 Welcome back to the breakfast and plus TV Africa. General Abdulraman Dambazal, former chief of army staff and minister of interior, has alleged that terrorists and members of the prescribed indigenous people or Biafra iPop activities will constitute a serious threat to the general elections in 2023. Dambazal spoke on Tuesday in Abuja at the blueprint newspaper annual lecture that was titled 2023 politics and national security and national Nigerian stability. He believed that insecurity would affect the 2023 general elections, saying that some communities will still be displaced and terrorists would likely continue to attack on soft targets to hinder Nigerians from casting their votes. According to him, Inaq officials and ad hoc staff would be highly apprehensive despite the assurance by the government to protect them. Access to polling units in border communities may pose some difficulties. This is one more reason why adequate security must be provided. We have a guest joining us this morning, a public affairs analyst, comrade Mark Adebayo. He's the executive director of secure world and liberty initiative for peace. Mark Adebayo, it's good to have you join us. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you for having me, plus TV Africa. All right. What do you make of this thoughts from, you know, Abdulrahman Dambazal about, you know, the security situation, iPop terrorists and the threat to the 2023 elections? Yeah, thank you so much. You see, the issue of security should be of concern to every Nigerian, especially as we are moving towards the 2023 generalizations. What would assume, what would assume or accept the fact that being a retired general, the former interior minister, Dambazal will know what he was talking about and that it should not be discounted. But there's a necessity, it is necessary to disambigate the issues involved here. For instance, yes, terrorists, you know, Boko Haram, Iswa, or elements and the rest of that, including kidnappers. And you know that there's a thin line between terrorists, kidnappers, and bandits in Nigeria today there, as far as I'm concerned, all of them are terrorists. But on the issue of iPop, I think we need to disaggregate the issues here. iPop came up as a liberation struggle organization for the liberation of the people of the South East, the Igbo people of the South East, you know, specifically. And I believe that they came up with a honorable struggle to liberate their people from the oppressive nature of the Nigerian state, which they believe was so oppressive to them. Now, but what is happening? We will describe that at the beginning, at deception. iPop was not carrying arms. There was no ESA then. There was no Eastern Security Network then. They were only mass protest with flags and rest of that until the government unleashed terror on them, began to shoot them, began to arrest them. So they discovered that they needed to protect themselves as they went and armed themselves. Now, you now discover that significantly the government, two security agencies have been able to reduce the capacity of iPop to unleash armed violence on the people who are entirely on government targets. And then you will discover that recently, I think around April this year, the governor of Anambra State, Governor Shashto Ludo, who went to see in Ambedkar Meditation. And we heard what in Ambedkar Meditation said that there should not be any violence through iPop to anybody. And then iPop has denied majority of the assaults against government targets and individuals in the state. What has happened, that I believe has happened, is that the so-called unknown government, some criminal elements within the Southeast, just saw the window of the iPop agitation as a business, as a criminal business venture for them. So they took advantage of that and started kidnapping their own people, raping their own people, beheading their own people and getting ransom from their own people. You know, just two days ago in Umoha, a young guy of about 25, 26, was gone down, he brought the light, by this so-called unknown government. Umoha, I'm talking of, it's not so far from over in Nemo State. Governor Shashto Ludo has been able to significantly de-escalate the terrorism and the criminality of the unknown government in Anambra State since he came on board. Especially after that meeting with Anambrikanu in the DSS detention. When he came back, he set up a motion, you know, steps and actions and he became so proactive in preferring this type of a carnage in the Southeast. The unfortunate thing is that if care is not taken, even candidates from the Southeast may not be able to compete in the Southeast. The Labour Party candidate is from the Southeast. The ADC candidate, yes, the ADC candidate is from the Southeast. I don't know, maybe a couple of others. You know, the African Democratic Congress candidate is from the Southeast. I'm wondering, even if these people will be able to compete in their own state, but it will not be because of AIPOP. It is because of these ubiquitous unknown government. And if the governors or the Southeast can come together and arrange a network of security to be able to get rid of this people, it is doable. Now, you will remember, you will recall that prior to the 2015 general elections, there were apprehensions like this, that oh, Boko Haram will score through the election, there will be classes, there will not be a peaceful environment, but former President Gulogunatham was able to scale up the activities of the security operations in the Northeast and Northwest, which significantly decapitated the capacity of Boko Haram and other theories to affect negatively the 2015 general elections. This government must learn from that and do something about it. That there was an