 223 elexions in view, tension in the air. These elections won't be about manifesto of parties, but about manifesto of the people, and their dreams won't peace and prosperity. These words were from Narendra Modi, the 14th and current prime minister of India since 2014. Observing the just concluded U.S. House representative speaker election that led to the emergence of Kevin McCarthy as speaker after about 15 rounds of ballots shows that political processes may not be easy and disagreements may erupt, but violence can be avoided intentionally by different parties involved. As we Nigerians prepare for the general election in February, we are currently faced with issues ranging from different group clashes as in the case of the recent Yoruba Nation Audition in Lagos, hate speech and incitement as in the case of public comment by some politicians and public personality and even by some celebrities, unfortunately. It is important to note that religion unfit a personal affair and thus should not be turned into an instrument of violence. Tribal affiliations are good, but our collective national identities as Nigerians is greater and more important than ethno-religious affiliation. Our focus as Nigerians, regardless of our political, tribal or religious affiliations should be about what we want and what would be really good for our nation. This would be a guide for us in choosing our next political leaders in the forthcoming general elections. You were saying something about abuse and other things. I want to extrapolate on this. This is electionism. That attitude of being used to put out what behaviour what people would wear and dance. There is a case of a popular celebrity called Primo. Recently, I think this week, there have been petitions. People are calling for him to be removed from, I think it is an award so I am not quite sure the name. He made a statement about a certain tribe in Nigeria and a single other tribe and saying something that is not very good. Mind you, everyone in Nigeria listen to music. There is no tribal sentiment in music. But if you have a particular idea, why making divisive comments is a form of abuse. Do you think so? And even some politicians making out some statement that this set of people are bad. What do you think of this? I can agree with the whole fallout that happened and that begins back to what I said earlier about being abused on a roll. The biggest thing happening right now in Nigeria is the elections. This is a period where we pretty much have to be very careful about the kind of things that we push out, the kind of narratives and things like that. But again, when you think about it, this is the time also people just programme to pretend like they pretty much care about the masses. Now this is me talking about our politicians. It's almost like it's a constant behaviour. And I've said this before on the advocate where we had any, if you remember what I said is the concept of learned helplessness where we have been used to abuse, we have been used to this kind of treatment. Every four years somebody comes up with some lovely stuff and after the elections, the person wins and they disappear into thin air and they show back after four years. It's almost like, if not that talking is important, talk is not really cheap as we think, as we say, it's important to just keep talking about it. But beyond talking about it, what are we doing intentionally about it? What are we doing intentionally to say, okay, we're not going to take this, we're not going to condone this, what systems are we putting in place, how we get it involved and things like that. A friend of mine was telling me how they made it hard for him to get his PVC in his world. Literally made it hard. He saw that those in there, because some people were getting their PVC, some people were not getting their PVC. So why are they making it hard for some people? Why is the system designed to be hard? These things should be easy but because some people still see Nigeria as some game, as some luxury that they have to win and they program the system in such a way that it's hard to get some basic level things done that it doesn't take rocket science to get it out. So I think we should start moving from just talking about it to intentionally doing something about it so that at the end of the day we come here and advocate, we talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. What is the intentional behavioral change to some of these issues? And that's where I start. I'm going to go to another aspect of preparing for elections. We have election in view but there's a problem in the room. We listen to the fact that in some part of Nigeria I'm scared for what will be happening in the south, sorry, in the south east. None of the canoes is currently being held by the president despite the court ruling. People thought maybe there will be a release or something. No clear statement about that but issue of seat at home and other agitations in the south east and then recently something happened just on Monday in Kaduna. Are you aware that, yeah, I think Kaduna, some seven officers of the Nigerian security and the civil defense court they were ambushed, killed, I think in line of duty at the mining sites. I guess they were on operations day or exercise also. So it seems like there is a large scale of insecurity. The question is what is the way forward? Are these people, these politicians that are in the room did they really care about Nigerians? Like almost every week or almost every day there is a killing happening. You know what happened last year? Are you aware of what happened to us before the week of Christmas? Where they killed something people in Kaduna, a particular village in Kaduna? So it's like and a day before that they also it's a constant thing, it's a normal thing and you don't hear people politicians talking about it they see it as a normal thing like oh, only kid 10 people case it's not serious. So you talk about this. I think the head of INEC in a speech the debate on it we have recently addressed it and he did say that if insecurity did not improve there was a possibility that elections will be postponed but he did say so. But I take a different view and when I was asked about it once I said the elections are I don't think they will be postponed. You see insecurity has been with us for some time now. It's a big thing. A lot is happening in the Maghreb. What you are seeing here is just a reflection a small reflection of what is going on above us. In fact I think I was reading somewhere last week there is a clash between the popular group the popular group that we have ISWAP against the popular BOKUARAM BOKUARAM analysis are clashing above us there is some huge clash going on. So there will be insecurity it's a condition that is big thing now there was a time the British people had IRA all their places and all that democracy still went on just like I said in the case of show business democracy must go on there may be up and downs and conflicts we must go on we must go on with these elections yes sit at home in the east and all that but the security forces must up their game there is no two ways about it we must hold elections it's four years it's time for elections and we must hold we must find a way to do it that issue of not holding elections I think it's just a rhetorical flourish that the INEC man is doing I don't think anything is going to come for it elections must go on and they will go on yes there is insecurity but it is what it is so we have to go on we have to go on with the business of democracy and the government has to change the other thing I was going to say about what you said about religion you see religion is the easiest thing for any politician to latch on to it's the easiest thing if I want to divide all of us now I will start by dividing us along I am a Catholic you are a protestant and all that and people behind me those who are for my faith and all that so it is not even a Nigerian problem really I think we blame our politicians I am coming to it we blame our politicians too