 Welcome to The Advocate, where thought-provoking topics are discussed with no holds barred here on Plus TV Africa. We basically call a spade by its name. Greek philosopher Plato once said, One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. That's why today I'm focusing on the difference between those in elected offices and the citizenry. Keito Chuku, who makes her debut on the show today, is also looking at economic equality. Comfort Smith is with handling of the pandemic in Nigeria, and she thinks there's no end in sight. Finally, another debutant, Abdul Sanusi, speaks on lupusidedness in police recruitment. Sit back after this break, we'll be here to dissect it all. Stay with us. Politics. The sum of all fairs. I was born and bred in a small town called Zaire. It, of course, has a beehive of culture and the second largest university in Africa. It has enough tradition and religion, and its foundation was on educational levels. This made kids that grew up with me very logical, with the great minds of people like Dr. Bala Osman, Professor Jerry Gana, and Professor Wilmot to mention a few, just at dinner table distance in conversation with your parents. The expose to governance was great for me at a young age. Over the last 10 years, I've had front row seats to presidential campaigns, conducted primaries, being the winner of a primary functionality also at the highest level of political party hierarchy. And also, let's also add, I've campaigned myself, so I understand the shivers down people's spines when the word politics is mentioned. This isn't born out of anything but a determinant in lives they don't understand. Politics, they say, is local, of course, meaning grassroots, but in my experience, politics is personal. The sum of all fairs are marginalization, poor delivery of governance, and the illuminated understanding as a pedestrian at midnight, pointing a touch to the sky and hoping the light will reflect back to the ground like the sun. The fear of a system could be good, and could also be pregnant. The organization for the stand against answers was great, but could also give birth to the below 7% voter participation in local government elections. Our political illiteracy is so high up that activists or social media demigods determine how we sway with votes. Think about the constitution, or we're still view governance. We're so estranged from our politics that we have absolutely nothing to do with political parties, which is key to why our politicians spend time securing their second term than they do governing because we aren't watching. And because of this, we aren't self-governed, but carry the resentment we are governed by others. You want to know why? The distance between those in elected office and citizens is at its widest since independence. Our politics chooses voters by religion, tribe, party diversions because we have no unified electorate or understanding of anything other than to use your PVC to vote. The PVC actually has two functions. Firstly, to vote. Secondly, to recall the members in legislative office, which could be a trigger to also impeach a rogue executive. What we need to do is find time for what will engage us on every sphere, which politics actually does, especially when we're not looking, so that our kids can spend time on the finer things like art and creativity. The future of the black race is in the hands of Nigerians as the most populous black nation in the world. The key to unlock our potential is to participate, and only then would our some of our affairs be divided to the dividends of good governance. So what do you guys think? Well, I do agree with you with one or two issues that you've raised, particularly regarding the NSARS. If we were to look at the whole NSARS issue from the get-go, I'll say because of the lack of understanding of politics and government, I think a lot of people jump onto the Bang Wagon with actually knowing how government functions or how government works. If, for instance, despite our different opinions of the NSARS, if people actually understand politics or government in the country, I think a lot of things would have been done differently. Now, a lot of people during the NSARS were confused because of the miscommunication, misinformation, which could be derived from lack of understanding, you understand, and therefore that pushed a lot of stuff out into the public, which may be true and may not be true. So you're right that we need to understand government, we need to understand politics, and whether or not the fear will help us or not is something else, in my view. Okay, Kato? Yeah, and it's not just the willingness to participate, but also the willingness, just like you said, to learn how to go about it. So during the NSARS protest, one of the biggest challenges was the disconnect between the two groups of people. So in Nigeria, you find that you have two groups of people, basically, the halfs and the halfs, not if you like, or the rich and the poor, or the exposed and the non-exposed. So it's a matter of bridging that gap, and just like you said, the best way to bridge the gap is through engagement. Yes, politics is grassroots, and there is nothing humiliating about