 Five panellists, five topical issues, no holds barred. For me it's not knowledge that's lacking. It's that greed, it's that mentality where you feel you deserve to take your own and take it infinitely and let everybody else just manage however they want. We're almost becoming hardwired to try and cheat. I would, you know, suggest that we begin to hold our leaders accountable. There was a time in this country when things actually work. I don't think that any organization should be above the law. And I think one of the challenges we have in this country is about governance across the board. What I'm saying is that it doesn't really affect us in Nigeria. It does! I don't know what we can do if the system is already corrupted. We've been warned as a continent of the influx of the Chinese. If you don't repay your debt, they will just colonize you. Welcome to The Advocate, panelists discuss thought-provoking topics in a no-holds-bad manner. In other words, we call a spade a spade. I'm advocating for the need for an electoral college in Nigeria. Late American politician Edward Kennedy once said, the Constitution does not just protect those whose views we share. It also protects those with whose views we disagree. Today, Joyce is continuing from where she stopped last week as she continues on this matter of constitution. It is important we speak for a new and better constitution. And finally, Coyote is asking how we decide who the victim is in various situations. Stay with us. The need for electoral college in Nigeria. At Independence, Nigeria held great optimism. Political commentaries across the globe testified that there was a considerable emergence of a strong nation to lead Africa out of the dungeon occasioned by colonialism. It was an easy prediction. All indicators of a prosperous nation were available, natural resources, the human resources, the capital resources were not lacking. We could not boast of an array of ideological political leaders across board. However, 60 years after independence, we were seeing that the predictions were true. The country had a fruitful first republic and has seized to progress. It has become saddled with the constant threat of insecurity, a weakened security system. Worse, it became the poverty capital of the world. It is obvious that Nigeria has a leadership crisis inherent in her political system. The role of leadership cannot be oversized. Its leadership that directs, initiates and combines other resources into meaningful development. The absence of it, as it is in Nigeria, is a state of continuous underdevelopment. Therefore, it becomes a necessity for a new ideology to educate, enlighten and encourage political participation. The Electoral College, Nigeria fails to void and the need with its mandate to usher in a new Nigeria. The Electoral College, Nigeria is a service organization that was set up by individuals first in practical politics and governance. The Electoral College, Nigeria is non-partisan, non-governmental and is an initiative of the Emerging Leaders Advancement Forum that's a branch out of young Nigerians who span from politics, patriotism, development professionals to everyday Nigerians born void of an ideological democracy in Nigeria. The college's objectives to improve politicity within the electorate by providing civic education to the electorate provide training for party delegates and aspiring candidates to champion the cause for electoral reforms and constitutional amendments. In less than a year, the college has been part of student leadership summits in universities across Nigeria. It has also promoted actual electoral etiquette in the election school of leadership in primary schools and secondary schools across Nigeria. Under the stewardship of its executive director, the college has continued to educate Nigerians during the COVID-19 pandemic launching its online virtual class on politicity and governance for aspiring candidates and the electorate. The executive director has reiterated on many occasions that Nigerians with its high level of intellect are poor in political literacy. He stated that the key to this is understanding political offices, functions, jurisdictions as provided by the constitution. The college also understands that the quality of debates for political office don't necessarily show the electorate, the jurisdiction of the office sought. It's noted this is a key tool to candidate selection and also the college held the Lagos East by Election Editorial Debate in which candidates were asked questions within jurisdiction of office helping the electorate make informed decisions and choices. Understanding the ongoing of the political terrain in Nigeria, what's most key is political literacy for the electorate to select individuals appropriate for office to also help delegates with candidate selections and candidates in political office to understand jurisdictions of the office they serve in. Hence the advocacy and work with the Electoral College in Nigeria. So my question is how do we all get involved in the Electoral College? I need to be a student there because everything you just said, I need to learn. Yeah, there's so much to learn particularly looking at the line of what you really stand for and what you want to achieve as Electoral College. Where do we start from? Who has the right to be a member? Actually the college is built for everybody in Nigeria. We organize of course virtual and physical classes so anybody can sign up. We just finished our fourth cohort and looking at it we expect to educate every Nigerian but that's a big task. So we've reduced the task to about 1 billion Nigerians for 2023. Fantastic. We hope that works because we need the information. It's not in the mainstream educational curriculum anyway. So we might as well I think growing up there was this course we did or the subject we did in primary secondary school which is called Governments at the point you were sticking out of the syllabus. Really? Yeah, at the point. Now what that did for us then was that it gave you a little history about what happens what you're learning, where you're coming from as a people and that also lets you know the rights and the