 Welcome back. Elections beyond presidential race. The presidential elections in Nigeria often receive the most attention due to the high-provide nature of the role and its significant impact that the president has on the country's politics and policies. However, it is important to also pay attention to the state and national assembly elections as they also play a crucial role in shaping the country's political landscape and determining the direction of policymaking. These elections have the potential to bring new leaders and ideas to the forefront and it is important to ensure that all levels of government are held accountable to the people they serve. They need to pay attention to other categories of elections such as states and national assembly elections can lead to a lack of accountability for elected leaders. If the focus is solely on the presidential election, there will be less scrutiny of other elected officials which can lead to a lack of oversight and a lack of checks and balances in government. This can create an environment where leaders may be less motivated to act in the best interest of their constituents and may be more inclined to engage in corrupt or incompetent behavior. It is important for citizens to be informed and engaged with the electoral process at all levels of government to ensure that the elected leaders are held accountable for their actions. So, I beseech you, as we approached these 2023 elections, let us pay attention beyond the presidential election to other races such as those for the Senate, House of Representatives and the state governments as they also have a significant impact on the direction of politics of the country. Well, advocates, it is good that we are having this rave, this attention that the youth are giving to this election, their awareness. But if you take a look around, you will see that discussions only center around the presidential race. And it is important that we pay as much attention to what happens in our state and local governments. So, you see that the presidential election takes the greater attention, but when it gets to states, it lowers, but by then it gets to the local government level, the attention between those to the various minimum. And I think that is the reason why we are here. What do you think, guys? Well, you said it all, you know, even if you have a good president, it's true that the president, the box stops in the stable. He has to do more of the job, he has to influence, he has to give a direction. But, you know, there are certain laws or certain policies that he cannot or certain procedures, governance procedures that he cannot just execute without passing through other tiers of government. Every tier of government is important. We have to try as much as possible as we are trying to vote in a credible candidate for the president. You also look at credible candidates, look at their proof-wise and their manifestos, what are they offering, what are their personality, their achievement in pass and who they are, basically their intent or purpose and all those things. From the presidency to the House of Representatives, to the Senate, to the governor, state of the House of Assembly, down to the local government even consulates. So we have to do that. We have to pay detailed attention to these things because they are important. But the thing is, for what I just know, 2022 election, I'm very glad and happy that their awareness is more now. We are tired of poor leadership. We want to take back our nation. But it's not just beyond the, we should go beyond the mayor, should I say euphoria of the moments of all this, we are working. Go ahead, go out there, vote, should take time to understand these people, who they are, listen to them. I've been paying attention to many political candidates and what they see. So let's just keep paying attention to them and see what we can get from them and then make our decision. Victor, one of the factors that people have said that a particular candidate in this coming election might not win is that they are looking at how many other positions at the National Assembly, the state and then does he have or does the party has as a whole that would make him be able to achieve on the manifesto that he has brought forward. So do you think by just paying attention to just the presidential candidate of such party will be enough for us to see the manifesto come to bear when he wins the election? Yeah, I think it's very, very important and it's important to underscore it. I mean here we call it speed is speed, right? So I mean you're talking about Pitobi and when you look at it right, the Labour Party, APC is currently the government in administration, right? And it's not like there are APC elected officials all over the, you know, the federation, you know, at the national level. So the idea is that there has to be a lot of cohabitation and which is why it's important to underscore unity, harmony and peace. Regardless of whether you are for Labour Party, you are for, you know, PDP, APC, AFGA, whatever it is, there just has to be a harmonification because, you know, I mean if Pitobi becomes president, right? Or if Tinimbo or Kuangkuas or anybody, right, they are not essentially going to, if I'm going to invent a word, partify the entire, you know, positions with their own party. It doesn't work like that, right? So in Vegas, for instance, you know the party that is quite the strongest and it's funny that, you know, some parties are at the Senate level, some