 The forthcoming 2023 elections, the truth about the character of the late chief earner Shonekoi and more, Amayalishore joins to discourse these and other issues. And in an article titled what is Nigeria's government for, the Financial Times questions the Nigerian system and its government. This is plus politics and I am Justin Akadone. As a presidential aspirant, Amayalishore has popped in and out of the news several times over the past few months. The latest that was had from him was his description as dead on arrival. The presidential ambitions of former governor of Lagos state and chief head of the all-progressive congress, Bolatenebu, vice president Yemi Oshibaju and former governor of a number state, Peter Ubi. In his New Year's message, Shoreh has called on Nigerians to resist any attempt to succumb to the antiques of the president, Mohammad Buhari-led government, that the party will liberate and rescue Nigerians from poverty and hardship created by the regime. He also described the late earner Shonekoi as a traitor and not a leader as many claimed he was. He now joins us to discuss all of this and much more. Good evening to you, Amayalishore. Many thanks for joining us in plus politics. So bringing me in. Alright, let's talk about the race to who governs the mission of government in come 2023. This actually is actually heated up and lots of people have indicated interest or there's a portion other names for it. But let's talk about how your description of some people who have shown interest. That's the former governor of Lagos, the chief den of the old progressive Congress, Bola Ahmed Jinnabu, also the vice president, Professor Yamio Shibaju and Peter Ubi. You have this crowd your ambitions as dead on arrival. How's this so? Well, with regards to former governor of Lagos state, Bola Ahmed Jinnabu is very obvious that he was just testing waters. He's not widely accepted by Nigerians and this is as a result of his records as in addition to the fact that it's very frail, sick and one of the politicians that are tired and put Nigeria where it is today. So I'm speaking to these ambitions based on what we're hearing from the streets that Nigerians no longer want people who failed them. And the same thing applies to the vice president, Yamio Shibaju, who I described as a coward who was vice president to present Muhammad Buhari for almost eight years now. This is last year in office and under his regime, the violations of human rights, the economic times and securities almost, they've lost almost every battle in the security arena. And for some such a person to come and say he wants to be president, what is he going to tell us? Would he say this will be continuity or would he tell us that his hands are tied as his supporters and minions like to tell people, of course, this will not happen and that people have rejected their candidacy. And they, as you could tell, their candidacy fizzled out as soon as they came on board. And with regards to Peter Albi, his candidacy is based on what I said, which I stand by or stand up with, that he's one of the failed corrupt politicians that govern the states. They have nothing to show for their governance of such a, just as Sinu was a governor of Lagos State and Lagos State did not approve in any way, the same way Peter Albi governs Anabra State. He's a very divisive figure, by the way. He was one of the people who removed people they call beggars from Anabra State and returned them to wherever he thought he claimed would be a state, which is naturally against the constitution of, their own constitution of Nigeria. He was also accused of investment of funds at the points he was moving up funds out of Anabra State and the police intercepted about 250 million, they said it takes out of Anabra State every weekend, it was a proper office. So I don't see how someone who cannot point to any record of development while he was going up for it, which he has come and sentimentally tried appealing to people that he, if it becomes the president of Nigeria, he will be a better person. So I'm dealing with those who have come out, this is not to in any way say that I have any sympathy for candidates who are planning to run for, as they come out and continue to provide analysis, but what we're saying categorically is that it is a tone of credible Nigerians to be president or to preside over their face of a country called Nigeria. All right, let me just take you back to one of the things that you just said in your opening salvo. You said these candidates that these are the APC chieftain, Borla Tinibu, the vice-president, Professor Yemio Shibadru and the former governor of Anabra State, Peter, you said they have not been accepted by Nigerians. What do you think did you use to come to this conclusion? Well, I talk to a lot of people. I also am a junkie politically. I don't need to tell you that. So which means I listen to a lot of channels, especially among young people who want to see Nigeria move in a different direction from where it has been in the last 60 years. And a preponderance of opinion is that these failed positions are no longer acceptable and also that their platforms, the party platforms are operating on PDP and APC are not acceptable to the majority of Nigeria. These are political parties have failed Nigerians repeatedly, both at local, state and federal levels. Nigerians are saying it categorically that they don't want these political parties or the operatives or their leaders or members to have anything to do with their future, especially at the presidential level. All right, fine. You have mentioned the party platforms that they are running. That's the APC and the PDP. You also urged Nigerians not to give up saying that the AAC will rescue the country from visa greedy politicians. That's the way you actually captioned that. So let's talk about the acceptability of the AAC. How do you see Nigerians accepting the AAC come 2023? The African National Congress, which is a party that we formed in 2018, is a brand new party and a party that's now been around for about, I would say, between, I mean, for three years practically and has the most acceptable manifesto that we turn around the fortune of Nigeria. And when we were campaigning in 2018 and 2019 on our manifesto, some people thought we were joking, but it turns out that the bigger political parties, when I was a big legacy parties as they called it, were listening on our manifestos and stealing our ideas. It was from us that the area of minimum, which came about when they implemented it, it was done not in a way that suits the interests of workers. It was from us that the area of making June 3rd an opacity came out. It was a pronouncement we made