 Good morning and welcome to the run-up. My name is Uche Chuku Onode. And my name is Nyam Gul Agadji. And I am Bayo Uluwake. It's nice to be here. It's another wonderful day and we're hoping that what we have for you will be educated enough for you to learn something to make your life a little bit better. I think we're starting off with something on what happened yesterday because it was something that the whole of Nigeria was talking about and we hope to have a guest in the house that will be answering some questions about what happened at Lake Itolgate and other venues of Lagos and Nigeria at large. We also will be having a second guest that will be teaching us how to farm. Mr Bayo, I'm sure that you will have so much questions to ask him. Because I'm actually thinking of doing some farming seriously. So I'll be one of the beneficiaries of whatever he's sharing this morning. This may be in 50 years' time or in 30 years' time by 2050, Lagos might be submerged. It's a scary news but maybe we'll be thinking about how to survive without land as well. True, which means find other means of growing food. And then also make young people like Ujje to be a part of the farmer's club. I'm sorry, why do you segment us? Why did you say young people like Ujje? We're farmers too. We just don't do it your way. We have our way of doing things now. You need to up your game. Your family said WhatsApp and Instagram and all that. Anyway, it's going to be an interesting one because the person who is coming will teach us how to farm in such a way that we won't be describing farming as if you want to make money, you might have to get your hands dirty. Farming doesn't have to get your hands dirty anymore. Well, but I think we are just going to meet our first guest this morning who will be talking on what happened yesterday in the Ansar's. And that is Bishop of Koronko. Bishop of Koronko, good morning and welcome to the run-up. Thank you very much. Okay, let me just begin with the first question before my colleagues join in. You are a frontliner when it comes to desagitation and especially when it comes to Ansar's. You were there all that time and you were also following the people yesterday. How was it yesterday? How would you describe yesterday's marking of this day in the history of Nigeria? It was largely successful. It was largely successful because people turned out in the frontline. They turned out to house Roni and the red, you know, a pig. And you have also had people turned out. We came up, we made our voices heard and we even carried coffee to people's night or at 20th at the time. And we were present at the talk. We were there to record boys and to make sure that the incident of Lake He Massacre was read that the indictment of the fire was real. So we were there. We were there and I can say on the scale of 1 to 10 we recorded as on our own because in the level of intimidation we had presumed that nobody would even come up but we came up, we know that this really had. I can say it was good for all. It was success. And the memorial we held there at the Abila event center was also successful. And people coming sharing the ice cream. We realized that they weren't careless about them in the way it should be. So there were videos circulating online yesterday of policemen dispersing the crowd with tear gas canisters and tanks of water. Would you say that was before the success that she was saying was recorded or after? Definitely. The police, you know, pouring water on us and using spray, tear gas. It has always been there now. We were allowed that to interfere on our success. We come in and say that, you know, like we said part of what the 5D man was was a psychological evaluation of the on our police officers. It says that the police officers were arrested. There was no rule of engagement. There was no rules of engagement. So from our end, the police what they did was they are typical modus operandi that they've been doing, you know, right from time. So whether irrespective of their action which is not normal, we recorded success yesterday. The memorial held people for us. The media carried what happened. They were shooting tear gas at us. They were getting water canisters. They were pouring water on people. Even life ammunition and all that. So that's police for you. That is still part of our demand. That is still part of our demand that police should be reformed. Police should be reformed. Police change. Police should be brought in a point that they will understand that protest, gathering, assembly is the inherent right of every citizen of every nation, both in worldwide traffic and in the Nigerian constitution. We have the right. It's our right to come out and protest. It's our right to come out and make our voices heard. And in our adventure, you need to maybe give some excuses that we were orderly. All we just needed to do was you stay this side, you keep traffic going and traffic was going. But, you know, they always have this level. And we had time. We had time. We said the position was going to be between 8 and 11. They started shooting at 10. You didn't even wait. Okay, these guys have good time between 8 and 11. So after 11, you could have asked them, ah, your time is at 11. Are you guys not okay to go? No. There was no pressure for that. They just wanted to show that we will not allow any voice to be heard. We'll push it down if it's whatever the zone. That was what played out. But we recorded the success because we came out. We made our voices heard. We protested. We told ourselves the way it teases. Okay. I know that Bayer will have a perspective to add to that. But let's finish with this guest first. Some people are concerned that the energy with which you marched in 2020, when the NSAS actually happened, died down. And okay, after two years, you went back to the Leci Toolgate and some other locations to do a memorial for the people