parties are doing poorly. When you come to some local government, let's say in some remote village, they are doing so when you're wondering, is this the same party that is evil and so parties are not evil. There's nothing like party being evil. It is people, right? It is people and that's why you see somebody living APC. I mean we saw it in this country, jump shipping from APC to PDP and we've seen a lot of recycling. So if we go by party, we are going to judge wrongly. I think it's about people and I agree with you. When we begin to look away from the fact that, you know, of course the office of the president is like the office of the CEO in a company. You know, everybody looks at the CEO to provide direction, to tell us where the business is going and all of those things. Nobody thinks about the security. Nobody thinks about the janitor. But guess what? You might be shocked that the janitor has the secret key to the next level of growth in that company just by watching people coming and go out, you know. So it's also important that as young people, right, it's very key that we begin to also get involved at the grass food level. So a lot of mobilization. Like I think I've said it on the advocate several times that we need to start learning about what's going on in our local government. If you are in kosher fair, you are in mainland, you are anywhere you are, right? You don't understand what's happening there. You need to get involved. Always our local government chairman or what are the things he said is going to do. Where is APC PDP label? It doesn't matter who is the person. What are the initiatives? How can I get involved? When are the meetings? How can I attend so that I can say, oh, I've attended four meetings in this month and I can say this is where we are at the local government level. And because of that, we focus on the bigger picture, the bigger demon, the bigger devil and we ignore the lesser evils, right? Which is very important. I'm going to underscore something here just to wrap up. You know when we say that we focus on the bad politicians, the politicians who, you know, we focus on things like maybe armed robbery or the smaller vice is happening, armed robbery, kidnapping, ritualism. These are evils. These are societal menaces, right? Well, guess what? Let's look at it this way. When the airplane crashed like this or so days and things like that, you know, let's say an airplane carries about, let's say maybe Max give or take 100 people. Let's say if a plane crashes because of under maintenance and poor maintenance culture, right? Let's say we lose 100 people. Now think about a politician who withholds allocated funds to fix bad roads. And think about it that there are some roads that when you look at the count, it takes close to 10,000 people die on those bad roads every year. Now we look at all the armed robbery, the kidnappers and all of those evils that looks very pronounced and we forget that the bigger evil is a politician who is sitting on, you know, the public funds. And as a result of that, indirectly killing people. Now he's not using gun to kill people, but by withholding those funds, they are also murdering people. So we need to also look at it from, let's not focus on the bigger things we can see, the presidency. Like you said, so I agree. I was going to look at the grassroots level. Lots of things are happening there and the next president, guess what, is coming from that. Very something. So let's go to Suleyman. Suleyman, can you hear me? Yes, Suleyman, I think we all in agreement that it's a good thing that the youth are really enthusiastic about this coming election. But where we think we are not doing well is not focusing on some other areas, like the representatives from different constituencies who will in turn fight against a particular policy if it's not in favour of their own personal goals. What do you take on this? So just as other advocates have said, the president is known to not make the government. The type of democracy we practice in this part of the world, require that all other hands of government really form what is government. And this has always been my point, just like other advocates have also said, that we must make sure that we don't just look at the president alone. It is true, the book ends on the president's desk. But democracy is beyond that. The president is known to not run everything. So we must also look who are those who are sending to the us of rep, who are those who are sending to the Senate, because they complement the effort of the president in this type of democracy we run in this part of the world. So it is our time and you can see the robust thing is that both of these elections are even tied together. That is the presidential, the Senate and the us of rep. It happens on the same day. The simple implication is this. That is, in most of the parties, actually the awareness is very, just like Phoenix said, that the awareness now is on the high side. People are now aware of what they need to do. But in most cases, the destiny of the president and the senator and the us of rep are always tied together. In most cases, they either sing or swim together. So it is our time and we are also looking at other people who elect in other positions, not just on the president. We can always, I mean, speak and interrogate every other areas that we need to before we get the friend or candidates given to us by each of the parties that we have in Nigeria. Suleiman Akonde is next after the break.