 Ahead of inauguration of Asiraju Bola Med Tinnibu as president-elect, regional groups are already setting agenda for the incoming administration. Tonight, we will discuss the need to unite Nigeria amidst the ongoing presidential election tribunal and experts urge president-elect Bola Tinnibu to focus on synergy among security forces. This is Plus Politics and I am Mary Anacom. Ahead of the inauguration of Asiraju Bola Tinnibu as president of Nigeria, regional groups are setting agenda for the incoming administration. The outgoing president, Ahmad Buhari, today conferred national honors on the president-elect, Bola Tinnibu and Kashim Shatima, the vice-president-elect. While Tinnibu was conferred with the grand commander of the Order of the Federal Republic, GCFR, Shatima was honored with the grand commander of the Order of the Niger, GCON. The Pan-African Yoruba political group of Fenifera and Yoruba Council of Elders are demanding that the president-elect restructures Nigeria. The coalition of northern groups, CNG, is also appealing for an end to insecurity in the north. On their part, the Ipan-Niger Delta Forum, Pandev and Ikenga are calling for a fair treatment in the polity, noting that Nigerians need to be unified. It is important for the Tinnibu Shatima administration to prioritize security and use employment to formulate policies to reduce security challenges to the barest minimum and also make suitable plans to unify Nigeria. And for us to end the misery of Nigerians, they say we must begin to think along those lines. Joining us to discuss this and more is John Desmond. He is a member of the All Progressive Congress, Media and Publicity Directorate Presidential Campaign Council. Thank you so much, Mr. Desmond, for joining us. Good evening. Yes, thank you. Good evening. Great. Let's start by looking at the journey that lies ahead for the president-elect. We know that come next week, Monday, May 29, the swearing-in will take place. And of course, as much as there's going to be a loss of pomp and ceremony, on easy lies the head that wears any crown, especially for one who's going to run this country. We know that the elections at, you know, whether it was the presidential nor the governorship election, had one way or the other divided Nigerians. More than ever, the Nobel Peace laureate, Mualesh Uyengkar, had spoken about the division amongst Nigerians as a result of the campaign season which led into the election. So did former president, Lucia Gwon Basonjo. What do you think that the president-elect has to start in terms of unifying Nigerians across the board? Thank you very much, Okon. During his acceptance speech, the president-elect had said that what we need now is healing and total reconciliation. What that means is that for those who feel bravest during the election, for those who are not happy that their candidate didn't win, and for those who the election didn't go their way, the president-elect has assured them that immediately he has Zoom office, he's going to begin reconciliation process that will lead to total healing of the nation. So it's not a matter of where he's beginning from, he has set up agenda for healing every aggrieved Nigerians. Of course, you may not be able to reach to everybody, but as many that loves Nigeria, as many that are willing for the future of Nigeria, the president-elect is ready to work with everybody, including those that voted for him and those that didn't vote for him, including those that comes from his region, because as a president of Nigeria, you are the president of the 36 states of the Federation and the FCT, you are not just the president of your region or your state. So it's going to begin from everywhere. Modalities for reconciliation are going to be set up immediately after its inauguration. Already, you can see from some of his post-election meetings, recently he had a meeting with one of the presidential candidates of the opposition party in France, that is a NMPP, Kwan Kwan So, Rabiu, and the other parties that contested in this election have started sending him congratulating message. This is an indication that the reconciliation move that he's proposing is going to work, and the moment we achieve that, then we cannot talk about the development and peace of Nigeria. Okay, let's look at the aftermath of the elections. We saw that a lot of people or several people were not necessarily happy as to how the elections were conducted. There were videos and pictures of violence, and many people feel aggrieved as to the lopsidedness of how the elections took place. Now, let me bring you to Lagos, where there was some form of let's call it hate speech that thrived during the elections. We even saw videos of people saying if you're not voting for so-and-so person, go home. If you were from this place, you cannot be allowed to vote. We saw things like that thrive during the elections. How does a president deal with issues such as that, especially if the party and the presidential candidate at the time, which he was, did not jump in front of this to address it even after the elections had taken place? The issue is that the kind of violence that we're talking about this election, and I must tell you that I have been involved in a election in Nigeria since 1999, and very soon the post-election review and documents will be out. The violent recorded in this election can never be compared to what we have been experiencing in the past, and I want to talk about Lagos. Yes, there was an unusual election, electionary activities in Lagos. You heard during the campaign that some people were claiming that another man's town is nobody's town. That's wrong. There is no town that does not belong to anybody. So an attempt to challenge those voices, now populate some anger among the people. But that we cannot say that is electoral violence because Lagos has about 13,000 polling units. Out of this polling unit, it was officially recorded that only hundreds or less than a hundred polling units that were affected by electoral violence. So