that are allegedly lost or were allegedly lost to that struggle. And the worry is that that energy comes down. It's like you guys go to sleep after the march. Nothing else is being done. And a critical time is coming in 2023 where there will be election. The question is how much of that energy are you willing to translate into mobilization of the youth and every other person who is saying that what is happening in Nigeria is not good enough for them so that the election will have a massive turnout and wonderful voting. What are you doing about that? Or is it only rallies that we'll be having every October? Okay, okay. Like first of all, I want you to appreciate the fact that some of us who were there on ground knew that people died. We are not just only coming out to march on that 20th, but we are going to keep doing that every year until that day becomes... People died and these people must be remembered. They must be remembered. People have been dying on the hands of police brutality from the inception of this country. And we must make it. And we must make sure that that day is particularly to us. We must make sure that that 20th, we don't play with sacrosanthes. It must be written in the annals of time that on the 20th of October, such a thing happened and all those who have been dying in the hands of police brutality should be remembered on that day. So irrespective of whatever that is happening going forward that day, we must keep pushing. Just the same way you and I know that just recently President Muammar Diwari recognized June 12 as official democracy because people kept talking about June 12 so many years after it has happened. Now, coming back to the energy dying down on the youth. I don't think the energy have died down. You need to look at what is happening politically. Look at the new registrants we have. Look at the new people that have gone through these things. Look at how many youth that went out there to register for INEC. That's to show you there's an awakening. The answers are waking you to understand that nothing will change except they begin to participate politically. That is why today you will notice that most rallies you see young people at the front burner irrespective of the party it is. So the youth are getting actively involved. The energy of the youth is not dying, it is going up. But you know the issue of like for instance I heard somebody analyzing that the crowd that came out was us but no, you don't have to spread the crowd to be as much as it was because we didn't want every whole youth to come out to make it okay. We just wanted to make sure that we do the procession. You understand what I'm saying? It wasn't like we had this mass mobilization agenda to get every youth out there. If we wanted, we would have had them. But that was not the goal. The goal was to make sure the memory of the dead is kept. And trust me, it will be a choice play for any politician to think that the youth are not going to make it back to 2023. In fact it will be any politician or any leader that doesn't know what the youth is coming with in this 2023. It's going to be a tsunami. One of them are overconfident, overly overconfident. Thinking it's going to be business as usual. Give them money and have your way. But trust me, it's going to be a bumper harvest of surprises for politicians in 2023. The youth are definitely going to make a statement. The youth are definitely going to take a stand. They are already taking a stand. We see them on social media every day. We see prefer pictures, flooding wherever you know the candidate is going. You see the number of youths working to him. So trust me, the youth are ready to make it back to 2023. It's no longer business as usual. The energy of answers has produced a lot of consciousness and awareness among youth. As of yesterday, I was labelled informed that more than 2 million new registrants among the young population have picked up their PVC. So it's no longer that they registered and they are sleeping. They are taking their PVC. Before December, I can assure you, over 8 million people should have gotten their PVCs. Add that number to election of 2023. Add that number that these people are people that will come and vote. Remember, we always have low voter turnout in former elections. The number of people who register. But now, with the number of new registrants who are very eager to vote next year, you are sure that these people registering now who just registered are ready to vote. So they are people who are actually going to go to the polls. And while answers are political, some of us will be political. Some of us will join. Some of us will definitely make our stand on. And we will support a candidate at a point. Because we are still talking to ourselves and we will support a candidate at a point. And we will put in all our energy to make sure that that candidate wins and that candidate will be a candidate that will stop all the ills and that will reform everything we have been protesting for. That will make sure police is working, make sure they are paid well. You cannot give somebody an AK-47 and you don't pay the person well. Do you want the person to be an armed robber? We must make sure that police should also understand that what we are fighting at our end is just for the young people, for them too. Look at our barracks. Look at the police welfare. Treat them well. Police officer, how many people but how many Nigerians to want police? Recruit more police officers. Recruit more army. Policing is the is the bend of any peaceful society. You want the society to be peaceful. It must have a good policing system. If there is no good policing system, the society is prone to evil, is prone to utilised operas, is prone to danger, is prone to violence. In those days when the population of Nigeria was considering with the number of policemen they have, there was relative peace. You