 Y Dosteig Gofnyr Godrw'n Obasaki has called on political leaders across the country to step up to mitigate the pains of Nigerians caused by poor governance and inefficiency or expect a surprise from the electorate in the forthcoming 2023 general elections. Obasaki, while speaking to journalists in Beniz City, noted that Nigerians are fed up of the inefficiencies and failures of government officials and other representatives and would reject them at the polls if nothing was done to change the narrative. He said Nigerians were closely watching the political situation in the country and we're ready to shock political parties with their new political orientation. Joining us live to discuss this is Emmanuel O'Morran, he's a League of Practitioner, and Emmanuel O'Morran, a broadcaster on this. Thank you so much to the Emmanuels for joining us. Let me start with you by saying, Emmanuel, now you obviously are, let me use the generational lingo. You are from the baby bloomer's generation and things were done differently. We've seen the electoral process change over the years and this is not the first time Gofnyr Obasaki is talking about the fact that politicians and political parties need to shape up. What do you think that they've seen that has made him continually, not just him but other people continue to say we need to look out for what happens next year? What they have seen is what most of us in Nigeria have seen. There's a new desire among the younger people to be part of the politics in Nigeria, political landscape and the discussions around this. They have been beaten. Unfortunately, a good example is a prolonged ASU strike where students have been at home for almost a whole session. They've lost a whole year and they see the politicians dying in private jets, living life like it's going out of fashion and they've seen the consequence of these corrupt living where they are not held accountable for it and the standard of living is falling. It's falling drastically. I tell younger people, a lot of the politicians are about my age and I still ask these questions in different fora. These people that are flying private jets now, how much they have in their accounts before 1999, the effect of the corruption in the system is killing the country. These kids, these younger people are getting excited and involved. I see the wave. I see the possibility of what happened with Obama in the US where nobody had expected a black person to be president or to even be able to defeat Hillary Clinton who the husband had planned, even among the blacks, had accepted that this is the person that was going to be. You remember the hot mic of Reverend Jackson who did not expect Obama. But here in this country today, they have accepted one person and it's like that person out of the blue has gone the third force that Obama has been talking about for about two elections now. Now that third force, most of them are putting their resources, they are not being paid to come and stand for campaigns. They are not being paid to mobilise. They are not mobilising their mates and mobilising their parents at home. So it's a thing the political class should look into and if like Obama said, if they don't retrace their steps, they will be surprised at what is going to happen to them. And most importantly, finally, INEC has given them, everybody, the possibility, especially the young ones, who are more tech-savvy, who are more media-savvy to use the facilities of INEC now for election purposes. So now, those days in the 80s, I mean in 1979, I voted in 1979, what was happening was Pollard Box had been carried. People run around, pick Pollard Boxes and run and count. It went on and on and on all to the last election, where there was issue of, was there a website and was then on. But now INEC has admitted, which is the constitutional mandate that they've been avoiding all these years. The constitution gave INEC total control of elections in Nigeria. It's a constitutional provision. But INEC had all these years have been playing the second fiddle and not insisting on their rights. They left their rights to the cost of determining who is put in a political office. They left it to the National Assembly. So now that they are taking charge and taking on their right, and these kids have seen the possibility, this, this very blood, and I'm sure we will watch and see what's going to happen in February 2023. The reason why I have Emmanuel here is because he represents that category of people. But then Emmanuel, as a journalist, I'm sure you covered the end-size process. You've seen a loss of development. The governor, Governor Basaki, talked about the fact that people are now realizing that they need to demand more from people in government and those managing their resources and commonwealth because people will go out to vote their choices and their interests. Let's talk about the demand here. The last time that we went out to demand something, blood was spilled. Nobody has taken responsibility for that. Again, some would say that that has put a dampener on young people. But I want to know, do you beg to differ? Okay, so one thing I have to say is this. They say it's too late to cry when the head is off. Right now it's not the time to give advice to the elderly ones. They had their chance. Like they had their chance. They had all the years. Sixteen years. The other had eight or seven years. You had your chance to prove yourself. All the political parties had their chance to prove themselves. They can't start crying now or passing out advice. How many months do they have in office? No, no, no. The time is too