 A group, the National Coordinator of Frontier for Peace and Unity, has come back support for the presidential candidacy of the Minister of Transportation Chibike Rotimi Ameichi under the All Progressive Congress, APC, in 2023. Its national coordinator, Ikalama Wakodisorinya, stated that the group had adopted Ameichi after consorting widely with leaders, youth and other stakeholders in the south-south. Ameichi is a former two-term governor of the river state and has officially declared interest in contesting for the presidential office in the next general election. The group stated that the youth have agreed that the next governor should emerge from the riverine area, particularly of the Calabari extraction. Joining us to discuss this is N.F.A. George Rill, the chairman of the River State Civil Society of Organisations, and Sobea Eli, a legal practitioner and a member of the All Progressive Congress. Thank you very much, gentlemen, for joining us. Yeah, thanks for having me. Great. So, Sobea, because you are a member of the APC, I'm trying to understand. The minister hasn't come out in any way to say, I'm interested in running for presidency. We obviously know that there are many people who are interested in running for the presidency in the All Progressive Congress. Why the push for him to run for office? Well, I want to align myself with those who are doing so, given his antecedents in public offices from the speakership of the State Assembly for eight years, where it's a double last conference for speakers, chairman across the country, and as the government of reverse it for seven years, seven months after it broke off judgment on October 25, 2007, and then double last governance forum chairman. And then again, as a possible means of transportation, since 2015 November, is one of those shining lights of this administration, and it has the drive, it has the vision, it has the impetus, it has the presence of mind, it has the health, it has the age, it has the exposure inside, to give that leadership in itself. Why not? I kind of agree with those arguments around, because we must move forward and constantly do it in the very years. Because a person has been a two-time governor and has led the governor's forum, now a minister, does that really qualify the person to lead a nation? Well, I mentioned national offices in health, while it was the speaker, our governor, and now the minister, is in this position probably one of the most exposed arguments to the 3060s of the federation, is being in this democracy from the first republic consistently, so he will know the issues. And do not forget, as director general of the virus campaign for two times, he has run the race and he knows what should be done, or what should be fixed. He's not going to come to the job, as I said, Lerna, he's not going to come to the job to start the line, he will hit the guy running, if he needs, he has to run. And I just give him the opportunity. What should be parameter to us now, is the parameters for judging who should become candidate for the office of president post-Diboyer years. We need somebody who is vibrant, we need somebody who has age on the side, we need somebody who has experience on the push-up, somebody who can connect his name, his name, himself. There's only an introduction across the country. That's the kind of man who wants now. And above all, we're talking about this president who will be outgoing since 2003, and said he's not too young to run bill. What does that mean? A principal president by himself believes in the paradigm shift, post-HIS years. Are you suggesting that the minister is young in the term of not too young to run, because if I remember, that was an opening for young people to come onto the platform, not necessarily people the minister's age, except you are... No, that's not something those who are above 50 should not run. Not young to run law simply allows, even those are younger than that age, those in their 20s and 30s, provided me the constitutional requirements, they should come out and run. Not that you should buy them. And of course, all of those hurdles that political parties put before aspirants, who had courage and a kind of maybe cost of forms and all that, are set aside. But basically, I'm simply applying that principle, that this objection cleared the roads for young people to run. It presupposes that the president himself believes that going forward, that young dynamism should come into play in governance. And I should speak here, except for the fact that lots of these ones, no one, and I say with all modesty, no one in the current position best fits the bill on Rukimishimika machine. All right, I'll come back to you with more questions. NFI, you are of the civil society in river states, and you obviously have sat through the two terms of Governor Rukimishimika, the former governor of your state, now minister, and when he was a member of the House of Assembly. How successful was he as a governor of the state? And looking at the fact that the APC and the couple of people that are interested in running for the office of the presidency in the APC, does the former governor stand a chance from your perspective? Well, Miriam, I like, I particularly like your question, but then let me start by saying that it is my personal view that no one, no one that have been within the corridor of power from 1999 till today, have the moral justification to say that he wants to contest elections in Nigeria. And to go back to your question, which is that Rukimishimika machine does have 40 things. For me, I think we just put the cards out and let's see. Rukimishimika machine is a summoning president who told us that when he comes in, he's going to fit this country. But one of the biggest, in fact, he was the DJ of that campaign. And of course, my opinion is that the president has failed hopefully, failed hopefully, the price of these are skyrocketed. The mirror is drowning, our economy is collapsing, our infrastructure is decaying, up to now we cannot even have simple electricity that simple technology can provide. And this is the DJ of that campaign. To narrow it down to him specifically, the president is standing on that, wants to take it himself. And of course, you know that if you complete the number of days the president of the country, it is almost half of the number of days that he has to sit in Nigeria to serve this country, that I've given him a job for eight years. But so now the governor who had been two-time governor for eight years was unable to provide any hospital where the president would limit fit to 30 days. Just like other candidates, some of them are governors in other states too. But in front of the APC, as of today, if I have permitted the mention names, I will continue to go. Now