upscale in the security operations of the security agency, the Andrea Army in particular, that made sure that the capacity of Boko Haram to unleash terror during elections was totally reduced and devastated. Unfortunately, I doubt, I hope, let me say, I hope that this government will aggregate the same willpower to be able to de-escalate the capacity of Boko Haram and other theories to affect our elections negatively. That is something that we all have to see because this government has something to learn from. In 2015, when the current administration came on board, that election will have been messed up, especially if President Gulogunatham didn't want that election to hold. He had more than enough excuses because the security situation was not as bad as this one, not as bad as this one, but it was significantly bad. So what did Gulogunatham do then to ensure that we had an election that was peaceful, that to the extent that even in those areas that were supposed to have security challenges, non-force came from there in 2015 and 2019. Non-force came from there. So this government must learn from that. What did the government do in 2015? What did the government do in 2019 that ensured that elections were held? You remember that one of the arguments of former first president, Artiku, was that the votes from Bruno Yubei as he's there, he noticed, where there was high-scale operations of Boko Haram and other terrorist organizations in 2019. How come that votes from there were more than where we had peace? So the government, if the government sits down to its responsibility, if it's alive to its responsibility, we will hold a peaceful, free-fair election. But we don't want excuses. We don't want this government to come out with their perennial excuses in 2015 that led to a presidential failure in the administration. We should, the security agencies, the government should be able to sufficiently arm the security agencies and correct them, pay their allowances, arm them with subjugated weapons that they need and correct them, let them go and escalate these people. And I believe very strongly despite the challenges and other insinuations that the Nigeria Army and other security agencies have the capacity to defeat terrorism in this country. I believe so. With the right leadership at the top and with the right political leadership and the presidency, the Nigeria Army is capable of totally destroying these people. I have strong belief in that. Okay, so Mama, let's also look at another issue that's been put on the table. The issue is that prior to the election, just recently we had the elections in a number of states. And prior to this time, there were a lot of concerns as regard whether or not that election would hold because of the activities of sit at home, don't sit at home or known gunmen. And there seemed to be a lot of confusion because from what the feelers that were getting it seemed like some other elements have hijacked iPop for what we know them for. And they are using this to commit crimes and perpetuate evil in that particular region. But that election happened because there were a lot of fears that there was really not going to be an election. And now we have Charles Saludo, who's the governor of a number of states. So do we think that these are not just propaganda to cripple the spirit of Nigerians ahead of the 2023 elections, especially when it seemed to be that there's been a lot of association with some presidential candidate with the iPop. Right, we've had a certain presidential candidate been described as a tribal begot and what a view has been also associated to iPop because now iPop has been described as a terrorist. I mean, a group of terrorists who terrorized but we understand the activities here. So don't you think that all of this is such sub-propaganda that's get at crippling the spirit of Nigerians ahead of the 2023 elections just to instill fear because the level of awareness now the people are politically aware and they're more focused and determined to ensure that something different happens for our country. Yeah, you see, look, we have raised the main point there. You see, there are suspicions about General Demba's statement that probably he was doing a national job of preparing the ground to look to find an excuse to postpone the elections by saying that women's security and rest of that. And like I said, it's likely to be believed because it's a retired general and the former interior minister in this country. So it's quite unfortunate. I do not believe that a leader at that level should now begin to instill fears into the people because what they have declared will be instilling fears into the electorate and it can lead to a significant voter apathy in the next election and that should not be coming from someone at this other level. I think we need courage in this country. I think we need their courage, and I think we need somebody to motivate us, not somebody that will put fears in us. But Nigerians are determined to go into this election. They are determined to vote. We have our presidented registration of voters as I call it, I make records. So rather than, we will encourage the government to say, look, prepare for this election. Make sure that you put security arrangement in place that would guarantee the safety and security of the electorate. Yeah, we could be saying that. But we shouldn't be saying that in security, Ma, the 23rd general election, a leader should not be saying that. We need their courage in this country. We need to put a vision in this country, not that kind of, you know, statements that would further, discourage Nigerians that would further put fear into Nigerians that would further compromise our elections. I don't think we need that. Coming back to the issue of