 The Ballot 2023 right here on Plus TV Africa. You can also make sure that you connect via every social media platform when Twitter is at Plus TV Africa. Now and it's all right to Twitter us, let's know what's going on, where you are. And wherever it is you are on Planet Earth, especially in Nigeria, we'd like to find out what's going on in your polling unit. So all you need to do is just tweet at Plus TV Africa, hashtag Ballot 2023. We'll be here to take your comments in no time. You can also engage on Instagram as well as at Plus TV Africa. But just before we get back to our guests in the studio and introduce them, my name is Messi Boko. Nyam Gole is also here for the Ballot. We have updated report reaching us now that Pitao B, one of the presidential candidates for this election, has arrived his polling unit. But we have to find out whether he has cast his vote fingers across and would bring you all of the update as soon as we get the information. But back here in the studio, we have two fine gentlemen who have joined us. Tunde Kola Wale is here with us this morning, the Ballot 2023. Tunde, it's good to have you join us. I mean, I mean it's good to see your face. And we also have Prince Francis Chilaca. Prince, it's good to have you join us. Thank you. Good morning. All right then. But let's get to it. Let's get to the conversation. Let me start off with Tunde Kola Wale. Tunde, first of all, how do you feel? Most anticipated elections. Now we have, we're getting reports, those who are on the field trying to cast your vote. There's a lot that's going on. The mood right now is people have turned out in some quarters. Now we also have reports that some people are still playing football on a day like this, even though that's been an injunction to shut down the entire economy. No movement freely as it should be. But that's the report that we're getting. What are your thoughts? Well, just like you said, personally, I feel delighted that this election is coming. It's long anticipated. If you know what we as Nigerians have gone through the last few years or they are about, you would be anticipated. You would be eager. You would want to see this transition run out smoothly. And why? It is because democracy will forever remain the best form of government. Rather than begin to take cutlery, guns, and explosives to begin to attack ourselves, it's better for us to go to the ballot box periodically. Every four years, when there's a by-election, to elect new people to manage our affairs, that is the only beauty about, I mean, one of the most beautiful thing about democracy. What I have seen, I would want to say is a mixed bag of things. For example, when we were coming this morning, we saw the young people playing football, they cut off some of the roads, blockaded them, and then they were playing their football and all that. And I was discussing with Prince that I would not expect to see this kind of a thing, especially most of the people we saw were the young people who probably have won a legends to one political party or the other. I would have thought that this is, the money they wake up was a good time to begin to go and knock on people's doors and all that, to say, look, Madam, wake up, take out your PC via network to the nearby police station, and then go on. But that was not what they were doing. They were playing football. For the adult, I noted that those who are enthusiastic, they're ready to go and go to the different ballroom. I mean, polling booths to go and cast their votes and what have you. So we might be seeing a situation in which, as it has always been, that the voting demography of the country might not be too different from what we had experienced in the past. In fact, you find that some of these young people already didn't even register to vote in the elections that were about to pass through. And that would be tragic. Tragic in the sense that I keep repeating this example. If you recollect the election that took place in Uganda not too long ago, in which bobbin wine, which is almost like a own show right here and now that, was able to mobilize the young people behind themselves. And I think it got almost about 32 percent of the voting there. But thanks to that number, when young people contested in Nigeria here, you had to see them make an impact. You remember the last election before this, so there were two here and so many of those young people showed up and all of them came up, questions here, all of them and all that. But they hardly were able to scratch the ballot in the face. You begin to ask yourself, why is Nigeria different from other climes that, or why are the young people not able to mobilize, make their impact fair, and even be able to determine the pendulum in which the direction of the election results is likely to swing. So these are some of the worries that we bring to see all over the place. Could it be that resources is a very important determinant of who gets what with regard to some of this election? Could it be that some of these young people have really not mastered the tools of mobilization, of getting the electorate to line up behind it? Could it also be that we tend to do more, some of these things on social media, forgetting that the majority of the people are the grassroots who are not likely to be able to have access to the social media? And incidentally too, like some of the complaints we have gotten all over the place and all that, we've seen most of the candidates, especially the presidential candidates, they go only to the state capitals, and what have you, to campaign at the stadium, any of the open venues all over the place and all that. The rural people in the way are not being carried along, whereas the first time I met you for the first time in Maholo, for example, was in Nukeli, town in Kogi State and all that. I was doing my second school in there, and it came with chopper, landed in one of those public places at Nora, and everybody went, and little for that, they were all over the place, the remotest village that we could talk about, they were all over there, but maybe things have changed, a lot of media out in there now, which you can communicate with the people at Nora, but I see nothing wrong in the face-to-face of meeting the people, like we see in America, you see presidential candidates go to shop floors, go to factories, go to stadiums, and some of these other places to reach the people, but here is still not the way it should be. Just as, you know, I'll hand over to Yamgo in no time, let's look at data and statistics from INEC, you know, there are reports as of January, when February, and today is the 25th, that 40% of 93.4 million eligible voters are youths, the