 Welcome to The Advocate, where thought-provoking topics are discussed with no holds bad here on Plus TV Africa. We basically call a spade by its name. Today, I'm advocating for us to be better citizens and better persons for ourselves and the society. Oluwakai Ode says, we do not want old and sick leaders anymore as the election window opens, but the decisions lie with us. Ruth is asking if we are wiser now, going into the 2023 elections, and finally, should we be grateful that the Twitter ban has been lifted, Victor is asking today. Sit back and after this break, we'll be here to dissect it all, stay with us. The year before the elections become better. So as we all know, this year 2022 is fraught with so many thoughts and uncertainty, but as it's customary with me, I'm an incurable optimist and a firm believer in the phrase leave while you yet leave. So this year before the elections, and this being my first appearance this year on The Advocate, I'm here to give us some ginger for the year. I'm advocating for you to become a better citizen, a better Nigerian, a better person because how do we create a better society when we can't create a better person? What can we do in the kind of country we live in where there's so much we don't have control over? So here's me giving us some life hacks for rules of success, and I'll start with number one, change your mindset. Monitor your words and your thoughts carefully, clearly letting them into your mind you are becoming the master of your future. Number two, very simple, dream big, imagine who you could be, what you could have or do, then set goals clear, write them down, and make a detailed plan of action. Number three, and I like this one, make your decision to become rich, like it's all about the trend, make it, take control of a financial future, determine how much you want to earn and save exactly. Include this amount into your goals and think about them all the time. You need it in Nigeria. Number four, manage your life. You need to take responsibility for every single thing that happens in your life. Do not look for excuses, do not blame anyone, not even the government, and I say become the master of your own destiny. Number five, and please dear Nigerian, take this seriously, do your job superbly. Set a goal to do your job in the best possible way, identify the key skills you need to master, and then use your name in your work. Give your professional level every day, and this is so important as far as if you plan to jack back. Number six, put people on the first place. Create and maintain stable relationships based on trust with the most important people in your line of business constantly, and also regularly expand the range of your contacts. This is so important, cannot be underestimated in this 2022 before election. Number seven, give freedom to your mental strength. Your ability to generate new ideas has no limit to any digital age, therefore your future is also not limited by anything. I want you to also take number eight, think from a position of opportunity. There's so much opportunity that's going to happen in Nigeria now, learn to see potential benefit in everything that happens around you. You can develop such thinking by constant repetition. Number nine, create your own future. The most successful people will carefully plan their lives in advance. As a result, they think more freefully and make the best decisions. We all create ourselves. We all need to work constantly on ourselves, raise the bar for self-improvement. Only systematic and active actions need to success. And I would say, at the end of the day, no one is exactly sure what the year is really bringing. And the only place you may have some control is over yourself. So what I'm saying today, choose to become a better citizen and a better person. You may just be creating a chain of events that can create a better society. Happy elections ahead of all of us. Happy elections. Well, for me, looking at all that you've said, the summary to read all this, take charge of your life. Exactly. Be responsible. That's it. I'm sorry to say, well, let me just ask rather than say it faster. How responsible are we as individuals, Nigerians? And how much charge have we taken of our life? It's easier for us to blame the easiest culprit, which is the government, for everything that happens to us. Even when we wake up, we know that there's always traffic in our homes, on our roads. And who take us two hours with traffic to get to wherever we are going. We wake up one hour at a time, we get to work, and we blame governments. And the thing is, we know that this is the current state in which we are. It's like someone who, maybe a leper or someone who doesn't have legs, blaming, complaining every time. When you already know your condition. There's a ura adage that says, what's that ura adage again? That says, something about... Okay, ugo, I said it like a barrel. Like, for one, even for one about Kanoke, a layman. A layman. Exactly. You have a lot of time to reflect. So, I think what you're saying, which I agree with totally is that, yes, there's inconsistency, there's failure, there is everything going wrong with governments. Yes, that is the fact. But we've known this for many years now. We need