in Abel Kuta. It was from us that the issue of classification or pretty multiplicity of electrical electricity sources was sold to Nigerians. It was from us that even the most talented marijuana exports agenda was brought to Nigeria. And then the three years that every country is adopting it now. And from what I heard, the National Assembly is debating it now as well. It was also from us that the idea of cutting costs that National Assembly came about, we proposed at that time that Nigeria doesn't need a bicameral executive system that will be good enough to have a unicameral system that's repetitive enough. And now a lot of people have also lashed on to that. So several other things that are available on our website, aacparty.org, and we traveled around this country to our four states and the federal capital territory. And we did town competitions and campaign everywhere. We didn't have private jets. We didn't have Godfathers. We also, first time in the history of Nigeria, did raise funds crowd through crowd funding, which is now something that some of them are embracing. So and for the first time, also in the history of Nigeria, when we were done with elections, we did publish our election accounts. The public, it was made public and it's still available online today. So that party, the AAC, is the party that can take Nigeria to that level that will make Nigeria the pride of all nations, both in the continent of Africa and the world. And we've also described how extensively we can resolve the problem of unemployment, turn around the Nigerian economy, fight corruption, you know, fund education appropriately, you know, put in place a world-class health care system and use technology as a background taking care of all the issues that we have described to you since I started talking about the party. So the question that most journalists ask is, where are your structures? But my answer is very simple. The legacy parties that you talk about all the time and you give your airtime to, they don't have any structure. We just have transactional partners, criminal transactional partners to boost your personal funds and the buy votes, private police, security agencies, professors and universities who hire by and make and the right results and these results when they are contested in courtrooms, the right judges and they love themselves so far as I was saying, that will, our party will bring an end to that. All right, let's do talk about, you know, the legislation for which the turn 23 election should actually, you know, you know, be done. That's the electoral act amendment, which is still, you know, having some back and forth as it is. Let me get your candid opinion concerning this new electoral act. What are your thoughts? What are loopholes, if there are any, how do you see what we really need right now? You know, I would tell you that there's never a time the electoral acts are lower as ever at the time in the outcome of an election. So I don't know why people waste much of their time discussing the electoral acts, what I signed to law or not. The people who want to steal elections, want to hijack the political space, don't care about your electoral laws. What people should worry about are those characters who have now populated INAG, that is the Independent National Electoral Commission, who are members of the APC, the All Progressive Congress. And that's something that nobody's been attention to, that a lot of commissioners, national commissioners were recently approved by the Senate or National Assembly, who ordinarily should not be allowed near pre-election. Some of them we found and placed their voters' cards or membership cards and their members of the ruling party. So those are the things we should worry about. With regards to the electoral laws, well, you know, I do not care too much about those laws as much as I care about the human resources that are going to conduct elections. And INAG, as it is presently composed, is made up of people who do not have the credibility to conduct free elections. All right, let's talk about the state of the nation. Let me just quote you, Verbertim. You said that in this year, 2022, the year will be a wash with a lot of neoliberal attacks, a democratic right to be violated more by the state and the civil state would continue to shrink. I needed to throw more light on that. You know, I'll give you an example. Nobody taught in that in 2021, Twitter will ban Nigeria and it's become this, you know, it's become one of the major indicators of how vibrant the civil space is. And I see more of that happening. In fact, in 2022, if the government can't cope with the vibrancy of civilians in the country, when I meet civilians, what I've seen people who are generally operating in the civil space, you will see them clamp down on more platforms. It won't be Twitter alone. Probably they'll go up to our Facebook, but they could even start shutting down mobile telephone companies or start targeting individuals, hacking into their mobile phones and ensuring that, you know, they don't have, we don't have that free will to communicate freely. You must have heard that this year, for the first time in the history of Nigeria, my national identity number was deactivated. And as a result, at the bank account, I needed to open, couldn't be open. I used my INEG card, it was also deactivated. Deactivated my passport. It wasn't until I threatened to sue them that they reactivated them. And I think probably they are doing it to a lot of people who are not aware already yet. So don't be surprised if you get to INEG to vote, I mean to vote an election, then they tell you your card is not working because it's intact in case the government doesn't like you. But beyond that, we've noticed a lot of clampdown on individuals, socially, social media users, the point of view, detention, people who have been arbitrarily arrested. And you also have arbitrary, a strategic killing of protesters in the country. I was shot at in 2021. And I ended up in the hospital because the police officer targeted me at a protest. My younger brother, my middle younger brother was also killed in 2021. And that I'm seeking with you today, nobody within the security agency told us what happened to one arrest, made an arrest. And, you know, so that's one of the things that government is desirous of ensuring that they are made to shut down the civil space and they will do whatever it takes to do that. I'm also referring to the ruling party because the APC supports this sort of revolution of rights without any remorse. All right, let's talk about political participation of vis-a-vis the young people. For the first time in the history of Nigeria in 2020, the youths, they