strengths you have as a voter. The reason I really buy into the Electoral College is stuff, not just like the American one but the reason I buy into it for Nigeria is that I believe that a lot of people need to be sensitized. We need orientation and reorientation. A lot of people have understood how the system worked back then. They've forgotten how it works. A lot of people have forgotten what it even means to vote. How to vote. A lot of people don't even know how to vet their candidates and most importantly one thing I wish this Electoral College do is to say we focus too much on the presidency. The focus is not the president. It's the senators, the parliamentarians, the state government, the local government chairmen. I'm sure all of that is better. We run it. There are 22 modules in the course known as Politracy 101. There are 22 modules. It takes you and walks through the local government the legislative houses down to the local government. It also goes to post elections which is result coalition and other points. Issues with judicial mishaps when it comes to debating points. We go all through the entire system of politics and governance. We might not have good examples in Nigeria but of course we try to create out of what which exists. We teach what already is. What should be which is by the constitution then we will tell you what is and we will tell you what the problem in between the two are. So that we leave you with a clear picture of how it should be. We go as far as even teaching our students manifestos and campaign messaging. Now this is not for them to run for office. If you choose to run for office, it's beautiful. But so that the electorate should understand what to expect. So when a legislator comes to you and says I'm going to give you a road, you already know it's not possible. It's not within his or her purview. Well her purview. We have to be delicate. He's her purview. So it's not within his or her purview. And we also get to the point that we try to make clear that governance there's something we preach the most. Governance does not have any gender. Meaning there's no position that a man or woman cannot achieve. Governance is governance. It's deliverable. It's not based. And we also do something funny within our class system which I know she would love. We do not take in a class if we do not have at least 49% female participation. It's something we don't do. I will tell you, we've pulled that across time. And I would say also even within the structure of the Electoral College in Nigeria, we have volunteers across the structure. I'll tell you, women make up at least 73% of its position and our positions. We even don't I remember a funny thing that happened. We were to hold a meeting to prepare for the fourth cohort on Vars Day and the women were like no, they can't attend. They sent it to the needs of humans. Human face. So we try to work within that and we also understand that in Africa, if you bring the women into political participation you can only bring in a woman and you're bringing another generation. We have understood that. We've understood that within the Electoral College and we've seen the rise of women that have been our students. Our KPIs are massive. We have a situation of I think within the second cohort and someone decided he was going to run for office but this time within a professional capacity and I remember it was the NBA chairman of Asaba and they've never had somebody under 50 and this guy was under 40 and we taught him some funny theories. We have a Minority X theory which means you can go against the system and probably win is how you go about it and he used that and he wrote a review for the college. So it's good to see that the chairman of NBA Asaba is a student and it's not only for political positions as we term it. Even professional even professional positions running associations. We've also been able to affect people's directions if we provide our own power and our water and every other amenity might as well provide our own education. They are private schools so this is just one specialist school that we need and I wish it could be mainstream maybe we'll get there like you said you've partnered with we're partnering with multiple institutions and trying to deliver this and we've gone as far as initiating partnership with the Kadna Business School where we're trying to bring governance into every faucet of life in Nigeria. So we've also tried with international partners of course we have a few and we're expanding at the rate we can. We don't have any grants yet so we're funded internally but you know when they say who's bankrolling just a lot of people that really really love the country and believe in the system and we've tried to open up partnerships and we'll keep trying to. I think likely when you said you opened up a partnership from the outside my major concern was which is one of the challenges we've had with politics in the upper part of the world is that we often import strange methodologies and approaches from the outside but I mean you know because let's think for example you know if I'm suffering from typhoid and you have a malaria and I attempt to use your cure for typhoid I'll only aggravate my issues because I wouldn't get healed and that's what we do a lot of times the west is far ahead there are so many things they have a structure we don't have a structure so if we try to directly import whatever is done abroad into a system it might not work because you don't have a structure that will support it. So most of the things we should do is what you're doing now which is whatever you're doing now is get at building a structure homegrown letting people identify what they need because if for example now you're starting this abroad and you're telling them okay this is where you need to vote hey I know how to vote I know the structure I know what to do but most importantly is that what you said about you're not just being political office holders but even professionals because if you can groom people to be thinkers individually it's easier to integrate into politics as against just grooming them for politics you haven't applied all the theories they've