 We're glad to know you're still there and watching us. This is the run-up and we did promise that when we return from the break, we're going to be talking with a young politician and he's the convener of us for us. I just wanted to call him young politician but I think it's more befitting to say what lofty thing he has been doing. It's our pleasure this morning to welcome Richard Romanus to the studio. Richard is joining us live from Calaba. Good morning and welcome Richard. Thank you, thank you, you have been good. Okay, before we go to your journey into politics and your experience in the last primary, because we understand you contested for the State House of Assembly seat in your constituency, would like to know something about this us-for-us movement that you have started in Cross River State? Okay, us-for-us movement is an initiative I came up with in order to drive my aspiration at a time. As you already know, I aspire to represent the people of the UBRAC two-state constituency in the Cross River State House of Assembly under the platform of the All Progressive Congress, EPC, though that aspiration didn't see the light of day. But I am particularly excited that Dr. Lee got the steam that I desired. And talking about the us-for-us ideology, it is an ideology I came up with. I thought I should be able to, I came, I formulated to be able to get the youth, get my young, my fellow young people involved in politics. One of the things I believe is that as the way we are right now in Nigeria, it is only us that can help. It is only a fellow youth that can help a fellow youth. In a house, full of opportunities, in a table where decisions are taken, when you have a fellow young person on that table, what you discover is that if that young person is given an opportunity to nominate another person that will join them on that table, that young person will not remember somebody that is above him. He or she would definitely remember either his friend, even if it is his brother, but of the same age bracket, a fellow young person like him. And it is the same thing that is applicable to the older people. Right now, I have a problem with most of our politicians in cross-eval state, where if it is not those contemporaries that started politics together in 1999, they don't consider anybody fit. So for me, the whole idea behind the house for us ideology was basically for youths, standing by fellow youths. And again, I need to correct this impression. When I say house for us or when I say youth for youth, youth for youth, it is not, I am not saying, I am not saying it is every kind of youth. Amongst us, I keep saying that amongst us, we know the youthful youths. We know the ones that are youthful. We know those of us that is given an opportunity to represent us in one position or the other will do well. And so my idea is that there is need for us to identify those of us who are blessed with that leadership argument in us and give those opportunities to. Because if we don't do it for ourselves, if we don't help ourselves, if we don't encourage ourselves, if we don't support ourselves, this man would definitely not want to support us, would not want to give us an opportunity to ignore our head. So that is basically the idea behind the house for us movement. But, well, are you not sounding like some kind of rebellion? Like, it would not do anybody good for us. Like, let's fight the older generation or something so that we get to understand you more and not just leave it to speculations. Well, I don't think I am fighting the older generation. We have been made to know that power is never saved like an al-Aqab. It is actually fought for, it is actually taken. And for us, or for me particularly, I don't want to depend on, I don't think that it is good for us to depend on anybody to give us power. We are not waiting for us to be saved. We want to compete favorably. And like I said, we just need to rally support for ourselves. We just need to rally run ourselves. Because the truth about it is that we have the numbers. We have the numbers to actually upset the statue school. Look at what is happening in Nigeria. The epitome of the phenomenon, the obedience is all over the place. Who are the major champions of the video movement? It is the youth. Yes, I have one or two reservations about the movement, but then I am excited that for the very first time, my generation, my fellow young people are rising up to the occasion to take their country back. And the truth about it is that if we continue in this regard, even if we don't get what we want in 2023, in very, very short time from now, we will definitely get our country back. We will start finding ourselves, finding our brothers, our friends, in one position or the other. And for me, like I said, in a table full of opportunities, it is only when you have your fellow brother, that you have your friend, your fellow young person who knows the pains, who knows what you are passing through in the streets. It is only that person that can recommend you for a position, for an appointment, for an elective office. It is that person that will support you. Because the older people would definitely remember themselves. Them too, they have their friends too. We too should also do friendship with ourselves. Why do they do friendship with themselves too? That is my, that is basically the point. I am not rebelling against anybody. I am only saying that the time for us, the young people of Nigeria, to come together is now. You told us you had run for office, the primaries in the APC, to go to the House of Assembly. How would you describe that experience? And how do you think this could be, that experience could be of benefit to other young people who aspire to seek elective office? Okay, it was actually my first time of aspiring to represent my people. And for me, I have no regrets whatsoever. It was an aspiration that has been a long time coming. As a matter of fact, I started noticing that aspiration for well over three years. And one thing I must tell my fellow young people out there is that nothing is impossible. Absolutely nothing is impossible. The moment you get your eyes focused on the thing, you know, so long as you're committed to it, you can achieve it. Yes, I didn't realize the ultimate goal of actually getting nominated by my party. But I am excited because in the course of me running, in the course of me doing consultations, telling people I want to be this, I want to represent my people traveling here and there. Quite a number of people had actually, I've heard people say that one cannot get money, where will you be getting money to buy form? And of course, it is common knowledge that the APC nomination form was one of the highest in the country across political parties. But to the greater main, I was one of the first persons who bought forms. And I was actually the youngest that was running for that office. How did I do it? Like I said, I started noticing the aspiration to go to the house of assembly for over three years. And so I created a special account where every month I took a deliberate decision to be putting in some little amount of money there. Every month, so that the moment they say the forms are out, I will comfortably work to my bank, withdraw my money, and go to the party secretary and pay for my form. And that