 Welcome to The Advocate, your Sunday reminder that important conversations are among the necessary tools for a sinner society. I will be talking about intellectual capital is coming to the political game. Elijah Felix will be talking about responsibility in leadership and expectations. Suleiman Akande on nation building and Steven Aguirre will be talking about the debts of the Queen, Nigeria's past and future. Today expect interesting educational conversations as usual. We're going to be right back after the break to stay with us. Intellectual capital is coming to the political game. The past few months in the political space have been very intense and I have particularly enjoyed watching closely from the sidelines. Looking at the massive engagement on Twitter, it's evidently clear that we now have a third force. I'm talking about a third force with huge traction. Now we have folks who are verified, folks who are articulated, and folks who are obedient. Beyond the noise and social media fights Brujaha generated by these ardent supporters. I am more interested in the paradigm shift that have been created through Peter Obe's movement. The paradigm shift has deposited intellectual capital into the political space and the game at large. People are becoming more politically conscious and intelligent. The era of political candidates getting away with shabby promises like we're going to give you food, we're going to give you water, we're going to give you jobs is now threatened to an extent. People are beginning to ask for clear growth strategies from candidates. I mean, Nigeria has suffered from leaders who are not able to intelligently articulate a clear growth framework for the country. Nigeria has been constantly abused and misused and battered by the wrong set of leaders. Someone made a joke on Twitter recently saying just give us a precedent who is looking pink and can speak fine English. That is apparently a joke with some spices of reality. I mean, if you think about it, this is why I'm excited for the coming months and the many unpredicted events that would happen within the political space. I'd like to take this moment and engage my fellow advocates today around this very important question, which is, do we need to raise the bar in terms of intellectual capacity of our presidential candidates? Elijah, let's start with you. What do you think? Well, let me start with this. Let us stop this idea of... Minimum entry, Parma School Living Advocacy. It's actually so shameful. Have you seen the President of Great Nations like America, Canada? Have you seen the British Prime Minister? Let's go to America. Most of the presidents, aside Trump, I know Trump, I'm not sure Trump read law. I know many of them, they actually had degree in law. There is this thing, they believe that lawyers are lenient people anyway. But whatever you study, you can actually do well as a president if you are properly educated. Here in Nigeria, we are talking about Parma School. How can you be talking about in this era where we have people that are highly educated in the country? So we should raise the bar. If you want to be a president, you want to lead the country to the future. You should be well educated both academically and otherwise because education is beyond academics. But you should be well educated beyond academics and otherwise. But Parma School Living Advocacy, they don't know for me. What's your take on that? One has to take it from both ends because whoever is president is governing people, both educated and illiterate, both wise and stupid. So the problem really is that one has to balance it. There must be some degree of educational attainment but that has to do with the quality of education the country itself gives. In most democratic countries, you will find that secondary school education is just the minimum because most people in the most advanced countries actually do not go to universities. So I think we should balance it. What we should improve is the quality of education rather than saying that someone must necessarily be a professor or go to university to be president. Balance in the era right. In just some advanced countries like the US, there are statistics that say that the most educated people in the US are Nigerians. You have more blacks going to go to school because where they are coming from, they are coming from a place of lack. There was lack in quality education and they go to a place where there is quality education. They want to be educated and they will go to the normal former institutions to be educated. But the other citizens, the other class of citizens, they are okay with the minimum level of education. They are able to do wonders with it. But if you check their leaders, their leaders are not just educated informally. They are also educated formally. Many of them actually went through the rigors of academics. So I'm seeing that let's us balance, let's do boots. Let's do boots. We should avoid having a dictatorship of educated people. What do you mean by that? What I mean is this, making not as well educated people feel left out of the system. You see, I take the example of America. Most of those who voted for Trump did not go to university. It was like a revolution. We don't care about this elite. All these ones that went to Harvard and we don't want them. We want someone who is real. And that's why they went for them. Someone that speaks, talks like them, behaves like them. So that was a revolution from the grassroots. So we must always balance, that's why I say we must balance it. A president must represent the people. He must look like the people. But he also, he must not be a totally ignorant person. I would not express my opinion about this. I don't want to debate on the personality of former president of the USA. I think he has done his part. He has done where good or bad did well. But our point is that for Nigeria, we are not talking of America. These are all Nigerians. Let's do better. Come on, let's do better. I've got some thoughts around this. Let's be turned to one of our advocates online. Let's hear what he has to say about this. Great. Let's have your take on this. Do you think that we need to raise the bar in terms of intellectual capacities, given some of the things that we've seen from presidential candidates in time pass? What do you think about it? Yeah, we need to raise the bar. If you look at the election from 1999 to now, things are really changing. I can bet you in 1999, people are less interested in even who emerged in the primary election of political parties. Now it shows that the bar is increasing. Now everybody is interested. Who is the candidate of ABC? Who is the candidate of PDQ? Who is the candidate of Labour Party? And what are you? Right from the primary election down to the main election, it