to look for a way to manage it and get ourselves out of it. You know, funny enough, this just reminds me of the fact that just before we started, I said, this year is my year, wow, man. We all say that, that's why he said it. The truth is that, I would like to, you know how every day, everywhere I have been inundated, I think you'll love it. There's been so much fear and anxiety, and so much that we don't know about. And then, you know, the first thing that hit us in January was the election calendar. And it's February 2023. And I think there's some things that have even come up this year. So I kept on asking myself that, what are we actually going to do? What is my own role in this whole space? And I decided that I was not going to be one of those people that are going to sit down and continue to forget that fear. I don't care how it is. So there's going to be solutions to whatever it is that is ailing us as a people. There's going to be a way, and maybe because I do a lot of other things that look at how people are going to even leave the country. And it's come out daily that even Jackmine is not exactly a solution without proper planning. So why are we going to sit down here talking about how it's more working? And even in the process of Jackmine, a lot of people are wasting their way because they are planning to Jackmine. But in the meantime, you wake up, see the government and you get there and you have to start struggling and realize it's not as rosy as you think it is. I mean, just to add on that line of thought, if you want to actually Jackmine, you must actually be equipped like she mentioned. You must be equipped. Otherwise, you will still live the same life. Even worse. Even worse. Someone said a lizard in 90 years. It's still going to be a lizard in Canada. It's so true. You have to change. Because, I mean, on that issue, I remember that there's a tweet that was a particular show that was on Instagram, I think by one of these very popular women. And then the guy was talking about how, he now said, talk about how you need your credit rating. And you put it up. I saw seven pages. I said, my goodness. You mean it is this difficult? And then people don't realize that you are paying for a light. Everything. And people don't. So the system works. But the system only works because people are paying. So that's why taxes are very high. And it compels you to be responsible. Responsible, exactly. No, it naturally is. It's a culture that you don't, and not naturally. So it just means that if you're a more responsible person in Nigeria, you have a better chance of living a better life. That's just it. Throw that in there. I think to add to what you said, I was thinking maybe if I was going to add number 10, it would be accountable. So if you have great accountability partners, people that could help you with, especially in this new year, are you actually going to do better than you did last year? True. True. I mean, we can all be here just to see what it is and how it is. And someone is somewhere at a jail about on the bridge, and he's just wondering about what am I going to do tonight. From a different perspective, yeah. I think it's also important that we hold this accountable. People are the hem of affairs. These nine things, as you said, someone that is in government should be thinking about it because if they were thinking about it, then we'd have good roads and all of these things. Very true. I think about it. I mean, I could drink big because I'm not worried about food. I'm not worried about clothing. I can buy what I want. They can't drink big. So I mean, on the side of the other divide, it's also important that if the government does what they should do, people that are trying to feed tonight will not be thinking about that. It's a much slow hierarchy of needs. I can't think about self-actualization. So this is me just fighting for those group of people and saying that everybody has to be held accountable. But what I'm going to say to Victor, you know one thing I've seen, I mean, I don't know what you want to say, but one thing I've seen is that in every crime in different societies, poverty or gaps or needs create different reactions. You either become bowed down or that anger gets you to think of how much better you can be. So that person at a joint leg back actually can't decide that, you know, well, this situation here, what kind of person do I want to be? Do I want to get equipped enough to get into governance or something? We don't actually look at a systemic way of changing governance. And even in addition to that, that person at a joint leg back needs to be made to know that so many people have stayed under joint leg back and over the years and have come or so, what did they do? That's why we need inspiration. And that's why, you see, I always tell people that governments have failed. Why have they failed? No, hold on. It's almost like, what if we accept that? I refuse to accept that. So the bottom line is, why can't you make things work? You refuse to accept that. What are you doing? What are you doing about this? No, I'm doing something for my space. I'm just saying that. Exactly. And that's the problem. We need to do it. Some people, you know, some people are helplessly