late. I think a lot of people have made their choice. I for one think, if not because of the policy and the law, Nigerian law and the electoral law, I for one think we should have our elections next Saturday because a lot of people have made their choice already. I'm honest. We don't really need the campaigns anymore. People have made their choice. People already stood their ground. People know where they are going to stand. But again, what's the percentage of these people who you think have made their choice? Because just as you think that people have made their choice, there are other choices that also, I mean again, these people who have these political parties or the status quo political parties still have young people who are campaigning for them every day. You see it. We have less persons who are in the gray area. You saw what happened during the registration process. You saw a turn up of a lot of persons. These were first-time persons who were registering. These were people who were going to change their PVCs. These were not persons who were going there to complain. No, these were first-time persons who were coming to register for the first time. So a lot of persons are interested. A lot of persons want to ensure that they vote. Let me tell you the truth. I've not voted. Ever. We should take your salary as a journalist. Don't worry about it. I've voted persons. But because I'm in the system, I have my excuses. I can tell you that, oh, I leave my house by 5 a.m. every day of election and I go to areas that I don't know what's going to happen, wherever it's hot that is where Mollie is at. So I can make that excuse. But you see this election? Oh God, I'm so going to vote. I guess that's the spirit. But I'm more curious as to when did young people, what broke? When was that turning point for young people? I mean, you've reported on a lot of things involving young people. I mean, we've seen the occupying of the airports. We're seeing people going to the national assembly, et cetera, et cetera. At what point did you think that young people came to that realisation that enough is enough? I think it was the ensas time. I think just before we had that October 2020 time, during that first time where we had the agitations from the youth, people were using the social media to pass information, to cry out and nobody was listening. I think that touched a few quads in their heads and like, hello? We can't just keep waiting for these things to be better. We can't just keep shouting. We can't just keep remaining in our homes. We have to go out there and take actions. I was talking to a lot of persons. A lot of persons are interested. A lot of youths are interested in these elections. Most times when I cover elections in 2019, 2015, 2016, when I cover elections, the coalition officers and people around the party agents, they usually beg people, oh, please wait till the end of the elections because once people cast their vote, they just leave the place. You understand? But nowadays, a lot of persons are telling me we'll wait. We'll use our smartphones. We're going to video. We're going to stream. We're going to use our drones. We're going to monitor the elections ourselves. We don't need the US. We don't need the EU. We don't need people to send monitoring teams to monitor the elections. We are going to do it. I think that ensas time, that ensas moment, really touched a lot of them. And seeing that the ensas movement did not, in quotes, get what they wanted. They didn't get what they wanted. I think it has for that sported them to push for themselves, to tell themselves that no, we're not going to do it. When you check Kenya, when you check Zambia, you see examples of when youth stood up and said, no, you know what, this enough is enough. So now politicians make use of two things to win the elections. They capitalise on the frustration of persons, you know, and we saw that in 2015 election. They capitalised on the frustration of persons and mountain pressure on it and spursed a lot of things and then things shifted in their way. And then we see the youths, they make use of the youths as well, use the youths to foil things and then things shift in their way. Right now, a lot of persons are frustrated. Right now, a lot of youths are angry. But right now, they are not in the control of anybody. Okay. Okay. If I say a man, let me come back to you. We see these movements. We see these semi-revolutions or a start of something in half the time. It builds momentum, but when it gets to election season, it dies down. I mean, this is a replica of what we saw in 2019. The number of people that registered to vote and the number of people who showed up to vote so that we have a clear case of voter apathy. I always like to make reference to the local government elections in Lagos State. Barely no one showed up to the election. So what's the certainty that all of this energy that we have now can be sustained till 2023? Well, I also try to intervene in the social media on Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook and try. And this is what you said. At last election, I was going out to vote. I also had to be on election duty to be on in a studio like this. So I had a pass and I saw some guys in my neighborhood playing football. I said, oh boy, what are you guys doing? Won't you go out and vote at our within? They don't do election for you. But however, with the thinking now, I hope, but we also have seen the consequence of the maladministration. I never ever watched my best sheet in school, in university. It was watched for me throughout. We had the best of this country. My