's the vertical, right? They copy TikTok. Well, what is Spotify done themselves with canvases? Right. They created canvases. You have this vertical video that's basically like a gif. But they've gone beyond that to allow those canvases to be this entire discovery engine within Spotify. I don't know if you've seen it yet. Have you really seen that heavily when you use Spotify yet? Yeah, a little bit. Like it's not something that like I go looking for. But right. So I don't look heavily either. I can't say I'm a hyper engaged power user of the canvas discovery engine. However, I have like found my way there a couple of times in seeing like 50,000 views, like 500,000 views on someone's canvas. And when you add the ability to just easily share that small video that an artist creates, putting that on Instagram is a smooth option. Right? Yeah. It makes it very easy for me to show people what I'm listening to, show people my identity. This is what I'm on right now, because people do this already. How many times have you seen in somebody's stories where they'll just have a picture of a project? Like, this is what I'm vibing to right now. I got home is who do that all the time. Yeah. Yeah. So for you artists, this means you having a canvas is even more important than it used to be because I've kind of like looked at it as optional to be honest, like for the most part, of course, I want an artist to have that extra piece of content. I want an artist to have every single piece of content that they can have. However, it's extra. You don't have to have a canvas if you don't want. That's kind of how I looked at it for the most part. But now I'm like, there's no reason not to do it. Yeah. Yeah. That's another part of the experience. And I think it's interesting because what's interesting about it to me is that, you know, Instagram Reels has caught a lot of flack recently for inflated views, right, and what seems to be inflated viewership with no real trickle over to the music. Like I've talked to multiple artists and even seen it.  Like I had a homie do one and get one to hit like five million views on it. And there wasn't any type of uptick in the music. And then you compare it to something like a 20,000 view TikTok, you know, and then you might see at least a couple of hundred, if not a couple of thousand people trickle over. So I feel like this has something to do more so with Instagram wanting to prove to the music industry that we have. We can make an impact. And then we're going to have this direct line from one DSP to the platform that we can all track and see, you know, what type of impact we actually have. So it could be very well be a case where maybe the UGC component of it with the share is more powerful than just like your own Reels. You know, saying kind of hitting and going viral. But that's what I'm interested to see is like, are they are they right? You know what I'm saying? Or have our suspicions pretty much been right all along.  But I want them to feel that pressure because it's not for the most part. I do have some artists that I work with, like some genres where apparently it's a little bit more popping on Instagram than TikTok for them in general. But for the most part, it's nowhere near. Like we're going to artists right now who has like 2000 followers. And like we're talking about from ground zero, 2000 followers now on TikTok. And he's collectively gotten maybe 20,000 streams all organically over the last. Let me see, like basically 60 days. You know, so he went from near zero to 2000 followers as 20,000 streams just posting content on TikTok. And for people who think TikTok doesn't work. Look, he's not popping or going viral. He hasn't been viral yet. He doesn't have one video over 10,000 views yet. That's all he's doing.  So that still works. And I think IG, yes, they are still feeling that pressure from it. I want them to feel that pressure, bro, because it's only going to make it better for us. Yeah, I understand. Yeah, like if they can fix whatever is going on from that pipeline of viewership to the thing we're trying to push them over to, it definitely will be. It will make a good case for them, you know, because I think Instagram is picking up in terms of like UGC becoming more important over there, you know, thanks to, you know, now being able to track the creates under a reel, the same way you can. It's made people become a lot more aware of that.  But it's just like, yeah, I feel like the average artist or music person that hasn't really taken advantage of it yet, they get you get caught up in the game they're trying to spit you back.  You didn't do anything. The whole spark just kind of died. So I agree, like I need to do something to bring to make to make music. One of music artists want to use Instagram outside of just the influencer community because that's still the part where they still kind of dominate with music marketing is the music promotion community over there is top tier compared to other platforms. But everything else about it is weak. Very, very. But this one, I think will help a lot because the second feature is Spotify playlist recommendations within the U.S., Brazil and Indonesia. These recommendations will be within the IG Reels audio browser pages. So what I imagine from that is you're going through your Reels experience, right? And then, bam, you see a playlist recommendation that's randomly pop up. That's what I'm getting from it. Yeah. See, that's that's a that's a musicianship play. Do you think so? I don't understand who why no artist playlist is probably going to be on that. It's going to all be, you know, we know it's going to be editorials. Yeah, maybe, maybe if they the relationship gets symbiotic enough, maybe they start recommending some algorithmic playlists, you know, because they have Spotify can do like custom algorithmic playlists now. So yeah, maybe it gets that micro, but no, this is that's I mean, I was to be to the third feature, but the whole thing to me just screams Instagram to me is Instagram scream like, hey, music industry. Like, look at us. Like we can do we can do stuff to please the big people who got the money first and then we can work our way down probably. So it's like, here's a feature that everybody can take part in, which is the share, right? And then it's like, I hear something to your point, bigger music industry to make y'all happy. Yeah.  