 Alright, movement is heavily limited on election day for obvious reasons and the only vehicles permitted to apply public routes are security vehicles, observers and those with special status to transport sensitive and nonsensitive election material. Now, with the presidential elections fast approaching on the 25th of February, the announcement by Ulussia Gwabwajid, the INEC resident electoral commissioner in Lagos State on the proposed partnership for the distribution of election materials has raised a lot of concern and speculations on the credibility of the execution of the forthcoming elections. So what are your thoughts on this? Let's hear what you have to say. Remember, you can join the conversation and send us an SMS or attempt to do a 1-803-4663 and also to send us a Weishu Africa one with the hashtag Weishu. Alright, so this conversation is quite interesting because I heard the story I think about two days ago or so or yesterday, I'm not sure now and it seemed like what's going on, right? But backtrack again to previous elections, it's actually not a new thing because most times the INEC body, they don't have the wherewithal to distribute this election materials. I mean, from the reports that I mean, there was a report for the 2019 general elections that was shared, the general report after the elections, you know, part of the main constraint was logistics, you know, moving election materials from one polling unit to the other. And they had signed an MOU with NURTW and I think NATO, right? So again, remember that NURTW had an issue with MCO Luomo and they then suspended him. Eventually, something, something happened, somebody was not going to apologize or whatever it was that happened. I really don't want to know. He then left the NURTW and Lagos State, of course, government empowered him and created Lagos State parks and garden management, which is now, he's now the chairman, right? So literally saying that, you know what, you can tell them to go, you know, go Hock transformer, you are going to be in charge of your state, you're going to be charged of Lagos State. So that, that alone, that move alone gave me a bit of concern because again, somebody has to be accountable. The reason why we have a lot of funny kind of leadership in Nigeria is because there's no form of accountability. You feel like you don't owe anybody an explanation. So for me, I feel like, okay, NURTW was trying to do something in a way to discipline or to curtail his exorcist because again, they say power, intoxicate absolute power, you know, it is completely, it just grips you absolutely, right? You just, you know, want to explode and all of that. And that's the thing about power, right? It can, it can really suck you in and you really feel like you are above, you can loop your own touch. So that's what I think would have played out, you know, and now Lagos State government empowering him with the Lagos State parks and garden. So I'm just wondering, right, what are your thoughts? First of all, when you heard about this partnership or this proposed partnership because it has not happened yet, the MOU that was, that is in place is the one that was signed with NURTW, right? We don't know the, the status of NURTW right now in Lagos. I hear that, you know, it's not, it's been suspended by Lagos State. Yes, but Lagos State government. So it means that if at all any form of movement is going to happen, it has to happen with what's called the parks and management. So let me hear your thoughts. OK, so I have a lot of things to say about this. So first, when I saw the reports on 2019 elections, you see, we have a problem in Nigeria and that problem is lack of planning. So we knew from the beginning that we don't have the capacity. Exactly. You know, you have to move 5,000, whatever, 10,000, whatever, 15,000, whatever. How about you make these plans before time? We have how many years? So, you know, make up, put all those preparations in place. Why didn't we do that? Why is it now at the nick of time? We are dancing. Oh, we want to bring in this, want to bring in that. I like that you also touched on how MCO Luomo was suspended from NURTW. And then now they gave him this Lagos State parks, management, whatever. Then you mind that this same person is also the APC Chieftain. Then you mind that he has also held solidarity rallies for APC, maybe if he wasn't inclined to a particular party, which is what Abubakar said. This guy is actually inclined to the APC. So how can you come and tell me that someone who is the chairman of this is the person that's not going to be in charge of moving these materials? Of course, I'm going to panic. I'm going to start asking myself, oh, is this not giving APC on your advantage? It doesn't seem like, OK, this election is going to be, there's going to be some mago mago, as we say. I don't think that it's... I understand that yes, logistics is very important. But if there was proper planning put in place, we'd probably not find ourselves here, which is already the first problem. More so, I get now that you're saying, OK, let's leave it. According to what Mohsen's name I'm sad, but you said that, yeah, it's quite imperative that they are able to move the election materials and what not, what not, what not. How about you look for a neutral body to actually do that? You say you cannot bring in cars or you cannot bring in vehicles from other states that it's unlawful to do that. Didn't you know this before? Why are you just talking about this now? So it's just, I don't know. You know, it's so interesting that I was just saying to someone that most churches that do all these conventions and all of that, they move people in their houses to their destination. And guess what? Most of these things, they contract it. They don't get hired, you know? Because again, from the report, they said the ideal thing is that normally you're not supposed to know who they are partnering with. Exactly. Who is the supposed partner that they are partnering to move the sensitive materials. So I know someone that is in charge