father did not pay up to 2,000 naira from secondary school till law school, total. I paid 500 naira in law school to do that, paying 1.2 million. The highest school fees I paid in secondary school was 45 naira. I was in class one because it had school uniforms. I was a border. So we had the best. I've seen a lot of my age mates. My colleagues, people who were friends, who are now ministers, who are top people, who were teenagers together. What have we done? So these kids with what, like you said, what happened in the management at the toll gates, the one at Ikeaja and in Victoria Island, made people to see something different. These are people. Look at how they did. They gave brilliant accounts of how much was spent. There was a proper organisation of people. You saw Christians praying and Muslims praying side by side, feeding themselves, sharing water. We have not seen anything like that. But then people would also say that those who were used to bring rain mayhem on these young people were young people. What's the guarantee that that's not going to happen? That's why I ask that question strategically. How are we certain that this momentum that has been built to a point will not be shattered in no time just before the elections? As a strategy to, because young people can be used against young people, are there ways that this can be guarded against? Yes. Like I also said, sometimes when conversations go awry, I throw in some thinking and you see people accepting and liking and agreeing because we are older. We've seen this. So what we are trying to do around that space is to bring some maturity and let them not burn out. Because if they burn out, it's the end for this country. We may not survive another round of elections if we don't get this one right. OK. I think I want to add something. Do you remember during the anti-ass protests, and there were rumours, let me call them rumours at that point in time, that people were coming and they were shooting at us and somebody gave an idea at that very point in time and said everybody sit down, hold your flag, and sing the national anthem. You saw videos, you saw live videos and nobody moved. Everyone of them sat down. You see that's how determined a lot of people are. You see the way I talk, you can feel fire inside of it. That is the fire in every one of those youths. They are ready to go the extra mile for themselves. You see those other youths, if they don't control themselves, they'll be overrun. And I say it not because of, this is just the way, they're not going to spread violence. These people did not want to take up violence or attack those persons that day, but they knew what they wanted and they stood their ground. They were defenseless, they didn't carry up any arms, but they knew what they wanted and they stood for what they wanted. And I think that is the momentum we see on social media. People are just using social media to express themselves. If you call those people out, they would stand their ground. You can't intimidate them. See, it gets to a point in time. A man understands that he has to live his father and his mother's house. That is the point in time Nigeria is presently. They understand that they are old enough to make their own decisions. They don't need their father and their mother to call the shots with anybody. But how do we also make sure that these are not made out of emotions and sentiments again, so that you don't make hash? I mean, many would say that, oh, this is the same fire we had and we brought people higher because we wanted anybody else but a good luck Jonathan. How are you certain that we don't, how do we also navigate so we don't make the same mistakes? I mean, the government just told us today that they're going to leave us a huge debt when they leave. So, kudos to 2015 voters. So, this is the same energy that you're going to bring in closing because we have to go. Sorry. I just remember the French Revolution. You see, when it started, it said it was the plebians. It was from bread that cost it. Now, what the space was taking by the educated class, the academia, members of the academia. So, this thing is moving. It's moving. And I think we are also going to guide and make sure they don't burn out. They will keep the energy going. We hope so. But let them have an opportunity at governance. If I will make a closing remark. Yes, please. Time is up. One thing I found out about Gens' is I work with them a lot. I run the textual so I know how they think in their head. They are solution driven. They are not scared of problems. They are not scared of challenges. They always want to find a solution to things. When the answers campaign was that there were a lot of trouble, there were a lot of challenges they faced. But they taught them among themselves how do we fix this? And that was what they did. They fixed it. How do we generate resources? They found out a way to generate resources among themselves. The same thing, if this momentum is sustained to 2023 elections, the same way these problems in Nigeria, both the depths and everything, see there are solutions to every problem. And let's hope we have somebody who would be able to bring some solutions to the table. I want to say thank you. Immanuel Maureen is a legal practitioner. Immanuel Onwka is a broadcaster on this. Thank you so much, gentlemen, for being here. Lucky coincidence, eh? I've got a new friend. Well, that's the show tonight. That's Plus Politics. We'll be back tomorrow, always talking for development and bringing you the biggest stories in the political arena in Nigeria. I am Mary Anna Cohn. Have a good evening.