 On the 11th of March, 2023, residents of Lagos will troop out to vote for their governor. That's one of their choice. As the date of this election inches nearer, candidates from several parties, including the ruling of Progressive Congress and the People's Democratic Party, as they prepare for a showdown. Now another party that is gearing up for the contest for the highest seat in the state is the African Democratic Congress ADC. Now an aspirant for the Lagos State Gravanteo election at King Braithwaite joins us to discuss his plans for the state. It's good to have you join us Mr Braithwaite. Thank you very much. Great. We had a little chit chat before we came on and I asked you a few questions but I think the question that every person who meets with you would ask is why do you want to be governor of Lagos State and what made you decide, I mean because you had to take a lot of things for you to say, well I want to run this very chaotic state. Because I'd like to stop it from being chaotic. I'd love for these states to be the kind of place that I grew up in, a nice, wonderful city of Lagos, my Lagos. But the real push came as a result of what happened in October 2020, which anybody who was in Lagos then, that was an experience and a half. And I just, at that point, that was a watershed moment for my life. Because everybody around me, in my households, friends, neighbors, were all similarly affected and traumatized. And the question now was, so what are we going to do about it? What's up as usual, you know, had lots of different comments and people saying one thing or the other. Lots of opinions flying up and down the place. Then it just came down to, you know, is this what we're going to do? Just talk, talk, talk, talk. No action. And I just decided at that point that it just, things have to change. Things just can't remain the way they are. And with people like me, I thought, look, we just got to get involved in the political scene. And I hadn't really decided at that time that I wanted to run. That was a recent decision. But right then I decided I needed to get into politics. So it was a choice, either revolution or the ballot box, and I opted for the ballot box. Now, I mean, you do know that the political scene in Nigeria is not as friendly as, you know, it should be. It's not necessarily come on, come on. It's something that a lot of people are apprehensive of getting involved in, but great position. But why do you think that Lagos got to where it got to? I mean, of course, it didn't. NSAS was a ripple effect of something. That's why we had the NSAS. But like you said, it's your Lagos. How have you contributed to either the positive parts of Lagos or the roles? What roles have you played in making Lagos either better or where it is? I don't want to say worse, but where we find it right now. Suddenly I would count myself as one of the persons who has played a positive role. If you're either using an Airtel line or an MTN line. We're going to take a, we're going to send you an invoice for mentioning those brands on our show. Point of fact. Mm-hmm. A fun fact. You would definitely have benefited from my involvement. I was one of the pioneer people that was involved in bringing telecoms into the Nigerian space. It was a very, very interesting period. And certainly I would like to think that by ensuring that we had modern telecommunications, very, very great customer services, that we were able to do something that brought Nigeria and Lagos into the modern age. From that point onward, you would definitely expect that we would now just be moving on a forward trajectory. Today, I'm one of the co-founders of a cloud telephony organization called KASUKU. And I continue to contribute. In terms of the grassroots, I also had an, I do write children's books incidentally, yes. So I don't know if, when you were growing up, whether you came across the tortoise stories. You didn't? I'm a bit too old. I don't remember. Well, you know, we used to, you know, be taught stories about the wise tortoise. Oh. Yes, that. And so I've written some kind of nostalgic story books. But I now use that as a leverage to get into poverty alleviation for children. And we had a program that was running with the approval of SUBEB, which is the State Universal Basic Education Board, and UNICEF, where we went through all the local governments of the state, picking some champion schools, public schools for that matter, and just really helping children to make sense of their world and to understand how they can really get into self-development and help themselves to avoid the poverty trap by learning how to earn, doing various things, simple things that can earn, and through that process we were able to get children to start saving money in the bank. We took children on experiences to banks, and it's been a very, very worthwhile experience. So I see this is very interesting, but if you were to be given the opportunity to be governor of Lagos, there's always that blueprint. You'll have 10 points, 20-point agenda being rolled out. What would be your core? What would be at the core of your strategy for turning around Lagos and making it what you call my Lagos? Okay. There are a number of key critical aspects, and they're multifaceted. Only at the core layer would be the civil service. If I had my way, I'd call it the civil partnership, because the concept of civil servant I think is an old, archaic one. We really need these guys in the civil service to become our partners. If you've ever had to do anything in government circles, it can be a real pain. Sometimes you might leave there crying. What can be done in a day? They might take you around the circles, and six months later, you still haven't achieved. You try to get the title to land and property and all that kind of stuff, you know, horrendous. So we need a civil service that really is for the people. And clearly, one of the things that they need badly is a change and a review of their remuneration structure, because I can just imagine that if somebody is earning a wage when the bag of rice was at 3,000 Naira, and they're still earning the same wage with bag of rice now at 30 or something, or do you go to the market at all? I do. I do. So I think you can bear witness that rice has gone up like 10 times since years back. But then when you talk about wages, you're looking also at the wage bill. Don't forget that maybe states like Vegas might be comfortable with raising that. But then