of election materials. Right now, DSS, SSS, everything, you can't even go close to the office. Because these are the people that, so it is that sensitive. Do you understand what I'm saying? So how would you know the thing when we say they don't use DSS and everything, SSS stay protected? You don't go close to the office. So that, like you rightly said, if he was a passitan, yes, if he was neutral, if he was not affiliated to any political party, nobody would say anything. But let me hear your thoughts, Jennifer, then I'll come to you Mary. I honestly believe that with the way Nigeria is and a lot of these bodies operate, they know that they can do things and they will get away with it. Nigerians won't probably ask a lot of questions. I mean, people would have doubts in their mind. They have questions, they'll probably talk about it in their small groups. But they are not questioned. And because they are not exactly held to give us answers, they just come out and they make these decisions and let us know, okay, this is what we're running with, this is what we're doing. We know the history of MCO Lo Mo. Like we know where he started from. I mean, I'm not, I wouldn't say I'm 100% big on council culture, that kind of thing. I know that you can always give people opportunities and all of that. But then we know where he's coming from. We know his foundation. We know what he's rooted in. And he actually scares me so much because on election day, we don't know what will happen. And I have this very terrible feeling that a lot of things will happen. It's either papers are missing or some of these materials will not get to, it's polling units or you have violence happening in those sections or where people are going to vote. Violence comes out or people are attacked or something. Like I really do not get it. They came out and said, oh, they don't have their codes. And like you said, there are churches who actually contract these things out. If you want to get it done the right way, you will get it done. I feel like all these things are just excuses. They are just excuses. We weren't supposed to bring her on the show. The CEO of I think Shotlas or something. Do you understand? She does not own any of all those bosses. But most of the bosses right now, they are helping, what is it called, work at 9 to 5 hours, get to their job. From different parts of Lagos. So I mean, it's a company. She has created this system. If you want to show that you'll see. Because again, this is really worrisome for me. Because you knew. From 20, you knew. And you said, oh, you are going to get better with the next election. There's not even, there's not even, because again, don't forget that previous elections, there's always complaints. People in first time, there's always complaints about that. It doesn't get to them. It doesn't get to them at all. Or it gets extremely late. That has always been their concern. There has always been their complaint. If we get off Mary then, we'll take a break. Because I'd like to hear the thoughts of Nigerians. To be honest, I actually didn't look at him from a different point of view. I was just thinking, oh yeah, he's close out to the masses and he, you know, knows his people well so he'll be able to, you know, sensitize it. But now that you have said that, thinking about it, I mean, it's just giving APC on due advantage. Because there's no way I'm going to be for APC and I'm not going to... It's either you're going to put people under pressure to say, oh yeah, vote for APC or something or misplace the ballot papers and I'm just wondering, why is it that we don't think in this country before we do things? I mean, we're just four ladies here and I believe we think at least to a certain extent before we pass on judgments. Everything is just scattered. I mean, if... I'm sorry to say but the election can just come and go I think I'm tired at this point because it's not making any sense it's actually not making any sense it's really not making any sense you are clearly setting the APC up for success and I guess the game is the game so we just have to play. It is what it is. But let me play the devil's advocate though. So there's this, there's this what's it called, slogan that says keep your friends close and your enemies closer because again, somebody has said and argued that really, who are the people that go out on the streets to go and disrupt elections? They are the terms, right? So if you tell them that's come I know that you are the one that will disrupt the elections and I hand over these things to you. We did deliberately now because now it's obvious that you are the one holding on to the elections. They don't care, because they know that look, we can mess this thing up and there's nothing you would do about it. So saying that we know that you are the ones that always cause this ruckus but then come and be in charge of it that's like even now giving them more power to carry out what it is that they want to carry out. But don't you think in a way disarms them to do anything? You just talked about accountability. I mean he can come out and say nothing to me anymore. He can come up with any excuse. Because I hear that now in all of those things they actually put tracking devices, right? They put tracking devices to monitor the movement and they were about of every single vehicle that the election materials would be transported in. Who is the organization that is first in it? We can't miss the way we can't miss the way we can't miss the way we can't miss the way so we have Ibalias conversation Was this not at the old gate where somebody here on handkerchief and found a camera that was not there before? Alright, if you're just tuned in it's our ladies night out and we're discussing the proposed INEC MCO Luomo's partnership It's actually League of State Parks and Garden but you know he's the chairman So we're asking is it a good or a bad idea? Now, please let's hear what you have to say Remember, you can join this conversation send us an SMS or WhatsApp to 081-803-4663 You can also tweet at us