 All right. We're back. Time to look at what the papers are saying this morning. We have J.D. Johnson on standby. He is a senior lecturer at the Nigerian Institute of Journalism. J.D. Johnson, good morning to you. Thank you very much for your time. Good morning and good morning to our... good morning to you, Miss Sian Kofi and to our viewers. All over the world, it's a pleasure to be with you 24 hours to the election and then for eight hours from now, we'll be getting the result coming out from the election. It's a pleasure to be with you. Fantastic. Also, we can say congratulations to J.D. Johnson and some good news. You cast your vote and the result was announced yesterday night. Your wife, your wife, your wife is Ainec Chairman who brought out the results yesterday night. Congratulations on your bouncing new baby. Yeah, it's a pleasure. Thank you very much. I quite appreciate it yesterday. My wife gave back to the Prince and then hopefully I hope we'll participate in the political process in the future and it will be a statement and not a politician. Thank you very much. I quite appreciate this. Thank you. All right then. Let's look at the pages this morning. The front page is to be very precise. Let's start off with the punch and let's see what the punch talks about. I mean, you can almost predict what the headlines will be. Pre-election valance, military orders begin raids on hoodlums and hideouts. Four killed, 63 arrested, weapons recovered, thugs attack, canoe supporters. I would probably not have to take this for the other rider for the sake of not bridging the broadcasting code, so I'll leave that. But you can always look at these papers at your convenient time. Be peaceful. Biden urges Nigerians as we take to the polls tomorrow and of course on 11th of March 2023. 87.2 million PVCs collected, legos, canoe and caduna top lists. There's also an editorial as to Nigerians be bold, go out and vote. So there's an editorial to casting your votes. I mean, just a day to that, a few hours to that if you'd like to say. How Finish Please Grilled released pro biafran agitator Simon Ekba yesterday. It was topping the chart. It was a top trending conversation on different social media space. Federal government shut lease firms to audit Naipo's asset. And just before we move away from the punch now, you have legos motories grown over multiple levers. That's the charges. I mean, sometimes if you you are around these people, you really feel sorry for them because they have to pay so much. But that's it this morning on the front page of the punch. All right, let's take a look at the other papers we have in front of us. And indeed, let's go to the nation newspaper. Of course, as a big story there, all eyes on the leading candidates. They're asking if the others, Kwankwa Soobik and Spinger Surprise, well, of course, all the candidates are out for the elections. I think we have 18 of them, but the paper chooses to highlight the two. And let's see if the results would mean that it's not just a two horse race, but you have the others. I think Kwankwa Soinubi are being seen as outsiders in this in this poll. It's not partisan. We're not highlighting any party above the other, which is what NBC is talking about. Ogun Agro Cargo Airport records maiden flight, that's good news, electoral process kicks off with hitches and considers a shift of Enogu East editorial poll. Now we're beginning to see some of these things. Why would we can't win by 36 LP stage? All right, these are some of the stories you're trying to avoid. You don't have to seem like we're highlighting some parties above the other. So we'll leave the analysis of that out for now. We have some more papers. The Daily Independent newspaper. It's another one we'll look at this morning. It talks about the 2023 elections. We're already here a few more hours and we will be talking about that election. That's tomorrow. Consents that will influence 87.2 million voters tomorrow. I like to stop Enogu East Senatorial poll over killing of a candidate of a party. Buhari arrives in Casino ahead of tomorrow's presidential election. Nars pause. That's it. And then you find killing of our candidates and supporters in Enogu, barbaric and senseless. That's according to the presidential flag bear. And then you find cash crunch may short half of businesses or business informal sector. The NEGSG is quoted to say. Nigel leaves ban on charcoal processed wood export. That's also one business that thrives. This one business that thrives a lot. Well, it's good to see that that has been lifted. Naira saw policy. Federal government may slam trees and charges on opposing government. Malami is saying and the bongs the breach of Supreme Court order on the Naira policy. Military apprehends mastermind of Kaduna Buja train attack. Just as you know services has been suspended for tomorrow up until the elections over that would be on Sunday. But that's it this morning on a daily dependent. Well, daily trust leads to the story. Of course, on the elections analysis as well. This is talking about change for us to go. How will the candidates fair? I think I've seen some very interesting analysis, very interesting indeed. And we'll see more of that today and tomorrow while the voting is going on analyzing, you know, how the vote may go. They saying the riders to that is too close to call according to experts from a VP. And of course, I should watch it for epic battle popularity test for former a number of governor. All right, so we'll do that because of time go over to a guest Julie Johnson is being put out by the papers to be a couple of them to be maybe two horse race. So I'm putting to be a three horse race and four horse race. What's your analysis