shows that the electorate they are serving have raised the bar. Then comes to the candidate itself. The candidate themselves need to also raise the bar. So if we are really selective, who should lead us? We are in the age of nanotechnology, age of artificial intelligence. So it is just normal that the bar needs to be raised so that whoever is leading us should be able to tell us some of the trending things in the world as it is now. That is, as a leader, we should be able to tell us what is trending in the world of AI, what is trending in the world of green energy, what is trending in the world of nanotechnology, among all that is. So the bar needs to be raised. We are not asking for much. I mean, I totally agree with Silliman. I was going to say before, thank you so much Silliman for that incredible thoughts. I mean, when you look at how articulate, I mean, like trying to balance with Steven, right? I mean, I agree just trying to bring a balance here. But in as much as we were not saying be a professor of English or be a professor of education or a professor, I mean, but it's very important. Like being able to articulate, right? Because here we've got millions of Nigeria, you know, who are in the impoverished, like the lower class, the masses, like what we like to call them. So the idea of saying, I'm going to give you good roads, right? I'm going to give you water, we're going to give you 24 hours light or things like that. We can no longer continue to have leaders who, you know, are talking like that. Like what's your strategy? You know, you don't just come and with the people, hey, you know, we're going to give that all the roads all the way from, you know, Lagos to Kano. We can't like, what's the class strategy? How are you able to articulate your, you know, your tenure in the next four years? What are you going to do? And if you're not able to do that at the basic, that should even be a barest minimum. I mean, we have our presidents go to international conferences and they're not able to, you know, keep a conversation. I mean, you say with a Christian armor point is engaging you. What are your political reforms? And you can't even answer intelligently. So it's a problem for us. And we were not saying, become a professor, but what I'm saying is you must be able to engage. I mean, Stephen, we're here, we're engaging. It's going to be a problem if I cannot articulate my thoughts clearly in such a way that it is generally acceptable. And we've had presidents who are not able to do that. And it's become an issue. Well, you are asking for being professional. You don't have to be a professor to become professional. You should be professional in whatever you do. Exactly. Just to add words, to what the man said. I think if you want to be president, they will pass through several things. Aside from having knowledge about technology, they should have basic knowledge about social media or ICT, ICT literacy, psychometric tests. Yes, they should do that. They need to understand, do you understand things? How do you, where do you communicate? These things are important. So when they stand, they can clearly articulate their thoughts and speak from a place of authority. They don't have to be experts in this. You are talking about Trump. If you put Biden, you put Trump. Actually, when they were debating, both of them actually did well in their own style. I'm not going to debate about their content or their mannerism, but if you watch how they engage, Trump is able to carry along his kind of crowd. Same as Biden. Biden is able to carry along his kind of crowd. They are able to articulate and explain their thought and idea. The politics of talking about good road, bread and water, is not supposed to be if you are a governor or a president. Of course it's your job to provide basic infrastructure. You can't use that as a campaign. What they should be talking about is developing ideologies. The ideologies, what kind of ideologies do you live by that would decide the kind of policies you wear. They could or you come up with wire engulfment. That's what you say, not good road. That's what it's supposed to be. I think what was at the mind of those who made their own constitution was that, and I agree with you, it was about competence. Are you competent? Are you good enough? Does your life experience prepare you for what you are going to do? You would find, for instance, that one of our colonial masters, Britain, had a prime minister who had worked in the banking sector. He didn't necessarily go to Harvard, he didn't go to Cambridge or Oxford, which is the best university. But he had worked in the banking system. He even worked in Nigeria here, in just, in the banking. Yes, John Major, he never went to university. But John Major was very competent. He could express himself, he could move a crowd. Churchill was one of the best universities. He never really went to university. But he was competent. In fact, he even won the Nobel for writing English. He wrote his biography, and I think they awarded him the Nobel for that. So what is required is what is your life experience? What have you done? In that wise, what is needed is interrogation by the public, particularly, and I always say it, we must empower our press, we must let our press interrogate these people. Check them. What's your background? What's your life experience? When the press take you on, you are forced to talk. You are forced to show who you are. That's the problem we have always had. I mean, you would have seen many of these presidential candidates. They don't even come for debates. Yeah, they do that intentionally. I feel their peers will tell them, don't go because maybe when they get there, they might harass them. Somebody that can't express himself in a debate, even you may find as we are talking now, ideas come to us. So sometimes some of these people who have never been interrogated are current presidents. I think when they did the debate, the format was he spoke alone. It was an interview. It was not an interview. These are the problems that we are having. So just before we turn it, just before we turn into the next advocate is very important. I mean, what I'm saying is we need people who can at least hold, you know, intellectual conversations. We're not asking for so much. That's like the barest minimum. And very important as you're voting, it's also important to, you know, put that, you know, at the back of your mind, you know, vote your values, vote your conscience. But I mean, it's very important to also get your permanent voters' card because you won't be able to participate if you don't have it. And since we're talking about leadership, it would be good to do that. Just about right now, we're going to turn into the next advocate, Elijah Felix, you know, just after the break.