 Welcome to The Advocate, your Sunday reminder that important conversations are among the necessary tools for a saner society. I'm asking today, as a people, what do we actually want? Comfort is talking about gender issues in what she terms the new man. Felix is once again talking on the issues of effective leadership and finally, Dolakbo talks on why startup businesses fail. Today, expect a mix of seriousness, laughter and jabs and we are here to please you after this break. What do we want as a people? A few weeks ago, on a Tuesday evening radio program, State of the Nation, the host Emmanuel O'Dayemi and co-host Bolaun asked callers to state the qualities of the ideal precedent Nigeria needs. Out of scores of callers, I dare say less than three callers addressed the question. Many of the callers, however, called to complain about how ineffective President Buari is, using unprintable words. So today, again, I ask the question, what do we want as a people? We are angry with the government, so we decide to boycott a number of elections. Wow, how does that affect federal governments? We are angry with what we call imposition of a governor, so we decide to kill ourselves in retaliation. When the killings were going on in the East, FG was accused of ignoring the East saying, if such killings were going on in the North, governments would have responded. So governments sent troops to the East, we turned around and say, government is militarizing the East. We call President Buari a tyrant. We, the same people, turned around and called him a weak president. I might not be the best in English grammar or comprehension, but just thinking can a tyrant be described as weak? Do we know that politicians in Nigeria seem to always and only care about themselves? So look at the rate of defections, even before the political transfer window opens in 2022. I'm just wondering, if there is so much cross-captain, defection at all, among parties right now, what will happen in 2022 when the political transfer window will officially open? Many great governors have failed or performed less at the national level. Which questions are we asking Mr. Peter Obi, who I believe should be a chief following Nigerian standards? Have we queried his knowledge of Nigeria, his relationship with other tribes? Have we checked how many people from other tribes in Nigeria he interacts with? How much influence does he have in other states? Have we queried his emotional intelligence, asked about the economic beyond China effect? There are a lot of questions we need to ask, but are we asking? By asking these questions, we are not seeking to disqualify him, but rather letting him know that the people he wants to lead have souls and they have soji, like we say. Asking the right questions will further fortify him for the office. What do we want? The topic we discuss, is it what we want or what politicians are discussing? Today for example, we are all talking about anambra elections. That's great, it's a state in Nigeria and we all must know and participate in events happening around us. But, wait a minute, are we discussing it because we are concerned or because it is what politicians are currently singing? Do we know that last week the Federal Executive Council approved NNPC's request to construct roads in every region of Nigeria? Have we asked how this would be done? No other NNPC is now full-fledged limited liability company and no longer government-led. The maestro, Alison Desiane Imaduike's belongings, were listed for sale. The properties were listed as follows. The properties located in banana island, foreshore estates, koi legas including 18 flats and 6 pent houses, 125 wedding gowns, 13 small gowns, 41 waist trainers, 73 hard flowers, 11 suits, 11 invincible bras, 73 veils, 30 braziers, 2 standing fans, 17 magic skirts, 6 blankets, 1 table blanket and 64 pairs of shoes. And all we could talk about were the bras out of all the properties listed. So I ask, when EFCC wasn't selling off properties, openly we complained. Now they are and we are accusing them of being trivial. Bras. Had they not listed the bras, I'm sure by December someone would have come out to accuse EFCC chairman of not listing the bras because he has given them to his girlfriends. EFCC had listed over 80 properties as at May 2021 belonging to the minister. Did we bother to ask why 67 were not listed? What do we want as a people? Speechless. Well, you already see these Nigerians should focus on the main matter. The heart of the matter is the matter. What do we want? Our values are both down to our values. Just like we said, values as much as possible, Nigerians. Let's stop being distracted. I said something about the last election, the last debate of the Gubernatorial Candidate for the ongoing November election. And two of the prominent candidates were busy. I'm not going to mention them, but you know them. You know the problem. This one was accusing this, saying some things about this one. This one was responding. None of them could actually spend their energy. Forget about their personnel, I grant this meant here. Focus the energy on what does the state want. It's all about I must get it by all means, even if it means pulling him down to climb up our values. Let's not get distracted as a nation. I'm sure you spent a lot of time talking about the bras as well. I think what you're real for is the 125 wedding gowns. I can't tell what you're real for. But I think what do we want? The country is already tough. The country is hard. When people see like hard issues, they tend to stay on the surface. Because the deeper they get, the more depressed they get about the whole situation. So to keep your mental sanity in this part of the world, in this environment, we tend to cruise a lot. So everything, like what she has, everything they listed, is real. It's a deep issue that we should talk about. Corruption and everything. Why does she have all this? And we should ask those questions. But by the time we start