that's not a privilege of an election, and in every election, there are challenges. In every election, there are challenges, including the world-best democratic election. So for us to have this kind of challenge and then go on with our election, we are progressing. We are progressing. So for those who feel that yes, the election didn't go their way, the president-elect has made it clear to you that look, if there's anything that you feel that wasn't done wrong, of course, the 2027 election we're going to still have to review the electoral acts, where people, opinions, whatever you wish to be included, can not come in. But we cannot just bank on the past and stop our country from moving. We have to move forward. Let me take you back. Let me take you back. One we need now is the United Nigeria. Mr Desmond, I don't know if you can hear me. Let me take you back to my question. I did make reference to some source of electoral violence. It didn't just happen in Lagos. It happened in different places. But I'm talking about the issue of hate, hate speech that we heard around Lagos. It was mostly a Lagos thing. And you're saying that, oh, we have 2027. Inaq does have his job cut out for it. Inaq, yes, needs to review some of its policies. We need to look at the electoral acts and the conduct of the election. But we're talking about politicking here. We're talking about the rhetoric that we heard during campaigns, because this is what we're pointing to. These are the divisive factors, divisive comments. And I'm asking, again, why didn't the presidential elect, then he was a presidential candidate, why didn't he jump in front of this to address it? Because there's nothing as a voice, as a voice especially for somebody who's seen as a godfather in politics. If he was running for an office and these kinds of statements were being made, why didn't he address it as opposed to waiting for 2027? There has to be a Nigeria before we even go for another election. How do you calm those freedoms? Because we've left it to linger on for so long. And I'm asking, how do you think the president is going to have to deal with this? You see, if you have followed the presidential campaign of the presidential elect, at various forums, he has advised his supporters not to insult, not to engage in hate speech, not to overheat the political system. I quote him at various forums that were more than this, that our campaigns should be issue-based. But you see, along the campaign lines, there are some areas that ethnic issues came up. For instance, one of the governors from the south went against his own party because he built... Mr. Desmond, I used to... ...to come from the south. And the presidential candidate of his party came from the north. And they couldn't agree till after the election, up to this moment. And the man was very, very angry with the whole setup. Also, there are some issues that came up during the campaign, and I've said it before, that yes, those people that were engaging in those hate speeches are members maybe of my own party, but they were not speaking for my party base on the issues they talk about. They were speaking for their ethnic concern. For instance, people come up in a town and say, look, this town we have lived here more than 50 years, and because the town is more cosmopolitan city, nobody owns the place. And then, because these people are from this ethnic group, they now come up and say, look, this is our town. That doesn't mean they are speaking for the APC. That doesn't mean they are speaking for the president-elect. No. Let me remind you, one of your presidential spokespersons, whether we like it or not, BioNanagga went on Twitter. I can never forget it, and spoke extensively using very hateful slurs on Twitter. I remember journalists of his likes from the international community speaking about what he said on Twitter. Would you say that BioNanagga was speaking for himself when he spoke about people who do not belong to Lagos, coming to meddle in the affairs of Lagos, or trying to tell them who to vote for? And some of the things I cannot remember exactly what he said was BioNanagga speaking for himself, being that he was also a representative and a spokesperson for the presidential campaign committee. Now, and we need to separate this and make it very clear. BioNanagga is a Yoruba man. The town in Contesion is a Yoruba lamb. Okay. He was not speaking for the APC on that very issue. Really? Because in Lagos state, yes. In Lagos state, we have the APC, we have the PDP, maybe the Labor Party. In fact, during the election, the Labor Party won about two federal House of Representatives. So, and the people are still Yoruba. So are you not saying that he's rejecting Yorubas that are in other political parties? No. I say there was an ethical issue. And a Yoruba voice, a Yoruba elder, he needs to raise the standard. And as an elder, did you speak like the statements that were credited to BioNanagga did, were they reflective of an elder, someone who was supposedly supposed to unite people as opposed to trying to cost more hate? As we all know, Nigerians are already divided along ethnic and religious lines. Was that a tense, I mean, it was a tense time during the campaigns, was that the best time to make such statements as an elder, someone that you've categorized as an elder? Well, it may not be the best time exactly, but there are some issues that clarification needs to be made at any time. Interesting. Let's move away from that. Let's talk about the handshake across the table and across the different regions of the country. Now, we know that there are tensions, ethnic tensions in the southeast. We know that the president has to deal with other issues. I mean, as at yesterday, Plattus State had communal clashes that claimed almost 200 plus lives and were still counting. We had some issues also earlier on, I think, in Kaduna State. And there's so many other issues, aside from Boko Haram or ISWAP, the president has to deal with all of these issues. The president also tasked