that. If it's to work, everybody should be carried along, and not just a particular group over the other. So Comfort, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. My thoughts have been changed on this when it comes to the issue of, for me, the citizenry. How long are we going to be singing the same song? Can't the citizenry see up till now that the power is in their hands and that they need to take a hold of it and do what they need to do to change the status quo? So on the other hand, it probably is that we are comfortable with the status quo. And yes, what politics is grassroots? The grassroots do know and understand politics, probably better than you and I would think we're not at the grassroots. And so, for me, it's still going to be the same song and dance. I'm sorry, until there's a radical, radical, and I don't know what it's going to bring about it, change in understanding and our minds that look, my vote, my PVC is one vote, yes, but I need to go out there. I need to choose according to the interests that will serve not just me, but my community, those around me, and eventually the country at large. That is not the mindset that 99% of us have. And so I'm sorry, I think it's, I mean, again, we're just going to be shopping in the dark. That's my opinion. Can I come in? I totally agree with it. The power is with the people. One thing we seem to not to understand in this country is no matter every four years or so, when the election comes, we have the power to re-elect or to get rid of. The sooner that the people know that those people that we elected, we can get rid of them in the next election. They will start doing what we place them to do in the first place, which is to provide a good working environment for ourselves. And yet we seem to forget that we have the power. So come forth. What is right 100%? Well, I think generally this is a song who keep remixing till the electorate gets. So Kato is next after the break. Stay tuned. Economic equality. For me, economic equality is the ability to create for yourself the life that you want. Not the life that the society expects of you or the life that you agreed might suggest, but the life that you crave through self-knowledge and awareness, hunger for purpose, and a desire to reach your full potential. We can only serve society and others if we're empowered to do so. One way to achieve economic equality is through equality of opportunity, ensuring that everyone has a chance, seeing every single being as an asset to the world that should not be wasted. Ubuntu means I am because you are. In fact, the word Ubuntu is just part of the Zulu phrase, which literally means that a person is a person through other people. Ubuntu has its roots in humanistic African philosophy, where the idea of community is one of the building blocks of society. We have to reach a level of awareness where every single person is viewed as an important member of society that is waiting to be explored. Economic equality ensures that time, which is our most valuable asset, is utilized completely. Economic equality is freedom. Freedom to be, to live, to grow, to create. I believe that when economic equality is achieved, all other forms of discrimination would be minimized. The poverty I see in our society today is frightening and can be best described as a dire situation. No one should be allowed to live under such conditions. It is the little things that make life decent and worthwhile. Hence, one should not be reached to afford a decent life, nourishing food, conducive shelter, clean sheets to sleep on, and won't put in. Well, interesting perspective, K2. I would like to say I've always had the notion that economic opportunity or equality can only be brought about when you as a nation understand your full potential. The problem with a country like Nigeria is we have 5.4% of the world's entire natural resources. We have the sixth most populous nation in the world, and we've never utilized any of that to get anywhere. Just look at the average phones. Nigeria is probably the highest, of course, the most valuable phone used in the world. Nigeria is the highest buyer in Africa. Why don't we have a manufacturing company here? Which means we don't even think of ourselves. We get to that kind of point. I don't think we'll be able to go anywhere. Just to answer you before Abdul Chipsen, you're absolutely right. If we can't build a country, we can achieve economic equality. I'm hoping that this topic will be yet another motivation to start to think about building a nation that really serves us and for our own benefit. To me, your topic basically just asked me one question. Economic freedom. Right now, Nigeria is just surviving. We've not reached that stage where we can, to me basically, where we can say we can do more than survive. We need policy. We need infrastructure, not just infrastructure as in physical infrastructure, infrastructure as in give businesses. Business is what's going to lift people up. Business is what's going to give the people the freedom because not everybody can get that job in government. Not everybody has the opportunity to get that job in business. So until we can give the businesses, the small, medium