Like most of them aren't relevant. There's a few platforms that are credible, worth using and checking out when she's still got submit hub. Who's another one? Like playlist supply, if you want to go find your own playlist. That's a solid one. There's a couple of of them we can go through. I know we've talked about many before. The only new one that I've discovered is Groover. OK. Now, them, they're interesting. Have you ever used them at all? I've been like once. Like for me, what I've seen with some of the artists, because whenever I see it, you know, we have a new platform that we get to go across, just like we did with TikTok. I'm always going to say, like, who is some of the artists we know? And they're asking to test it out, right? I want to really experience before I talk about it to the rest of the world because I really want to see what it looks like and not from the they're selling you as a marketer. They know you have an agency and all that. I don't want that perspective because we talk and work with any so heavily as well. And what I love about their platform is they had some of the best reviews I've seen. All right.  Right. Nobody can do that. Right. Not unless it's just straight up payola. Yeah. But the reviews were so quality. I was like, man, this artist, when she gets this feedback, which she did, like she's going to be able to improve how she makes her music, you know, and she's going to be in a better position for how she pictures herself going forward. And you get it for basically cheap. All right.  Not the person that's like maybe a marketer who's like, I just want your money. You know what I mean?  And then you're not going to get great results. And they're going to say, well, I guess it was the music, like not any of that. I'm sure for like a hundred dollars, I can't remember what the artist paid or whatever, because you have to like buy tokens. Yeah. One of those type of platforms, right? But it's not a lot of money at all, though. And I said, the quality of feedback they had in and I did see results from another artist who had some better music than the other the other artists and they were able to like see, oh, I got on a couple of playlists, get some solid results. It's not some fake stuff and because the recommendations were solid. I mean, the playlists were real. Their recommendation in the engine started to grow because this artist was kind of like closer to ground zero. So now you saw his artist also.  So his algorithm got corrected. And that's the only thing I really love playlists for. I don't like using playlists for like trying to blow up. It was like, let's just get a couple if we can that are really correct. If you can find something, get your algorithm sped up to, you know, so they know who they should reach out to. And then like I personally move on. That's how I typically look at it. But their quality platform also I feel like I feel like there's one more we might be missing. It's at Smith Hub, it's at Google. We haven't said playlist supply playlist. No, no, no, no, playlist push, playlist push. Yeah, there's still a really solid one as well. So, you know, any of y'all check any of those out. We've talked about all the other ones that left Groover. It was newer to me. I don't think it's a new platform. I just, you know, just knowing about it for maybe about three months. So, you know, check that one out as well. If you are somebody who uses those type of sites moving on to the last one. Because, yeah, like you already said, that's second feature. That's more in the label. But we threw out that playlist stuff for y'all, right? But the last feature, third, but not least, both add to Spotify and listen on Spotify calls to action on licensed music, audio pages within Instagram in all markets where audio library is available. Now, what does that mean? This is what I see it as, right? When you go to listen to the sound. You also have add to my lot of Bray on Spotify. All right, save on Spotify. That is beautiful. It is beautiful. That is a very strong feature because literally I see somebody's video. Oh, what song is this? Because I'm going to try to read and I want to hear a little bit longer of the snippet.  I got to listen to the whole song and it's rare. Even for a song you really like all the best intentions you will want to convert over, you know, and go ahead and listen. But your reality is now I got to get back to that last three set of memes that I saw before I clicked through. So let me go ahead and save this thing. And then I'm going to go back to watch those memes and those images that I said, I need to click that image real quick. Yeah, man, it's so interesting because it's it's literally the opposite of Tik Tok, right? Tik Tok has a similar partnership with Apple, right? You can you can go on your Tik Tok sound and if you got Apple music, there'll be like an Apple music option there. Yeah. Instagram is doing it with Spotify, right? Which to me, it's just so interesting, man. It's like we're seeing Tik Tok trying to actively fight to almost like separate themselves from the industry, but be respected by it. And then we're now watching Instagram kind of fight to be a part of the industry in the way that it seemed like they wanted to talk to be a part of the industry. Yeah. You know, and it's just it's so weird to see. It's a great feature. It's going to be great for.  So that's what would hurt me about Tik Tok. Like I would rather do my music discovery on Tik Tok, but I have to to your point, remember to go convert to it later or do it in the moment while I was doing some other shit. It makes me feel like maybe if all these things come together, you know, and Instagram upstair music discovery as a Spotify user, that's it would push me to start looking for music more on Instagram than it would on Tik Tok facts. I would think about it knowing that I can actually save it. I'd be more curious to step in. It really would change your behavior like that. So for me, yeah, I'm big on that because I'm like you. I'm Spotify. I'm not really using Apple music at all.  I used to, bro, I used to just listen to the teaser and now sometimes I'll be like, yo, man, I don't have Apple music very heavy. Hit me back. But I think the takeaway is really Spotify is making some real moves. Finally, should have been made these moves. Thankfully, Apple, I mean, Tik Tok created a little pressure and now they're making some moves that's really going to allow Instagram to engage. Dang, Tik Tok did two fold pressure. They pressured IG and Spotify at the same time. This is beautiful. It's beautiful. But yeah, like this is going to increase the experience. You've already seen the canvases you're seeing features like this and it's only going to get better from a discovery and marketing standpoint. Now, when we talk about the royalties and payouts and those other changes, we recorded that episode. We dropped that episode, you know, a week or so ago, you know.  We want to know what y'all think about these features. Peace.