 and welcome to the advocate on Plus TV Africa. Five panelists, five thought-provoking topics discussed in a no-holds-burden manner. In other words, we call this paid by its name. Today, I'm firing the first salvo by telling us that until we define democracy, it is in for us. Victor, on the other hand, is saying human beings need to drop the unnecessary sense of entitlement. Is resilience a sprint or a marathon? Ejumai, who has left us to visit the Queen, is in of resilience. Felix breaks down the national cohesion to us and Peter wraps up to ask that at what point will the things we stigmatize today become acceptable tomorrow? So you can see it's a cocktail of topical issues spiced with seriousness and laughter. Don't go anywhere. We would be right back after this break. Democracy is not for us until we redefine it. Abraham Lincoln described democracy as a government of the people, for the people, and by the people. It's also one of the most famous definitions of democracy we know. The real definition, however, reads something like a system of government by the whole population or all the elected members of a state, typically through elected representatives. Well, hey, we get the point. Democracy is a concept that essentially involves all the people or all the citizens of the country in decision making, especially when it comes to choosing their leaders. A process we have now come to understand as election. Yes, so let's go down memory lane and take a cordial look at the history of Nigeria and democracy to take us back to 1999, 39 years after independence. The first democratically elected president of Nigeria finally emerged, much of the global plus and to local pump and pageantry. This momentous occasion also quickly drowned out their basement attempt of 1993, six years earlier, where a military head of state annulled a democratically conducted election, stating issues of vote buying and also was trying to protect the judiciary. 61 years after independence and six election cycles after, we are still struggling with these same issues, same issues that plagued 1993 elections. So 29 years ago, various judgments, counter judgments, suits, counter suits, accusations of election rigging, afflicting our elections across both, even from the lowest councilorship elections to the highest level, which is the presidency. So if you ask an average Nigerian today, are we in a democracy? Has this democracy been fair to all the citizens? You get all sorts of answers, which begs the question, are we really in the democracy? Are we in fact really independent? We heard of a recent gathering of section of the country who are vowed not to release power, meaning they would hold onto the presidency no matter what. Is there a system that guarantees a peaceful, free and fair passage of power from one president to the other? Or perhaps there's a system that ensures the power is recycled amongst the real world class. Again, this gets one thinking, are we really in a democracy and are we truly really independent? Do the people really have a say in choosing who governs them? Do the people really have a say in decision making, in laws, in bills that are passed? Are the representatives truly representing their constituents, or are they following an already laid out script? I believe it is time for Nigeria to redefine a system that works. Call it whatever you like, but one that demonstrates a commitment to inclusion, to freedom of thought, to truly be independent, committed to the safety, security, and the fairness of the ordinary citizen, but also ensures and guarantees genuine public participation in decision making that benefits the participants, the citizens, and their generations to come. Wow. That's quite insightful. I'm very interested, by the way. Very interested in talking to you up here. Democracy. Democracy, the concept of democracy has been redefined, confused, oxidized, misunderstood. Some people don't even know where they are headed. Just like you said, some persons in this country has decided that they will hold on to power, thinking that they are more Nigerian than any other. I keep seeing this in this show and everywhere. I find myself that no Nigerian is more important than any other Nigerian. So you should try your best as much as possible to respect other people in the country. If you want the country to work, democracy, since we've adopted us, majority or less in some countries, many countries of the world are adopting democracy one way or the other, even those that still have this monarchy system of government one way or the other, they still have some element of democracy. We should let it work. At least, let's make it work. Let's try to respect other people. Let's try to give people opportunity, women, young persons, and every tribe a representation. And you see, they said the minorities have their seat and the majority have their wayway. What if the majority sometimes out is wrong? It's called for dialogue. Absolutely, yeah, absolutely again. Yeah, thanks, thanks so much, Elijah. I think the message is very clear. We love the texture and the sound of democracy where we hate the commitment that it demands. So we want to flirt around with democracy, but we are not willing to commit. What we lack is the commitment to democracy. We love the benefit. We love the rights. It's a cost to us, but we are not willing to go all the way. And it's reflected in everything. We travel out of this country as ministers, as government officials. We go and see things elsewhere. We just copy it that way. Sometimes we jpeg it, we come and drop it in our country. And we are not concerned about the implication in the environment. We saw it where we saw it, but we forgot they are underlying factors to why, how it is working there. We come back here. We want to first, we want to take the factors that made it work in UK to come and work in Nigeria. It doesn't make sense. You go and take the fine in UK, in pounds. You just translate it to Nigeria. And you are telling people to pay those kind of money. I am wondering, are you okay? So until we get to that level of maturity to commit to the responsibilities of democracy, we've been thought the benefit, but nobody has thought us the responsibilities of democracy, the price of democracy. We are not ready to face it. Until we are ready to face it, I agree with you that we are not ready. It's not meant for us. Maybe we should adopt something else. Maybe we should call our own another name. But it shouldn't be called democracy because there is no democracy in Nigeria. But interestingly, so to put it short, interestingly, whatever means we adopt as a form of government, if we do have