at WeishuAfrica one with the hashtag Weishu Now our phone line is now open and the number to call is 070-2500-7749 That's the number to call Okay, so I mean this is actually very interesting because this is not just affecting the presidential election League of State is an APC State I don't understand how you give me something that I am a part of and I would not sway and that's why for instance in the hospitals you're not allowed to operate on your family member because there's no way that bias will not be there that sensitivity will not be there emotions will play out you cannot be in the family and watch your family members lose so that's why you see parents go out of their way sometimes to go and bribe what's it called for Waik and all of those things so that their children will yes, we've seen parents pay for results and all of that thing it's not because they set out to say they want to pay but sometimes you cannot just watch this case League of State let's even leave presidency because presidency is a bit of League of State is an APC State and I would not see an APC chieftain not been given the mandate to deliver League of State to APC but let me take our first call for the evening, Kinsley from Potacot did I call the number to call oh sorry Kinsley you're live hello go ahead you're live good evening good evening can you hear me? yes we can let me appreciate let me appreciate you baby you're doing quite a good job there thank you you're talking about the nature of life and the subject please stand to bring out judgment where a particular political party is celebrating about it you would have to call to your call back please and please when you call back turn off the device that you are listening in with because there's a feedback and it affects the conversation the number to call sorry is 0702 500 7749 that's the number to call I remember just turn off the volume of whatever device you're listening or watching us from so there's no feedback and we can hear you clearly sorry we had to cut off that call I wish I could hear what he was trying to say you know so I mean I'm just saying that every for instance every local government chairman right now every local government chairman across Nigeria that belongs to a political party has been giving a mandate to deliver their local government to their what's it called the national body so if they belong to APC they belong to SDP they belong to what's it called Labour Party they have to deliver so everybody has that mandate so again somebody that has been handed that mandate to deliver to his constituency how do you expect but let me take Kunle from Lagos hello Kunle you're live good evening yeah just to quickly contribute to your discourse for me I think that I think that it was the decision to engage the services of commercial transportation in Lagos is wrong it's totally wrong and it's just wrong but I'm confused because I wouldn't know since NYRTW in Lagos has metamorphosed into Lagos Pact and Garagies Management Committee headed by M. T. Luomo and there is another organization called Lagos Pact Management which is headed by the President Monaco so you have to transport organizations in Lagos which actually used to be known as NYRTW and the other one known as the Road Transport Employer Employer Transportation of Nigeria so which one is IMEK engaging is it the one led by Uluomo only or is IMEK also engaging in services of RISAN from Pact Management Committee on another hand but for me it just goes to that there is operational efficiency in IMEK perhaps because IMEK is not being funded the way it should be funded otherwise there is no basis for engaging people who are trained to its operations operations although that Uluomo let you be placed in this regard even if you are saying that the vessels will be tracked we all know what they got and the kind of elements you know thank you Kune but you know there is a dynamic thing that is happening with this particular elections don't forget that transmission results is going to be done electronically based on the new electoral act so if at all there is going to be some form of manipulation look at what happened in Oshun state right where there was voting and now a presidential governor someone that was declared winner now it has been obtained based on the evidence of probably over voting or whatever so if we know that should we be worried because for us now is it not a no brainer that the elections whether they like since now there is a more structured way to transmit results because which was what the which was what was prevalent in previous elections where term printing would happen overnight you understand and the next thing somebody is declared a winner you understand I am saying to you that with the new structure of the electoral act that allows for electronic transmission of results so whether they even give it to the devil himself to what's he called to transport your sensitive materials and all of that would it really affect the outcome of the elections do you think that this thing that is used in Oshun state can they play that kind of game for the presidential election where you swore to money that's when you are waking up to say that oh no there was over voting or something does that not show that you yourself you don't even know what you are doing how are you realizing months after that the case is you know our Nigerian case is always in court generally you are smiling well we should be very worried we should be very worried because to be honest I don't think that this beavers system is really going to make a difference to be honest I don't think so and this is very sad because I was I thought very honestly that this year and it could have actually okay let me not use that word and it could have gotten their acts right you had an entire four years come on the election doesn't happen every other day it happens four years and then you come back and when I hear this kind of things I then ask myself questions like when these people sit down do they actually have a structure what do they discuss