 Well, we are right here with the breakfast and Ezekiel and I took with join us this morning to make sense of the papers, looking some of the top stories this morning. Ezekiel, it's good to have you join us. Good morning. Always a pleasure. Thanks for having me. All right, then, you know, I was probably looking for the phrase to use to greet you, maybe to say happy voting or, you know, something like that. Even for sitting there's a good joke. Oh, we can say which ever one. It's all right. We'll set up with the Vanguard newspaper this morning. Let's look at what's making it or what made it to the front page of the Vanguard amongst all the papers. Now, on the Vanguard, the big story says, governors under investigation for inciting authorances, that's what the IGP is quoted to say, and a lot of people have queried the fact that governors seem to have a lot of immunity and they seem to get away with a lot of things. Over the Naira protests, that's what you find. Presidential poll will hold as scheduled on Saturday. National Security Council is saying, say that please and all the security agencies are ready for the polls. INEC chair briefs Buhari on preparations as Legos, Ondo, or Shum, Ekiti. Orders get electoral materials. There are also some reports that, you know, the beavers have been distributed in cross-evaluate state, 18 local government, a video to that effect. Another you have is the polls, Tunubu Obi Atiku Kwan-Kwaso, or the signed Second Peace Accord. National Media Compliance Commission takes off with the nine-man board and then you find the Naira crisis. Supreme Court fixes much the thought for a judgment. And just before we move away from the Vanguard newspaper this morning, Buhari Osibajo, support group apologized to Nigerians and dump APC. That's what the Vanguard says. But we take a look at the nation. I beg your pardon, just before the nation, we look at the Guardian newspaper. The Guardian says, again, Supreme Court differs ruling on Naira redesign to after elections, that's on the third of March. But, you know, whether or not 500 and 1000 Naira are still valid or 200 Naira, it's still that conversation that a lot of Nigerians are struggling with. But there's compliance to some extent. Some people still do not spend the old note, while orders are spending it for different reasons. So you have underneath, consolidate, suit by 16th state, fix March the 3rd, judgment. Consolidate suits by 16th state and fixes March the 3rd for judgment. Await our decision, the Supreme Court tells Abia and other states seeking to join suit, were overburdened. Something must be done on Nigerian constitution, the judge are lamenting or complaining. You have another rider, Nigerian left in the middle of the sea, Chew Sani reacts and cash exchange riot were investigating governors over inciting altering says IGP, the governor, sometimes you ask what sort of investigation, the video was very simple, very clear, and the other governors. EFCC moves against vote buyers, deploy operatives to state, the FCT, security atmosphere right, election good to go. That's what the security council is set to be saying this morning. Your vote matters, Blinken tells Nigerians in a video message, the United States has put out a message to you, the fact that Nigerians should not give up, go out and vote. Buhari or Siobhan Jaws support group apologizes to Nigerians as a dumb APC for the PDP. So you ask yourself what is going on with the cross-captain, I mean defections, up until two days to the elections, you still have people defecting from one party to another. And then the NNPP petition NASS, DSS over a large siege to Kanu campaign office, and Codremans reverse federal lawmaker in prison, costed it for 48 hours to election. I think that's the much we can take this morning on the Guardian. We'll just quickly turn our attention to another paper here, and that's the nation newspaper. Why I seek your mandate to be president, that's what the presidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress is quoted to say, boldly written, and you can't take that away from the nation, if you know what I mean. APC candidate rides Nigerians, 155 North Christian leaders pledge support, accept the result, avoid acrimony, that's what Buhari tells candidate, has assigned a second piece of court, and two days to go, don't vote for them. Okay, I will not take that, sounds too much of an editorial, and we're not right here to do all of that. Supreme Court fixes veredict in narrow redesign suit for March the 3rd, and justices to decide contempt of court and jurisdiction, use of ordinary notes. I mean the issues are almost still on, and some people would say this case is subjudice, and you can't probably be talking about it. Apex Court ruling on use of ordinary notes side by side with the new subsist or subsistence by Sun, that's what the Sun's quoted to say, and then we'll just quickly turn our attention to the business day, talking about business and the Nigerian economy. You have the business day saying, Nigeria's economy slows in 2022 as agric industry sector disappoints, for what reason you want to know, you find that on the business day. Now just before we move away, stop market, see first net foreign inflow in five years, and commuters shift to digital payment as narrow scarcity bites. Shaggy, some people say the Nigerians are saying shaggy, but these are some of the stories you find. I mean just three of them on the business day this morning, but that's it. Ezekal Yahitok is here with us, and Ezekal, many thanks for being with us this morning. We do appreciate you every other time. Thank you, thank you, thank you. All right then. Let's share your thoughts on the papers. I mean we set off with the Vanguard, and the