helpless. No, I refuse to agree. I am in this space. I am in this space. I am in this space. I am in this space. I am in this space. I am in this space. I am in this space. You might have discovered yourself. Never. But anyway, we can be honest. Never. I don't think we'll agree. We're going to be using the most interesting banter that we had there. Only what kind of day is next. Stay with us. We don't want old, sick leaders. The political transfer season, like football, is open. And as expected, many names and faces are popping up. There's realigning of interest and highly irrelevant lots. Who I call the lepers of politics are stepping into the game. They have one goal. Cross chaos, chaos, rankle, and heightened uncertainties. They know they cannot win an election even in their homes, their villages, but they are determined to make themselves relevant by saying whatever comes to mind. Very soon, social media will be a god with photo ops of politicians buying Akara beans and bread by the roadside, even burns. Parties are looking for the strongest yet vulnerable link in other parties who they can poach. Politicians have started discrediting themselves and by July, full-scale tribal and religious affronts will have kicked in. Politicians amongst themselves know who the next favorite or most qualified candidate is, yet they do all this just to remain relevant and earn a sit-down peace talk which will lead to a political appointment after elections 2023. In all this, all you see are politicians attempting to make a way where there has been no way. Politicians put their best foot forward, swimming against the tides. Where are the citizens who are affected by the decisions of these politicians? We do not appear anywhere. We wait for the most emotionally relevant news, reports, and lash on it. We walk around town accusing every politician, yet we are not ready to recommend a politician of choice. Neither are we willing to join a party. Until December, the song on our lips was direct primaries, direct primaries. A call that made politicians laugh because for direct primaries to be effective, you need to join a party. And as you already know, we are unwilling to join any party. They are all evil. The people have the right to demand for a particular candidate. But we are silent on this. We prefer to ridicule every single candidate that is presented. Politicians have a plan for 2023. They fight now and decamp by November. We, the people, do we have a plan. We're comfortable following the same politicians that we call corrupt, insincer and tribal bigots. We're comfortable in our one corner, one corner, saying, you know, go better for this country. When in reality, what we are saying is, you know, go better for you and I, the individuals in it. Nigerians succeed in business because we understand that the outcome of every business endeavor has a direct effect on us. If only we understand that the outcome of any political activity has a bigger direct impact on us, we would be more participatory in elections. For 2023, we need to study and understand politics. Join a party. Get your PVC. Look beyond tribe and religion. Call out your family member and tribesman that is working against the nation. The more disunited you are, the weaker you are. The weaker you are, the stronger the politicians become. You shout, you don't want old Sikh leaders yet. Our weakness is equivalent to the weakness of the Sikh leaders we're calling out. God bless the federal republic of Nigeria. God bless the people of Nigeria. Oh, wow. I think I'm actually trying to think of what I know what to say. My mind is going to the fact that what you're saying directly actually links to what I was trying to get at, even though I started from a point of motivation. Or like for me, maybe because I'm a lawyer, I'm so detailed that I'm breaking it down. I hate for people to tell me, oh yeah, get up and do something. I want to tell me, please, getting up means you lift yourself. So I do a systemic Now, how do we as a people follow these instructions, plan it, get our PVC, when we don't even know exactly what we want to be, when we're bowed down with thoughts of a person who is helplessly helpless. No, that's the way we are. They turn not to take a job, but the truth is that a lot of us really feel helpless. We're too broken. We're too broken. To see what things are happening. The number one was change your mindset. If we're going to actually be functional, effective, or create any change politically or otherwise, we have got to be resilient and strong. That's what the politicians know. There's a strategy to the madness. Every politician that is doing something and succeeding, I admire their guts. I admire the drive. I've seen and I look at myself that even if you do anything successfully, good or bad, it takes a lot. And so maybe that is something that we as citizens need to adopt and see. What you're saying about the politician, I also program on radio and behind the scenes talks are very detailed. There are things that you should record and play. Now, one of the politicians told me something. He said, listen, Nigeria has never suffered. That's it. He said, because until we get to a stage where it is unbearable, things will not change. You know why? He