much your headline was Narendra Modi yes but that is a Hindu nationalist promoting exactly the same religious thing that we are talking about exactly so you see it is not better than our Nigerian politicians over time you will get people that are more middle of the road not like that but I don't think our politicians are especially bad let's not blame them they are reacting to the level that we also are they are a reflection of who we are and as I am going to talk about education I always say education as a seed that we take begin to take a little out of it because if you look at places other places England and all those places and all that you will find that it is when they began to tamper the issues of religion a little bit with the enlightenment reformation and all those things that their societies began to become more stable so I don't think we should flagellate ourselves the beat ourselves up too much about this things we are going to get the whole improve you will need some opinion I agree with you I was good to ask you something let me just speak to what he says what he says about the show must go on because the show will go on whether we like it or not and I think that one of the things that we must display as electorate is maturity and I think one of the highest level maturity in this particular instance is for us to be able to disagree without being disagreeable because on February 16th you will still be my neighbor you will still be my business partner you will still be my... that is not going to change on one hand on the other hand all of this might be their friends people forget they are all billonaires and they are all friends all their friends go to the same schools they go to the same resorts when they travel they go to the same hospitals we are hearing your trenches you are likely to remove sources they are likely to introduce themselves more they have an agenda you have no data you give yourself a headache over people that in many cases don't even care about you and don't know you you must remember that the show must go on the show will go on the elections will come and go the end of your neighbor that you have been fighting if you want to talk to somebody with precedent and you will still be your neighbor and one day your house will catch fire and you will not ask yourself and that is just my own I was going to ask you you know the strategies and business strategies you know the business strategies let's look at this they said that we need... Nigeria don't just need a president we also need a CEO run Nigeria as a company beyond just the regular the president government now the question is you see the problem there are many of them the question now is about the economy in the manifestos of all the major or the aspirants do you think that the focus is more of the people because we need the manifestos of the people it's not just about the manifestos of each party or each candidate what about the manifestos of the people what do we really want about the economy everyone is crying things are difficult what's the way out did you ask what's the way out I'm not the next president but you know as far as as far as the economy is concerned if you're a president the strategy is I'm sure you know as a matter of fact anyway in all honesty and on most serious note we're talking earlier we talk about somebody being asked questions and their answer I think that the next CEO of Nigeria must focus on two things security and economy right I was speaking to someone and in light of this I speak to a lot of these people and the person I've heard has been most profound he said you see a CEO, a governor, a president, anybody they have only two jobs one, the protection of life and property of the citizens and two, a level playing field for them to make wealth so he said protection of life and property and the pursuit of happiness and many sense of happiness is just economic stability and economic improvement those are the only two jobs you have as a CEO and you must be thinking about that first security, you just talk about insecurity you know where do we even start but I also know that we have the capacity I also know that we really really really want to solve this issue we have the capacity that we have they are more political than they are even actual loss of life they have weaponized it they weaponized the insecurity to match and fit political strategies on one hand on the other hand the economy is the same thing these people have weaponized poverty because when they weaponize poverty then they are able to carry a lot of things for God's sake that is my fundamental human rights do you see what I am saying you are not a super performing governor if I am richer today than I was five years ago that's exactly how it should be that's why you were elected it goes back to service that's what you are elected to do when you are a leader so those are the things that I feel that people must put on the front boner and if you get these two things right insecurity and you know the economy I think we should place this thing in context first of all if you look at where the world is now post covid there is a bad wind blowing in the world right now you see this morning I was watching Egypt and there is a serious problem in Egypt right now inflation very high and all that Ghana is taking the IMF loan and I don't know what our own will be but Ghana is already taking the IMF loan and all that post covid there is a bad wind going around the world yes but it's affected why should we blame our own government because it has taken too much debt it took in too much debt and all that even if you are doing infrastructure you must still balance it against what you are borrowing and all that we must blame our government for that but look around our peers South African economy is not doing well the Egyptian economy is not doing well you see Ghana is taking the IMF loan and all that so you must tamper it with a little bit of caution when we talk about that our insecurity is a huge problem but like I said what is going on above us is a major part of the problem particularly in the north now we used to be a superpower and we remember when this current the head of state was the commander in just and when there was something above in charge he simply went there and flushed everybody out and in fact we understand he drove half into the country with his troops until they told him you are not in a please come back the head of state had to cut him back but we are not the superpower that we are the head of state now the current president so we are not the superpower militarily and otherwise that we are years of economic decline and all that has led to army not being exactly the same that it was at that time so well that may be part of what is going on in the north we need a little of the cooperation of the world we are not as strong we need a leader who is not just a military man now but is also a very good diplomat a good strategist diplomat in the sense of bringing all these West African states together and you know there are people that have investments in Africa and all that the French are here and all that the Russians finding a way to bring a proposal to all of them and saying come this is not working well for all of us what do we do about it because we we don't have the resources to do that when it comes to places like the east it must be a good diplomat there part of the problem part of the problem part of the problem of the east is we know the civil war and what happened and all that we need a leader who brings them back in thank you very much gentlemen for your insight just like you have all said so our politicians especially the flag bearers of the parties we need a politician a leader a diplomat and a peace broker and more importantly we need to consider our manifestos as a people what we really want in Nigeria because religion is a personal affair our tribal affiliation is not as important as our identities in Nigeria so let's hope for a better tomorrow and a peaceful election thank you today is next after the break