Vanguard this morning talked about the governor's under investigation for inciting authorences, and that's according to the Inspector General, please. I mean how do you respond to this, especially when we know that some of this investigation are very obvious. I mean you have evidence, some statements are very, should we need further investigation asked to this issue, or we should go ahead and act? You see there are two sides to that whole story. The very first is that there's something about the immunity of the governors, which I think that the time has come when we really need to look at that omnibus covering, and how wise it is, or whether they are setting exceptions that we've got to make, but I can understand the spirit of it so that the governor is not dragged into all manner of frivolous things and distracted by litigations and all those things from the work he's got to do. It makes sense on the big picture, but of course it should not be a license for it to be reckless or irresponsible in that office. They should be setting limitations, and again I understand very well what is going on. There's a certain desperation on the side of the governors, because rather than perform over the years, governors have relied on stashing up a lot of money to buy votes on election day, and how Mr. President has just decided to put his foot on the pedal on this matter at a time that, you know, when we complain about several things, I believe that the economy, everything that we say comes down to two days in the Nigerian case tomorrow, which is February 25th and March 11th. The people that we elect into office will determine what our next four years will be like. I feel the pain firsthand, because I mean it, you know, about how people are going through sufferings because of this scarcity of Naira notes. But at the same time, there's a statement in the Bible, what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul? It's a perspective planning. Go whole world is a little time, your own soul is eternity. At the same time, I just want to plead with Nigerians to like endure this hardship as terrible as it is, and use it to reward our recruitment. Don't let it be something that will make you on that day to just quickly collect Naira toward 2000 and just to survive. No. Know that there's a four years in front, in fact, effectively eight, because anybody who takes it now to take it back is difficult. So coming back to it, the governors are desperate. The governors are seeing being pulled from under their feet. They thought they had it all made. They impoverished the people and they wanted to come on that day and just give them peanuts, and then they will dance to their music. And now the music is changing and they're not finding it funny. And so they cannot even control their emotions again. They are getting reckless in their own transits. I think that for whatever it is worth, I don't know whether EFCC cannot invite a sitting governor just to take statements for the records, because when you leave the office, they can come back for you. So I think that they should be invited to put sitting things on record. And then when they leave office and the immunity is gone, they can still be called back and put where they belong. They impoverished the people. We know that that phrase has been very common in our political scene, especially now that we're heading to the polls. So there's always a statement that the people have been impoverished. Poverty has become a weapon. Can you throw further light to that? How do these governors impoverish the people? I'll give you, you see, our electioneering process is very simple, straightforward, but we sometimes don't discipline ourselves to sit down and think through. Before now, if I was a governor, people are not impressed by saying things like human development index. If I'm asking for me to be re-elected, I will tell you, I built bridges. I built houses. I built things you can see. And that is not the essence of government. I came up, I'm campaigning, and I told people, joined me by the, you know, the poverty index before I take the office and the poverty index after I've left the office because chapter two, section 14, subsection two B says that the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government. Now, even the bridges and the roads, people are starting not to be so impressed as much as the money they get on an election day. As a result, before you go for a bad gaining, what you need to do is to make sure that the price is as cheap as possible. Since people want to collect money on an election day, it doesn't make sense for me to make them to be so prosperous and robust because a guy that is comfortable and giving 1,000 can look at you and say, what's that? Please, can you give me what is reasonable? Because his state is high. So you impoverish the person so much that on an election day, once you say 500, they say, give me, give me, give me, give me. It's like a man who has eaten, he's going to be looking for dessert, okay? But a man who is hungry is going to be looking for pure water. Don't give me water, make a drink first, make a no die of thirst. So weaponizing poverty is a good election tool. It's not difficult to see. So we need to start to look at profiling people and redefining the paradigms and getting people to understand the essence of election. That is where Mr. President is starting to address, which is that all that money that you kept behind just to buy votes, you are not going to have that money. And that money is going to be useless to you. Now think of this. When they say that they should return money and get exchange, you know, banks were working Saturdays and Sundays. After a while, they were not working Saturdays