of the voting tomorrow? We don't want you to mention political candidates or political parties. But do you think it's a two horse race between the two parties that have been the leading parties before now? No, it's not a two horse race because the other candidates, there are 200 candidates whose performance will determine the venture winner. They might not win, but don't rule out to be as a dark horse. The two, sorry, please don't be, don't, don't take rule out the liberal party candidate as a dark horse. But the usual, the usual suspect PDP and APC will play a major role as the leading, as the leading parties. However, the performance of the liberal party, the performance of NNPP will eventually help in determining the outcome of that election. And then in media elections, you might not rule out the dark horse. That's how it was said in 2016 that it was not possible for Donald Trump to win the presidency, but eventually won. However, the case of Nigeria is different. We have a lot of fault lines. This election has taken so many dimension. There's ethnic dimension to it. There's religious dimension to it. And with the exception of one of two of the candidates, appeal has been made to the fault lines that separate us, the promoter sentiments that divide us, that we thought could be our diversity, that could be our unity in strength has been one of the things that the political class has appeal to. If voting pattern is done along the lines which the candidates have campaigned, then definitely it should be two us race. But if indeed Nigerians have gone above the beyond promoter sentiments, and we are waiting for a new Nigerian, I can assure you that it's not a two us race, it could be a three us race with respect to that, to respect to that election. And like every candidate and like every poll you have seen is too close to call just like we are. This is the first time since 1999 that we have been more than two major parties. And that was the experience we had in 1979. In 1979, we had five political parties or two major parties. Three major parties were the actors and the players. And these three major parties fell along these fault lines that divided us. You have the national, the NPN, the UPN, and the NNPP. And you could see the outcome of that result, how close contest it is. And then the case went to Supreme Court for the Supreme Court to decide on 12th to 12th. And there's every likelihood that we might have a situation whereby the Supreme Court might need to intervene. But you have a situation whereby you have the actors and the players in the present political piece, even at the state and local government level, and at the national level, not having respect for the court proceeding. I hope whatever is the outcome of this election, and if there's any need to go to the Supreme Court, the decision of the Supreme Court will be the Supreme order of the debate. But it's going to be a close contest. And I can also assure you that the opportunity and the ability of governors to deliver their state, the opportunity and the ability of people to manipulate the process, the ability of the political class to circumvent the will of the people is limited with the use of the Biva's technology. If that is fully deployed, if that is fully deployed, if that is fully deployed through the land and bread of Nigeria, if there's no contrary instruction from INEC that, okay, you know what we don't, we can use it. You recall in 2015, there was the card with that, the card with that was used, the card with that was used downstairs, it was not completely complied with in the north, simply in 2019. So if we have a complete, if we have a complete adherence to that, I can assure you that the winner of that election will not get more than 12, 10, 12 million votes, 10, 12 million votes. Let's look at the punch now. I'd like you to react to the fact that the military has been deployed to secure and ensure that, you know, the territorial integrity of the nation also being involved in civil activities or policing of civil society. You know I've said it. Merci. The military has no business being sent. Now what the military is doing should be done by the police. Our democratic institutions have been militarized and you see, you see elections being conducted in other countries. Do you see the military coming out with the commanding force? It's like, it's a siege mentality. I can assure you, it's an average person will be scared of going out to vote. I was just with the friend, as I said, you see with this military out, you know what an average parent would tell is, or our word, please don't go out to vote. And if you go out to vote, don't ferment trouble. Do we have to wait until election is coming before we reap the society of wood lumps? I've told you and I've said it many times, we know where the wood lumps are. We know the flash points in Lagos, in every part of this country. Now that's in the forefront of all of this, in ensuring the critical infrastructure of our democracy. It is not the military, but the police, all of the resources the army is bringing to ensure election are what they should use to defend the terrible. I saw the deployment of the military, particularly in Lagos, the one I saw in Lagos and the kind of equipment they are bringing, the one that they had on the long bridge in Beka. I was wondering, probably it is type of equipment in Bono. We need this type of equipment to protect, to protect it because Abuja Cardinal realign, we need that type of equipment to protect all the forests where you have these pandits, but they are nowhere to be found. You don't have to militarize democracy. And I've said it, it is clear. Johnson, but there are times where, I mean, do