what do they put in place what kind of plans do they come up with how do they operate what do they think because I don't believe that even personally in your home you are running your home you know that okay when you make beans your kids don't like to eat beans right they think about it like okay but they need beans how else can I make these beans for them you actually go through a process and you try different things do you understand the Nigeria so then we know that these people don't like sweet amala next tomorrow we are still going to save the amala in five days we will still save the amala no matter what it is that happens so I now ask myself how are we expecting the different results where we keep that's the definition of insanity very far the definition of insanity the truth is we don't have any structure and then sometimes when they put policies in place you find out that even the people who actually put those policies in place are not following it now if you work in an organization at the beginning of the year you have like a board meeting where you are talking about your plans for the year what are your key objectives how are you going to deliver on those things and quarterly you have QBRs quarterly business review meetings where you are reviewing your target for the year so when it comes to Nigeria sometimes I don't know QBR love my your life good evening good evening yeah I want to ask you my Twitter what I've seen on the screen is this report I'm not sure is this a normal partnership well that is how you that is how you coin the topic is this is this a normal what you want to do boy why must I not partner with you which means I just want to give this election to somebody hey I just stop what you are about to do because when you do it you are telling as well you won't have a rule that you have already won the election so if you a good person don't take empty the world and keep down who are talking about what you want to do because without taking the real issue destroy the electoral system let's not look at this because I don't know what to do thank you very much wow I want to ask you a question yes please who are you going to join this process of diving so wait so let me explain how I think I think is not thinking through these things and I think we need to help them right I mean my kids go to school in ocean state for instance whenever they are coming back from school we usually drop them off in school but whenever they are coming back they come with the school bus and I mean it's a committee parents come together there is a chaperone in each of the buses you know a lot of that they have chaperones in each of the buses I don't know how the structure would run but I should believe that they should be representatives of each of the parties and that already because yes that's the only way you can monitor whatever that is going on so from the point of pickup everybody's representative will be there to be picked up and the point of exit the representative will be there till it is also submitted if that is the case then they will not have an issue but already we have not even got into the elections we've seen so many violent things happening and we know that these people are directly associated with violence when the ensas protest happened in October of 2020 you remember that it was in BRT buses some of these dogs just right around the governor's office in Alausa these dogs were there with machete they were with cutlassies all of those things and nobody could even put a rain on them it begs the question that really is INEC part of the propaganda and this is not even because it's APC it would have been any other party as far as I'm concerned everybody that knows me I believe in free and fair give everybody a plane level fail to play whoever emerges then you say ok kudos and you shake like good sportsmen and you are done so not giving someone an advantage because now this thing affects a lot of things the governorship elections state have a house of assembly federal house of assembly or federal the federal assembly and the presidency everything in that value chain is at stake because you cannot have someone that is an artist and it's not like he's even heeding he is clay let me take another call your life I think someone from Bahia sir how are you very young lady go ahead please lie the program is quite interesting thank you but the point I want to make is that INEC the current INEC is currently constituted has done a lot of remarkable improvements in our electoral system working closely with the new electoral acts because there are a lot of innovations election is not an attempt election is a process and INEC have been able to in this magnitude meet up to 90% of the process in the next 14 days we are going to move into the elections and if you look at the preparedness what I think the media should be in the forefront to put the candidates on the right track it's not the DC of INEC because because most of the candidates are delayed they are not attacking themselves they are not discussing the critical issues that are affecting this country so let me ask you a question and today it's 100 and 33 million persons people in the poverty net and it's a multi-dimensional sector in areas of housing in areas of education most recently we arrived that they want to close the investment the investment should be closed before now so that the students can get prepared for the election because the lecture demography has about 60% of the voters as young persons yes, majority of them are still in schools when we are collecting our privileges they are still in schools so I think there is something fundamental around with our system the media is the mirror of the electorate they should hold politicians accountable they should hold politicians also acceptable they should hold the system accountable they should question, interrogate and investigate our system because INEC as it is today they've done their best because with beavers you cannot beat it any longer if you steal a beaver's machine the machine can be