young people, so I'm just wondering, the people who are playing football now, young people, how do we put this, and political pundits, prior to today, have said that one of the game changers, one of the things that we're anticipating, is the involvement of youth in this election, it would be a huge factor for the outcome of this election, the involvement, I mean if you look at this number, the entire, that's a pass mark, you know if it was school, it would probably be an E, and maybe you have some test, probably an EB and then you have your test, then you probably be talking about the COEB, so I'm saying, how do we now juxtapose these statistics from INEC, and with the current reality that we're faced with, people are playing football, and that's still part of the 40%? Is that for me or for Prince? May Prince should come now. I would say it's too early to start throwing stones at the youths, I'll say that, yes we saw quite a number of youths on the streets playing football, but most of them too are small, I don't think they're of age, you know they're not of age, those who are meant to vote, if 40% of registered voters that have their PVCs are youths. Obviously they would not hold on to it without exercising their fundamental rights to vote. I believe that yes, the youths of this country have woken up, I believe that we will hear the voice of the youths, and it's going to happen very soon. In other things in Nigeria, especially the elderly, they're always too quick to castigate the younger ones, but you see that there is, we need to understand that this election, like I've told a lot of people, is different from the kind of, from every other election we've had in this country. In the sense that suddenly the elites have become politically conscious, suddenly the youths have become politically conscious. Before now, elections in Nigeria have been owned by car riders, mechanics, market women and all of that, but there's a parting shift, and that shift is that people who ordinarily stay out of politics, people who ordinarily are docile, are calling to the realization to say, look, it is time for us to take back our country. And that is what is going to happen. People are going to come out to vote, because even while we're still coming on the road, we saw INEA officials still trying to set up in some places. They're just arriving with their materials and all of that. So I believe that in the next one or two hours, there's going to be a game change where people would realize, oh, it's time for us to vote. And I have my own people on the field, so I know already that a lot of young people are already galvanizing and going to their polling units. Now, for those who are still playing football, if you have a voter's card and you're playing football, then you're not wishing this country well. We say the way it is. We expect that every Nigerian that has a voter's card that is of a voteable age should go out there and exercise their right. It is their right to decide who leads them. And when we are able to all go out and vote for who we want, we can actually hold that person accountable and responsible. But in times past, we found out that people most times don't even get elected. They get selected into office. And that is why it is difficult to hold them responsible and accountable. So it's a challenge on the youth. It's a challenge on the voting masses to go out there, exercise your rights. Okay, let me take it back to Tunde because of what he said. Let me use the phrase or the saying of St. Patrick's Missionaries. They say, you either go to the mission by giving or you give to the mission by going. Now, the youths, they either make a change in our polity by taking up responsibilities as leaders or by voting in the right leaders. So it's a two-way thing. Now, are we, are the youths? I'm not that a youth, so I'm not calling myself. Unless I'm in a political party, I cannot be a youth leader. So are the youths really ready for this change, this needed change, which is more or less in their hands? I take, for instance, when you were talking, you mentioned a shawarra. I know it was just an example, but there was a shawarra in 2019 contesting election. There was a top first who are in 2019 contesting. There were other youths that were contesting and we were expecting that, okay, if they will not gather the votes that individually they can, they could rally around someone. And we thought that it was going to happen when they tried to have an agreement between them. About four of them came together and said, okay, let's do a mock election. Anybody who wins, we are supporting that person. And that election came, we gathered that one of them won, but they could not agree. Does that speak to the discipline within the youth at all? Does it show a youth that really needs or wants to change our country? Are the youths really ready to take up this responsibility and do what is right for our country? Yes, Tunde. Okay. I want to make some categorization. When you look at the youth to find out that they belong into two categories. There are those who are being highly educated and very, very sophisticated. And just like he said, there are those who are street urchins who, if they are living by Tautine, by Togli, by following some of the established politicians from one place or the other to execute whatever agenda they may be given to them. For the educated elites, I mean youths are not allowed. The highly educated people are not allowed. As we saw down in the answers, they're beginning to feel the pains and they really know now where the youths are pinching them. And they are desirous of really making a change in this society. I give you one example. As one of those activists who is now living abroad, and one of the international media was interviewing the leaders and they said, look, I will come back to Nigeria only if Peter will be here. If Peter will be here, I don't see a dramatic change in the direction of leadership. You should just count me out of coming to Nigeria. For those people thinking like that lady here and now, who are based in Nigeria presently and now, I am sure they will do everything within their minds to make sure that the outcome of this next election becomes something that is going to be favorable to the use of the country and the generality of our people. But for the ones who are not educated, I haven't seen any paradigm change in the actions and the activities and the kind of people that they followed. If you have been watching the campaigns of all the different political parties and what have you found out, there is hardly any of the political parties, especially the establishment and the older ones that we talk about and all