 Welcome to the Advocate, the programme that keeps you educated and informed on current events around you. I will be talking about the way thinking, the only way to secure and greater Nigeria. We will be talking about Mediocity in Nigerian society. Sholakwe Azazi will be talking about what is autism. As usual, expect interesting conversations that will keep you enlightened will be back just after the break. Stay with us. The way thinking, the only way to secure and greater Nigeria. Today, I want to talk about the importance of we mentality, how it can lead to a more secure and prosperous Nigeria. There is a story about a father who took his son to visit a pub village to show him how people live. The experience was eye-opening for the son as he saw first hand the struggles that many people face everyday. Upon their return home, the father asked his son what they had learned from the trip. The son's response was unexpected. Rather than focusing on the poverty and lack of material possessions that they had seen, instead I highlighted the world of love, compassion, friendship that he had witnessed in the village. The son's words were a powerful reminder that true world lies not in material possessions but in the values and relationship that we hold there. This story has stayed with me throughout my life and has taught me the importance of embracing a we mentality. It's about power-tizing, compassion, respect, collaboration in all that we do. As Nigerians, we have seen first hand the benefit of working together towards a common goal, the potential we have as a nation when we come together. So I urge us all to embrace a we mentality in our daily lives and in our efforts to build a better Nigeria. Let's work towards a more secure, prosperous and connected Nigeria for all of its citizens and prioritize the values that truly make us rich. Fellow advocates, what can you say to this? Well, I like the fact that when the child was asked to say what he learned and he was able to point out all the other things that in his childlike mind. And sometimes that's what I see missing in the society. We have prioritized a lot on material things so much so that it has clouded our mentality. Before we used to say the village system when all the children were raised in that communal setting. Now everything is just concrete jungle. Everybody is all about me, the mentality of me, myself and I. And because of that, we're not even looking out for the fellow human beings anymore. We are so selfish in our interest that we don't take time out to enjoy that little thing that we don't even have to buy with money. The love, the acceptance, the brought out. What do you say to that? Unfortunately, I will say this. This is one of the advantages that modernization has brought to us. When we were still, life was still very easy. In the rural areas, villages, even as a young child, you have so many hard dots. I mean, looking after you, you have so many fathers, so many mothers. I mean, so many people you can call your own father, your own mother because they see everyone as a unit. The one as young as really disintegrated us. Now everybody wants to live the lives of their own. Everybody wants to amass enough wealth, enough resources to themselves. That is the fact that we are for each other. And if you bring that to a Nigerian concept, you understand that the only area that you see that we have a few times come together is in sports. In other areas, when it comes to politics, you see division here and there along ethnic, religious lines. You see that we are not able to come together to fight those that really have held the country on the jugular. So the only area we have come together and that has shown that if you really want to take a cue from that is sports. If you take a cue from what we are able to gain from sports, we will be able to achieve more. You see us coming together when Nigerian is playing and basketball and football which is the greatest sport that we follow in this country. So that real mentality is really not there yet. And we really need to begin to see ourselves as one because we know there is strength in unity. I also want us to look at it from this perspective where we have adults today, the husband and the wife chasing their dreams of career. Go out probably in Lagos for example, four or five a.m. in the morning and come back late at ten. It's that compassion of sharing of love with the children, understanding, sharing culture and what have you. Can we also see in that aspect they are thinking about themselves, not about the immediate environment and the fact of them thinking about themselves and not catering for the children. And then when I look at the effects where you see in aquatic groups, you find out that a lot of people who are really high class in the action of which kids, what to do and all those bad acts that we do. Parenting has become a lot entirely. Can we also look at it from that angle? Of course, unfortunately again, while even at home you want to see that at least as a family, the husband and the wife should be in one accord at the home front, ensuring that the kids are okay. But in doing this, they also fall apart. The husband is not always at home, the wife is not always at home, the kids are always at their home. So the way factor, because what time do they really have to look at the progress that the children are making in education, in their sporting activities, in their skills. And that's why you see kids growing up with a lot of talents untapped because the parents are not always around to be able to see, to guide them and see that okay. When you want to be kind of a traditional system that we run in such that most of the private schools don't have sporting activities facilities, then the only time you do as parents you need to dedicate some other resources and time at the weekend to monitor the, I mean help them groom their skills and all of that. But everybody is on their own. On weekends, even when you are at home, you want to stay in a place where you want to rest because on Monday again the Australian and Bosnian started again. So that's fun. What can you say about the women's mentality in regards to security? Because today I can see that everybody wants to have their own private security firm, you know, their own policing, once