 Hello and welcome to ballot 2023. I am Maureen Menon. And my co-host is Justin Acadone. Hello Justin. Hi Maureen, good to be back again. Yeah, good to be back. Welcome as we continue to analyze and dissect the governorship and state House of Assembly elections that took place today. Some of the results we understand are right now being uploaded into the INEC IRF. We're still monitoring things to see how they will unfold and we are going to continue to analyze how these elections took place today. Has INEC been able to redeem its image? We'll find out. We're not alone. We have a guest, Dr. Ulushola Deji. A political scientist is back with us. Hello, Ulushola. Thanks for having me again. It's good to have you. Oh, Maushala, beg your pardon. It's good to have you with us. So from what you've analyzed, from what you've seen, would you say that INEC has been able to redeem its image? Well, I don't think INEC has been able to redeem its image as much as Nigeria expected. We saw what happened at VGC, relocating polling units without informing the resident when you have already told Nigerians that this particular beaver system is geographically manned. So if all of them choose to vote at the gate and the beavers is showing another location from where they should have originally voted, then INEC can come up and say the election result of the VGC area is null and void because the beavers and all the other equipment, if they are geographical, if they are manned, definitely is going to review another location. That is a flaw on the part of INEC. It doesn't cost INEC to have communicated with these people that, okay, this social polling unit will be relocated to this place. And the people would have gotten maybe a document or a pronouncement by INEC to hold INEC on to. That has been sorted out now. INEC has postponed elections into 10 polling units in that Victoria Garden city to tomorrow, Sunday. And I understand that they have about 5,000 registered voters there. So that place is a crucial center. Well, some of the updates that we have regarding the election that took place today is that the Labor Party led by its candidate, the governorship candidate, Maribel Rhodes-Viva, has said that one of their agents have been shot dead in a PAPA area, and he's blamed the police and INEC on accusing them of complicity. We also got to know that a rise TV crew were attacked in some part of Lagos, specifically the Allegushi Palace area. New Central crew were also attacked. And as you found out earlier in the course of our transmission, one of our correspondents, Abadji Epet, was also attacked in the Agigay area, meaning the harassment of journalists who covered this election is something that we should worry about. But Ma'am, just before you continue with term day, it is also very alarming that with all of that you have said, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police is in the news, and he is saying, let me just quote what he said. He said, some of the cases of violence in the governorship and state house of assembly were anticipated. So my question right now, but if they anticipated all of this violence, how come they were not being proactive? Did you? It boils down to interest and being held accountable. There should be consequence for actions. But Nigeria is a state whereby they make you look stupid if you are a responsible citizen. If there had been consequence for action, we wouldn't be having all these. But Nigeria rewards failure, rewards impunity. We in this life, life coverage in this country, someone stormed the Senate chamber, cut out with the maize. What do we have? The person was rewarded with deputy Senate president and now the ticket of a party. So we operate a system whereby we are loyal to some strong men. Because if you are anticipated that violence is going to occur, what is your duty as a police officer? So for you as a commissioner of police to even have the f1 tree to come out and say that, that the violence is anticipated, yet journalists were being beaten. Yes, voters were terribly harassed. That shows that there is no consequence for action in the system for you to have the f1 tree to come out and say it, you know, to point out to your own failure. And so far as there's no deterrent now, tell me, in 2019, nothing happened to those talks. Nothing was done to punish them. What was the deterrent? What will make them not to do it again? Women being likes to be free. But in a situation whereby you can, you know, use your own freedom to trample on other because you are supporting a particular candidate. So any other person that does not share your view must be punished, must be killed, must be harassed, when even your own fingers, the five fingers itself are not equal. So you respect your fellow human being that your reasoning and, you know, decision on issues should be equal. No, that shouldn't be the case. And the state is what should be responsive in terms of bringing people to book. But what do we have? The state itself is complicit because why the political actors in the state itself are the major beneficiaries of the process because they are the ones that, you know, want the power by all means and they know, okay, now the president elect is the godfather of politics in Lagos. So any political talk can go all out and, you know, march wherever I want because he knows maybe I guess by me, you know, the president elect will be sworn in and that's all the powers and he will be let go. So we should begin to have in a system whereby you cannot beat the the strength of the institution. For example, I read it in the newspaper that Jonathan said he's expected to be arrested on Tuesday. To be arrested on Tuesday. Imagine that because he himself is expecting his own arrest. If somebody like Donald Trump, America has not gone up in flames. Imagine like a Jonathan say, oh, I'm expected to be arrested by Tuesday. By now, the military would have been making statement, would have been threatening, oh, we'll bombard the oil pipeline. Imagine the body leaves office saying he'll be arrested by Tuesday, you know, all different people would would, of course. So we don't have strong institutions. Why? Because we don't want