and big businesses, the opportunity to thrive to the highest level, we will not get to that stage. So we need a government that will put businesses first. Give businesses a fair playing ground where everybody can compete. I know that if anything goes wrong, there's law, there's regulation to judge people and to do the right thing. Without that, we cannot get that individual economic freedom and stability and enhancement that we want and we need, in my view. I would really like to hear about comfort waiting and say about this comfort. I don't know. I'm actually frustrated at this one. We were talking about economic equality. I can't even get the damn network to stay stable for God's sake. This is just one of the many, the small things. It's so pedestrian in other countries that it's frustrating in my own country. I can't even have it just, you know, I'm ready to pay for the data. And then we're talking, you know, and we're talking about the economic equality. How will that happen if the people were putting in the places that they should make policies for us that will help us as selfish? They're not ready to do it. They are robbing the system. They are raping the system. And then we too are not holding them accountable. I'm just going to give a small example of what I mean. I just came back from Kotakot and I followed what they called the East-Western Road, or East-West Road for crying out loud. This is the major road that connects and moves our, what you call it, goods and services, including appeal. It's a federal road. It hasn't been done. Why? Because of politics. Politics of even the people who are there. Why are those people? What happened to the citizenry of those areas that they've allowed the same people who are holding that road and that place to run some? Why are they still in government? Why? And as long as we, it's still we for Mio, because these people are not from the pit of hell. They're from among us here in our communities. As long as we still keep them there, year in, year out, which economic equality? Which one? Which, which, which one are we struggling for? When me and you are all we're trying to do is to survive at the rate, at this rate. I'm not really going to be sitting down to be thinking about my neighbor. I'm sorry, at this point. Because I just want to survive. The same, it's the same environment that I'm in that you two are, you're in. So if I'm not surviving or I'm barely surviving, how do you want me to take this small survivor that I have to help your own survivor? I, I don't know. I don't know what to do to you. I don't know who this other place is. Well, it's exactly the same thing. Yeah. It's exactly the same thing. Yeah. Comfort, you took this, you took this power. You are becoming a Zoom head Zoomer. Yeah. Just to add to what Comfort said. I mean, the topic is really to stares to us realizing that we have one shot at life and it's an emergency. It is your life. And we have to live it and not survive it. We're here to thrive and not to survive. And if we're surviving, then we're doing something wrong. And we should realize that for everyone, not just the privileged few, but for everyone, everyone has a right to thrive. We've spent too much time surviving. Yes. And we haven't left that stage yet. Exactly. And Comfort is right about one thing. It's the same people that keep some putting us in that survival stage. Yes. They're still there 10 years later. Exactly. And now, as she's well said, election is soon. Are we not going to elect the same people who have done nothing? No, no, no. I think we need to correct something. In Nigeria, we don't have an election. We have a selection. Selection. So, yes. So they just present the devil and the blue sea and you must make a choice. And this is because we are not part of political parties or we're not doing anything. So what happens is we just go roll with the wind. But with the selection you said, we also have to also tell the people the selection does not stop at Hasselrock. No, the point I'm making is that because we do not participate in political parties, that is why it's the selection. Like if you go to other advanced countries or even countries that are behind us, people are part of political parties. They help the candidates emerge from primaries. And Nigerian knows what's going on in American primaries but cannot tell you what's going on in Nigerian primaries. That's where the problem is. How many people know who the local government chairman is? You're asking mathematics. You don't even know what they're in. So, up next is comfort. Stay with us. A world and a pandemic with no ending site. Nigeria had adopted the COVID-19 measure requiring unvaccinated passengers to be tested twice while they vaccinated once on their return. The contradictory message is that the contradictory message issued stated mandatory seven-day self-isolation with testing on the second day and the seventh day for the unvaccinated and on the second day for the vaccinated. On the 6th of December 2021 arriving at the Namdee Ezekwe Airport, we were all bundled into a room to make payments if you had not done so online. I was subjected to what I would call COVID-19 vaccine immigration. C19 