learned at all but if you're a secondary school a university student and you venture into with post in your school or something and from there you grow and you see how the system works you can grow to become a better politician because politicians are like doctors you don't become a doctor when you get into the hospital you become a doctor and you're admitted into the hospital I can't just walk into the hospital and say okay I want to I aspire to be a doctor and I want to start okay I'll call you doctor and start the process no you go to school you graduate you have the degree and you're called a doctor then a hospital takes you and I think that's the way politics is your mind must be should be for us your mind must be prepared so that when you're going in there you're going in there with the idea of deliverables what to do for the people, what you want to achieve I mean just working immediately as against getting there then you say okay how does the system work and you tell your guy you need to do this and you say okay let's do that and the system gets messed up I'm your guy madam the electoral college you know we are non-partisan we've also trained within intra-party on an intra-party base so we work with what is APC PDP STP we understand the truth about things and that is because we clearly understand that no party is bad it's the players within a party that is bad like I always give an example and I'm sorry I'm going to say this on air because it's going to be painful and a lot of people are going to laugh but I'm an Arsenal fan but that does not mean I hate football why are you guys laughing you see what I said I know I'm an Arsenal fan I'm an Arsenal fan and no matter how many times Arsenal loses it's sad to say loses some games I still don't hate football but what we've done with politics is that in Nigeria is that we hate politics because of the players and you can't hate politics because of the players it doesn't make it a bad game so if you bring in new players that's which is what we are trying to do or you try to improve the game within the system I forgotten which party we were training and we were going over to Delgaze and Delgaze was saying they didn't know they were not supposed to collect money I don't want to mention it it's alright they didn't know they were not supposed to they didn't know this is the gap that the electoral college is trying to bridge okay Joyce is next after this break don't go anywhere still on the constitution matter why do we advocate for the total scrap of our present 1999 constitution the constitution does not provide for acceptable fiscal federalism which means that states cannot generate sufficient revenue on their own because all minerals mineral resources are vested in the exclusive control of the federal government states do not need to depend on or be controlled by the federal government besides Lagos, Rivers and one or two other states in Nigeria most states depend on the federation accounts for as much as 80% of their revenue so in what way will such a constitution promote autonomy and intentionality with resources, areas for revenue generation and sustainability internally in one breath the constitution gives the state government control over local governments it makes local councils subordinate to the federal government thus while the state government can create local government and determine their structure their powers and their function it is the responsibility of the national assembly to incorporate any newly created local government into the constitution by way of constitutional amendment which is quite cumbersome and in most cases unrealistic I feel this process can be usurped by powers that be for new dominance and ultimately control the constitution in furtherance of its centralizing tendencies has no place for state or local police whereas security is better handled at the local level the issue of banditry, kidnapping and the general insecurity is local and is therefore better handled locally there is no provision in the constitution that allows government as chief security officer of their respective states to create and manage security outfits in their states because by constitution there can only be one police force for the entire federation and all individuals and persons of the police are prohibited from creating any other police force or security outfits to coexist with the current police force state autonomy and policing is a huge plus on peace and development the constitution also fails to state the specific functions of state and local governments but it takes time to elaborate the powers and functions of the federal government this tends to subordinates the state's government to the central government and puts the federal status of the 1999 constitution at a debate how will the local government state's function in their fullness when the constitution is not clear as to what exactly their powers and functions are for us to have a brand new constitution there are some steps to follow number one will be the referendum where representatives at the legislature should be tasked with meeting their constituents and detailing every desire of these constituents for what the constitution should look like these meetings can span months all points must be properly documented in the most transparent and painstaking manner possible then there is a constitutional convention where the same representatives from the national assembly and other stakeholders will publicly meet and debate on what should be contained in the constitution and what shouldn't every representative must be allowed free speech just like the constitutional convention that was held in Philadelphia in May 1787 then there will be the documentation process after debates have been properly weighed and analysis derived decisions should be put in writing by a committee and then compressed all parties will then sign an agreement if and when the document satisfies the needs of their constituents finally there will be approval and implementation by the president what do you guys think? well if, I mean three things stood out for me there that I would really like to look at number one is the issue