I just went simply to a country arranged and connected by other politicians in their own place. For eight years he was going up, he went to treat ordinary knee injury, ordinary knee injury. He went abroad. So these are the characters that said he wanted to rule this country. And in terms of even agriculture, what did he do? Most of these persons, specifically for him, was only rich states and switchers in last year. And what would have expected that he would have the investment on agriculture once we have the just- But the governor might lay claim to the Songhai Farms and say that that's something that he has as a legacy, even though I do not know if you can point to that today. I don't know if the wiki government has continued to enlarge the Songhai Farms. My problem is that the current governor, for whatever it is what, does not have any hate investment. I don't know his reason, but from the Farms before us, the current government hates hate investment on any of the industries. Make sure that you won't. That's almost not. But you see, and that is why the Songhai Farm and the Guguma Fish Farm appears as, you know, when someone fails abysmally. The person would deal a bit, if you have a range of one to ten, and someone did two, two over ten, which is pure failure. And the next person who came did not do anything at all. The man who had done two would not look like a golden fish or a little light. Or not really, in terms of even agricultural investment, or even on a major investment, in terms of IT and what have you. This so-called, according to my colleague in the studio, modern candidates that was to give us modernity, you know, they invest in IT in the first century. Nobody's even talking about oil and gas anymore. We talk about investment on IT, talk about commerce. What trade and investment do you do in remastered? What generally do you do in remastered? The Songhai Farm Minister was shooting with a lot of crisis. In fact, I don't want to stand mentioning if I don't even adjudge my comrades who is now a member of your party. We were part of, one of our biggest campaign on ITG was that we are demanding that that farm should not stand, should not stand, because the community people we are cheating, the community people we are cheating, community women and society we are protesting. So you're telling me, in all of the things that you're saying, you're saying that you're saying that the minister, the honorable minister is not fit to run for the office of the president? Yeah, yes. And that even most of its contemporaries in the two major political problems we have in this country that have been around power since 1999, they should tell us the one they have done. All things to do, there's no where, there's no states. In reverse to do not have public water. I went to Rwanda, you drink water from anywhere on the road, public water. These people, we are talking about characters that couldn't provide us public water, public water. Okay, let's say that by our laws, there's not a degree of voltage of electricity that the state is limited to produce. Why can't the governor, when he was governor, why can't he arrange with the government chairman and create small, small dams? Small, to the best century we have a lot of technology, where you can use wind, use water, use water. We're almost out of time, we're almost out of time. So I'm just going to quickly ask. You can't get any of these things from these so-called modern people. All of them should just leave, should just leave, they have no competence here. Okay, you're taking a jab at all the people who are trying to run for office this time. So, William, I'm just going to give you the last word here because we're out of time. Do you have a response for NFR? I think NFR is one of the problems I have. The civil society groups think how could a man come on there and say, from 1990 to now, nobody's qualified to run for office. Why are you going to put that experience to? When they throw them out, where do they start from? And I would put NFR in the know that Dr. John Coyde fire me. Are you still there? Oh, I think we have a problem with that connection. Actually, almost out of time. So I want to thank you both gentlemen. Unfortunately, time is not on our side. So we realize a legal practitioner and a member of the APC. And NFR George Reel is of the civil society organizations. Thank you very much for speaking with us. I wish you had more time to deal with this issue. All right. This time is your smell. Thank you, gentlemen. We have to go. Well, thank you everybody for staying with us. We appreciate your thoughts and your comments. Don't forget, we want to hear from you on our YouTube channel at plus TV Africa and plus TV Africa lifestyle. But before we go, let's take a break and see what Nigerians have to say about Rotimi and Mechi running for presidency come 2023. And after that, I'll be saying my goodbyes. For us who have the next presidency, I really don't think a particular region should be an issue. But if Rotimi and Mechi is going for presidency, I believe the man is going to work due to the current thing that he's doing in transportation industry. And he's a man that he has a vision for transportation industry. And I can see the way he's actualizing the dream. So we saw what he did in reverse status when he was the governor of reverse state. So if he's contesting for president, I believe that he's going to work. He's a man that let me use what talk and do. If you want to come out, you can also come out because he's also a Nigeria citizen. Everybody is trying luck. If this one is not good, we don't like this one. Otherwise, you should try your luck. That's all. Nigeria has been craving for a young president considering our Mechi's pedigree and what has achieved in the time past. So I think it will appease Nigerians if we have somebody like him as our president. Somebody cannot be a mumu. It's good for us to have the action. I just call him the troublemaker. He's the action man. But the only thing that we need to do is just to pray to God to help us to choose. You understand me? All of them are the same. Because even with that, we are even interviewing ourselves as a human being. Human being about to change at any time. Are you getting me? Anybody can get to that position and change. So the only thing that we just pray that God should give us a better person. Because the Bible says if the righteous man is on the throne, the masses will enjoy. But if the wicked man is on the throne, we'll suffer it. Well, that's it on the show tonight. I hope you enjoyed it. Don't forget you can follow us on all our platforms, on Facebook, on Instagram, and you can subscribe to our YouTube at Plus TV Africa and Plus TV Africa Lifestyle. I am Mary-Anna. I'll see you tomorrow.