could see one police officer in a community with one baton and he's controlling a lot of things because maybe he's just 500 people in the community or maybe 300 people and they are just three or four police officers but today you might have just one police officer to like 10,000 Nigerians or 5,000. I don't know the number exactly but I know that Nigeria is highly underpoliced. So part of our agitation is that listed we need a leader who can make sure that all our demands are answered and the youth will definitely make a statement in 2023. I assure you that. And of course the role that you have said young people are playing in the political mobilization that we see right now. There are those who feel that this energy should also translate into young people actually standing for political office especially at the local government level. Seems to be that the focus in Nigeria is always on governorship, presidential national assembly but that the local government is being neglected and that this energy that has been exhibited by young people and which you have alluded to can actually help if young people would run for positions especially at the local government level which directly impacts the population. What's your reaction to that? First of all let me start that when your head is wrong every part of your body will definitely be bad, will not be moving when your head is not correct your whole entire body if you're having a migraine even it will be impossible for your feet to move it will be possible for you to be able to do a lot of things the problem of Nigeria is leadership at the top so if we don't get leadership at the top correct even the leadership at the bottom is going to be wrong so we need to make sure that we get it right at the center with the right person who is going to decentralize the government remove a lot of focus and attention from the center and take it back to the grassroots that is where you will also see my aggression of young people going to the grassroots give us a young man that he said to go and start election in the local government election that is being written in the government house local government election council election elections and written in the government house by the governor so what are you telling a young chap like me who is a businessman that don't know the governor of my state or don't have a relationship with the governor of my state to go and run election in my state for local government how? when you know that the state election commission the state election commission are being controlled by the governors that is telling them that this is impossible so we need a center that is functionary that will decentralize the entire system make sure that the local government is functionary and has autonomy make sure that our net is the one conducted election at that level that is where young people will go there to participate if you are sending any young person to go to local government and start an election you are sending him to oblivion because that is what he will do at the end of the day I know people who run an election in my state for local government level they spend money and the election day even ballads didn't reach their polling units and results will be announced winners imagine there is so much we could talk about in this thing a lot of people talk about what in the system and we are trying to correct that hopefully that we as Nigerians we are trying to correct that and we hope that we know that one of the first steps to take is to go to the polls and vote the right person but there is more to talk about on these issues just that we cannot use the entire day to talk about justice and at this point we would just like to thank you for being a part of the show and promise you that we will be in touch to find out how the youths or who you are a part of are faring in all the things that you are asking for whether good governance, whether recognition of any kind whether a better idea, whatever it is we will keep in touch. Thank you so much for being a part of our show today Thank you very much, I appreciate for having me we will take a short break I am hoping that you are going to give us some kind of perspective he raised a lot of issues about that before we go on to the next guest. Let's take a short break now we will return in a moment. Welcome back it is still the run up we just had a conversation about the MOP-UP of everything that happened just today at the Remembrance if I am to use that word of two years remembrance of the ENSA's protest that happened in October 2020 and we had Bishop having that conversation with us but I want to bring it back home into the studio Mr Bayo, you were going to give us a different perspective to all that conversation Yes, I think definitely it was good that the that particular event was commemorated because there was something that attracted global attention and okay there are controversies but the fact was that there was there was ENSA's protest and the young likely young people were making demands those demands caught across a number of things beyond just disbanding the special anti-robbery squad SAAS to also include providing for the police ensuring that the welfare accommodation salaries and things like that improved upon and more police officers were recruited but like as Yamgu said in the conversation with Bishop some people were expecting that this energy that was that propelled the ENSA's movement will translate into politics in other words that the young people would not just sit back and rest on their oars but would actually now become active players on the political space and I agree with him I think yes in truth we are beginning to see that but there are also those who feel that and that's why I ask a question as to whether Bishop didn't think that young people should get into politics begin from a level because if you find these days