of the exclusive and the concurrent lists which limits the powers the state government have to explore and all that stuff number two is policing and number three is the power of the local government and the state government now regarding the exclusive list I would like to address that by quoting that we all know the parable of the talent where the man gave some out and one kept it at the point it said that you were not faithful in little and it took it from the guy that had won and gave it to the guy that had won that was happening in Nigeria now yes we know that there are limitations to the ability of states to explore the natural resources but when Nigeria had its boom the success of Nigerian states or Nigeria's states did not come from the all these so called natural resources it came from agriculture in the north where exporting highs and skin it was called in the west cocoa in the east palm oil and all those other things the states government still have controlled all these resources what have they done with it? nothing rather they sit down in their states and go cop in hand to the federal government and lament and get every citizen worked up demanding for things to be migrated from the exclusive to the concurrent now I'm not saying that is wrong no we need it the states need to have control but I'm saying even what you have control over right now why wouldn't what are you doing with it? why wouldn't let's say some states in the north okay I grow pepper I grow this I grow that consumption states now let's come to the government of Lagos because yes we have been talking about greek in Lagos but we can't have time to grow anything I'm sorry why won't you look for collaborations like it happened on that day and we had is it kebi rice? kebi rice if we do more of that our states will grow and I think it's time for states like Lagos to also say okay there are too many people in Lagos I'm taking my money partnering with Anambra or a Boeing or Emo state I'm coming to set up a palm oil plantation just do that 30% or 50% of it comes to Lagos the remaining we export we're creating jobs for the people there to stay there do the same thing in the north we rise do the same thing in the south west and you will reduce the pressure on Lagos that is the problem of Lagos now when it comes to policing it's another fairy tale that yes we need again it's good to have police in your states that you can relate with but to say everything goes back to the IGP for approval is not true and I'll give you a very simple example Governor Wike, Yesun Wike and his rival, what is his name? the former governor, Rosimi Amici Rosimi Amici was a visit to river states blaring his convoy is a federal minister of federal capacity Governor Wike was also coming blaring his convoy a state, ordinary state governor that doesn't have control over the state police suppose I'm using what everybody says doesn't have, they meet and because it's the governor of the states the policemen that were with the federal minister had to calm down for him again when the federal government sent a process to arrest a judge in his states it wasn't in the state house it was in the house of the judge he went there and told them they don't have the capacity and they pulled out I need to add this part here governors become selective with when they achieve thank you let me bring out another case if you remember the case of this emo state the president governor is turning on when they want to they can activate state apparatus especially during during elections state governors control everything even the way state electoral commissions vote selectively when there's boundary treaty they're not in control and I tell people if there's any for example what happened in the state I doubt the governor needed to call the IGP to release his voice the breakdown of the police the police structure in Nigeria you have the states commander you have the regional or local government then even within local government you have subunits now if things are happening for example let's say in this koshofer area and there's crisis the commander in charge of this division doesn't need to call the state commander for approval it takes charge the one in the local government doesn't need to call this divisional commander before it takes charge so if there's anything happening what I believe is a problem with policing in Nigeria which is something we really need to address is that number one are under-equipped given the emoluments do not exist I wouldn't go kill myself all the policemen that have been killed on the street what has happened to their family and we're humans if my fellow policeman goes on on mission dies in Nigeria and you say sorry and all you get is a letter to the family why would I die for a country however two days ago a few days ago there was this thing about just anyone around to Somalia it's an international mission they are catered for they are paid well policemen will kill to go there and when they get there that's when you know Nigerian policemen are professionals because they'll show up I need to add a point before I now go over the same voting with my own version of how it is you have less than 500,000 policemen policing 200 million people and half of them are police or vital assets meaning banks, CBN, ETC so we approximately have 210,000 policemen policing 200 million people who does that so this is not even a problem now states they make me laugh you're talking about removing this from concurrently to exclusive this number one states kidnap the entire local government which is this problem with democracy in Nigeria let's ask for more control of resources when you are even kidnapping the resource of the local government under you now federal government pays directly to local government states have ingeniously come up with a very brilliant ministry which is ministry of so called intergovernmental and lifting LG funds at first no I just added that so they conveniently did that and then ensured that the funds are kept in the intergovernmental affairs then they what they feel like governors are not as rich as they are supposed to be as regards policing we must be honest any governor