you think that is wrong? Because there are times where it's expected that, you know, the military is invited or soldiers are invited to aid and act civil authority to play the role of the police. And so, don't you think that, I'd like to ask you, Johnson, please, just before you're coming now, don't you think that where at that time where the military or the soldiers are invited to play the role of the police or aid the police in policing and ensuring that law and order is maintained, especially, you know, with the rampage that's going on following the narrow scarcity? Are the military trained to maintain civil order? Are they trained to maintain civil order? An exception is made. I'm saying that, is there no exception? I'm giving you a rhetorical question. Now, where you have such a situation whereby you bring in the military into maintaining order, you know what they are called in the United States? They are called the National Guard. They are called the National Guard. They don't bring out the kind of equipment to see that then they bring out. You don't see them with guns, like you see them. Now, if you see them with guns, then the governor of the state must have approved. The governor of the state must have approved the deployment of military guards before the National Guard, before they are deployed. The present state or the commander in chief cannot just, for example, Joe Biden cannot deploy, cannot deploy, cannot deploy the DME to Ohio where they have this derailment. He has to get an approval from the governor of Ohio but be divine for him to deploy that. You see, as far as I am concerned, we must have developed our policing, the civil authority for maintaining law and order. You certainly understand. If after 24 years of democracy, we have not been able to develop the Nigerian police to the point that the Nigerian police can protect the critical infrastructure of election, then something is wrong with our security arrangement. And there's something, is a major concern for those that will be elected, is a major issue that they need to address. I have not seen it against the military, but I can tell you that when you see too much military, it creates fear. And in democracy, election is not meant to create fire. Election is meant to be a carnival for people to understand, for people to understand that there's an opportunity for them to excite their franchise. There's an opportunity for them to give their mandate to whoever they want to rule them to govern their affairs for the next four years. But as far as you see the military, increase of mobilization, I cannot show you, increase of mobilization. You see, in the past, when we see military like this. Johnson, can you hear us? Gide Johnson, can you hear us? Do you think that there's a coup? That is my side. Do you think that there's a coup? All right. But one will begin to wonder what becomes of a situation where you have a lot of unrest. And at the time where you have talked about the police not being developed, because if you look at it, some people say that the police have lost their professionalism. And that's the reason why falling back on the soldiers or the military seem to be an alternative. So in a case where there's a lot, I mean, for instance, there's one that happened just around our vicinity following the narrow redesign policy and discursive. Some elements took to the streets and they were going to vandalize, but not for the sweet intervention of the military of these soldiers. And that was quelled and the properties were protected apparently in their lives as well. So I'm saying in situations where it's out of hand, would it still be wrong to say you have the presence of the military? What is the security brief for the narrow design? The CBN involved the national security advice and the narrow design. If they look at the policy implication, the political implication, the social implication, the environmental implication, and then the security implications of the narrow design, you are saying that if that has been taken into consideration, you'll have factored that in, it won't come as a surprise to us, to the policy makers, to those that have given responsibility to manage their affairs of the state, if that has been taken into consideration that if we take this decision, what are the implications of this decision? To every action there is a reaction. What would be the reaction of the people? Was there enough sensitization with respect to letting people understand that this is the direction of the policy? We will not give you more than 5,000 error. You can only do electronic transaction from that. But you know, we have different kind of instructions, directive, okay, we will give you 20,000. We'll collect 20,000 from the counter. There's nobody that has collected 20,000 from the counter. I'll give you an example. A junior colleague of mine went to the bank yesterday and he was paying them for 4,000 error. And then he got to his turn, he was number 57. When he was getting to his turn, he was paying them across the counter. The money has finished. So are you telling me that the whole branch of the bank will not have 1 million, will not have 1 million Naira? Because 100 times 400 is 100,000. So the money they've shared is not even up to 500,000. And the whole bank will power their gen, will bring in their staff, and then they will be given 4,000. Let's see. A lot of thoughtful considerations were not given into this policy. I cannot show you on this, with respect to the security implication. Because look, on Monday, you knew what happened in Shagam. Shagam is usually a flashpoint. You knew what happened in Shagam? Banks were set ablaze in Shagam. And at the end of the day, because the