 You're welcome back, it's still the run-up and we're glad that you are there. But Omnios Clouds appeared over the general elections last week as chaos spread across the country over a lingering scarcity of fuel and naira notes. The fuel supply crisis has been going on for several months, but the currency crisis wasn't till date with protests and riots ensuing in some parts of the country. We do hope that with the pronouncement of the president that things will get a little bit better. The presidential candidate of the all-progressive Congress, APC Bola Tinobu, alleged that the scarcity which has caused frustration and hardship for the people across the country was contrived to precipitate a national crisis and forced general elections to be shifted from the 25th of February to another date. Reversed state governor Yasom Wike echoed the allegation at the rally in the Pobo and Koroloko government area of the state, warning those allegedly trying to cut all the elections and force an interim government to desist from the plot. Kaduna state governor Nasir El-Rufai jumped into the fray when he said that some elements at the presidential villa in Abuja were colluding with the opposition to deny Mr. Tinobu and the APC victory at the elections. And even the member of the PCC, APC PCC, Fermi Fani Coyote, alleged that there was a coup plot by an opposition party. For that he was invited by the DSS and really, really drilled and asked a lot of questions after which he said he regrets ever saying that. All these accusations have some way suggested plans to truncate the elections, but asking the question whether the elections can or cannot hold on the 25th is another thing. And joining us to discuss this is Dr. Omoshola Deji. Dr. Good morning and welcome to the program. It seems where you are is quite good. Here we don't have naira. Here we don't have cash. Nobody is spending money anyhow and there is suffering. But our greatest concern this morning is whether or not from all the projections, from all the talk that we've been hearing, do you think the election can hold on the 25th of February? Well, I think there's no reason for the election not hold because the INEC and sister agencies that are involved in the planning of the election has had four years to prepare. So if you have four years to prepare for an exam, even if you don't know anything about the exam, it is presumed that at least you should be able to pass because four years is quite a long time for INEC to prepare for the election. I would say that the preparation of INEC is one thing, the willingness of sister agencies to make sure that the electoral process is successful is another thing. In Nigeria, we say we have the independent national electoral commission, but the word independence is a relative term. Is INEC really independence? We've had cases whereby INEC was ready to prepare and to conduct the election and the security system up and say they are not ready. So in this case, if such a thing should happen again, INEC will be restless. There's nothing INEC can do. We've had situations also that INEC had provided for the logistics, their hired transport workers, they have paid them and they just decided not to show up to support the process or to deliver electoral materials in areas where they consider the strongholds of whoever they are supporting at that point in time. So the word independence is quite relative for INEC. INEC's success cannot be solely determined by the agency itself. And that goes a long way in determining whether the election will hold or not. But if the world of the president and the court of the security agency so far is anything to go by, I think we should have the election. But in the pockets of protests that we are having now, should it escalate if the security agencies get overwhelmed? Then we might have a case whereby the election might eventually not hold. But if that is not fair, if the election does not hold, I don't want to believe that the security agencies do not have the capacity. I would see it as the wish of the fifth columnists coming to pass. And that would be dangerous for our democracy because the Constitution allows it that if society is in chaos, if the society is in conflict, if there is anarchy in the society, then the election can be postponed. And we are already seeing signals of that. I just hope that the violence that we are seeing now, as we can see in Naira, we design will be curtailed as soon as possible within the next 10 days for Nigeria to be able to exercise their franchise. Okay, well you talked about four years to prepare for an exam which INEG had. But as we speak, there are people who were not able to collect their PVCs for various reasons and INEG made it such a way that it is after four years that people begin to feel that there is an election coming or after three years and a half that people begin to feel this. Because of that, people are not able to collect their PVCs and all that. Do you think that shows INEG as a body that really prepared after four years for this election? Because as we speak now, there are people in court that are saying that INEG should allow them to use their temporary voter's cards because they were not able to collect their permanent voter's cards. And they don't see it as their fault, they see it as INEG's fault because they have been going to the places that they were supposed to collect these cards and have not been able to collect. There are people who have been there and they hear that their cards are somewhere else, they go to that place, they don't find it, they are referred to another place and all those kinds of things are making the people really angry that INEG didn't live up to their expectations and now there will be disenfranchised because of the same INEG. Do you think they really prepared well for this election? I think INEG prepared but we can't rule out the normal Nigerian fire prepared approach in terms of planning and execution of projects. Now, in our country, people barely make adequate plans so we can't rule out that in the planning of INEG but one thing you must note is that even if we give Nigerians and INEG 10 years to prepare in the election cycle is 10 years, I can assure you that within that 10 years there will still be people that would still complain that they have been able to collect their PBC either because INEG has failed to fulfill its own path or the people themselves have decided to either not register at the right place, rush our collection of PBC, so many human errors, human factors would be responsible. So I think what we need to do is for both INEG and the citizens themselves to stick to the time table and to respond at the right time. When there is something we don't need to wait, you need time in it. Another point is that we can't rule out the steps at INEG. There are human beings in our society where by qualities the time is like we place a mental role in our society based on the premium that we placed on it. Definitely you would not expect that the people at INEG would be sent. There would be one or two sabotage here and there but it is the duty of the institution to put itself. We see cases whereby they have to pick PBCs in the gutters, waste bins, people's PBCs. So that can only be done in collaboration with some of the Alex tabs whereby political party will last with them and the stronghold definitely would, if