again. So I went to one of the banks and said, you didn't work on Saturdays. They said, no money is coming. So it doesn't make sense for us to open. I'm talking of a quay boom because in the north it might be different. What that means is that people had ample time to return their money. But these people still kept that money because they believed they could twist the government or the president to change the policy and the president had superior intel and he put his foot down. That's why some of those governors are getting upset. They are losing it and they are starting to say things that are very irresponsible. So I think that weaponizing poverty is a tool that we don't need to think twice about. So I mean, you know, I wanted to understand how this tactic happens. How do they do this? Is it that, but you have actually, you know, turned some light to that. I'll give you, I'll give you. Maybe just a typical example of how that happens. Like in a few seconds. So we can delve into the issues. Yes, please. When I was campaigning, I'll just take this for instance. When I was campaigning, I told them I would put 500,000 in every village every month for four years. Now we have 2,226 villages and people are like, ah, you're not used to talking like this. Why are you talking like a politician? I said, listen to me. I don't need any approval. I don't need anything. Say how I multiplied 500,000 in every village that has a village head by 2,226 and it gave me about 1.1 billion. And people are like, wow. And I told them, do you know that this is about half of the security vote of your governor? And they're like, what? I said, that's about half. So imagine a governor putting 500,000 naira based on the setting development template in every village. Imagine how you stimulate the local economy. Imagine how the young people will have jobs to do. Imagine how the women will have seats for their market. Why has it not been done? It's possible. The money is collected every month and yet it is not done. Not because it could not be done, but because it will not be done. That is overnight. Ezekiel, quickly, let's move away. That's a lot that we can talk about. I'm not sure that we can exhaust that headline. But on the leadership quickly, you also made reference to the president himself. And the leadership caption said, very interesting, 2023 polled. I will be neutral as I was in Edo and Iqiti. Anambra Oshun, president of Muhammad Buhari. Ezekiel, what are your thoughts? This is another time the president is making his commitment to be neutral. Now, and if you want to look at it on the other side, if it was like over time the president has not been neutral, because when you say I will be neutral as I was in this election, does it mean that over time we have not had neutrality? Or has it been that the center has always had an influence in our elections? These are some things that Nigerians are wanting to understand. Number one, during the time of my ogre OBJ, it was nothing like neutrality. He handled it and it was an iron fist approach to it. It was during President Jonathan's time that he became a little more nationalistic and presidential in his approach to politics. But I think that at this time of our current president, he has taken it to a completely new level. He's exhibited certain levels of neutrality that is impressive as far as I'm concerned. And he has made a statement that is extremely fundamental. And that statement, I don't know exactly how we put it, but it comes across as I will put national interest above political expediency. And that is statement that should go on the marbles, putting national interest above political expediency. Political expediency is for you to work for your party, for you to tilt, you know, advice or direct, not even advice, direct the military to make sure that they work for your candidate. But he says, military, please, all the forces and all the military apparatus, please, security rather not military, please stay neutral, guide every Nigerian, work for all, and don't be specific to any. I think that is something that somehow the president is really, really being advised. What I told him, forget the economy, forget correction, forget the employment, forget all those things. You can't do anything about it. Nigerians are the very short memory and very forgiving memory. Whatever President Jonathan did, we forgot all, we call him clueless, we call him everything, but just making one phone call, Nigerians forgave him of all sins he's ever committed. If you give us free, fair, credible election, nobody will forget the past. You will become a national hero instant. Some people will vilify you, your party, for instance, but history would record you on the right side and your family would be the better for it. I'm proud of it. So I want to encourage Mr. President today, please put your foot on that pedal. Don't take it off. It is the only way for you to leave a legacy that you will be proud of. That's the only window you have. You shut that window. You are a non-entity, a nobody, a disappointment, and something that even your family will be very ashamed of. But you put your foot on that pedal and give us free, fair, credible elections. You'll be a national and international hero and join the likes of President Goodlaw Jonathan, former President Jonathan in becoming an international face of democracy. And I look forward to it. We just have two days to the elections. The question now is, do we have this structure? The President alone cannot be running everywhere. So he's a system. And so do you think that the systems that we have in place, the security architecture itself, the empire that's INEC, and every order structure that we have are in sync with the President's desire