were all in unison. They came out to protest against police brutality, bad government and all of that. But over time, we'll find out that when it comes to election, it's as though the youth, they do eruptivism more on social media on election day and during election year in, we don't really get to see much of the youth. How do you see that playing out in 2023? So, a study was carried out by a group of election monitors and they found out that people have progressively lost interest in the electoral process because it doesn't deliver the kind of results they expect. And whereas in 2015, there were about there were over 50 to 100% participation in elections. As of the last election cycle, it had depleted to 42%. So, young people no longer find elections as avenues for electing desirable candidates and they generally just stay away from elections and what ends as showed to us is that they weren't actually fighting against police brutality. They wanted to end what had become a burden on them, which is what we call governance in Nigeria. And the president of Nigeria, in one of his interview, read that correctly. He said, these guys wanted to come at Chasers out of power because people have lost have lost confidence in the electoral process. And what you will see in 2023 is that there will be a true track engagement for young people. One is a number of them who still believe that democracy is not a bad idea, but there will also be a very solid group of young people who are waiting to see these politicians for the ruling class make a mistake. And they will just have no other option than to engage in a revolution. And I have said this even before answers that the revolution is coming because people have lost interest and confidence in the democratic process that Nigeria is practicing. Democracy is beautiful, but we are no longer practicing democracy in Nigeria. Practicing what I've always consistently referred to as moron democracy that is governments by morons for morons in Nigeria. All right. Just last week, the nation buried one of its elder statesmen. You seemingly have a different and perspective to his character. Speaking about the late chief Ernest Shoneko, you said that he had actually some questionable character. You had some unsavory words to describe him. Why is that? Yeah. Well, I was shocked when he died and people were saying he was a great statesman. He was interim president of Nigeria. And I think one of Nigeria's biggest problems is that we have very little memory to the point that when the speakable characters betray us, they stop us in the back. We forget too quickly and we think that when they die, their peer origins and standby to make them look good. I felt my voice as a person who was a student activist in the 90s when chief Ernest Shoneko hijacked or was used to destroy Nigeria's democracy. But in 1992 and finally, 1993, where he was illegally appointed by, at that time, General Ibrahim Bavanguda who fled Abuja because he lost out in power. When, in fact, there was a winner of the election, M.K. Wabiola Moshub Hashimowo Olawali Wabiola was waiting to, you know, as an amount of leadership. I mean, won the incredible three-year fair election. And Chief Shoneko was a spoiler who came in and accepted to be the interim president for 84 days before he was kicked out. Had he not played that role, I feel I would have been able to assume his legitimate position as president of Nigeria. And Nigeria would not probably be in a situation that it is today. So I was very shocked that they were celebrating him. But after that intervention, a lot of people started to realize that he truly was a traitor. And I think finally when he was buried a few days ago, the best way he's buried could be announced was that he was buried in a taxi million Naira casket or it was somewhere in the desert not because he was an interim president. I hope one day the position of interim president of any presidential position that was described to him will be scrapped. And whatever he was picked, you know, either as retirement entitlements who will be taken back and given to their bill and family who rightly deserve that. And this should serve as a notice to other people who have betrayed Nigeria. Not to think that when they die, we'll forget the role they played in destroying this country. I refer to the likes of Babangida, even Naira Shibu, which had gone back to jail, who was a two-time president who acted terrible in eroding confidence in our democratic space and process. All right, just before we go, the final question for you would be about the nation's unity, which has actually been threatened over time. It is a build-up to the 2023 election, and we have been seeing all sorts of unpost, all sorts of comments about which region, the south and the north, who is better, who is more qualified to rule the country. Would you really say that all of this issue or ethnicity has been a bane to the country, or is it that our politicians have not really been able to unite the country as they should be doing, what would they talk about zoning and all of them, all of these issues that we get to hear every day? You know, I'm not interested in zoning. I hope that Nigeria will continue to search for competent Nigerians who can run this country effectively, efficiently in a just and egalitarian manner so that these ethnic jingoists will not have a say in how we run our lives. We have done this whole rotational presidency for 20 years now. We've taken the presidents, Nigeria has taken the ruling classes, taken the presidency to as many places as possible. But what they have not taken the presidency to is the zone of competency, zone of justice, zone of man of integrity. So if we make the mistake again of zoning to another incompetent character simply because of the location of his village, well, you know, we will regret it. So I'm hoping that Nigerians, especially young Nigerians will not play into the hands of politicians who are asking for this ethnic propaganda about a man interested in zoning. I just hope that Nigeria can once and for all have a president as competent, regardless of where he comes from. And someone who cares about everybody, who cares about humanity, not someone who cares about his village or the size of his church or mosque. All right, we must say a very big thank you to you, Amar Yalishore, for joining us and bringing clarity to some of these great areas that we have. I would do appreciate your time. Thank you so much for bringing me and having a good day. Yeah, you too. All right, we'll take a short break now. And when we return, we'll discuss the Financial Times report and the government's response to it more in a moment. Do join us again.