to probe, we know they won't give us the answers we want. We know we just be shouting and just screaming. It affects the mental health. So it's better to cruise around and say, oh, she has a bra of 1.5 million. Why does she have that bra? And that's even the question. And that's even what's worrying. Because nowhere in all that I've seen, nowhere has the value of the bra be stated. Any value that has been put on the bra today are speculations. There are figments of people's imagination saying, OK, it has a diamond. Is that a gold? Nowhere was it listed. OK, this is the kind of bra it is. These are just things that we're probably just assuming that are probably found in the house or in a shop in one of the properties that were seized or something. Because you have so much, so many trainers, waste trainers and all that. The issue is, the issue is that what you are trying to do, you are trying to direct our focus to the matter, the crux of the matter. If you like, we can't tell people to spend their money. What they want to buy. Exactly. If you want to buy invisible, what do you call it? I saw a panties and a bra. I think one magazine, some time ago, of a million dollars. If you want to do that, good luck to you. But the question is, how did you get the money? Is it our money? If it's our money, then we have an issue. But if it's your money, if you like, buy it, who will be it for? Comfort. It's an abouja. The question what we want as a people is very valid. I would write it on the issue of mental health. Do you know how we have been battered in this country? We have been so battered that, honestly, we don't know what we want anymore. And this is a clear example of what our leaders have done to us. Now, having said that, it doesn't mean that we still don't have a role and a part to play in where we want to get to. Because either way, these are hard topics and somebody has to talk about them. We keep bringing up the fact that the percentage of the people who are in power and our leaders is about 1%. Okay, you know what? If we're going to be generous, let's say 10% of us. That means 90% of us are not in active leadership. We're all leaders where we are. So these are questions that we should ask. But what do we want as a people? We want good governance. We want to be able to be secure. We want to be able to go to school. We want to be able to place our businesses in the right places. We want to be free of harassment. But do we have a conducive environment for it? The answer is no. Can we get a conducive environment? The answer is 50-50. If we as a citizen are not ready to work towards it and sacrifice enough to get what we need to get, even with our mental instability, then what do we want as a people? We already have it. That's it. And I really agree with you on that one. I just want to buttress what she said. If we are able to hold our government accountable or if they are able to be accountable for what they've been doing so far, it would be easier for us to ask them what we want and demand. But this is a government that we know that they have no accountability whatsoever. When you probe them, it's like you're mad. Even before this government came into power, the government before, that we all say, okay, maybe they were saying, what did we demand from them? Those are the questions. So it's not really about this government or that government. Did you think the government before this was saying, the government before this introduced the old cruise idea with the first lady doing whatever she was doing. They introduced the old cruise. Now, come into that topic that you just said. Before that, Uncle. No, no. Come into what you just said, which is where the issue is. Now, if we say that the government, like what you said, the government before this was insane, than the one we have now. So why then do we always hammer on? This is the worst government. Why don't we just say, okay, you all are not giving us what we want. This is what we want. And it comes down to the idea of what do we want as a people. Values. Last week, there was this report on two civil servants, not politicians. Two civil servants were arrested by the ICPC and they were arrested. And when they did the probe on them, the two of them, among the two of them, they had 301 houses, properties. Yes. Civil servants. Civil servants in Abuja. And this houses were not in, what do you call, the outskirts of Abuja. Comfort cannot pose with that. They were in choice areas. 301 between two civil servants. So you see, what we want as a people goes beyond what we are asking the governments. It's about being accountable. We demand it. We're chatting the cause. I stated about a program, a radio program, where someone said, the presenter said, okay, what kind of president do we want so that we start making noise now? Let's see how we can get a kind of president we want. And majority of people that are called, like you rightly said, because of our straight of mind was all crews. This government is the worst. We know. Let's agree on that. What do we then want? Hardly did you find anybody that would itemize the qualities we want in a government. And that's how bad it is. Well, may God help us. But we have to help ourselves. When they said, you know, there's an electorate in my school that would tell us, each time we say, we want to pray. He would tell us, the gods will not do what you should do for yourself. And the thing is, it all boils down to our values. Who are we? It's like, we should change our orientation. You don't have to steal money to live a good life. That's it. And the fact that you live a good life does not make you a thief necessarily. And to bring it home, the fact that you have money doesn't make you a credible person. And that's what we feel to understand. Exactly. Now once you bring money, you are our God. Money is not. Why do we comfort as we face to tell us what an invisible bra is? She will tell us when we come back. The new man is on comfort's mind after this break.