to deliver a free and credible election come Saturday and, of course, March 11th? Yeah. At the risk of being misunderstood, I'm a great friend of the INEC chairman. And we have very, very serious mutual respect for each other. And his respect for me comes from the fact that he knows there's something I would never ask him to do. I respect his office. Now, the relevance of this is that the INEC chairman had this desire, compulsive desire to do the right thing. But what has given him that extra verb, that extra impetus is the fact that Mr. President says, go ahead and do it. Now, there's no way the central bank governor would, as much as think, imagine, doing what he's doing. No way, except Mr. President has told him, go ahead and do it. What am I trying to say? The Nigerian system and structure does exist. It does exist. The problem has been having somebody at the top who says, get it done. And they'll get it done. If Nigerian army or the police go on foreign mission or anything, they always excel. We are good. We are structured. We are wonderful. All we need is just the head. Imagine when President Buhari came in the first one, two months. Did you notice that Nigeria was sane? Absolutely sane. Everything went right. Everybody was like, wow, a new sheriff in town. It's only when they started daring the dog and discovered that it was actually toothless that everybody just ran riot and everybody went away. But now, in this election matter, what do you think is causing people to start to fall in line? We're going to have free, fair, credible election. Because the President is going to tell the security people and tell them, I hear problem in your area and may have a short time to go, but you see the red of my eye within this short time. I know what to do. And we're going to have free, fair, credible elections. Leadership, Nigerians are very trusting. Nigerians are good followers. Nigerians are extreme good believers, maybe because of our religious backgrounds. All we need is a sane human being at the seat of the health of affairs and everything go right. So I think that we're going to have good. So, I mean, as much as that's very optimistic and that's the spirit that we ought to uphold as we get closer to Saturday and, of course, March. But the next question would be, when we talk about free, credible election, what happens to the issue of voter suppression, you know, where voters are being suppressed? Let's also talk about the vote buying. Now, we hear that the EFCC has deployed officers, you know, against vote buying and what have you, but do you also know that vote buying does not necessarily happen on the day of the elections? You have videos to that effect where people are already selling their votes. These, you know, political elites and class have devised another means, you know, to overtake the system. So, as much as we say, or some people are saying, hey, the policy, the narrowly designed policies, the cobb vote buying, but is that really going to be what we're going to experience? Because vote buying happens sometimes before the day of the elections? Yeah. There's something called scales of oppression. Okay. Now, if there were 100 people, and maybe four people bought votes, the question would be whether it was a vote buying, the answer is yes, there was. But it was four out of 100. On the other hand, it could have been 80 out of 100. Now, what is bothering me is that I think the policy was very well intended, very well designed, was something that is good. But, you know, that implementation bit of allowing little money to get into the hands of people to do their businesses, you know, I went on campaign yesterday, and where I would have spent maybe up to 200,000 Naira, I spent about, you know, they prefer to collect 20,000 Naira cash than a transfer of God knows how much. So I'm really worried, in a sense, concerned and praying that people will, on the election day, even if they collect the money, they will get inside that polling booth and do their mind. Because we need to drum it to Nigerians that these guys want to impoverish you and take this, your mandate and, you know, make matters worse for you. So when they bring the money, collect, but when you reach there, do your mind, get this rule out. In every state, you know who the God of ownership can remind. Imagine that person that your conscience will tell you is the best person. When you get in there, no matter who gave you any money, that money is already yours to start with. Vote your conscience, seal the paper, drop it in the box. When they know that people are starting to vote their conscience, people will stop giving money, even then, because they discover that you can't, did you do it? Yes, did you do it? Yes. And you don't know what the people did. The next thing is that the money that you deploy, this one of paying the people before, it's even worse if you pay the man before them, unless you give him an oath to sway by. That oath will not catch the man because he's stolen money, so the oath will not work. So I mean, I'm just saying that by collecting their PVCs, that is the one that I don't like. Ezekau and Yaituk, I'm just saying that, you know, at what point do we say that and our elections? We are very excited with the electoral act of 2022. I mean, nothing is entirely perfect, but to some extent with the introductions that we have, the beavers and the portal where real-time results would be seen, some people think that they will help improve the electoral process. But how far can we say that our elections are free and fair when you still have the issues of voter intimidation and voter suppression? Because a lot of persons have been harassed, a lot of persons have been intimidated, you know, and there's