that opens his mouth to discuss restructuring is one of the enemies of democracy and here is why if you haven't provided autonomy and even after the presidential executive order 10 of 2020 which instructs autonomy to the judicial and legislature and governments are not governors are not following which restructuring are you talking about you want it from the federal let me finish I do not support a state police with the present powers conferred on the state governor as it is so let's be careful with the arsenal example we don't hate football so let's be careful because some governors are messing up not because of some governors I am being honest with the powers conferred on governors by the constitution if you hand them a state police number one nobody will be able to suck in that state number two nobody will be able to run against them there will be no opposition because they have kidnapped the legislature and you now want to give them enforcement you want to give them police police should be restructuring in writing a new constitution what we are saying is it can be local it should be local one other thing I think we should consider when it comes to policing is this the reason they give for policing is that okay we want to have control the federal government is controlling everything but this is what they forget if you have state police and you still have a bad federal government it has more powers than your state police so it can come into your state and take over because what you are saying now is abuse in the system because what is happening now what they claim is happening that the federal controls everything it's an abuse if that is what is happening so if you are running away from abuse you don't create another avenue for even bigger abuse the constitution will be clear on what to do in such a situation and then we are enforcing so many things that have written a constitution which are already provided the major problem of the constitution in Nigeria is that it is not even implemented to 40% that's where the major problem is and that's why a lot of people are scared to talk about a new constitution because if we have a new constitution then with the improved senate that we have the tent assembly the most brilliant assembly I have ever seen of course I am speaking such a thing but if you have that calibre of people in the house in the federal house with a new constitution we are doomed I am being honest and I can assure you 50% of them do not even know Nigeria's constitution that's true so I think one of the key things in trying to get a new constitution will be as Nigeria is trying to get a new constitution we also should try to get at least 48 senators into the house and like 160 into the houses so that we know that while we are creating a new constitution it's with a new crop of minds that actually know what they are doing and now this should not be ah this person stood during and said the person will probably make a good legislator no the person will not make a good legislator that is a big mistake obviously in times of political experience 70% of time will not make a good they will go through the electoral college as well we will ensure that happens which is okay let's be careful we are solution providers here we can't just be talking about the problems so if we pick someone who is able to speak we just say go through the process to learn like you said you don't become a doctor so we teach you what you do so that you can add it to all the other I think what will also help solving it best is that when we finish teaching those who are aspiring for office we also teach the constituents what to expect from them that is key and that is what we need before we can introduce a new constitution because I believe there are a lot of people that are vying for the seat of the precedents I'm sorry let me just say the Feladro Tuoyez we can do it without calling him this I feel I respect in terms of their success rate and all that I believe rather than go to the presidency we need to get them into the the national assembly because if we get a lot more of them into the national assembly it will be easier to then speak with the precedents our conversations here will never be complete and they will not be complete without you at the positive professional says way to go Joyce you are such a confident positive inspiration keep impacting and imparting positively thank you so much do well to follow us on our Facebook plus TV Africa hashtag The Advocate NG on Twitter and Instagram at plus TV Africa hashtag The Advocate NG to catch up on previous broadcast go to plus TV Africa dot com forward slash The Advocate NG kind of day is next after this break don't go anywhere how do you decide who the victim is every day we are complaining about the bias structure and sighting of infrastructure in cities across Nigeria we are obviously peeved by these biases and humanly so we respond or react in different ways as an expression of a dissatisfaction and blatant abuse by powers we have decided to call unknown in Baba Fela's words, unknown soldiers we've been the victim for so long that we have slipped into the comfortable posture of constantly playing the victim even when we are not but the question is who really is the victim how do we choose who a victim is and what are the rights of a victim the nurses are harsh on their patients because they the nurses are victims poor emoluments, inadequate tools or comfortable environment etc the lease goes on and the patients complain these same patients that complain might be a teacher or a lecturer they or she equally passes the frustration onto the pupils students or even the parents in effect produces unqualified bunch of unprofessional professionals for our dear nation Nigeria in October 2020 the nation witness one of the most coordinated uprising against oppression in recent times and sars police brutality must stop again, we are the victims who really is the victim the policeman who is being pilfered by the teacher who is playing victim or is it the policeman who has become accustomed to drinking the local herbs claiming he is a lover of tradition when in reality it is because he cannot