said, because right now, he as a person sees people who are qualified citizens and is encouraging them come into the fold so he can help people like us who want to make an impact. And they tell you, no, I don't have interest in politics. He said it's because they still have something to eat when it becomes when it hits so hard that, you know, you don't have a choice. You will know that you need to get into politics for you to survive. And you see, we, there is so much again, like he's saying, I blame those that call themselves the elites, not necessarily because of their status, but how enlightening they are because, you see, we mislead the general public, the people under the bridge like you rightly said. Why do I see that? Now, there is this talk about constitution, throw the constitution away. But the truth of the matter is that the constitution cannot be thrown away. What you do generally, globally, is to amend. You can get into parliament and decide that. A, B, C, D, E, F, G, we don't want it. And that is what you call the people having a say in the constitution. Right now, constitution amendment is ongoing. Nobody is talking about it. No single person. Then we come back in 2024 because from now to 2023, forget anything about removing the constitution. Nobody is going to talk about that. We come back 2024 and we start shouting. Whoever is, of course, Bari won't be there. The next person again will be Victor. He can't be touching. I'm just joking. Then we go back to the same palace. He has to go, constitution, throw it away. That's it. I mean, I'm just processing everything everyone is saying and in my head first, it just comes to my mind is fact that we've lied to ourselves a lot. True. True. There was that misconception in the past that I can live without politics. I can do well without being there. I don't need a politician, especially if you are, if you are a relatively stable or a middle class, you are like, okay, I'm good. I don't need politics. Well, I think in the past years, we've come to understand that your politicians matter a lot. The quality of people that are brought forward to the presidential elections, gobernatorial, senatorial, all of those categories of people. They matter a lot. I was having this conversation with someone during the time. You realize that the people that eventually rise up to say they want to become candidates for whatever party or whatever position are people that have been in this game for a long time. Very true. And they probably started as dropouts. In fact, if you look at it, look at the trend, they're mostly dropouts. And because our constitution allows that with a high school certificate, I can context for any election, so it means that they actually, all they just need to prove that they went to a secondary school. They don't necessarily have the mental strength, the mental capacity to actually lead a country or lead a zone or lead a community. But because there's that room for it, and we, the people that are quote-unquote educated, enlightened, we've given them that room. We've succeeded in business, like you mentioned, but we've not succeeded in politics. We've left politics to people that really don't have the capacity. If you bring these people to business, they're going to run down the business. We know that. So we don't even employ them as entry level. You don't even make them entry level. They don't qualify. So and we know that because they cannot process the kind of things, thoughts, and knowledge that is required to be the business. So why then have we left them to run our country? First, before you come in, the irony of this is that look at, okay, let's take it. A state governor is a successful businessman. Thank you. Ogun State. No, not was. Makinwa. Makinwa, no. A lot of the government, a lot of them are successful businessmen, former MBA lawyer, chief, whatever, MBA, Nagemba station, and all those people. Yet, they get there and everything is messed up. Because they're exactly, they don't have the team. Look at people around them. And you and I, who should be the team, we are busy in tech and we are busy there saying, no, this government is useless. And we've been saying that for years. That's what I was saying. We've been saying the same thing for years. So it's not about one party or one. It's the system that we've created. And it doesn't take one person to build the country that we want. We need more than, and we need to stop this our messiah mentality. That's it. So we can build a better country. You know what I mean? I was just here sitting, thinking of a counter job to throw at and you have to see that. But the truth is, this is my personal amusement, right? Random stuff. I just feel so sad that it's almost like we're letting nature take its course in the next two decades or even less than that. Some of these old guys will be gone by virtue of life. You're going to die. I mean, you're going to die. Right? So it's almost like we are watching, waiting for that to happen before we take it. I told someone that Buhari plan, cool. Lots of people did all of this. You know, they seized power and I'm not saying we'll do that. I'm just saying that. You need to be active. What are we doing beyond tweeting and all of that? They're even using us