to have it. If because we know that if we have it, definitely it will work against us and we are not ready to do the right thing. Do you agree with this statement that we have Nigeria, but we do not have Nigerians yet? Well, I think this election. Attribute to one of the presidential candidates, the Labor Party's presidential candidate, Pete Tovey. The election of of February 25 would have been a good case to have Nigerians if I'm to use your word, like to have Nigerians the more in the sense that people came out to vote. People were eager to express their franchise, but you not fulfilling your part in terms of security, in terms of INEC itself, you not fulfilling your part has made you lose Nigerians the more because look at what we have today voter apathy across board in the country. And because there is massive violence in legal state, now any election that holds again, what is the what we make people not to go into that. And my problem is that at the end of the day, from this election that everybody is saying that there is massive violence, I let we declare a winner. The winner will go out to the street and start jubilating. You know, we lack consciousness in this country. We lack the fear of God. And at the end of the day, they say judiciary is the last hope of the common man. No, judiciary is the robust stamp of the political and the powerful. Okay, whether we like it or not, at the end of the day, a leader, someone is going to announce winner. And that means whoever it is, he's going to be in charge of the number one seat in this state. So he definitely has his work cut out for him. As you have alluded voter apathy, we saw it on a very large scale. So many people in the state are disillusioned, those who couldn't come out to vote. One of our colleagues said she had to go door to door calling on her neighbors to come out and vote, because many of them had said they were not going to come out. They were afraid that they could be attacked. They were afraid that, you know, something might go wrong. So whoever becomes or whoever is announced, the governor of this state has his work cut out for him of trying to convince people of their safety, especially people that are non-indigents, right? Well, to convince people and for people to listen to you, to be convinced in accepting what you are saying and buying to it, you need some form of legitimacy in the sense that the people must buy into your government. They must see that that government has evolved through a credible process. They must feel that they have impute into that government. We all know that somebody is going to win. Only one person can be the governor of the state. But if the process is credible, those who lose, if they lose fair and square, they would go back and re-strategize and be willing to give you all the support you need in interest of the development of the state at large. But now that you emerge through a very flawed process where people are beaten, where people are killed, where people are harassed, even to the extent of the palace of a monarch, you know? So in that kind of process, you that emerge from that process, what do you want to preach to the people? What do you want to say to the people? So it goes beyond talking. You need to walk the talk. So you that emerge from that discredited process. Even if you talk to people, they don't believe you. They don't want to kind of like, you know, feel part of what you are saying because they don't see you as their product. They don't see you coming from a legitimate process. So if you want to govern, try and let the process at which you emerge be free, be fair and credible. And I begin to wonder that politics, leadership is service. So imagine whereby I want to come and serve you and I have to beat your brother, I have to beat your sister, just because I want to serve you. You know? I want to serve you and I have to impose myself on you. So it shows that politics is just for the gain. And my problem is if you are beating people, if you are harassing people, because let's say you are desperate to go there so that you can, you know, go on and develop the state, it will be good. You are only beating and harassing people so that you can enrich yourself the more, so that you can be more powerful, so that you can boost your political portfolio. I think that after all, we need to have a bit of fear of God in this country because at the end of the day, if you are a Muslim, if you die before this time, if you die now, by daybreak, you are in the ground. So if you begin to reason that, oh, within the next six, seven, eight hours you are living now, you are talking, you are jumping, you can be in the ground. We begin to have the fear of God a little bit because how do you want to occupy a seat and you will sleep comfortably knowing that you wrote people of their franchise and people were beaten, people were killed just because you want to govern. It's so sad, like what we have now is like seeing a 60-year-old person crawling. A 60-year-old person should be an adult. Nigeria is over 60 years old and what we see now is that every time in our, in our election cycle, in our development, Nigeria keeps regressing. Beavers and the IRF portal increased so much confidence. Like why would you not make it work? For any reason, we don't have any answer because our election is one of the most costly in the world. So in a situation whereby we don't expect it isn't, those that didn't make that IRF to work, what is happening now? They said in Lagos, the 55% have been uploaded. Now what happened to the remaining 45% in what areas? Is it the stronghold of the ruling party or the opposition? These are critical issues that need to be assessed itself. All right, we must say a very big thank you for all that you have mentioned today and of course all the useful insights that you have brought about. We must say a very big goodbye to you for today and it's been a pleasure analyzing all of the elections with you. Thank you. Thanks for having me. All right, this is the Ballots 2023 from Plus TV Africa. We'll take a break and we'll return. Stay with us. Hello, hope you enjoyed the news. Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.