afford to go to the hospital is it the policeman that has bought fake drugs and has lost a child is it the policeman that is poorly trained lowly renumerated dehumanized and is giving all a nose to the job no matter how inadequate this is to the society rather than praise our military we bastardize them and constantly talk about how poorly they are performing when the truth is that they might be operating on the blind side we've heard a lot of stories about them our failure to celebrate all the gallant soldiers who lost their lives at the battle front yesterday would definitely produce self-minded soldiers who would not give their best to protect the nation tomorrow yet another victim in the 90s ebbs were tagged with 419 rather than tackle the menace we tribalized it now Nigeria is seen as a country that celebrates 419 kind of smartness Nigeria played the victim and threw a tribe under the bus to say face we're currently plagued by different kind of terrorism again we're playing victim we've tribalized it Fulani Headsmen and accept the terror we expect the terror to go away rain rain go away come and rain another day like that nosy ride the victim cycle never ends and that is a problem as Nigerians every Nigerian needs to know that he or she is not a victim is not rather more a victim than the other it's high time we started seeing ourselves collectively as victims because that is the only way we can get a solution to our problems let's analyze it properly a teacher fails to give his or his or her best in class he organizes extra classes to make more money her tool is the pen he or she is a victim a doctor fails to turn up at the public hospital and redirects you to the private hospital just so that he or she can make more money in the process the private hospital or the public hospital rather becomes a slaughterhouse he or she is a victim so they have to react the bus conductor hikes the transport fare at will depending on his mood he can decide to blame bad roads or any other thing all these people use their tools to make an extra living why? because they are victims what are the tools of the policemen what are the tools of the soldier what are the tools of the civil servants after all we are all victims I am not a victim in Jesus name I find every spirit of victimism I really loved I loved listening to you was really really impressive because it came from a Nigerian angle which is kind of rare to see these days I agree that of all tribes in Nigeria which are more than 200 ethnicities in Nigeria which are more than 250 every one of them is marginalized and that is what we do not understand in this country being is always to pick on who we think because we do not understand his culture we feel this is negative this is right and for the purpose of this conversation I would like to bring something up I was opportunity to see something years ago and if Nigeria dealt with this years ago we would not be in this problem so there was strife in of course sub-Saharan Africa and it was reported to Nigeria that the executive in Abuja should take action because our borders were porous and these were people who carried guns and also they noticed a deforestation of Zamorino, Zamfara, Katina, Yubi which are all today flash points this report was more than 10 years ago nothing was done about it our borders have been left porous and most of us because of political affiliations have invited people from outside the country who are not Nigerians to come into the country and perpetrate havoc this goes down to even there is no body not guilty of this this goes down to even within the Efe Madakeke crisis which people were hired from outside Nigeria to fight these wars across each other the jukun, tif, they did the same thing we are all guilty of this manner of approach the average Nigerian doesn't like strife we love oambed too much now if you want to see a country that has problem I'll give you an example where India and Pakistan were together there was no intermarriage they made movies about it there was no intermarriage Nigeria was still intermarried when it comes to politics and the truth is actually resources that we do not lay our hands on Nigeria is too rich to be a poor country and we have refused to handle that and because of that we have sold out our nationhood most of us do not think Nigeria is an identity we all look at ourselves as Yoruba, Ibo, Hausa, Tif Ibibu and whatever which is wrong in real context a country is a territorial boundary a nation has a unified direction and ideology to which it seems I'm one of the proponents saying we should try something I'm not saying exactly this but we could make our national lingua Pijin English it might unify us more than we already are that's my take on this should be not Queen's English I agree and I also agree that if we take out from what Kunle is saying take out that state of origin and become state of residence that's fine that unifies us we all are in a geographical location we are all from here because we live here being victims means we should be more empathetic toward each other show some more compassion and respect for each other because we are all victims of one thing or the other whether planned or unplanned the thing is many times when we think of ourselves as victims we think someone somewhere is sitting and trying to victimize us it's not always so it's indirect in fact more times than not someone is just trying to protect themselves the water who wants private practice for more money is not trying to create this water house he or she is just trying to protect their family so it's a cycle of us hurting each other indirectly and sometimes directly so compassion and solution drive what do we do like you said compassion a lot of us have lost what you said love of nation or even love of self love of people I dare say more than 70% of Nigerians if we are to give them an opportunity today to choose another country they will gladly gladly I was on radio in Ghana many also because they don't know better about the other country so they've seen themselves that we are at the receiving end we don't know blah blah blah I was on radio in Ghana when the NTSA stand came on and