 Welcome back to the breakfast and plus TV Africa. Nigeria has been ranked 161 out of 181 countries on a global youth index. The index of course measures youth around the world and the level of growth and development that youth in each country basically get to experience. It of course puts education, employment, health and some other details into perspective. We're speaking this morning with a policy strategist, Dayo Israel. Good morning and thanks for joining us this morning. Good morning. Thank you so much for having me. Good morning. Thanks for being with us. I'm going to start with asking if this came as a surprise or in any way a shock to you. It's youth day, but would you read a story like this and say, oh that's shocking, Nigeria and youth seem to be doing a lot better than 160 first position? Yes, I wanted to say I think it's a national youth day to young people all over the world and to give them an opportunity to not mind them. We are trying every day to make the best out of themselves and their environment and their career and despite the challenges that come with the continent of Africa. Because for many years, living on the continent of Africa has been very challenging for young Africans. There's enlightened issues of employment, there's issues of lack of access to proper health care, lack of access to digital education, lack of access to, you know, a lot of refugee conflicts. I call it access from Mwanda to Congo, Brazil, to BRC and to any other part of the continent. Even the young people in Nigeria, for example, for many years in the Middle East, face some more challenging thoughts. With the return of democracy for a country and also the widespread of democracy on the continent, we have been able to see today in youth development across the continent. And so it's very likely to celebrate some of the participants of the population on those continents. We are going to be the ones to sustain the development and the change that the leaders of today are making. And that is why on this youth day, we are calling for stronger engagement from young people and participation of young people in policy making and issues that concern us. Because we are building a future for all, without all. But we are not really building a future for all. But we are going to sustain that faith for our country. And that's why I'm asking, and what I think in some parts of Africa, for example in Lagos, where you have a lot of young people represented in policy issues in the cabinet, for example, in Lagos, a commissioner for finance, and you have a 60-year-old young man, a commissioner for employment, and Bruce is also at the age range, and also the commissioner for innovation and creativity is our special advisor in the national security. And we see that in different agencies of government across Nigeria. That is one index that we can measure, for example, that we're making progress in development. So of course, we also have a lot of special assistants of government, and we see that there's a government. But the reality of that is in many of these states, the reality of that is for you developers to learn. What I'm actually going to say is that also Lagos and McElhauer, the commissioner for finance at McElhauer, economic planning as well, and I think so of course we're going to see all that stuff as well. And of course, Lagos are people who are of our generation, the younger generation, and we have definitely a chance to be able to prove themselves. To be able to make a decision. To be able to make a choice. To be able to show capacity. To be able to accept changes that concern us. So that message is just on youth participation. If we all look at youth employment, what we've seen on the continent like that, is that over the years, there have been problems with development, that population is growing up every day. Now you realize that we can't or the society does not have enough jobs to engage the energy of our generation. And what young people are excited about is that the young people are not waiting for government to give them a job. We're creating the job in a way that the young people understand. And so it's a lot of young people, yes and no. It doesn't mean that they're not too bad end who are doing the wrong thing to make money. But the reality is that they're 20 good end who are doing the legitimate to raise money and they are making an imaginable kind of funding from college equity, from university capitalists, working for example, this company, PANDA for example, you have all these tech companies, IT companies, in New York, Voyages, and there are companies like that. We are raising $500 million. We are raising $100,000. We are raising $100 million. We are raising $10 million, $20 million to drive growth, to create jobs, to revive the economy. People are used to hear about working in all companies. Now some of these young people are making money that even five companies today cannot end because of their capabilities, the tech abilities that they have, the unit have. So in terms of economy, it's not from its previous but we are also making little, little progress at the size of the hand of the man. We're not showing that young people are also driving and not waiting for government to bring the community forward. We are coming out to make a difference. So in terms of new participation, we're still going in terms of employment, we're still going in terms of education. We have more young people working. Now Mr. Israel, Mr. Israel, can you hold on? I want us to take these indices one step at a time, right? You've talked about politics and you've also talked about the economy regarding employment. Let's talk and go back to the issue of politics because the indices they use in politics, the economy, they use employment, they use health, inequality and all of that. So going back to politics, I know you mentioned a few people especially in Lagos that seem to be doing well. They are young people and they are representing Nigerians in their different constituencies but generally you find that in Nigeria the political voice we hear almost seems to be limited to the social media space. It seems Nigerians are fired up for advocacy but really when it comes to now putting their money where their mouth is, regarding, you know, vying for these political offices and as well as even coming out to vote, there seem to be something missing, you know, voter apathy in the last local government elections we've seen and you also consider things like, you know, a high cost of nomination fees, you know, to buy nomination forms and things like that. There seem to limit us but how do you think you can get past these limitations to make sure that more youth get to sit at the table? So the reality is that the challenges exist and to build and I've got the honor to tell you, the challenges are so systemic that you need a long time approach to solve them. They've been built by people who have been in existence for many years, 20, 30 years of systemic creation that, you know, we can't literally finish it because of a lot of the apathy that our people have. But in the midst of that systemic challenge that we see across the country, we're also seeing some progress. So for example, in the League of States local government is letting us conduct it, we have a fantastic young barista, who is the chairman of Cushopay Local Government, a young man on the 40s. You know, as we have faced challenges before, he had run for, so certainly he didn't get, you know, as a candidate, he didn't win the election. He ran for chairman, he didn't win the election. But this time around, he didn't get his aspirations and almost became the chairman of Cushopay Local Government. We have many of the young people, the vice chairman of Cushopay Local Government. We have the chairman of Cushopay Local Government. Of course, like I said, this is still a unique proportion, but we're seeing the signs of progress. What we have to do is, you know, as far as people are concerned with this, power is not something like that. We're not going to... it's not a marathon, it's not a spring, it's not a shopping. We've got to put this in our effort and our best into it, and know that this is a young man's journey. It's not going to be a victory in one day. You know, and being able to make myself as a contestant for our family, as a contestant for local government challenges, and I didn't get the success of both elections. But I didn't give up. I said some Putin and Putin. Today, I sit on the bottom, the labor station in the back of the election board, helping to support quality assurance and, you know, a lot of other activities led by the chairman of Cushopay. I'm provided with you. I'm the young man sitting on the board. And it's for all my colleagues on the board that are going to get this chairman. I provide a first perspective of young people. So I may not have been elected, but I'm standing on that board supporting them with... supporting them with my liberal energy and that's another channel to leadership. So we might not get into the elective office because we don't have... and see, it's not going to finish in a day. The system is allowing people to push and to resist the emerging generation. But thank God that in case things like the layoffs and the states and other parts of Nigeria, like I said, the drugstaff will begin to see an opening where we'll begin to get a seat at the table. And I tell you young people, if they don't really get a seat at the table, go and make your own chair and bring you to the table. Fantastic way to wrap it up, Mr. Israel. Fantastic way to wrap it up. If they don't give you a seat at the table, we'll be yours. Thank you very much, policy strategist, and happy International Youth Day. Thank you. Okay, so we'll continue the conversation we began yesterday. Actually, all week long, regarding the all-progressives Congress and the legitimacy of the chairmanship of my Malabuni governor of your base state regarding that Ketika Committee. This was debated in court. The Supreme Court gave its judgment and lots of controversies there over if Boni should resign or not. Let's talk about that after the break.