deactivated it's all like power what's where you can smash and run away look at what's happening in our school state today after the announcement of the result it is INEC before in the past the candidate is the party that will sue because actually the result was announced by INEC it is the duty of INEC to defend that result it is the duty of INEC to defend that pronouncement because they issue the result out so what I'm saying in our shell is that we should encourage the fire because there are few solutions we know our systems are not normal we don't operate the normal system because you can look at what the citizens are passing few days to the elections 2S can stay all over the country and the distractions they are distracting the whole 230 million persons aware of the real issues and taking them to issues that affect their lives because somebody who doesn't have money in his pocket will not think about the elections somebody who doesn't have fuel in his car has to take his children to school will not be thinking about the elections okay thank you so much you are busy so I get his question about his commendation for INEC I was just going to ask one simple question is it okay for you to like you are in secondary school from GSS1 up until SS2 you are straight A's doing everything I don't know that then at your SS3 final year you now come out with flat out F9 listen you come out with flat out F9 in your work results your whatever so when you look back to all the results that you have gotten in the past does it not count anymore what was most important the final lap that's why in a relay race what they do they put their best legs they put the bestest leg at the last place because even if the person that started or in the middle whatever if they are too slow whatever the person that is the fastest they put the person at the last leg so he is able to catch up and probably put up all the energy to get to the finish line and win the relay so I get you chief easy you must commend INEC most of the reforms that I mentioned earlier it's actually in a way to checkmate politicians and their antecedents the only thing I am worried about is let INEC become a lot more innovative so you knew that there was transportation problem from day one you understand so it's not today that that transportation problem started so why didn't you plan why are we still using the same people and expect different results so it doesn't make sense to me Chinelo you have a comment and we will take a final good evening my debut to sisters of what are you saying proposed INEC and MCO LOMO partnership according to your color he made mention of a wrong idea to involve MCO LOMO MCO LOMO is an APC man and Bola met in Ubu's boy so it is deadly and dangerous so I am not in support it is like a form of campaigning for the success of APC to win the presidential election I sense serious danger here that's my case for now sister I like your captain you look beautiful and I like your hair my name is Daniel let's hear our final thoughts thank you so much Daniel let's hear our final thoughts like you said I think that INEC needs to go back to the drawing board and become more innovative and also employ the use of there are several other transportation means that they can't use without having to go through and put a regulatory body so to speak in charge of it but don't now come and tell us that you want to use this particular person in question so they can actually employ other ride hailing services or transportation hailing services to transport these materials since that's where we are at right now but not this particular and we will have cameras imputed in buses as well Mary are you going to say the camera I am trying to find beaver and let's see how it goes that's all I can say maybe we are planning in for another four years to say INEC should go back to the drawing board I think it's too late for that so let's fall through the plan and let's see how it goes we will try our best to be as free and fair as we can but let's see how it goes Janie baby in as much as as color chief said that we need to commend INEC I mean yes they've done well so far but they can do more I feel like sometimes when they put out some things you can actually tell that they did not think it through properly there was no risk analysis there was you didn't even project for the nearest future I mean you know the kind of people that we have in Nigeria so there are lots of things that you need to put in place that you're doing and they know that you're actually thinking about it very well people will see the work and they'll say oh yes this person actually did a very good job I mean it might not go as great as expected but you know that yes the work that was actually put in place was done properly and I don't think they've done a proper job but I mean I'm just one person I would just beg INEC the tension is really high there's a lot of anticipation in this particular election I don't know about the other ones right so whatever it is that you're doing be seen to first of all know what it is that you're doing be seen to exhibit some level of competence and secondly be seen to be very very neutral when MCO Luomo was still under NURTW he could get away with doing the transporting and all of that but now that he has clearly removed himself from NURTW and Guardian and all of that and we know his affiliations we know where his loyalty lies it's actually very very tricky to have him control sensitive materials such as our ballots and whatever it is that we're using for the elections but hey INEC over to you thank you so much ladies thank you Mary, Chinelo and Jennifer now before we go follow us on all our social media handle invite your families and friends and like, share, invite families and friends to watch and follow as well now if you missed our quote for the day here it is again, a lack of transparency results in distrust and a deep deep sense of insecurity and that is from Dalai Lama we'll see you guys tomorrow at 8pm as we bring another great conversation to your screen enjoy