people are not properly educated, they are the ones that are somehow depressed. So I mean, we're talking about the involvement, because Johnson, you know, we're talking about the involvement of the military in civil affairs. I mean, and maintaining law and order in a civil dispensation or a civil state. That's what we're talking about. We're saying that it's wrong to involve the military, because the military was not created for that. But I'm saying that in cases like this, where you have rightly stated that we have a police system that's underdeveloped, and some people are saying that the police have become too friendly, and they have lost their professionalism. And so what else do we now do? Do we follow the arms and just wait for, you know, cures to happen? I'm just saying, what would you profess a solution if we constantly say we can't use the military in times where we have, you know, cases that are out of hand, where the police is overwhelmed? What I'm saying in effect is that I'm not saying you can't use the military. What I'm saying is that if you are going to use the military, have a special unit of the military properly trained and properly equipped to do that purpose. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. If you are going to have the military to do that, in America, they're bringing the National Guard to do that. When there was unrest in 2020, he saw the National Guard. The National Guard was deployed. When there was, across America, if you want to do that, have a special unit of the military properly trained and equipped for that purpose. That's what I'm saying. You must train the military on how to put a civil disobedience. That's my argument. Okay. I'm still looking at that. I'd like you to also share your thoughts on another one. We have, yesterday, INEG had put out, you know, data and reports us to the number of PVCs that have been collected, 87, 209,700, and seven, like 100. What are your thoughts? Are you quite impressed looking at the figures from last year? Well, I'm interested in that figure. What I'm interested in actually is the voter's turnout. When you have large voter's turnout, you have a situation whereby it's very difficult to read the election because it's very difficult to manipulate the will of the people, and they will say the voice of the people is the voice of God. So for me, what are we looking at is the actual people that turn out to vote in that election. You recall in 2019, the president got less than 15 million votes, gets less than 16 million votes, same in 2015. In actual sense, the vote that the elected president in 2019 got was less than the vote he got in 2015. The margin was low compared to, even the voter's turnout was also, if you look at the percentage of the actual people that turn out to vote in 2015, and in 2019, you'll be sure to know that the percentage of those that turn out to vote in 2015 were more than those that turn out to vote in 2019. That's the fact that there's an increase, there's an exponential increase in the number of people that register to vote. There's one thing for people to register to vote. I want to appeal to all Nigerians that I want you go out tomorrow and exercise your mandate. As long as you comport within the law, you have no fear of your nose being bloody, as said by the chief of army staff. You, as long as you live within the frame of what the law allows you to do, I can assure you that you are safe. Go out, cast your vote, let us express our mandate, and let us ensure that the popular will, not the minority will. How can it, last time we had 88 plus million people registering to vote? And the person that won the election had 50 million plus. That's not government of the majority, that's government of the minority. It's government of the minority. In fact, if you took out the number of those that, that means that the people that did not vote, that did not support the president, are more than the people that actually voted for him. Because staying at home means that people are undecided. It means that a lot of people are uninterested in democratic process. That's the implication. If you analyze it from attitude, from attitudinal point of view, it means that they are undecided, they are not interested in the political process. And if you have a democratic process, where majority of the people are not interested in participating, there's something wrong with your, with your polity. And there's need for you to look at what do we need to do. Do we need the role of others' education? Do we need to increase the people's trust in the democratic process? Do we need to provide enabling environment that will allow people to go and cast their vote? Do we ensure that there's no ricking and people believe that my vote really matters? Because if people think that their vote doesn't really matter, why should they go and vote? If people think that they will not receive, why should they go and vote? Now, some of these military exercises that we are seeing from this to the election, probably we should have done this three months to the election. We begin to comb the society and we begin to send the signal and then people have confidence and trust in the process. And the citizenry and the voters will get used to having the ability to be part and parcel of the civil society and then they can go and vote on But I mean that might just be one factor because I know that a lot of peasants speaking to a couple of them on the streets, some people who probably want to vote would have moved from one state to another, one constituency to another. And the process of trying to get the PVC, a lot of people don't have the information as to transferring from a particular state or constituency