as a strategy to tweet. So I think it's saddening to me that we're all just intellectually talking, but we're just going to wait for another 10 years where if they die of, then we're going to take over. Nobody wants to take that lead. We're doing it. Because blood has to go on the line. You see, beyond blood, what is happening? I think here is this. I think that we do not realize that we had a systemic brain failure. You see, for 20 years or more, let's look out for one one primary school and secondary school. We had a period of time. So all those in their 40s and 50s now went through a system of education that gave them academic skills, but actually not give them enough thinking skills, planning skills, life skills, to be able to say, where are you going to? We naturally went through school and system of life in Nigeria, and maybe the most of Africans say, go to school, get an education, get a job. So now we're not taught how to fight for life, how to fight for things. The last fight in Nigeria was independence. No, no, no, no. I remember my friend. We could go on and on and on the fight. We want to do Nadeku. We want to go through the Nadeku era of the late 80s and 90s and 90s and stuff. Then you know what it means to fight, but Root is next, stay with us. 2023 elections. I'll be wiser now. Nigerians have a dysfunctional relationship with their political leaders. Election seasons are the only periods we get to hear from them or they get to listen to us. We have another season upon us. On Monday, ex-governor Bola Meptinambo declared his intention to run for presidency in the upcoming 2020 elections. Anyway, it's no news to many as we've been bombarded with posters and covert campaigns throughout last years. Ex-president Goodlock Jonathan may also indicate interest to run as we've seen also in the media. These are two of many candidates that would review their intentions to in the coming weeks to run for any form of political position. In the next months we expect to see many campaign promises that give us or tell us that they're going to give us heaven on earth. Some would say they would change the economy in 12 months. Others would come up with first 100 day plans which eventually we know will be forgotten once they get in. Some would show up with rice and beans and all manner of foodstuffs and money to layer on suspecting, on thinking and already victimized citizens. Gradually partisan camps will begin to be formed even in our neighborhoods and even families. The media will be bombarded with every form of articles and programs promoting a candidate otherwise. Eventually we will get a leader who may be a repeat of our past mistakes. Before we get there let's take a step back in time and learn. Let's ask ourselves real and difficult questions such as why do we keep getting the same crop of leaders? What can we do differently? What political office matters most? Is it the senatorial office, the presidential office, government office or even the local government offices? What do we want from the next leaders and so on? There are so many more questions to ask. Let's have these conversations in our homes. Let's have them in our neighborhoods, in our estates, communities, churches, mocks, offices and every gathering you can think of, even at parties. We can't keep doing the same thing and expect different results. Let's ask ourselves the right questions. Afterwards we can then ask the politicians the right questions. But let's not stop at questioning. Let the responses we get from these questions inform our selection of leaders in the upcoming elections for every political office. Remember that we have only this time to get you right. Let's not waste it. When I was in there, one thing came to mind that you know a lot of times we don't apply the same structure or methodology that we apply to our life to politics. We tend to give a lot of excuses in politics. Now what do I mean? If a woman comes to you, a young lady comes to you and tells you that she's dated five guys who's promised their marriage. They've bought a lot of the rings or they've made a lot of the rings and she's kept the ring for two three years and each time after two or three years after a while these guys break our hearts. What would you tell the lady? Something to help with you. Exactly. So we bring about the same kind of leaders every year and we blame the leaders. Exactly. Not ourselves. What are we doing or what are we not doing that is making this kind of ideology faster? Those are questions and I'm talking about the questions you've asked us to ask. Those are questions we are not asking. We see people, I've heard people say you see we can't make it because the leaders are not giving up, making it difficult for us and I say I agree. It's a foolish person, I'm sorry to say, that will tell you everything is okay and you know. So when you're saying let's make a move, not that oh everything is easy. No. What I'm saying is a lot of times when someone tells you okay she's a thought leader in addition to being a lawyer and you hear motivational leaders say that the fact that your back you were you were born on the ground or as that thing said doesn't mean your back. Keep your back on the ground. Background and all this. Because you're back