evidence to all of that, you know, in the public space. There's also still the issue of vote-buying. So at the end of the day, do we, can we still say that, you know, our elections are free, fair and credible, especially in 2023 elections? Because there will not be any, you know, maybe ballot box snatching and one of you, but will we still say that the elections are credible? Yeah, I will say that there's improvement and it's going to be incremental. And I will say that the improvement of 2023 is a quantum leap, okay? But I actually see a very interesting setup in 2027 because this 2023, a lot of people didn't really believe that the president was going to keep to it. So a lot of people were skeptical. For instance, the electoral act, one of the provisions of the electoral act that people, and I want to say that the courts should not try, let me use a very hard word. I wanted to say should not try nonsense, but please let me look for any word that suits that. On section 35, that says that anyone that willingly allows himself to get double nomination from two parties that such a person, his nomination, shall devoid. I was a former chairman of, national chairman of a party. I know what nomination is. The court should not go and the bottom line was they didn't want this issue where you hold one down and do hold the other smaller party so that if you don't get from the big party, you don't go and get from a smaller party. Not candidates. We know who a candidate is. We are talking of nomination. We know what nomination is. By the time that they stick to it, because we intend to take a lot of people to court and people are going to build houses that they will not live in, buy cars that they will not drive. What that means is that they are going to win elections that they will not have the benefit of that election because of the electoral act. People are now going to sit down and really study the electoral act so that in 2027, we are going to have a more sane election process. We are going to determine that you can take a small party if you are popular because it's going to be votes count, take a small party, go on it and win election. That's going to mean that people are going to have confidence that votes will count. So it's going to be more interesting. So the issue of sensitive materials can actually come up on time. Then we'll be able to look at vote buying and all those other things. So for me, there is an incremental sanity to our election process. We've not reached there and we do not intend to reach there overnight. But I think that the effort we have made for this particular session is about the best that we have had so far. And I am, even as a player, I am happy and I believe that the more ascensitized people, the more they realize that you can call a 2000 error and get into another four years of enslavement. Look for that person. Whoever that person is that will best serve your interest, vote for the person and vote your conscience. So the players once again have signed another piece of code. I'd like to borrow your word there as the presidential election would take place on Saturday. But however, the president again has admonished and asked these players to accept the result and avoid acrimony. My question is, what's the essence of the piece of code? Because it's like reading the scriptures and not practicing it. Two things for me. They say half bread is better than none. They talk about piece of code. They talk about the ceremony. It's a consciousness to the fact that we should be peaceful. So for me, just that, you know, general enlightenment, we're talking about it now. If they didn't sign the piece of code, we won't be talking about it now. But we are talking about it now. Number two, let us start to look for how we can give the teeth to that ceremony. Because if there are no consequences, that's why maybe electoral offenses, be a law, will be passed such that now if you are caught to be liable for any act of, you know, loss of peace within the system, there should be something that you should pay for it. So it will not be just a ceremony. But for now, even that ceremony brings about enlightenment and a consciousness. So it's better than not even doing it at all. But the best thing is for people to have integrity and believe that, you know, there's something I say, I tell the people that God should hold me responsible if I put any body's child in harm's way when my own children are very, very comfortable where they are. I say, God, deal with me, punish me for it. Because we've got to have... Maybe the people should hold you responsible, just like, you know, statement that's been made by some politician. Storn me if I don't perform and all of that. Because God might just be too merciful to destroy. Yeah, I understand. But you see, a man is ensnared by the words of his mouth. Words still come about to be powerful. Let everybody stand and say, God, if I put anybody's child in harm's way knowingly, let such a thing come back to me and happen to me. Many people will not want to say it because they know that words are powerful. Words, still things still happen. So I think that there should be a portion where you should be able to put certain things on you if you put anybody's child in harm's way. Ezekiel, we have to go now. Thank you so much for being part of the show. And it's always a delight to have you show your thoughts on Off the Press. Thank you. God bless you. Thank you. All right, it's Ezekiel and Yadig. Join us this morning. Or join us this morning for Off the Press. And he's a public affairs analyst in Awkwagoomstead. That's it. We take a break. When we return, I first miss your conversation. We'll be right here. Just don't go anywhere. Stay with us. Good morning.