 You're welcome back to the final lap of the run-up this afternoon and we were saying a lot of things before the break for news. Right now we're concerned about the election proper which is coming up on the 25th of February. We've been talking on the run-up all this while about this issue and now maybe the House of Representatives has also lent their voice to this. Then while Bio is still standing by Bio, the House of Representatives has appealed to management of tertiary institutions in the country to suspend academic activities ahead of the election. In their appeal made to the National University's Commission, National Border for Technical Education, National Commission for Colleges of Education and the Ministry of Education, the lower chamber of the National Assembly said suspension of academic activities will enable students to travel to the areas where their polling units are situated and also ensure they are not disenfranchised. The Independent National Electoral Commission was also asked to make special arrangements for students to collect their PVCs and Bio, this election a lot of people have said that the pendulum will fling to wherever the youth decide because the bulk of the new entrance into these political space are the youths. But now poor timing has it way, not really poor timing because that's how the academic calendar should be but it will mean that at the time when the election will be going on students are likely to be writing exams and which will mean that a lot of them, none of them in fact will want to trade exams for election. I mean that is their future they are talking about but even though the election is also their future but they cannot leave the exams to come and vote in the election. And the House of Reps is calling on INEG and all the relevant people to extend the, or to make sure that the students are not in school at the time of election. So I don't know how you would react to that. I quite agree with the sentiments behind the call of the National Assembly. I think it's a patriotic call because this is a defined, this is an election that could possibly define where we go. I heard in the news, when the news was being read by Destiny, one of the stories was an event in Port Harcourt where the former president of Basingale was and I had Governor Wicke saying that this would be the sixth election that we are having since the return to democracy in 1999. And by now we should have gotten it right. But not just that, the sixth election is most likely going to be quite defining in our democratic journey. Now, two quick things, I remember when I was in the university, we had elections in the Second Republic and it was during the long holidays because at the time, TransFort Power occurred on the 1st of October, which is also Nigeria's Independence Day. Now, we have since 1999 been operating a very interesting, the process was changed and elections were brought to May, sorry, transition was brought to May from one government to another. Nobody has said anything about that change. And I'm beginning to wonder why we no longer transit our electoral journey on the 1st of October, which is already a public holiday and which is already the day in which, of course, we mark Nigeria's independence, but much, much significantly, it often meant that you could conduct elections during the long vacation. So students were at home, primary school, secondary school universities, they were all at home, and so they could vote wherever they are, given what the National Assembly has brought up. I think we need to begin to reconsider changing from transiting to a new government on the 29th of May to doing so on the 1st of October, and also the reason also is because the patriotic call of the National Assembly is likely to be difficult for the institutions to heed, because we've had this long access to strike, and then the universities are back on. It means they would have to close for one month, if I'm correct, because elections, 25th of February is a presidential election, and then we'll have the other staggered, over like the one month period, that would be another one month of the academic calendar. And there will be Easter in between, there will be Easter. Exactly. Yeah. Thank you also for bringing that up. So inasmuch as I strongly support that, it's a very patriotic call, and I endorse what the National Assembly is doing. I feel that the institutions may be in a very difficult position, but do we want to go back to October 1? This is something for the next administration, both executive and legislature, to do that. Okay. So maybe I next should be flexible enough so that their voting timetable will fall under that holiday period of Easter, for instance, because everybody is expected to be home for the Easter celebration, or at least we have one week for the Easter celebration, a very short break, but it's enough to do an election. Maybe the elections will be one week apart, the federal and the state elections one week apart, whatever it is, because even then it will still be longer than just press of October that you're suggesting right now. But maybe there are so many other things that will come into play, but it is doable. Because I remember when I was in secondary school, for instance, I did five years instead of six years, but I did from JSS 1 to SS 3, inside five years. And that was because the school calendar was changed at some point in time to start to begin from January and end in December. So first time starts January and the third time is in December, like that. So they had to change it back to the normal calendar that starts from September or there about to the next year. So an academic session is one year spilling over onto the other year. So when they had to change it, the people who were there when they were changing it to January to December calendar did four times at one point. Now the people, some of us who came at the time that they wanted to shorten it did two times at one point for a full year. So it is doable. It's just that they have to make that decision, taking all the variables into consideration and knowing which one will be more beneficial to us. But like now in this election, it is really important that the youth who are entering into the political space for the first time get a chance to vote. I think so too. Anyway, the federal government... Yeah, you had actually... You had saved yourself because I wanted to ask if your certificate, I needed to check your certificate. Did you spend five years? I didn't jump a class. I didn't jump a class bio. That's the interesting part. The conclusion is clear. So the federal government has restated its commitment to make Akiti State a major free trade zone in Nigeria. They said this would support the state in delivering economic and knowledge-free zone where education-based industries and technological companies could operate. The managing director of the Nigeria Export Processing Zone Authority, Professor Adesha Ji Adesuba, said the establishment of the economic zone would boost the economy of the state and increase its internally generated revenue as well as reduce over-reliance on the federal allocation. And yes, I want to applaud the federal government. They are doing something really lofty. But I'm asking the question, how well have the free trade zones in other places worked over the years? For instance, we have one in Cross River State, a free trade zone in Cross River State. And it doesn't seem to work at all. Even the ports in Cross River, it's not working. So if only the Lagos port as well is working and you're creating free trade zones in areas where we know that, okay, there are others that have been created and they are not working, what is really the essence of doing all this? Is it that we're waking up now to make sure that the ones that have already been created will work and the new ones will work as well? Oh, this is just another thing to a political score that someone wants to get or something. Do you think it will change the economic landscape of the Kitties State and Nigeria in general when, if this is done? I mean, but Yamco, you just gave a very good example of Cross River. And I think the example you gave is no different from what you're saying in other states apart from Lagos. You know, I mean, in the state, we have what is called the Odo Kola Free Trade Zone, which only began to pick up. I think it was initiated in the time of, you know, but those who came after him probably didn't push too much, now it's only just beginning to pick up. So we need to look at the conceptual framework behind free trade zones and you want to drop them, you know, like you're dropping names, okay, I am the new guy in charge here, so I'm going to do a free trade zone and then I get all the approvals and everything and then nothing happens. I think they should be integrated as well, you know, into that state. For now, they appear to me and I may be wrong, but they appear to me to be more elitist, something nice to have, and then somebody checks the box. Yeah, we're going to put a free trade zone there, you know, but how? Because for me, the Cross River example is actually very, very instructive for us because I believe that Cross River has so many advantages. It's close to Central Africa, it can, you know, not only serve us in that area, so we need to really, really, really study these things and not just to come up with these ideas and nothing else that works. Okay, well, I wish that were well and let the innovations come and let the innovations be carried out to the later and let the follow-up be done and Nigeria will be better. Thank you, Bayo, for being a part of the program today. Our time has already been up a long time ago. Thank you so much. Let's do it again on Monday and happy weekend to you.