on the ground, I got a background. You don't have a good background and all those kind of things. The fact that the fact I didn't send you to school doesn't mean you cannot make it. Look at other people that are making it. Listen, the fact that our leaders are not giving us what we want. They're not encouraging us to fight does not mean we should not fight. And I tell people that listen all this I don't, I'm sorry, I don't join people to blame Bolatino. I don't. Not because he's a perfect man, no. But you see someone like him I believe should be studied in the university. This is a man that fought during the Nadeco era. Came in 1999 and he's been able to hold on to power till in a state like Lagos States where you have so many mad people. Crazy. What does he do right? So when people are saying he's one of the, no, no, no, there's no, I was asking someone recently that which state in Nigeria has reached its full potential? No states. Yeah. Whether it's one man leading or multiple men leading, they're all failing. So what I'm saying that I'm coming back to you are saying that at the end of it all, it is time for us to ask the right questions and not give excuses of they will not allow us. These people were not. There are people today, someone was talking about it, but they, Joe, you as in Washington Obu, there are people today that till date they will not be friends with him because he fought and too many other people like that have fought. What are we doing in this generation? Me, I want him to... I can see him looking like him. I want him to look like him. I want him to look like him. I want him to look like him. I want him to look like him. Like, I mean, is that what we do now? I mean, that's what we're doing now. That's how we wrote that. We're really, you know, I saw a tweet. Someone said that if Tunubi is going to come out, if he selects a Muslim, he's going to not be able to deliver on the side of the Christians. I was going to get him angry. If he selects a Christian, he's going to, the Northans are going to be angry. He's going to deliver on that end. So someone said, how did we reduce the polity to selecting? You don't see Obama and, you know, Joey, but they don't talk about that, you know. So look at what we're looking at. So that tells you that the polity has been reduced to rubbish. So when he's saying, if I select a Muslim or, but the truth is, let's not be fooled. You don't, you don't win politics by motivation. I mean, this is not me telling you, I'm just, it's strategy, right? After motivation, you get up and you have strategy of execution, right? And just to come back to Annie's comment, what I said earlier. I mean, why are they giving them bags of rice? Bags of beans. All of those things. It's always worked. If a strategy works, I mean, in business, you can't change what works. If bag of beans works every year, I can't change it. If 1000 hour works every year. And guess what? The guys that are receiving the bags of beans, they deliver the numbers. We don't deliver the numbers. We are tweeting. So I can't get a bag of bag of beans because I don't need it. But the guys that need it, they are multiple. And that's where the problem really is. So if the kid is in the strategy and is working for many years, they're going to start, you know, frying corn, you know, and all the things themselves. And you know what's happening. It's worked. Do you know what has happened with that strategy? Like in recent times, without even linking it to elections, we're just looking at, because I've been really curious about how are we actually building the capacity of ourselves as a people? And you see that bag of rice strategy is very interesting to observe. Let's go back to colonial days and realize that for the same system of giving a handout or something to feed the belly, you get people out. And now look at it very well. So people say that bag of rice and bag of beans are that oh, they're giving you what do they get out of it? And then we, the people who keep treating or who feel we went to school, actually not seeing what is being seen. Have you realized that from that system, from that lower crop of the bag of rice givers, they're building leaders? At the local government level, have you gone to Lagos State Civil Service? Have you seen the people that are being empowered? Have you gone into space and see how they have? Go round out, forget the AI, go to Moewe, go to Aboolei bag, go to Agege, look at houses, look at the people. Wealth is being created in unprecedented numbers. That bag of rice is not a strategy that is working because when those people deliver those things, they know that they are short of something. And by the time you need, there was a saying that says when you need something from the leader, go to befriend to those in the kitchen. And when we're sitting down here, feeling not very fancy, which is why, as motivational as a system that my initial advocacy was, the first line that was change your mindset, we're going to have to, and you mentioned strategy, I like the fact that Victor put it there. You see, you cannot take yourself out of a situation without actually thinking, what is the root of this? A lot of our mental work actually breaks you down. If you do proper mental