that. Who does not also have a sizable number of youths behind them, campaigning for them, writing for them and doing all manners of propaganda for them. Even including highly educated youths and what have you. The question to now ask yourself is that, is there a unanimity of purpose? Is there unity, kind of symmetric, as you got the direction in which the youths want to take the Nigeria to? For me, the answer is no, because the street options, those who are not educated, they tend to be more in number. They even tend to be more powerful in terms of the leverage that they can put on whatever elections that is held this time around. So in the preparation of those youths, youth dominate what happens at these elections and all that. Whatever the educated run, or the direction which educated one might be going and all that. They probably come to futility. So the truth of the matter is that the way and manner our electoral system is queued, the way and manner the materials and resources are dispensed with, the way and manner in which the elections are conducted and also the way and manner the security architecture of the country is configured and what have you. Makes it very, very difficult for the average Nigerian youth, especially the most educated one, to be able to have their way and get their decisions rammed through the entire system, such as we have seen in some other countries of the world. Look at the time, I mean, look at Europe today, you find out that 30 year old men are now prime ministers and now in places like Canada, in places like Spain, the average presenter is between 35 and then 50. But look at most of the African countries and whatever, except those who have stayed too cool, like I think every coast and volcano, I mean, volcano fossil and the water though, the youth are really not making impact. Even for a place like Liberia, where George, where I won the flu and fear elections and all that, we've been hearing a lot of rumblings from that place as regard for the performance of George. Most times we are told that he lives outside the country and it is only when there are official assignments of the dawn that he comes back in there. And the whole world is watching. If the average Nigerian youth is going to behave like a judge, we are now that. He's still playing professional football. Psychologically. I think the youth for me don't appear to be ready. Okay, let me ask this as your answering. I know you want to say something about it, but don't you think the political awareness, we are leaving it to chance that someone will have to grow into becoming aware of what the political climate is and all that. I remember that in the time of the UPNs and all that, even in primary school, you could recite what their cardinal points are that they're going to achieve in primary school. And even the people we are describing today as the street urchins, the people who make things happen, the foot men, most of them, if not 90% of them, at least attend primary school. Maybe they don't finish even this primary school, but they get to a stage where they see the four walls of the school, yet they come out knowing next to nothing about politics or election. Some of them don't know anything about that until they come of age and they think that the only way to be connected to the center politically is to do thuggery and other things, and they don't even know that they too can vie for positions. Are we not leaving this political awareness to chance too much so that our country is dying because of it? I don't think we are. Maybe in the past we've done that, but I would say that if you followed this particular election in the last eight months, I am very proud and I give the kudos to our outgoing president in the sense that for once we've seen a campaign based on issues. We didn't see a campaign where you see candidates carrying corn on their head, candidates, you know, carrying, pushing trucks, waybarrows in order to relate with the ordinary Nigerians. We saw candidates who were telling us for once, this is what we want to do. We see candidates telling us, hold me responsible. So we've moved from that point where, you know, politicians were taking advantage of the Nigerian youths and the Nigerian people and that is where we are today. Now when you talk about, you know, the, call them whatever name you want to call them, thugs and all of that. I have been related, I relate to young people because I run a foundation and I will tell you most of these so-called thugs, most of them are not even registered voters. I cannot tell you for sure, out of every 20 I've spoken with, maybe two or three. Okay, back to you. Let me start with you now, Prince. I know you had the final word before we caught you, sure to go and join Wali. Earlier on, we were talking with some of our correspondents from all over the country and they were telling us about how materials arrived late and even now we just heard that 1045 or 945, that is so much behind time. They should have been there by seven, start the accreditation 730 or something like that or it. Now, another issue that came from being late is the fact that the Electoral Act provides that when the INEG officials get through the venue, the people are supposed to check and see whether the materials are complete, whether the BVAS is zero so that they don't inflate figures and so on and so forth. And then we were trying to interrogate the fact that maybe even the people at that polling unit do not even know that these are things that are provided for in the act. Do you think the orientation, the awareness by INEG in preparation for this election was enough or what could they have done better? If you're talking about awareness, I've always said INEG has not done enough, but I won't put the entire blame on INEG. You know, it's a country where you have a Ministry of Information and under the Ministry of Information, I have the National Orientation Agency. This is a body that is saddled with dissemination of information, especially, you know, during a process like we have an election process. I haven't seen the National Orientation Agency do anything. Online, really, there should be everywhere using the local language, using the English language, teaching people, educating men, juniors, creating awareness. Even as at this morning, the National Orientation Agency should be out there asking people to come out and exercise their rights. But you don't see this body doing any job. You don't see this body doing any job. And then INEG is also saddled more with there was so much time because even the voter's registration exercise, we saw how poorly it was conducted. 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.