so many people would not be able to locate their PBC just to reduce the number of votes in that area. And I think that is a serious crime which INEG itself needs to prosecute some of it and hold them accountable because as it is in Nigeria today, the only thing that Nigerians can say that they have is the right to vote. There's no electricity, there's no water, there's even no Naira note, nothing is working. Now, okay allow people to vote. You are still denying them such rights. So for me it is a serious offense that INEG itself needs to look into. The recruitment process in INEG, party affiliation, these are crucial things especially now that we have the main contenders from different ethnic groups. We've seen cases in Lagos whereby a particular ethnic group were complained of not being able to put their PBCs and when they were calling out the names, 99% of the names were from a particular ethnic group. This is something that can lead to serious crises if not well checked. So the election should be free, fair and credible in the sense that if you register, you know that you have your PBC and you can vote without any letter in that. Yeah, a few days ago we saw the news or I saw the news that INEG is getting ready to send text messages to eligible voters telling them where their polling units will be so that they can go and vote there seamlessly and I felt that they could have done this thing to all the people who were qualified to collect their PBCs and tell them this is where you go and you're going to get your PBCs. That was not done but right now I don't know worrisome thing to the people is that INEG is talking with NURTW for logistics on the election day. They will likely be the people to carry election materials whether they are sensitive or nonsensitive but that's not the issue but NURTW is the one that INEG is engaging. INEG at this point was worried that central bank of Nigeria had brought a policy, a cashless policy and they were worried. That means they were not prepared for this kind of a thing for transportation of materials to wherever they should be and for the money for the logistic runs as it as it were. Does that seem like something that a body like that should do? I'm asking all these questions not because of this election only but there are things that we need to point out at this point that INEG or any other relevant body should start looking at should start thinking of for the next circle of election because four years before we know it is here. So they are engaging the NURTW for the transportation of election materials. Do you see that as a good thing for the process? It's not a thing but like I said earlier INEG is operating on the limited choice. INEG they don't patronize the commercial transport drivers. Who are they going to use to transport the materials? Are they going to use government vehicles? People will complain that that will favor whichever party is the improvement in the state. Are they going to meet private individuals? That won't work. So INEG is operating on the limited choice. If INEG does not patronize the owner of a voice in Lagos for example, what's the alternative? And that's the problem. There's no alternative and if we look at the cost of owning the cost of owning election because of owning and maintaining vehicles for four years, it's quite humongous. INEG does not have such kind of form. If INEG is to buy vehicle in each each area, vehicle that can effectively transport its material in all the local government in Lagos City don't imagine that the vehicle is not going to drive itself. The human beings that are going to drive it are going to be paid. Are you going to hire people to just drive the bus or just one day? No. So you need to have like standby drivers and at the end of the day, there's no way you can program the vehicle that okay, if I say go to point A, you must point A. No, if ever you only go to where the driver wants it to go. So if the limitations affect the effectiveness of INEG, so what I think we need is a general re-realtation for people to see participation in the electoral process as a call for national service. They should see themselves as eating the clarion call. If they see it like that, nobody would want to sabotage the process for any kind of gain whatsoever. And if we have institutions that work in the sense that if you sign an agreement with INEG and you breach that agreement, then you will stand in for it. So when people go to jail for trying to deny people their legitimate right to vote during an election, I believe that other drivers or other people that are involved will be more careful, just like the professor that was jailed. I think it was at Apoibo that was jailed. Now that sends a strong signal to other professors that will be used as coalition officers during the election that if you subject yourself to the whims and copies of politicians, definitely you will eventually find yourself behind bars. So I see a special whereby in this common election, most of the professors will sit tight, they won't want to distribute themselves. Just their family name in the mud for the one politician that probably doesn't even have a degree. So I think if a professor can be jailed, then transport workers who try to sabotage the process should be jailed as well. If you won't participate, let INEG know that okay, I'm not really fine. But if you decide to participate, you sign an agreement with INEG and you are paid accordingly, there should be no excuse because this has to do with the will of the people. So for somebody somewhere to sabotage the process, then it is something that should not be tolerated in any way or manner whatsoever. Okay, well I do hope that INEG will start to think about the possibility of not needing NURTW in the future, not needing the polling units that will need them to carry ballot papers all around. Also making sure that people who are outside Nigeria can vote and that way you cannot engage NURTW to carry papers all around or sensitive materials to London, for instance, or to China or wherever Nigerians may be. And I can stay in the studio and then five minutes I have a lunch break, I can go outside and vote anywhere that I want to vote and then it will still be reflected. All those things are possible in a technological age. Maybe INEG should begin to think about that so that they don't need too much logistics to throw their house open as it were to other people. Well I like the optimism that you have brought and said that the election has no reason not to hold. That is a very very important aspect that people are just waiting to hear from people that they will respect like you Dr. Deji. So thank you so much for being a part of our show this morning. We've been talking with Dr. Mochala Deji, a political analyst and he's optimistic that the election will hold on the 25th of February. It should hold on the 25th of February and whatever you're doing as a Nigerian and you love your country at least. Even if you have the means to jack as everybody is talking about now, there are people who need this country for their sake, if not yours, please do the right thing. And I'd like to commend Lagos State so far in spite of the hunger, the suffering and all that, relatively Lagos has been very peaceful and I thank the people of Lagos. We'll take this news break when we return. We'll conclude the run-up. Stay with us.