work, you break down to the point where you see your life and say, emotional intelligence, the first one of self-awareness. For a whole cycle, Dr. Goldman said, so the first thing in getting any change is to start to use EI, to change life and nations. And so as Victor then said, honestly, that strategy works, but beyond that, there was something that Ruth said, and I found it interesting. I said, oh, that a lot of people, their high school dropouts and a couple, I remember there was a time in my study that I realized that informal native intelligence is sometimes even more crucial than formal education. So we have formally educated people who cannot think. A lot of the formally educated people who did mental research, they carry it in droppings. They're not even thinking people, critical thinking skills. So those people that finish with high school alone are probably sometimes more intelligent than those of us who first degree, masters, a situation, deepening everything together. So maybe the system is for us that are thinking we know to go and study those people like Kai or Desi, or any of those. Go and study them. And that means something is wrong with all of us. Yeah, we're so lost. That was a prime example. You know, because we cannot, we can never end this conversation around politics, changing our mindset and being able to at least prepare ourselves for the upcoming elections. But like I said at the beginning of my presentation, it's important that we ask ourselves the right questions. Once we do so, then we'll be able to at least make better change into the next year. So, up next is Victor. Stay tuned. Twitter ban lifted. Should we really be grateful? If I sit back to think about it, the events that led to the ban of Twitter, it leaves me wondering who lied to us about being in democracy. Where is the freedom of speech that was promised to us? This reminds me of the film Legend of the Seeker, where one man called Dawkin Rao controlled everyone within his jurisdiction. Can our leaders be humble enough to admit their unguardedness and misguided actions? Can our leaders be humble enough to accept that the highest office in the nation is the office of the citizens? Several businesses had already been hit by the COVID. The Twitter ban came as a corresponding blow. They asked that we contribute to the socio-economic development, yet they shut us out from one tool of effectiveness that facilitated this development. The Twitter ban has been lifted after 223 days, or even more. Oh yeah, we should be jumping in jibylation because our fundamental right to speech has now been restored. Who knows for how long though? This leaves me asking two critical questions. One, what was the essence of the ban? Two, why was the ban lifted even at this awkward time? Elections are close by. Are you seriously thinking what I could already be thinking about? Peter, if you have to say it out loud, now we're all thinking. But of course, I mean, that's exactly what I'm thinking. But to answer your first question, do you know there's some about the laws of power? When you have the power to do something, to punish some people, so you just show that it's what you're going to do. You know how they just say, so I feel, I mean, to answer that, but the second one, obviously, Twitter is such a powerful tool. And Twitter advocates like all of you sitting here, minus me, you can't exclude yourself. So there are a lot of peer campaigns, social media campaigns, everything, and they already know what else are you going to use? How do you want to get it done? And then how do you buy good wheels? So now they're going to give you, you are not getting back what you need. You don't need Garabbi. You need, so Twitter is your own take it and be happy. Is it the Twitter thing for me? I look at it from different angles. Let me take it from the most positive one or negative one so that I can have all your buying. Now, Twitter banned the way I feel, okay, let me just get it, I feel. Now I feel that Twitter itself or social media itself needs to be regulated, personally. I feel Twitter needs to be cautioned because they kind of care and caution they bring to bear in other countries. They leave it out when it comes to other African countries. In terms of, I mean, muting this and what the flag and all that stuff, Facebook does it better for Africa than they do. So I feel that, yes, they need it, but do we need seven months to prove this? No. Do we even need to ban for a week? No. There are other things we could have done to call their attention and definitely not immediately after the President's speech was pulled out. That one is a no, no. However, what pisses me off in all this is that, and it stares into what we're talking about, having the strength, the resilience, being open-minded. Listen, I can bet almost everything I have on it that in a country like China, India, even America, if a platform as big as Twitter were to be banned by now, you would have had alternative platforms created by the indigens of those countries to prove two things. Wasn't Kauri created? Yeah. Kauri. No, not that. To prove that, listen, one, you cannot stifle us. We have the power. We are the Gen Z, like we say. We've done answers like nobody has ever done in the history