 2023 elections what we want as a people. So when this question is posed the answers that quickly and easily come to mind are one insecurity and how to tackle it by revamping the security forces. Two, improving for structures in the education sector by way of more funding for schools, the buildings, teachers, lecturers, salaries and development. Healthcare sector through allocation of more funding to facilities and staff. Power sector focus on building more modern refineries so we can refine our crude locally instead of exporting crude and importing PMS at a higher cost. Five, reduce the cost of running the government. Six, overhaul and sanitize the judicial system so that consequences exist and are enforced no matter whose ox is good. These are just to mention a few and the list can go on. I believe that these however are symptoms of an underlying problem. All the things I've mentioned are driven by some fundamentals that are lacking which are the root cause of the symptoms that I've mentioned. The major one being leadership, governance and systems. We want sincerity, integrity, openness and accountability in our leaders. Everything rises and falls on leadership. That's what I was trying to say, Coyote. So leadership has to hold itself to high standards and act in the interest of the overall good of the people. They have to be willing to make sacrifices and have a genuine desire to provide the nation with direction that is currently missing. We want a leadership with high moral compass that is able to distinguish between right and wrong and to know how they should behave. We want governance to show itself at certain standards so governance and governance is driven by systems. People come and go but systems remain. Corruption stems from people. It's because systems don't work that you have to engage people. So if you want to tackle corruption then the system needs to change. Every time a system fails you are opening the door for corruption because you will have to ask someone. It is then implied that the person being asked is doing you a favor. And so you have to show appreciation for this favor by offering an incentive. Try applying for a Nigerian passport or driver's license and I think you will understand exactly what I'm talking about. We need to overall the psyche of the people. So the people themselves they need. We the people we need to deliver ourselves. We are responsible for the leaders that we have. There were 84 million registered voters in the 2019 elections out of which only 27 million people voted. That is less than a third of the registered voters. And the people who don't vote they are the problem. They create a chance for all the shenanigans that we see. We've been conditioned to believe that we only have two choices and that they're from the dominant parties namely APC and PDP and also that our choices don't really matter. Again I refer to the 2019 election where there were 73 presidential candidates. But who remembers who they are? In speaking to people you find out that they voted thinking they had no option and that their votes won't really count. Anyway these votes have been counted. It's been rigged. The president has been chosen. So why bother to vote? And politicians continue to exploit this because they understand the psychology of the people. For 2023 we need an urgency of action. At this time we need radical decisions to be taken. About 75% of our population is below 35 years. That population can be a tool for good or evil depending on how you use it. They can actually change the trajectory of what currently obtains. Well where are they? Where are they now? We need the Nigerian youth in 2023 to wake up and to realise just how much is at stake and that they are not powerless. We are not powerless. So who's? Talk to me. I mean I think we just shared the same sentiments. Funny enough our topics are similar. I think we're all just tired. Yes. And each time I think around this topic it's just sad. The fact that we've been conditioned to actually think that we actually are votes don't count. That lies started from the first time we ever had a democracy election, a democratic election in recent times. I feel like people just have consistently believed and it has gotten worse by the day. So if you look at the trend of voting you realise that 99 to 99 elections where we have had more people. In fact during the I was not probably born there but during the Abuelas elections I was not conscious. Let's put it that way. During the Abuelas elections I heard that the turnout was very large. Now you move down that was cancelled and then so people that's affected a lot of people's psychology. So moved down to 99 elections it was like a relief for us. I think that would have also had a very great turnout. But by the time you moved downwards, year by year elections, good luck elections, then Bwari election and all you realise that over the years people have just been led to believe either by whatever way they have tried to do it and even by the narrative that has even preached many times in the media that our elections don't count. So while I always feel like people should go out to vote but also try to understand the root cause of this problem. So that's why I also try to also have this kind of conversations and say you know what your vote actually counts. You should not sit at home. No matter what it takes, even if you have to travel far because of the way our system is, if you're patriotic enough you would do it. If you had to go for a job interview and you're in Lagos and a job interview is in Potacot, you would still go. Absolutely because you have something to gain. Exactly but the truth is you even have more to gain from an election because it affects not just your life but the life of your children and children's children. So I think we need to start thinking in that direction. When it comes to youth and voting or elections, I like to use this analogy. I don't know if you've noticed that in Lagos for example, when you go to the ATM booth and maybe there there are like four ATM machines and you see everybody using one machine. Then there are about 10 people on the queue. Then I get there and I see people on the queue and I just decided to try the other ATM and it pays and everybody is asking me, it pays and I'm supposed to be asking you. What I'm saying is that the people, we do that a lot because we believe that except we've seen someone use it. ATMs are not reliable. You could put your card in and it wouldn't work and all those things. So what I'm saying is we need, in terms of what it has to do with the youth, the youth have that mentality towards election, but they need somebody that can come out and convince them that by voting, you're not wasting your time and that by voting, you're actually taking your destiny to your hands because everybody is struggling to survive and a lot of their very vibrant youth and of course they are very negative lazy ones as well. So it's a balance. I don't know where it's the most, but if you're able to let these people see that you see that, listen, you have this opportunity to make Nigeria whatever you feel it should be. Make Nigeria the America of Africa or whatever. Great again. Because like I said during my presentation, a lot of Nigerians don't even know that Nigeria was ever great. When you say giants, what kind of giants? What do you have to say? Honestly, I don't want to say anything because we discuss this literally every time we come on this platform and I'm looking forward to the day that we will not be talking about this, but we will be talking of the evolution of this. I mean, every single time we are talking about leadership bad, people who are she bad and both and all that. Anyway, having complained, the little I will contribute to it is that there is a huge, huge, huge and for emphasis huge task ahead of all of us. If you look at societies like US, UK, they are built on years of tradition and consistency and that evolved with the people. That people were custodians of it and passed it down to the next people coming saying, look, this is how this thing is going to continue, has to continue because it's not only about us, it's about our future generation, planning and all that. We don't have any, we are literally at minus ground zero on this issue. So even if we keep on talking about this is what we want and all that, what needs to be in place, which is the mindset first, is minus zero. What needs to be in place about the issue of even the building blocks of the system is being taken apart by the same people who need to build it. So yes, we can say this is what we want. We are concluding with sitting down here, but the truth is when we find ourselves at the point of this system that we're looking at here and know that if we don't, if we can't beat it, we have to join it. So again, I think that's the thing, isn't it? Because we're thinking when a good man, when a man who is ready for accountability and integrity comes, we say he's a mumu, you know, like what he said about it. We say he's a mumu because the average Nigerian doesn't understand decency. We're used to being cheated. I want somebody who's not cheating you, thinking they must be making something. There's something fishy, what are you offering? So what I say is this, just in rounding up, I'm a Nigerian. And I was saying earlier when we were talking that I don't know that a lot of people can say that they're Nigerians. A lot of people are Igbo, they're Yoruba, they're whatever, but I'm a Nigerian because I grew up when Nigeria was one nation. So as a Nigerian, I don't care whether my president comes from the east, the west, the north, the south. I don't care whether it's a Muslim, a Christian, or a pagan. I just want a man that has or a leader that has integrity that is sincere about the development of this nation. That's what I want for 2023. I want us to know that we are powerful and we have a voice and that election malpractices happen everywhere. They're rigged. We saw the American election and we saw what happened. But when you go out to vote, what you do is you narrow the margin for people to commit fraud to rig. So I hope in 2023 we will go out and we will vote. That's it. So stay tuned. Ruth is next after the break.