there are also states across the federation that cannot... I mean, we've been here before with the labor, you know, asking for an increase in their wages, and that's been a drag. But there are also people who are saying the civil service is bloated. It needs to be reduced, and there has to be some re-strategizing for it to not be gulping as much money as it is gulping. So that's also a whole kettle of fish to deal with on the other hand. I think we have to be careful how we compare Lagos to other places. You know, in the UK, there's such a thing as London waiting, which means that if you live in London and you work in London, you would have an increased package because it takes account of the high cost of living in London as compared to maybe Manchester. So we would look at Lagos waiting, you know, and make this thing very realistic. I mean, Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore really did something wonderful when he decided that, look, in order to move the country forward, which rests a lot on what the civil service does, they actually were able to get people into the civil service who were your A-grade people, and they paid them at the private commercial rates so that what you then get is that you get people who are energized, motivated, and who are going to be doing things, you know, the way they should. If you don't pay the civil service properly, what you're creating is an environment for graft, all right, because they will have to make up that difference. You know, you can imagine the civil servant, his wife at home saying, you know, he gives her the allowance and she says, this is not going to do, this won't cut it. So the poor chap has nothing else, no other option but to kind of fleece any and everybody, you know, that he can. So whatever it is that we want to achieve in the state, if we don't have the civil service partnering with us, we're just going to be spinning wheels. So that would be a major and a core thing. Security would definitely be another core plank and pillar. And it so happens that I've had some police training. Yes, I've had three months. You'd be surprised that the Nigerian Police College is actually very, very sound. I mean, the people there are so... So Nigerian Police College, not Scotland Yard. But of course it's a vestige of Scotland Yard and the British colonial, you know, hand down. So that training really kind of gave one and prepared one to understand, you know, the issues around security, around policing and whatever. And there's a combination of things that we will do, you know, in our government, which essentially will be about... It's a multi-layered approach. You have your neighborhood watch scheme, which we'll plug into. So you're advocating for state police? Let me put it this way. I'm advocating for local policing, okay? So local policing, which will definitely incorporate the neighborhood. For the life of me, it's sad that the police are not using walkie-talkies, you know, something as basic as walkie-talkies and communication gadgets. That certainly will have to be introduced when you have your police carrying the walkie-talkies. So communication is key. Down to the neighborhood, you know, layer. The neighborhood watch would be taught about intelligence gathering and proactive intelligence, which is going to now help because you can then identify where the different spots are that are creating nuisances. And then you layer that with these lovely things called drones. Because given the size of Lagos, there is no way that you're going to police it with lots of boots on the ground. So you need that kind of cover from the sky, okay? And the drones can, we can have a blanket of kind of what I would call a security blanket of drones, which will be able to pinpoint the action where it's happening in real time and then help the security guys to get to the spot and deal with things and nip the situation. These are very interesting points, but I want to bring you back into the party politics. Two-pronged question. Why the ADC and not the bigger parties? Again, how do you... I'm glad you didn't mention those names, because they give me nightmares. And how do you intend to defeat or upstage the opposition knowing that there is a certain party that has a stronghold on Lagos State? And of course, 2023 is a year where lots of people are expecting that the game, the game will change, but how hopeful are you and do you stand the chance? Absolutely, my dear, absolutely. The power lies in this simple anatomy called the thumb, just by getting people to believe that the power lies in the thumb. And how do you intend to get the people to believe? Because we hear this all the time, that the power lies with us, the voter and his card to get your PVC, but how do you plan to defeat these parties who will tell you they have more structures, they've been in power for so long and they know the politics of Lagos. How do you intend to break through and why did you, again, choose the ADC? Okay, simple. Give people what they want and they'll do what they need to do. Which is, what do you think that Lagosians want? People say, look, I don't have... Who am I going to vote for? That's a very, very simple question that we've not been able to answer, that we have refused to answer up to now, because the voter isn't done, all right? The voter has already shown that they do not like what is on offer. You don't go to a restaurant and they shove something, they only tell you that there's two items on the menu. You walk out of there, right? But if you go into the restaurant and then they wise up and they realize that they need to give you a very nice entree, then you choose what fits you. Lagosians have not had the opportunity to really look at what they want. So I'm presenting myself as that nice, caring guy next door who really wants to see Lagosians get what they truly deserve and what they want. Well, on that note, I want to say thank you. Unfortunately, time is not on our side. I want to say thank you, Mr. Braytrace, for being part of the conversation. You are the ADC, Governorship Aspirant, for Lagos. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having me, and we will upstage them. OK, well, that's all for tonight, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for being part of the conversation. Plus, politics returns tomorrow evening, same time, and have a great evening. We'll be back tomorrow talking for development. I am Mary Annacon. Have a good evening.