 Welcome back, the all-progressive Congress APC yesterday commenced a screening of aspirants seeking its presidential ticket for the 2023 elections. The screening was earlier slated for May 23, but indefinitely postponed by the National Working Committee of the Party. 11 of its party of the party's 23 presidential hopefuls faced a seven-man screening committee chaired by former National Chairman of the all-progressive Congress, Chief John Odige Oyegun, at the Trans Cup Hilton, Abuja. Those screen included former Lagos State Governor Bola Ahmed Tirubu, former Governor of Oregon State Ibu Kunele, Ibu Kunele Amosu, former Minister of Transportation Chibika Meichi, Jigawa State Governor Abu Bakar Badaru, and former Minister of State for Education Chikwe Meka Muwajiyuba. Others also screened where a Boeing State Governor David Omahi, Felix Nicholas, Senator Ajayi Borofes, former Senate President Ken Nnamani, Mrs. Ujuken Ohaneye, and former Governor of Zanfra State, Sunny Yerima. Now, to help us analyze this, we have a guest analyst joining us live on the program via Zoom. I'd like to say a very good morning and welcome to the Breakfast and Plus TV Africa, none other than Joseph Edgar, who is a political analyst. Joseph, good morning to you and thank you very much for your time. Thank you so much. God bless you. All right. All right. Indeed, the APC has had not a smooth ride to where it is right now, to the promised land, but at least they've started the process of screening their candidates. What are the thoughts on how it's been for the party in getting to this point, even despite the fact that it's all clouded in some sort of rumors and controversy of who will be screened and who has been chosen and who has not been chosen and all that? Okay, so to get a better context of what's happening with the APC, you need to go back to its origins. Do not forget that APC wasn't a party that was formed from very strong ideals, was it coming together? You gave us an arrangement, you gave me now, of different tendencies to achieve a set purpose, and that purpose was to achieve power, take power away from the people. And then once that was achieved, you get the dispose of war had to be shared. That means that that marriage had to continue to be in place. You get for the dispose of war to be shared equitably and judiciously. Now, if they achieve that, it's left for historians to listen. So now, all of those confusions, all of those lack of an ideology that will wield all the power zones together, you get it's not coming to play here now. Do you understand? So the one uniting force you get that kept all of them together, all of these eight years, is no longer at play, which is the president. The president is not coming out for an election. The president will complete these two terms, and the president is out. So now, everybody, all tendencies, all forces are now naked. You get jostling for that one position. And now, because there is no one ideology to wield them together, to guide them, to control them, you get, we are seeing all of this. Are you kidding me now? It's a law of Confucian, whether I want to zone to the north, want to zone to the south, whether it is the turn of the south east, whether it is the turn of the south west, even in the south west, I've seen people coming out, oh, he's a godfather. He's not a godfather. I've seen people coming from the south south. There is just no uniformity. You get everything just scattered. And the most painful thing about the whole thing is that this has great implications for democracy in Nigeria. This has great implications for the people of this country. So that's my program. That's my first shout out this morning. Some have said, some members of the party have said, you know what, all that is playing out in the APC. You've talked about a being confused situation. Is democracy in action? What do you say to that? No, so the good thing about this, I said it in one of my articles recently, is that Nigerians seem to have embedded the democracy. Now, whether the democracy we are having is a bad father's one or not, it's not the issue. Again, the whole country is not enamored by these two major primaries from these two major parties. Everybody talk about PDP and APC, all of that. So that's a beautiful thing. That's a strong point for democracy. We'll get it right eventually. But right now, we're very far from it. But like I said, you know, like you have also heard, the most important thing here now is that nobody's saying anything about, or military should come, or whatever. We are all focused on this democracy. The Nigerian variant, the Nigerian type of democracy. It is a democracy we should all be proud of. Very far from ideal. But that democracy, ejaculate democracy. What is our democracy? We are OK with it. Maybe we are evolving our own brand of democracy. Where is Lune? We'll get there. All right. All right. You've rarely talked about the issue and controversy surrounding zoning in the uprogressive Congress. And there was talk, indeed, that the party was going to zone its presidential ticket to a particular part of the country in the north or south, or even go as far as geopolitical zoning. That hasn't happened yet. Articuo Boracar has emerged as the flag bearer of the PDP. He is from the northwestern part of the country. He is from the northern part of Nigeria. Do you think that something could still happen? How do you think the APC will position itself to respond to this emergence of Articuo Boracar as per the permutations of zoning at the politics of zoning in Nigeria? OK, so what we need to understand, in politics, there's no morality. Do you understand? There's no emotions. You get its raw calculations. You get you must win the election. So I'm not going to go and give myself a weakened position because I want to pander to some moralistic views that partially zone a particular part of the country because they have not had power forever. No, democracy is a game of numbers. And you can see from what's happening in Nigeria, all politicians are very, very astute politicians. They will look at things strategically. Do you understand? So the question now is that PDP has thrown up Articuo Boracar from the northwestern part of the country, like I have said. So the APC is going to go back to the drawing board. How do we counter this? How are we going to win this election? Where is our strength? How do we neutralize our people? I'm telling my brother, at this point in time, APC, the issue of zoning is out of the window for good. If they have sense, even when their shoes are the same, do you understand? Why would I go and zone it to a part of the country that don't have the numbers? Because I want to, whatever it is, do you understand? And then lose the election. And then for another eight years, I'm in the wilderness again. So even those from that part of the