VI. This was the first layer before gaining access to the real immigration officers. If you did not make this payment, you would not be allowed into the country. This was to take care of the fact that Nigerians would come back from their foreign surgeons and would not be responsible enough to test. However, this government solution turned out to be a money-making venture, not whether it was tracking COVID-19. And unvaccinated, I paid 79,000 soft naira. On day seven, I got to EHA clinics where I had been scheduled by C19 VI squad. And despite using a microscope, the lady behind the laptop regretfully informed me that she could not find my name. Politically, she stated with my agency to complain. I was livid. As I realized, there had not been any document except a point of sales slip that read the name of an account that was a company that was neither the government nor any of the recognizable payment platforms. I waited patiently for the agency to publish passport numbers and bar defaulters from traveling for six months. I was ready for them. According to the Nigeria Center for Disease Control, Nigeria has had over 250,000 confirmed cases, over 20,000 active cases, over 220,000 discharged cases and just a little over 3,000 deaths. Among all the vaccines I have known, I have never seen a vaccine that forced all to wear a mask, maintain social distance, get a booster shot, still take tests, discriminate against those who did not take the vaccine, threaten relationships and despite all this, still the virus is spreading. Fast forward six weeks later, the United Kingdom became the first country to remove all COVID restrictions, including discrimination based on vaccination. The UK has the second worst pandemic death toll in Europe after Russia with more than 153,000 confirmed virus related deaths. Denmark has followed suit and more countries are set to. Nigeria missed the opportunity to be big brother from the onset, well in Africa. Granted the narrative was killed to state that our streets will be littered with our dead bodies. But when we failed to liquidate the streets, uncle, since we did not lead the charge, it is of utmost importance and urgency that Nigeria follow suit and focus on what is really killing us. Because it has been clear for a long while now that COVID-19 is not killing us. This advanced form of flu is here to stay. The regular attention and money spent on COVID-19 is desperately needed in our health sector so that women can stop dying from pregnancy related complications. Women can stop dying from lasso fever, malaria, and headaches. Here's the thought. Maybe invest in procuring a malaria vaccine that will be given free. Gule, over to you. Comfort. One of the things that pushes me with your advocacy is you always lift up the thought and the game. You always do one little circus in which I find very cool. 79,000 soft niara, come on. Anyway, of course, we've looked at COVID. For me, the biggest COVID in Nigeria is COVID-19-60. And that is the amount of corruption that has gone on in governance since our independence. That's a better pandemic that we should be facing instead of what we usually shroud ourselves. You know, you find Nigeria that is a country shrouded with a lot of diseases. Like you mentioned, lasso fever, maternal mortality rates that are higher than should be, and then a very, very high case of malnutrition of children in the country. And we're spending billions on COVID. I think it's either that the name COVID-19 invokes or opens CBM vaults, or I really don't get it. Because if you look at the death ratio of COVID in comparison to the number of Nigerians, I think about 6 million Nigerians die from malaria each year. COVID is nowhere near that. And you know, we just tend to... Anyway, like you know the way it is in Nigeria, new album, new one bay. So that's what we're doing with our health sector. Abdul, what are your thoughts on it? It's a broad subject, topic, and touchy as well. But as conference, we have the Nigerian element where as Nigerians, we always, some of our people always try and find ways of making money where they should not make money, which disheartens those of us that follow the rules on regulation. And that, because of that, that will also make us think, why are we bothering to do this? You understand? At the end of the day, to me, the biggest problem with this COVID thing is the world plan agenda as in we should do things a certain way so that we're all on the same page. Not every single country having their own different ways of addressing the COVID will make life a lot easier for everybody. But I mean, that's my thoughts on that one. Kato? Yeah, I mean, just to piggyback what Abdul has said, is the hypocrisy, right? The hypocrisy that comes to just paying attention or not paying attention in this case to the things that really matter to us. Well, in a way, paying attention to the things that happen to matter to other people. And in this case, in other countries, yes, COVID is probably a big deal, but it's not so much a big deal in our country because very few people, even though that is disheartening, very few people have, when you compare to other countries have actually lost their lives. So if