 Welcome to The Advocate on Plus TV Africa where we discuss thought-provoking topics in an atmosphere of seriousness, decisiveness and laughter. Here we call a spade a spade. Today I'm asking if the presidential seat is now a theme where anybody with money and power can easily vie for. Tulu is pointing out how leaders reflect us. Ruth is asking if we need to take up primaries seriously and Shola on the other hand is looking at the new electoral act. And while Elijah is focusing on fixing the sham that is Nigerian politics, sit back and relax after this break we'll be here to dissect it all. Do stay with us. Is the presidential seat now a joke? In the past few weeks we've seen more and more people get into the presidential race. I mean I've seen people who should probably be on exile now get into the presidential race. Is the audacity of impunity for me? This makes me consciously believe that Nigeria is fast becoming a comedy skit. And guess who the joke is? The masses. I can't help but fusing a popular trend on Twitter. Is this playing? Are you playing? What type of playing is this? Could this also be the change of blindness? A term that is used in psychology, which politicians adopt as an advanced strategy too? Human beings can only focus on so much. If you want to hide something from the people, throw several things at them and then what you're really doing will go unnoticed until it's too late. I just hope it's not going to be too late for us. I strongly believe that whoever ends up at the presidential seat in the 2023 elections is going to be very critical to Nigeria's position in the next decade. I personally implore everyone, both young and old, to get involved and closely follow what's happening. I'm still very much flabbergasted with everything. But let me take a moment off the screen to engage my fellow passionate advocates here, asking one single question. What's really going on here? I was about to ask you the same question. They said one of the political parties extended the deadline of purchase of Humpty today and then tomorrow is the deadline for submission. So are they doing apply for job awards? You talked about audacity. I think that's actually the main crux of this issue. Because they're handling the political, the presidential position like a joke. And we must actually be the ones that bear the suffering. So you're just a bunch of politicians. You just buy firms and these firms are not cheap. So you get together, one person is buying a firm, they're just buying the firms. And these firms are, we all know it's 100 million for a particular party. And it's not small money. So that's where you know that there's actually money in Nigeria to waste. There's so much money to waste. I mean, they should just give us the money. Let's just share the 100 million. I think these parties are missing this thing. I understand that the party has to do things for other companies to raise money for the party. But this is way beyond. It's in excess. Why don't they focus on values? Presidential firms can be, they can even make it almost free. But the criteria for you to get it will be very difficult. And to be somebody of value. If you don't have that level of personality or achievement, you can't get it. But the way it is now, every time they can have it, it has 100 million error. But when I build in the boss pack, it gives 100 million and I go and buy the firm. I mean, it's very interesting. When I said change blindness, right? It didn't happen in 2019 elections. I don't think that happened in 2015 elections. So what's really going on? Are they trying to distract us from something? Why is everybody obviously coming out for the firm? So what's really happening? I keep on asking myself, really, what's the brain behind bringing 100 million to buy a firm? I mean, the other day I saw, that was yesterday. I saw that the MD of Nigerian Mints company there about also purchased the firm. So Sivian Governor purchased the firm. He has purchased the firm. Everybody has purchased the firm. People haven't been buying on people's behalf. So is it that, I'm trying to wrap my head. Are they, is everyone trying to register the fact that they have the money to do this? Is it audio money? Or is it that they're trying to support? Maybe there's something behind it that the politicians are not telling us because it's just not normal. And to be frank, this number, you're only seeing it in the ruling party. The last count for PDP, which whose ticket price is even lower, is just 17 people. So here in the ruling party, you're having close to 30 people that have bought a 100 million error from. There's something they're not telling us. I think I would go with the fact that this is like a decoy. So the real thing that they're trying to do or trying to hide. That's the way I believe it. And the case was reversed when PDP was in power. The same thing too. Even though it was not 100 million, it was exorbitant at that time. And of course a lot of persons were showing interest. What I think tells two things. Number one, it tells the over monetization of Nigerian politics. Our value system is decaying. We don't have to leave our life based on money. We judge someone's content of character and value based on how much does he have in the bank account. It's supposed to be his antecedent. What has he done in the past? How many lives has he touched? Is he a man of integrity? Exactly. But the way they're doing it is all about money, money, money. Every time they can have it, we buy it because he has 100 million error. Even somebody in the government, who is not even supposed to buy the form. Politically, a supposed person is handing a very sensitive office. He's not supposed to buy the form. And then people are buying the form for him. It's very bad. So there should be a mechanism in which we screen our people. Not everybody should purchase the form. And the form shouldn't be a maze for parties to raise money. It's a distraction. Exactly. Thank you. Hi, Chalu. It's great to see you. What do you think about, you know, I mean, this whole, will I call it a sham or a joke? You know, is it changed blindness? You know what I mean? Tell us. I mean, probably you're closer to the seat of power. Maybe you can tell us what's going on there. Tell you. Yeah. Hi guys, good afternoon. Hi. I mean, clearly, there's nothing new here. It's a circus that happens every four years in Nigeria. And there's nothing new to see here. You know, and it's, I mean, like you said, clearly it's a joke. But it's just a, it's just a piece out of a whole circus, out of a whole comedy show, you know, that happens every four years. Obviously, the electoral is not tired enough. I mean, I say that we're tired, we're not tired enough. When we're really tired, right, we'll do something about it. If history is, I mean, history is bereft of its stories, of countries that have attained independence in the recess of the world, you know, or are practicing in the recess of the world. I mean, it takes a whole lot more. I mean, last week we talked about this. We talked about this. I said, if you wanted to count how many that are in Nigeria, there are also 100,000 people that are actually leaders. There are about 50,000. There are about 10,000. And there are 200 million people in Nigeria. So it's a case of, you know, the few against the many. So until the many decide that, you know, they're tired of this joke, it's no longer for me. You know, this circus is going to happen in another four years. After 27 is going to be another circus. And then 20, you know, it's going to go on and on until somebody decides or a growth will decide that, you know what, that we're going to do something different, you know, because if you just look at the whole process, you know, from the pilot of the firms, the cost of the firms, so the kind of people, the quality of people, and I'll say a bit more about this when I, you know, say my piece. So to the type of people that are even vying for this position, you ask yourself, you know, so that people's pay salaries in a state of, for me, they have nothing. Once come and do Nigeria, it just makes no sense. Clearly, they're having a laugh, you know, if it's quite obvious that they're having a laugh. Well, thank you so much, Tolu. You know, if this is a joke in a couple of months, we're going to find out, but I would employ every Nigerian to get involved, you know, in any way they think that they can get involved because right now it's not just about, you know, talking, talking, talking. We have to somehow, you know, get infusion to what's going on, you know, and let's see where this takes us to. Up next is Tolu. Just stay with us.