I'm an advocate for Nigeria wherever I am and the guys presented me the mistake and asked me questions so how does it feel to hear people talking about a country in this manner and was one of the leading radio stations in Ghana I was very excited when he asked the question because it was an opportunity for me to lash at them so I made that that was very nice so that was not the people's fault because at the end of the day we were talking about Nigeria this year we haven't reported it this way you're reporting this NTSA stand you know even now the fact so whatever I give to the people is a song you'll sing any music you play to them and the guy kept quiet but while I was busy defending Nigeria of course I said it was a bad thing that happened blah blah blah while I was really saving the face of Nigeria a guy called not just one, a lot of them and told me that I'm one of the problems in Nigeria and with the government and that he was even until the end something happened was about changing his nationality to a Somalian they would prefer to be a Somalian than to be a Nigerian good luck to him and the presenter was looking at me like this you say your country blah blah blah and he said that was a challenge we have that he was a victim and he's pouring it out on everybody we see Nigeria as a place where I have an option I could check out I could go anywhere else I don't owe anything to this country listen, things happen in Ghana in Togo I can talk about countries in West Africa that are equally terrible under just during this COVID there was a government in the West African country that told the people who were spending about $250,000 daily feeding people and they said the people said okay bring us the proof and they showed people in like two or three parks scampering for food and like so these people can you feed these people with $250,000 in a day people still but you know what, while you're busy insulting them or they're busy fighting their government you a foreigner attempts to insult their presidents and you'll be reminded that you're a Nigerian you're not allowed to do that it's our joke we don't see that especially us here as parents it starts with us at home I hear parents say things like hey don't teach your neighbor what you know because they'll take what you know and add it to what they know and then they become better than you that is institutionalizing division and victim mentality so if we will start by teaching our children to say everyone is your sister is your brother allow somebody else stepping before you doesn't take anything away from you teach that person what they don't know it doesn't take anything away from you that makes you exactly I found it weird when I asked the teacher to allow my son to teach his classmates more in primary 4 and some other parents were like why are you doing that you want them to not be better than your son and I go no no no no no we win better when we are all winning I'll give you a life example people normally assume that in my experience and of course political parties and running for office that I actually know politics a lot lot well because I get to be part of the training and teaching of students within the electoral college I can tell you that my growth within last one year in politics is exponential things I because I keep because when you teach you become better I become far better than I actually was and I don't know why we don't understand that and there's one key thing we need to understand in Nigeria I think one of the things that bothers us are tribe I would put something in fact you know what let me just make this point here when in church and I say this with all sense of responsibility the leader says tell your neighbor I don't care what you came for I came to be blessed that in itself is already constantly divided you were about to say religion and so if in the religious house I am saying to you Coyote I don't care what you came for I'm saying to you Coyote don't touch me me I came here for my own blessing we're already saying we don't care for each other in the same place where we're supposed to be saying look I came here for your blessing and mine so how do we walk out of that place which is adding to what you were saying so I feel unlike for me I consider myself a little bit privileged in Nigeria my dad Muslim my mom Catholic so I raised both religions unlike other people I finished both holy books and I had a choice till today most people cannot tell my religion that's the thing it's a little bit but I noticed that even on social media just because somebody sees the name and sometimes you know I get to interact and somebody sees the name they will tilt towards me not because of the points they think I'm making but I can almost tell from the name where you tilt on it based on you would rather associate with this or that I keep saying this our institutions need to become actual institutions our institutions need to become actual institutions well our institutions need to change everything needs to move on we need to stop being victims we need a constitutional referendum we need so many things but as we all know in our side is never a friend on this program as well however the advocacy continues on our social media platforms on Facebook join us on plus tv africa hashtag the advocate ng or on Twitter and Instagram at plus tv africa hashtag the advocate ng to catch up with previous broadcasts go to plus tv africa.com and don't forget to subscribe to our youtube channel plus tv africa till next week same time on this station remember that the important conversations are among the necessary tools for a saner society bye for now I was becoming hardwired to try and cheat I would suggest that we begin to hold our leaders accountable I was in time in this country when things actually work I don't think that any organization should be above the law and I think one of the challenges we have in this country is about governance across the board does it really affect us in Nigeria? it does I don't know what we can do if the system is already corrupted and warned as a continent of the influx of the Chinese if you don't repay your debt they will just to colonize you