we can transfer that kind of energy to actually solving the things that matter to us, then we would have done a great thing. Thank you, Kato. Before I pass it back to you, there is a part of COVID we haven't even mentioned and for me, that's even the heat part. Now private companies came together for the hungry and the needy during COVID. And those palliatives did not get to the ground. People decided the entire situation and people had to find where it was hidden. So, you know, it's a whole situation we have on this comfort. I don't know what to say, really. As I said, for me, I think it was just seeing the UK just literally throwing in the towel, you know. This number of people are dead. Please, we are throwing out all the restrictions. Let's just go on with our lives. So what did we do here for two years when it was blatantly obvious that this wasn't our problem? Why did we allow it to become such a large-scale thing for us without taking the bulls by the horn? As Kato said, it was the sheer hypocrisy of putting our nose where we didn't need to put our nose where we actually needed to. So, Abdul is next. After the break, stay tuned. We're discussing love-sightedness and the police recruitment. Quinley, what do you think? Well, for me, I know of a state house of assembly assembly member in Bauchi who was getting forms for people to join the police college for citizens within his constituency. Now, I also know people in the Lagos State House of Assembly and they are trying to either expand the number of children they have from different women or by-houses in London. This misunderstanding by the South has tended towards the nature that you rightly put out they are underrepresented in governance. They holistically don't think ah, my child should join police. But they are more comfortable my child can do yahoo, yahoo. Or the present ritualistic tendencies which are occurring just get rich or die trying. And, you know, when it comes to matters of governance, these things matter because it comes to a point where people scream marginalization and like you rightly put we can only recruit people into leadership positions based on the manpower that we have. So, if you have 15 northerners about to become AIG you can't fire all of them just so that you can get a Southern DSP to be AIG. It doesn't make sense. Or Kato, looking at it what do you think? Exactly right. When we think of the answers for instance and what went on there. We talked about engagement before now and one way to engage is actually to form part of the system. And how do you do that is to strategically position yourself in key positions. And when you think of key positions you are not just talking about leadership positions you are also talking about key sectors for instance the police the army. You want to be involved. Yes, the reward is slow sometimes but the truth is the better. The sooner we start forming part of the system and not just talking about it or complaining about it the sooner we will be reaching our goal which is the building of a great nation. I mean one of the major problem we have is we tend to look at a certain group of people in the country controlling government or so. Whereas to be part of government is open to all. Now if other parts of the countries are taking this opportunity nobody 10 years, 20 years down the line should be asking questions. There is a way for people to engage the government to change you within instead of looking from outside and throwing stones at the window we need to wake up we need to know that the power is with the people. If we don't many people will be left behind. I think what's most critical for us to understand is that you can only engage a system that you've invested in. So if you've not invested in a system I really don't understand why you want to criticize the system. So if you're not bringing police officers to the table or supporting people from your zone your constituency or from your place into the system you have no point asking where these soldiers or police come from because the same opportunity granted is granted everyone else. Now look at the position where they had to even extend applications and the South still only accounted for 24,000 applications whereas the North accounted for 104,000 so it's always open but nothing is being done for me that's the major problem. It is. So we've had an interesting conversation today of course to deputant advocates and of course comfort joining us from Abuja. We thank you for your attention while the program lasted. We hoped our conversations resonated with you and that in some small way we encouraged you to contribute to your immediate environment. Little drops of water they say make a mighty ocean. Don't forget The Advocacy continues on our social media platforms on Facebook plus TV Africa hashtag The AdvocateNG and on Twitter and Instagram at plus TV Africa hashtag The AdvocateNG to catch up with previous broadcasts go to plus TV Africa.com forward slash The AdvocateNG Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel plus TV Africa and plus TV Africa Lifestyle Join us next week same time on the station let's keep advocating for a better society See you next week Bye everyone.