or polling unit to another one, that's on the one side. The fact that information, a lot of people are not in the know that they can do that. In other cases, some people have lost their PVC. So I think that the factors for non-involvement in the election or the number of turnout will be dependent on different issues. So you would have those who are afraid to come out. You also have those who don't believe in the system. You have those who have not been able to get the right information to have their cards transferred from one polling unit to a constituency or one state to another. And so the issues cannot just be limited to one, but I think that it's encompassing. And I'd like to be hopeful that we will eventually get there. Same here. I'll put out to get there, but it's a process and the process is not just one week to the election. It's just not two weeks to the election. It's not three weeks to the election. We knew after tomorrow, the next election, we happened. We happened in the next four years. We happened in the next four years. So we should start planning towards that election, right away. Water sensitization, creating the environment, reading the environment of wood lumps. We know where the wood lumps are. There was a particular story in which you talk about motorists groaning over the type of levees that are imposed on them in leaguers and those are the things that we need to look into. Those are the issues that need to be addressed. If you enter public transport, you see them are blinding the streets of leaguers and you begin to wonder whether they are a government to themselves or they are a law and order to themselves or whether they are operating a different society, whether they are above the law and you see the police turning blind eye. You see the last man turning blind eye and everybody turning blind eye to them and they become an institution within the institutions of the state. Right. Gene Johnson, interesting analysis from you. The day is almost upon us and we will see what happens at the end of the day. Lots of predictions, even prophecies regarding the election. I mean, one of the funny aspects was people trying to prove to the rest of us that they are preferred candidates who had their name in the Bible. You know, I never knew, as a particular name, I never knew, essentially B, I never knew that name was in the Bible until, to what a leading candidate. It's what I showed me that it was in the Bible. Kofi, when the prophet made that prophecy, I told them that when the prophet made the prophecy concerning the label candidate, I said, wow, this people probably did not read the Bible, they will know that there is the name of the APC candidate in the Bible. I saw it, I was surprised. I saw LXX. I knew that I have been reading the Bible from the beginning to the end, at least one or two times. So I've seen that. So I was just laughing when the renowned pastor was saying that I said, this guy is just a master of double speak. You know, this prophet, no matter of double speak, and I tell you this in this prophecy concerning political things, I'll tell you my heroin experience as a kid in 1979. In 1979, my father took us to a church and went to his friend's church, they were having the harvest, and it was proud to this 1979 election. And the woman, you know, he went in trans, and when they go in trans, they will not do anything. So we were in church from 10 a.m. till 4 p.m. You can't go out, you will not go out and eat. And then as a kid, I couldn't go out, I was just 10 years old, I couldn't go out to eat. And this woman went into the prophecy. He said, if they like, they don't like. Whether they like it or not, Aulawa will be depressed. And she said that even if people refuse to vote for Aulawa, the grass and the elves and the sons of Nigeria will vote. I'm telling you a true life story. So as a young kid, I went to buy the newspaper to see the reason. In fact, that is what ignited my interest in practicing journalism. I went and bought the newspaper to see the outcome of this prophecy. And I can tell you, you can ask people around you. Since that time, if you are around me and you come up with any stupid prophecy, I'll tell you, you are talking like a dash. No matter how much I tell you, I'll just tell you. It's your figment of your imagination. You could see how disappointed I would be as a kid. Then 10 years ago, when the woman made the prophecy that Aulawa will win the election, and I went and I did. And to tell you the truth, when people argue that Aulawa actually won the election in 1999, I made you a prophecy. Because that ignited my interest. I was interested. There were five elections in five weeks. Five elections in five weeks. And in all of the elections in those five weeks, MPN won. MPN had more local government than UPN. MPN had more assembly than UPN. MPN had more state governors than UPN. MPN had less rep mother than UPN. MPN had more senator than UPN. In the school of logic and extrapolation statistics, there's no way UPN could have won that election. We have to go. We have to go. Jeannie, but I'm sure you also remember the talk of the Bible. Aulawa's name being the Bible. That prophecy then also. And Jeremiah. Jeremiah. And someone says Shagari's name is also in the Bible. Shagari. What's wrong? Jeannie, we have to go now. Thank you so much. We really have to go. Thank you very much. You know, they say Shagari's name. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you sir. They say Shagari's name was also in the Bible as well. And the name they took to make that fact was quite funny. But we have to take a break. We'll come back and look at the role of youth. The youth vote in the 2023 elections. Stay with us.