country, as you can see, they themselves will also be asking the same questions too. If it comes to us, do we have the numbers to win the election? Which part of the country are you referring to that has the numbers? From what we see, from what we hear, from what the total from independence is not the numbers, because they have the numbers. Why you say from what they told us from independence? You seem not to trust those numbers. We are waiting to be corrected. We are waiting to be corrected. But from what we know, from natural sensors, whatever, now, whether it is real or not, whether it is what we can see, is that the numbers are in the not. So anybody that wants to win an election in this country has to find out the interest of the not. Either by building alliances with them or by training of candidates from there. So that's what APC will be thinking of right now. Do you understand? Which candidates can mute article in the voting blocks of the not? If we cannot throw up a candidate that is from that side for whatever reasons, can we throw up a candidate that can build bridges to that side to bring in the votes? Those are the questions we're asking themselves right now. Does the party have a candidate? Does the party have a candidate who can build bridges from the South? Because of course, we're looking at, you know, equitable distribution and equitable power rotation in the country of let's call it fair, power rotation in the country. No, no, no, no, no, my brother, sorry, I didn't catch your name. You see in politics, you don't talk, you don't use these words, you're talking about equity, fair, right? It is part of the conversation. That's the political science class. That's the political science class. You know, I'm a political science, I'm a master's degree in political science. You know, I teach the topic classrooms. I'm not doubting your academic credentials, but the APC- No, I didn't say you were doubting, I'm not telling you, most times you lost straight my position was against your position. You see, when you use words like equity, fairness, fair play, justice, those are choices that really don't hold on the ground of politics. What is equity? It's my ability, what is fair? What is justice? My ability to win votes. You get it, there's no sentiment. You get it and it begins to look like a certain part of the country understands that more than the other part of the country. Because you don't talk about fairness, equity, all of that. No, I need to win votes, I need to hold power. It's not a part of give me power, give me power, give me power, like we had somebody shouting stuff out. No, work for it. To APC right now, I'm telling you, I'm not a member of the APC, I'm not in the spinning committee, I'm telling you very soon that if there are serious people, they'll be asking themselves this question, article has emerged, article is a strong force, article PDP is a strong force, PDP has structures nationwide, article can take several months. Which candidate can we throw up that we at least, if nothing else, divide the votes in a strong voting bloc, which candidate can we throw up that can build our liars in those areas that have strong voting bloc, so we can mute him and pick him up. All right, just say, let's hold the talk now, we'll roll the tape and listen to what Bola Mehtimbu said at that screening venue and the transcript he'll take in Abuja. Okay, sir. Your transmission, electricity transmission, it's on my way. That's what we, with the problem we see now. And you remember that I brought air on to this company. Yes. Electricity. Okay, okay, I'll talk to you. Yeah, I'll talk to you. We'll talk to you in a moment. Can't go, this is a telecommunication that is on, it's also in Nigeria today, air on, air on it, air on it is now air on it. Yes, ask them to flip on the pagina. The option that they have for it, Mr. Kedik. Nigeria is rich. It means. Nigeria is rich, so my brother, they just take him and do it. And the essence of our livelihood must be placed on long-term, medium-term, short-term values, to eat values for us. You know, I'm there. And if you bring commodity exchange, establish it. And it was the first topic of my birthday colloquium when we started this, it is a vertical to make presentation to the federal public. Secondly, finally, sitting. Joseph Edgar, that's a bit of a tinnable of the Progressive Congress making this presentation to that screening panel. But there was anxiety ahead of the screening exercise when it was revealed that the screening committee, the seven-month screening committee will be led by Odigo Yegun. The tinnable camp were apprehensive because Odigo Yegun, who is the first substantive national chairman of the APC, is believed to be a political enemy, or let me say, adversary of the APC national leader since the 2020 Edo governorship poll. Also, there was fear in the camp of tinnable, according to some reports, when it was revealed that the screening committee will entertain a petition, a letter written to that committee, asking them to disqualify the tinnable over a certain alleged, let me call it, questionable education qualifications. The letter was written by one Sahgera, my Iyali, who identified himself as an APC member from Canada State. He's talking about questionable Chicago affair and other things. So this is some of the intrigues surrounding tinnables, the appearance before the screening panel. Very quickly, because we're out of time, your thoughts on that? Yegun was a tinnable wildlife. You know, what he was just telling me now, but like I said earlier, everything has just found themselves in very, very tight spots. As in, PDP and National Army, very powerful opponents, very powerful opponents. If they feel that their best chance of winning the election could throw up any candidate with all of his baggage, then we'll be up to them. I can't deny and cry for them. Because one thing to go through is that, is that if some of these allegations are anything to go home by, you guys, he'll be taking to the cleaners in their election. All right, all right. It's like a boxer, it's like two boxers and then someone goes to the ring with a bad hand. The other opponent will just be punching that hand. They'll understand. You don't make the election all about those baggage. They'll understand. So like I said, I can be very, very mercantilist about these things, the emotions, those sentiments, but nothing. I think that democracy in Nigeria will strengthen. Even if it can throw up a very credible candidate that can take the fight to article. All right, we have to go. We have to go. Joseph Edgar, thank you very much for your time. Okay, and that's the size of our package today. Our job is done for now. It's been the breakfast and plus TV Africa. Stay with us because ahead we have the news at nine. My name is Kofi Battels. We'll return tomorrow. Good morning.