Anambra, there was a lot of apprehension prior to the Anambra election. People thought that was not going to. I was one of the people that believed that the Anambra election might mean Ma totally scotched by insecurity, by the activities of this unknown government and the rest of that. You see, when a leadership is determined, has the, has aggregated the political will to be the right thing, to get it done, it gets done. That was what happened in the Anambra election. The leadership came together with community leaders and with some youth organizations and the rest of them. The people decided that it was going to happen. You know, the current governor escaped as a national attempt twice. You know, he said he see some other security agents who have lost their lives in the attempt to take his life. That's what the man got into government. And in Anambra state now, today, it's perhaps the safest state in Europe, that is because a man came on board, decided to be proactive and to do what is necessary, what is needful, to be able to secure and safe and protect his people. That's the kind of approach that we need at national level that is not there right now. In the government, and the security agencies do the needful. If they perform their assignment, that they do it very well. We have a peaceful election in 2023. I have no doubt about that. The security agencies, the army, the army, the security, other security agencies, the police, the DSS, the air force, they have the capacity to be able to give us to deliver a peaceful election in this country. I will leave this election for 2023 because there must be an expression to the will of Nigerians or who they want to be their leader in 2023. Considering the fact that this country has been iniquity, iniquityously reduced to the level of a backwarding of a failing state. We need somebody to come on a rescue mission. We need somebody to come and make this country to stabilize this country. We need someone who can reunite Nigeria. We don't want anybody that will come and continue the ethno-religious antipathies that have been there for this country in the last seven and a half years. We don't want anybody that will come and take off from top to bottom. We want somebody that will take off from the bottom that we are in, from their base to the very top. You see, the countries in the world that even in Africa here, that have the same league on the same league with Nigeria, have gone far ahead, have gone far ahead. Look at Turkey, look at Singapore. Look at Ghana, look at... Mark, just before we go now, I'd like you to answer this quickly because, I mean, I'm impromptu to call it off this morning or call it a wrap because we are really out of time. But apart from the fact that the former general has cited terrorists as a threat to the elections for 2023, do you see other factors that might just be threat to the elections in 2023? Well, well, well, aside from insecurity, the biggest threat I believe will be food buying and food selling because, you know, poverty in Nigeria has been deliberately weaponized by the leadership of this country so that the people, when you throw any little thing at them, they just jump at it, so that my biggest fear, aside from insecurity, is the area of the ISB that gets in the foot, you know, people will begin to, you'll see how, look at how the candidates of the Federal Political Parties emerged. It was a contest and contestation of who had the biggest dollars. So the issue of a prependa policies, prependa democracy and food is what I'm afraid of, that whether the real will and wishes of the Nigerian people will reflect in the elections of 2023 that people will not, so at the level of society, we have a lot of work to do to conscientize the people, to sensitize the people against selling their common, matrimony, against selling their consciences, you know, against compromising good life, good rules, infrastructure security and sound education for 10,000, 5,000, you know, for the next four years and that we enslave them for the rest and the generations to be born for the rest of their lives. We need, Nigerians too must realize and understand the fact that you cannot be collecting money from politicians and when they get to power, you are expecting them to perform, they will not perform. And to my people in the Southeast, they must know that the violence they are, they sit at home things, you know, are not doing anything good for them. It is counterproductive. It is destroying their economy. It is destroying their infrastructure. It is taking them backward. They are industrious people. They should not allow criminals and criminal entities to destroy the legacy that are built in Southeast. So they have a job to do. Well, thank you, Mark. But the citizens must come together and ensure their security in the Southeast. It is the job for the Igbo's but it's time to leave. Mark, we need to go now. Not just government alone. Thank you so much. I mean, fantastic. You're inside this morning on the show. We appreciate you. Thank you so much for making our time to be on the breakfast. Yes. We've been speaking with Mark Adebayo, a public affairs analyst. He's also executive director of Secure Worlds and Liberty Initiative for Peace and the threat to the 2023 elections. It's been put out to buy a former military general, Dambitua. That's what we've been looking at and all the threats. But that's it. Thank you so much for being with us. This morning from seven o'clock up until now, we will return tomorrow for the breakfast. If in case you missed out on any part of it, it would be great to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and do subscribe to YouTube channel where plus TV Africa and plus TV Africa lies down. I am Messia Bopu. Have a great morning.