some people believe that when not just young people but when any Nigerian would like to run for public office they just focus on governorship, they focus on the national assembly and these are very good aspirations but the fact also remains that the bulk of our people stay in the local government areas and those who are making this proposal believe that at the local government level if young people were running for office they are already known there because they live there their parents are there, their friends are there and so on they are not going to spend much money to campaign because they are already known they are not contesting statewide it's easier to identify them and it's also easier to hold somebody you know accountable if he or she promises to do something as against what we have today where you don't even know most of the people who run for local government positions talk less of trying to hold them accountable so this is one school of thought and that's why I wanted to see what his reaction to that was going to be and I agreed with him to some of the things he said in response to that but I think those who make this argument have a strong point because the local government actually has tremendous influence it's just that we seem to have pushed this aside, I mean primary school education primary healthcare you know there is a myriad of licensing fees your radio and television licensing fees license plate fees vehicle license all of these accrued to the local government you know and if young people who were beginning to ask that the political elites be held accountable find themselves at that level of governance they might be able to actually begin to make significant changes you know and then from there they build up experience that will see them being propelled over the years to becoming members of the House of Reps and so on when you when for example some political leaders in other countries when they say oh this person is 40 years old and his prime minister you hear a lot of people saying oh very young but in Nigeria it's not possible they forget that this guy who is a 40 year old prime minister if you take the case of Tony Blair when he became prime minister of the UK he was in his very early 40s right but Tony Blair started politics at the age of 18 he was a counselor at the age of 18 right so but people forget that they just see oh he's 40 years so he's very young but he started he has 22 years experience before he became prime minister so those who make this argument cite such examples and I feel it's something that let me come in there I don't know if a Nigerian will be wrong to make that kind of argument because in the first place before you become someone that will be known in Nigeria Tony Blair had the opportunities that he could have in Nigeria I don't know if at 18 you will even be close to the polling unit before you talk of going to buy a farm to a lot of things have been done in such a way that it is out of the reach of the young and the ones lower on the ladder and all that so can we really with all fairness I was going to say that I feel like an embargo has been placed on politics in Nigeria for example you mentioned how Tony Blair started of politics at 18 I mean an average 18 year old in Nigeria is probably struggling with Jam trying to get into the university no matter how brilliant he is when he passes Jam he probably doesn't get the course of study he really wants he probably has to deal with whatever the university pushes on him and then it begins from there a few years ago we had not too young to run Bill we were all excited about it but when you begin to look at the integrities the things that make up that Bill and what an individual a young person needs to have before he or she can be able to actually fully harness all the things engulfed inside that Bill you find out there are a lot of people there are just a lot of challenges we talk about the finances I know quite viable young men who are in their local government and young women doing great stuff I mean paying people school fees enabling market women with businesses and all that but the moment you ask them guy people love you and you're well known in this community come and run for counsellor's shift he would say no why because Bishop mentioned something when he was speaking he said how do you who is just doing business to go home and run for office when he does not have a relationship with the governor that word relationship is very important because the governor could sit in his office one day and say I've been watching this person I just like him call him to my office and that person automatically becomes counsellor nobody knows me he probably just came back from the US and probably threw a big party in the village and his name is ringing everywhere and they make him counsellor you're right I mean these are these are I just got a message now someone saying can anything like that just work in Nigeria where even when you graduate from school you are going to look for a job and they are asking you to have 10 years experience and you have to be 18 years and that's what just got said our situation in Nigeria is really terrible I mean nobody can dispute this you see but the truth is this when you want to change your system you don't fold your hands and stay at home and yes there are a lot of impediments in front of those who wish to aspire to political office but there are so many political parties don't forget and not all the political parties are asking you to bring you 100 million for governorship this doesn't invalidate the points you've made okay I'm just highlighting the fact that there are options and there are ways and the constitution doesn't say you have to be a graduate in fact to be president of Nigeria you don't even need a degree you don't need a degree but still because we are educationally conscious I understand that people