 the death of the queen, Nigeria, past and future. I think it is fitting that on the occasion of the death of the queen of the empire, which brought Nigeria together as a nation, we are discussing these issues. There is no doubt in mind that the problems that we experience within the first ten years of independence were no accident. They were forciable and the British themselves made such efforts as they could within the constraints of their national interest to mitigate against them. Unfortunately the fireworks, the built against conflict proved insufficient and we ended up thereafter with a long period of military rule, with all its perversions. We have ended up with a democracy and a constitution taking the colour of and dictated by the military. The worst aspect of this is that although the British, because of our diversity, tried to create at independence a federal state, we have ended up with long years of military rule now with a pseudo-Nunjitri government. Where states, instead of competing to produce, go to abuja with a begging bowl in competition, our politics has become so poisoned and parochial that we find ourselves at the stage in this election where the parties and their policies will be more or less the same whoever wins. Removal of subsidy, privatization of all utilities and public assets, increasing privatization of education and neglect of the urgent need for the structuring of the federation. If these issues, more than any particular candidate or political party, that Nigeria should be focused on whoever becomes president after this election. We were talking about intellectualism, politics and policies and I was talking about we should be responsible and stop blaming colonialism. I mean, colonialism has its up and down, the broad western civilization which is good. Yes, there are other bad aspects of it, fine. But these things, that was the area at that time, if the British had not colonized us, another person or another set of empires would do that. Or perhaps who would have done that to our safe. I mean, some of our kings, ancient kings, were brutal to other Libyan kingdom in this same country. So, in this same nation, because we were not in the country then, we were different nations. And then, from the queen's father to the queen herself, when Elizabeth II, there were a lot of independence, Nigerian independence became a republic. What have we done with it? So, let's stop blaming these people. These guys have done their part. The British have done their good parts and they've gone. Let's focus on ourselves. What needs for us? We talk about intellectualism, here we are again. What needs for us? You talk about people going back to Abuja to beg. Oh, every government is going to Abuja to beg for what you call is a gunje in local balance. Whereas we could develop our own local resources to solve good problem. What are we doing about the natural resources in this country? Oil is still here. Even if they cry that some people cry for oil, beauty took a lot from us. But oil is here, koko is here, granote is here, kone is here. Name them, what have you done with it? So, let's stop crying for oil. Let's take responsibility. I think I just accentuate what Elijah has said. It's super important for us to understand that we must come to a point where we take responsibility for our nation. I was listening to one of my old teachings. I was talking to a group of people and I said that when I was born into my current family, nobody took my permission, nobody even asked me. My parents didn't say, oh, please, you want to come to this family? Or would you want to go to this school or whatever? So when I grew up, there are some certain decisions I must make by myself, such as the kind of career I wanted to pursue, such as the kind of person I was going to marry and things like that. So those decisions, when they say, I don't know who said that particularly, but I used to read in the book, if you were born poor, no issues. If you remain and die poor, it's your fault. Whatever they handed down to us, we need to move away from that and begin to rethink a paradigm shift. How do we get more responsible and then change things? We have Nigeria, it's what we have now. What are we doing with it? So maybe I should first go back to what Suleiman said, that change, we will build Nigeria from the bottom down. But tell me, which country from the bottom down? It's in the bottom up. But tell me, which country in this tree has been built from the bottom up? It has never happened before. It's leadership. I believe what Shino Achebe said in 1983, our problem is squarely and simply that of leadership. Now, I'm going back now, I'm just treating what we have said before. So let me quickly go to the incident of Dubai, the cultists and all that. Suleiman also mentioned that just as we were dealing with that, we were dealing with the issue of the Nigerian breaking records all over the place, every competition she was just breaking records. Now, Shino Achebe used to say that if you look in the compound of a man who is going to be great, you see mad people, you see crazy people, you see great people, every person of every color. So the Dubai people, they are ours. The woman, she is ours. We have great scientists too. We are going to get there. It's just that it's going to take time. All these people are ours. We should accept them. They are ours. They are ours in the process. If you look at any other country in their past history, America like that, you see all manners of corruption. It happens everywhere. All of them are ours. What it shows to me is that we are going to be a great nation. But it's going to take some time. In 1953, it took 7 years of argument with the British and all that showed there was a problem, a common problem. Physically to first motion to 1960. So many constitutional developments. There were many times they went to conferences. There were many times they went to England and all that. Look at her history. In 1960, a major politician was found guilty of treason. Those were not auspicious things. So we are going to get there. This is the way history moves. It's going to take us time to blend into one nation. We will blame colonialism but we shouldn't sit there. We should move forward. But even as we move forward, we recognize it will take time. Every country's history is unique. Not every country had oil after 10 years of independence. We had oil 10 years after independence. And that scattered ahead. We are still emerging from the condition of military rule. Gradually we will get there. Maybe if we had not had oil, we would have moved faster. Because we remember in the 1960s, we were exporting things like cutting granades, we were exporting palm oil. Maybe oil even confused us. So it's oil you're cutting or you're blessing? It looks like it. Hi Suleiman, are you there? Can you hear us? Yeah, I can hear you. Great, great. What's around this? It's actually a kind of mix, one for me. Right from, just as we said, the success stories are there. And the one that makes all of us sad is also there. So all just as we said earlier. One thing we must find out is that we must find that collective effort in nation building. That is you do your part, I do my part. That persons that sells in the market to their part, the civil servant to their part, the artisan to their part, each and every one of us do our part. I might get it, I'm not running from the fact that nation building, the box, most of the box ends on the desk of leaders. That is when you get the leadership right, every other team falls into places. That is very, very, very, very, very correct. But at the same time, it has to be a kind of symbiotic that is you do your part, the leaders to their part, the followers also to their part. So that's my thing. Alright. So you can wrap up the talk. I can handle. Okay, so my take is this, that there's a place for blaming colonialism, but I see a great future in Nigeria, all the problems that we see today, I see that they are titing problems, problems of pioneers. We have a long history in front of us. I think what the problem tells us is that this is going to bring a great nation, but it will take time, it will take time. We should be patient. I don't think we should be unhopeful, there's ground for hope. And I don't think the story is, there's a single narrative here. As you see lack of progress, you see progress too, and all that. Like Christopher O'Kickbu said, in our walls that fail, you find our walls that succeed too. Yes, Suleymana Kondia will be talking about nation building after the break.