with constituting an executive council. Do you think the president will also reflect the sentiments of the people in the people he would pick to make up that cabinet? You know, in preparation for dealing with the insurgency, the insecurity and the different onslaughts against the Nigerian federation, you know, the president-elect had said it clearly in his manifesto that they are going to recruit a lot of people in Nigeria into Nigeria Armed Forces and Nigerian Security Services. He's going to re-jig the Nigerian Security Architecture, and then he's going to create initial dialogue teams to curb the ethnic agitations. Now, in terms of insurgency, the outgoing administrations has tried their best. So what the new president did, and he has said it, is to rigid the system, bring men and women who are more intelligent, more professional, who are more proactive, you know, who can deploy all acts now, no matter how little, how minimal in their position, you know, to go against those who don't want to accept amnesty and peace to reign. So the first thing he needs to do is to increase the manpower of the Nigerian Security Forces. They are under label. The numbers are very, very few, and he has said it clearly that he's going to recruit a large number of young people, and that's an opportunity to create employment for our nation. Then for the places that we have agitation, like the South East, of course, is to bring them back again to the drawing board. They are Nigerians. They believe what they are saying. And we also believe in one Nigeria, no matter how grieved we are, no matter how angry we are. So what we need now is a sincere reconciliation, you know. The president should be able to get right people, to get across to these people. We had a similar issue in 2007. There was nothing about what the soldier could do. It was war for war on Tiara Doa came, and they called the leaders of Niger Delta and got their boys into the table, and then they granted them amnesty. So we may also go that way for the trouble area where agitations are high. It is Nigeria, and it is for Nigeria. And the future is our concern. The problem can never bring us the peace and progress we are expecting. So the president later said it, that Nigeria will build Nigeria. So whatever it will take, he's going to go for it. Let's talk about young people. And because again, whether we like it or not, these are the people that are being used by corrupt politicians to rig elections, to cost mayhem. We saw what happened during the end size. They didn't use old men. They used young people. How do you think that the Buhari administration is going to deal with young people in terms of not just creating job opportunities, because government can give jobs to every young person. And Nigeria's population is mostly youthful. And of course, if we allow that youthful population to be idle, of course, that's why we have more sleeper cells for Boko Haram, for ISWAP, for unknown gunmen. And I mean, the list is endless. And the guys who are busting open pipelines in the Niger Delta, how do you think the president-elect hopes to bring in and equip this young people going forward? Because again, the countries like China and India have one way or the other been able to make good use of their large population. And that has one way or the other benefited those, their economies. How are we supposedly going to do the same to benefit our economy, knowing that we're also facing a downturn of SUDs? We've made a lot of attempts to engage the young people in the development of the nation. But the concept was not too clear. Nigeria is a country with a very large population. And about 35% of these populations are made up of young people. The ministry that should have been saddled with that responsibility has no clear data or has no clear concept of what and how to engage young people. For instance, there's a ministry called the Ministry of Youth and Sport. Now, I was waiting to see the scope out of that ministry, and I've not seen it. Now, attempt to be made by the Ministry of Information and Digital Economics to bring, to create a lot of hopes, a lot of hopes for young people to tap their potentials. But the success story was very low. And then the states couldn't do a lot of things. And then we had three years that was just wasted around COVID and other things. But then for the new incoming, for the incoming administration, this is an opportunity for them to harness the Nigerian resources through the young generation. A clear cut, a distinctive road map needs to be created. How to engage these people. It is not only agriculture that you can empower people. There are a lot of things. For instance, they are talking about the student loan. That has to be very, very clear, as early as possible, so that everyone, so that when, so that we now know whether the university is going to run on its own, the university or tournament is going to run, is going to call me to play. So the first thing is to stop this ongoing academic truncation, striking and this. These are the things that are distraught that creates gaps within the younger generation educational system. If they can get that right, then from the NYC, from the NYC, they can look at it again. What do we do with these people? Should we just pull them and give them a three-month training and pay them some money to go and engage what they have learned? This is where you can get the prime young people ready for proper engagement. It's not just to say you create a program. All right. Well, we want to say thank you. Unfortunately, that's our time. John Desmond is a member of the APC Media and Publicities Directorate Presidential Campaign Council. Thank you so much for speaking with us. We appreciate it. All right. Thank you and thank you. Thank you. We'll take a short break now. When we return, we will continue our discussion from yesterday on Nigeria's security situation. Yes, we're talking national security and agenda setting for the president-elect as he's preparing for handovers. Stay with us.