who first want to finish their education get properly prepared so yes that is a fact and they may not even be thinking of that but the truth is that there is no system such that you can be whether in office or be employed and then you continue learning it used to happen in those days you get there, you are trained on the job and all that even when you do vacation jobs now everybody wants you to be ready made and then when you come you have so much experience that you will be wondering when you were born and the people the annoying thing is that some of the people who say these things are those that had the opportunity in their days some went to school for free some went to school when they were practically begging them to go to school and now they come and make schooling or having a job or even aspiring for office so cumbersome that you cannot even do it and that's why for me I'm actually excited because this wasn't happening before you know and would you really say that Gwary became a head of state he was young, Gowon was young revolution in Nigeria and everywhere else has always been in the hands of the young but maybe not civilian young I don't know but how old was Zeke when they were struggling for independence they were young and you also find that I think political parties are supposed to identify the whole essence of developing leadership forms a core part of what political parties are supposed to do to attract to gain and to mold the next leaders and this is also part of what we are not seeing happening rather what we see happening has been well discussed is somebody who is well connected saying okay I know this person even if it's a young person they are picking it's because they know that person we've even seen situations where people even put their family members all through into the political space but now that people are conscious especially young people we are beginning for me we are beginning to see them walking the talk and we shouldn't forget that 206 million at least 150 million Nigerians are below the age of 30 there's absolutely no dispute about that right at least 150 million are below the age of 30 and it's absolutely important that whatever they say whatever the orientation is no matter how they feel all this should be acknowledged you know if we are going to have peace in the country because we see a very big interest before we used to say they were not interested now we see a lot of interest and the political parties that are supposed to build leadership, groom leadership should begin to now you know provide a platform for these young people even in their own enlightened self-interest because otherwise those political parties would die if young people, exactly if they don't get in there because all people will live anyway and if you don't have young people replacing them but I feel that those who make this argument have a point young people should also begin to test the system get into the political space find political parties that will ask you to bring 50 million to be governor I want to agree with you on what she said about political parties creating this space because you see political parties that this is the head of the youth department or our youth leader and you're looking at a 60 year old or a 55 year old and I'm wondering what, how are you able to permeate through the systems of the young people you don't even know how to load your charge card on your phone and you are the youth leader you understand, so I feel like political parties also have a role to play I mean, before now the conversation used to be how that young persons are not interested in politics and leadership but the political parties keep stepping on our head political office holders are way older people leading the political parties are way older people calling the shots are way older and it's more like we're just trying to see if they can listen we keep making suggestions instead of being able to make actual changes and call shots and until they are able to get young people to that point where we know that we can confidently say stuff and it happens a lot of young people are going to keep stepping back like I said earlier, I know young men and women doing great stuff but the moment you want to bring politics into it they step back people still see it as a dirty game people still see it as something very dangerous I'm saying important to my mother I don't want to go and join people say stuff like that so I think there is a lot of progress that has been made kudos to my generation, thank you so much for everybody that stepped out yesterday to commemorate the two years anniversary of the ANSAS, we're doing great stuff but there is still a lot of work to be done let me just reinforce what you just said you see the most interesting thing is that young people first of all took control of certain sectors of the economy to demonstrate what they can do you take the entertainment industry you take how the the movie industry was built it was young people who built it you look at entertainment it was young people who built it and then they have now finally gravitated or are gravitating to politics because this is where the policies are made so if you are a musician if you are an actor if you are an inventor if you are a coding expert policies that will govern what you do is going to be made by people who probably don't even understand what you're doing and this is why now it's interesting well we just hope that youths are leaders of tomorrow that tomorrow will come and someone whose tomorrow has already come and gone should not say it's my turn I think this is because of a particular person but it's a general feeling especially in the political class now the older you get the more entitled you feel that you should remain in that space but we'll take a short break now and we'll be joined by our next guest to be talking farming to us stay with us