of Nigeria. We are supposed to prove it with that. Number two, it's supposed to be an opportunity for people to now rake in funds that, ah, this space, let me buy it quickly, lash into it. If you say Kauri or whatever was created, how much impact has it made? How many people have known about it? We pulled it down ourselves now. People pulled it down by themselves. Exactly. But I think that one has a difference. That one has a difference. That was maybe a difference. That was a difference, sir. Exactly, you know. So in the nutshell, what I'm saying is that yes, government has done the undoable, what should not have been done, but as a people, and that's part of the thing that is still affecting us in politics. Sorry, I'm bringing it back to politics, because this is how we sit down, even where we have power and watch things. Imagine a youth, so a group of guys just came out and said they want to come up with something, chat, Sorosuki, and a new social media platform is born with the same kind of ideology as Twitter, filling up that space. Do you think government will be able to ban it? No. Yes. Yes. No. Yes. Yes. 100%. Yes, 100%. Yes. In fact, they will ban it more. No. They will ban it. They will ban it. They will remove it. They will ban it. They will ban it. They will ban it. They will ban it. You see, the truth is that change and revolutions don't come with the first attempt. Of course. What I really feel is that we really, really, at the end of the day, everything will have the same thread. We're just not ready and we're not strategic and we're not just thinking, you know how that immediate comfort, I mentioned, those that are thinking and are smart have taken that hierarchy of needs and they have used it as a tool against us and we are there. Exactly. So we are not making a new end. I completely agree like this. It's not a ban. It's not a ban. It's not a ban. Yes. It's not a ban for me. I completely agree. I don't know why I'm not sitting close to you. It's not the fact that you mentioned that change and revolution does not come with first attempts. Completely true. But would an alternative platform could say ban a Nigerian that serves the social... What would they have in the ban? So, okay, popos be banned as a way the policy is right now. Yes. But it's not a ban. It's not a ban. No, no, no. It's not a ban and the people would have been arrested. But it's not where the resilience comes in. Yes. Other people come up. So the question now is how would, how ready are we to even keep on pushing the system until the system gets tired of us? When effecting change, there's a consequence called power dynamics. And if you can't win on that, I mean, from hitting this wall, the wall is the reason you can do about it. So I think there's no need to keep doing the same thing, the same, let me keep pushing. You know, someone says something, one day I will make it. You might never make it. It's very true. You might never make it. Whenever I wonder you make it, you might never make it. Very true. So I don't even wonder I will just make it. You will never make it. If you don't... Yeah, 2022 will be exactly to my 2020. Just the truth. If you do not get out of your comforts or do something different. For me, on this Twitter ban, I guess the same conversation is why now? Obviously, it's obvious. Why now? But would businesses that have suffered the effect of Twitter recover? Is this an opportunity for them to recover? Or do we need to do something better? I think we need to do something better. To become a better business. Now, I'm thinking of as a business person right now, because it just transcends politics. It has to involve with other things, even social issues as well. So I guess maybe the whole Twitter conversation is really linked to business has just shown us one of the rules of life that you can't put all your eggs in one basket. You know when we do that? We want such a simple comment in primary school. But the reality is that as a business, we need to also go beyond being pedestrian in how we execute anything. Because of your business. Yes, sad it got affected by Twitter ban, but is that all? Isn't there more? You have to learn to evolve and be diversified and be dynamic. There's a lot to it. Let's talk about this. You may have gotten angry now. All right. It's one thing that we have generated from these conversations is that we need to start re-engineering our thought process. Don't just sit down there. You need to get up and do something no matter how little. We've come to the end of this week's episode of The Advocate. American politician Patrick Moffi said the political process does not end on election day. Young people need to stay involved in the process by continuing to pay attention to the conversation and holding their leaders accountable for the decisions they make. The advocacy continues on our social media platforms on Facebook, plus TV Africa, hashtag The AdvocateNG. And on Instagram, at plus TV Africa, hashtag The AdvocateNG. To catch up with previous broadcasts, go to plustvafrica.com forward slash The AdvocateNG. Do not forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel at plus TV Africa. See you next week. Same time on this station. Let us keep advocating for a better society.