dialogue and empathy and intentions, it's been intentional about accepting everyone and their differences, we're going nowhere. Absolutely. Thank you so much, Tolu, for that insightful, is a topical issue, right? And seriously, it's really deep in my heart because I still believe in Nigeria, sort of, maybe I'm one of the very few. I do, too, as a matter of fact. And that's amazing. Nigeria, too. And the truth is, absolute power corrupts, yeah? And when you get into power, you want to hold on to it. And from what Elijah said, I think we're not looking at these conversations from the place of empathy and continuity and longevity, right? How do we ensure, you know, one of the interesting things that I want for the offspring is to ensure that, you know, the legacy in the family is continued and passed on. Like you said, I mean, we're not even, I mean, when I was in, say, primary school, I sing a song, parents, listen to your children, we are the least. I sang that song up until when I left primary school. Now, I mean, I'm done with university, I'm working, like, I've come into the workforce, but I'm still not, like, I don't see much of that song playing up. So they tell us that you are the young, you are the leaders of tomorrow. Does tomorrow never ever come? Where is that tomorrow? And we can see that in the interesting demonstration of the end-stars movement, you know, people trying to take power, you know, by force. So I think it's something really interesting, like maybe Peter said, maybe we need to find what works for us, maybe Nigeria and Croatia, I don't know. Absolutely, so that's why I say we have to redefine it. So, and I mean, like Nigel said, I mean, like you all have said, the problem itself is not even the name. The problem itself isn't the concept one and then the execution of it. True. So the first thing is, do we have something that embraces everybody? Right? You're talking about empathy, so important. I guess what the world is moving. The world today is not the world that was 10 years ago, 20 or 30 or 40 or 50. As a matter of fact, I'm sure the person that even defined the concept of democracy did not think the world we were at is today. It was what worked at the time. But like you said, as usual, we'll just copy, control C, control V. Right? Nobody's thinking, how do I even adapt this thing? I mean, we all did this when you were in secondary school now, you know, primary school. You do research. You find something online. You say, oh, how do I adapt this to what I'm trying to do? Don't just copy and paste. You won't ask ourselves, how does this apply to us today? How do we redefine this thing? So embrace our local cultures, orientation, different beliefs, our different challenges. Because challenges we have are different from challenges that a British man has. Different from challenges that an American has. So he's been able to redefine these concepts, to fit into everybody. And it's important, like you said, to think about the future generation. It doesn't end here. After all, what is our legacy? What do we leave behind? That's right. Yeah, Ijimai can also share with us. Yes, Ijimai. I wonder what happened over there. But you said it, do you want to redefine democracy? For me, democracy is not the problem. But defining democracy is not the solution either. Why? It is the people behind the system that we look at, not the system. You know, we talk about empathy. The question is, if you change from democracy to any form of order governance, be it bureaucracy, colonialism, socialism, whatever name you want to call it. It is the people behind the system that is most important, that is present and that we look at. What are the people that are holding onto power? What are their values? These are the things that we should focus on. If you're in power for a donkey years, or a hundred of years, it makes no difference if you're not kind to your people, if you don't have the interest of your people at heart. So it's not so much about redefining democracy. You can have a king that rules for a hundred years, but if the king is eligible, if the king sympathizes with the people, understands what the people need, and provide a governance for the people, then you'll go with that king. You will go with that system of governance. The question we have, or the problem we have in Nigeria, is the fact that our leaders do not care about the followers. That is where we should channel our energy. Ask for leaders that will transform our country. Ask for leaders that understand, that are sympathetic, that empathize, that are humane to people. That is what I think we should redefine, our values as leaders. The question is, we're five in this room, if we pick any of us to occupy that space, what will you do? Will you do something different? I can argue otherwise, because we are a product of society, and that is what we need to redefine, our values. That's what I think we need to think about. Absolutely, I'll do with you. Again, people will say, our leaders are leaders are leaders, but I keep asking, our leaders didn't fall from heaven. They came from among us. Right? I mean, the president and the vice president, whoever the leader is, they came from among us, we didn't import them. So it goes to a bigger question, what makes a leader? Is it the position or the personality? Right, do you see? So, and I agree with you that there's a values question. Okay, if you put 50 or 100 Nigerians in a room, and then you take a poll, you start to see value system, right? And that tells on how we now behave when you now have a position that we call leadership. I think, to be quite honest, we give too much credit to our leaders. Even the followers have big issues. If they, like she said, if you put anybody here now in the same position, it's unlikely that you'll do better, right? You might even have better intentions, but there's a system in place. Have you noticed the Nigeria, for instance? Many times, you know, you bring people that someone that's have a train, you know, stand for train or something, you put them in a position, you just find that they become, for some reason, you know, inefficient. I'm sure you've heard many of those articles that say once they walk into that place, you know, to that seat, something just changes. So there's something there absolutely that we need to be looking at. You know, I hope and pray that everybody here is doing something about it, you know, and it's beyond just letting a good leader. I hope that we ourselves are looking at value systems and thinking about how we'll progress, especially for our children and for generations to come. All right, Obnets is Victor. Please stay with us.