they can pay. And you know, going up, I remember that you always have, you know, from one house to other, when any stranger enters the community, we already know this person is not part of us. Because he doesn't go with us. Where are you from? We want to inquire that what do you come here to do? You know, we feel secure around ourselves and that is obtainable as are today in villages. But in the cities where we shout of insecurity and stuff like that, but can we say because we think as an individual, I want to just protect ourselves and don't care about the people within us or what. What can you say about that in relation to insecurity challenges that we are facing in the country? Okay, so I think I'll just take it one at a time because it's a very big, you know, unboxed. So first and foremost, when we were growing up, it was more relaxed in the sense that we had, like you said, we had our uncles and aunties and everybody else watching out for us. But when you look at it now, you have mum, dad and children. It's a unit now. The extended part of that communal living has fallen off. And so when I remember when I was growing up, my parents have gone to work, but I have one auntie or the other that is watching out for me that is serving as my parents in the house. And because they are there, you know, there's that, there's someone else that would, you know, make sure that they carry out the responsibility of parenting and making sure that all that I need to do to thrive is there. But nowadays you don't see it anymore. The parents have to survive. The economic situation of when we were younger and what is in reality now is totally different. And for them to survive, they have to go out there and hustle. And when they go out there to hustle, it's a given. You are tired because you've gone through the traffic, you've gone through all of it. You're only human. You come back home, you want to rest. To start to focus and not all those other things, it starts to affect your mental health. And that's why you will see them lashing out and all of that. Then you come to security. It's still the same concept. We have that communal living when we were younger. So you can always spot who is not our member. You didn't need a security firm. You didn't need all those people because all you needed was the guard at the end of the streets. When you come and then your parents, they already know the person is telling them as they are driving in that, oh, she's on the third street because we knew ourselves. There was that space to play, space to move around and all of that. But we don't have that anymore because everywhere, like I said, it's a concrete jungle. Everywhere you turn to, you turn, you see a space that is a playground before. You turn tomorrow, it's been turned into a building complex. So when you think about that, today you know your neighbor. Tomorrow there's nobody because it's already, I mean, what can you say? So that means to cap it up, I think we will also be looking at it from the angle of business because today we have more capitalists than socialists in Nigerian business space. And I was actually watching the Nigerian titan and I saw a beautiful presentation of a man who is seeking an investment funding to do rice processing. He has started and he did his analysis and said for every bag of rice he can generate as much as 2000 naira as profit and it's from this 2000 naira that goes after removing all expenses, that's net profit. But the investor said that's too small and I looked. 2000 naira about how many tons of bags of rice and it's too small. Is that no greediness? And when I look at it into banking sector as well, you see debt, you see high rates debt financing right now where you see people giving, you say I need a system to boost my business. They are giving me interest per annum as much as 120%, as much as 72%. Is that no greediness? Is that not just taking, you know, greed to say it's just about me. I don't care how you want to make this money. I just need this percentage at the end of the day. And how do we want to go as a country, as an individual when everybody are just thinking about them, them and them. I think what we have now also touched on and why since we are tilting towards this individualism is because of the way we vent for ourselves in this country. Virtually I used to say you are your own government. You need to build your own house, get your own water, I get your own power supply, take your kids to school. I mean when you begin to do that, the tendency is that you begin to think all about yourself. I want myself, my wife, my kids to be fine. You understand? So the government has to be involved in so many other things for us. Why do I need to build you want to cover like 15, 20 million for people are the government. We are the government. Now in this case we have become individual governments. That is water. So from the federal government, the state government, the local government you also have individual governments. So what do you have to say to that? Well I agree what he is saying because by the time you have to sort out all those other little pockets at the end of the day you are not thinking about everyone in national kick anymore because you are thinking that I have coughed out so much worse in it for me. I have done X, Y and Z. I have become my own security man, my own this, my own that. So please I need to maximise all that is there for me. And so there is no room to be able to say to my neighbour that sorry do you want me to extend this water that I am getting now? Do you want me to extend it? There is no room for that because I just want to say it is for me please. Thank you so much. Just before we go I want to advocate that we are the government. All these things we know we just need to take a step to say let us build a system. And we can begin from private sector to show example and try to adopt it into the public sector. We have seen it upon Infintech trying to play the role of finance and teaching the banks on a better way to make things work right. And it is becoming a policy and becoming a government entity. I think as an individual we should start as a private entity to start thinking about we, formalising it and taking it to the government. Shilakwe Azazi is next after the break. Do stay with us.