was exactly what I did. And so the issue of the youths don't have money, the issue of the youths are not always prepared, was not there. When I ran my elections, I completely altered all of those notions. Because from my activities, everybody knew that I was actually very, very, very, very prepared. And I made bold to say that I didn't get financial support from most people. As a matter of fact, when most of the people who thought I couldn't buy form saw that I have gotten my form, most of them started taking me serious. And so the challenge so many young people have is that most times when they come out to run elections, they are not even prepared. They begin to hope that people from these parties, uncleities, one politician or the other, who give them money to run elections, and they don't give them, those people become bad people. For me, if you want to run elections, if you have the aspiration to represent the people, in what sort of a position, first thing first, gets yourself prepared. You know, get yourself prepared financially and otherwise. So that if anything that is coming would only be a mere addition, you know, that way you end your respect. Okay, well, just so I know you want to ask him again. But what do you think led to your not getting nominated, as you said, to represent your people? Someone else won the primary. What do you think you could have done better to earn you that nomination? Well, sincerely, I cannot say what I didn't do. I would only say that the reason why I was not nominated was because if it is about the policies of zoning, the zoning favoured me. It is about, I mean, I met all the qualifications that would have given me my party nomination. But like they say in our place, in our policies, the party is supreme. For this time, the party clearly didn't want to, the party clearly just wanted to favour the guy who finally got nominated. I give it to him. He's been in these lanes for about three times, three consecutive times, and this is his full time. And his closest driver, which was me, was doing justice. This was actually my first time, you know. And so, like I said, I cannot really point out what I didn't do right. I cannot really point out what I didn't do right, because I was literally on the road every second, talking to people, running everywhere, trying to put myself out there for public scrutiny. You know. So for me, I cannot really point out what I didn't do right. I would rather say that my party only wanted to, for the, I mean, people, the lucky guy for this time, maybe next time will be my turn. What you just said now speaks to preparation and patience. There are those who believe that the younger generation, oftentimes, they want things immediately. They are not prepared to wait. And their mind is not cultured to anticipate or to accept delay. So, but what you have just explained to us now is quite instructive. So what advice would you have for aspiring young politicians who feel that they don't get a nomination now, or if they don't become, they don't get elective office now, then that's it. They are not interested anymore. Well, the truth about it is that I am a Christian, and I have always, I believe that God has a hand in everything a man does. I have just told people that the guy who finally got nominated by my party has been on this lane for over three consecutive times. That means he has wasted, he had waited for this opportunity for 12 consecutive years. And the president of Nigeria, President Mohammed Uguwari, has ran elections for over three times and finally got it before time. Quite a number of people who are today doing their first term, second term in the National Assembly as Senators, House of Representatives members have ran elections separately. And so there is absolutely no way I would put all of these experiences together that, I mean, I would not come back to my senses and say, hey, why not wait? And I mean, the person talking to you guys right now, I am, I became, I clocked 32 just last month, you know. So in the next dispensation, I'll be, by 20 what, 2027, I think I'll be, I think I'll be 37, you know. So for me, there is absolutely no need to even hurry, you know. And that is without my advice for young people that should take the likes of our president, for example, that should take, I mean, that should put all of these experiences together. As I speak to you, immediately I lost my, immediately, I didn't contest, I didn't even go to the field, they just asked me to withdraw some, I mean, less than 24 hours to the primaries. And I had to obey my party, you know. And the monies I spent, I had not met anybody to refund the monies I have spent to me, you know, because like I told people, I started preparing for this race more than two years ago. And the money I spent in that in the race was what I had projected or what I had planned to spend. And so it's not affecting me at all. I live, I am, I, I still live my normal life. As a matter of fact, when my brother said this is how they wanted to introduce me, I said no, let the other use the convener, us for all movement. Because till tomorrow, us for all movement is a movement that I want to continue to, I want to continue to use it to create awareness out there for young people. As I speak to you, I am rallying support for every young person that was given ticket in my party in my state. You know, there is one of my friend, a young guy who, who would obviously be the youngest house of assembly member by the grace of God, he's 29, 30 years old. You know, I am doing everything possible using my, my platform, you know, to support him. In cross over state, we also have a senator candidate who is in his 30s, he's like his early 30s. I am doing everything possible by sure that he gets to the Senate. I am also, I mean, this for me, basically is the reason behind the house ideology. The very need for young people to support fellow young people. Because it's his only way young man gets there that he remembers if any young person. Yeah. Okay. Richard, if we'll continue to talk about us for us, I'm sure we'll, we'll talk about it the whole day. But at this point, we'd like to just say thank you to you for coming on the show. And we do hope that the youths who are listening to you have learned one or two lessons, lessons. And that is that you need to be patient and you need to be prepared for whatever you have put your mind to go and do. We wish you luck the next time you go into it and for whatever activity you're doing right now. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you. Okay. That was Richard Romanus who contested for the House of Assembly seat in cross over state and a convener for us for us. He was being very modest. How I got to know about us for us is that there are a lot of people, youths, you know, who sometimes maybe you cannot register for a YAC, maybe you cannot feed, maybe you cannot do one or two things. And he just said, okay, hey, look, I am close to the people who can give me some freebies, some free money. So why not every time he started with 20,000 every month, I will just give out 20,000 to anybody that I see that is in need. And it was random. It wasn't like you have to come from this local government, from this constituency, you just needed to be a youth and in need. And he started sharing this money. And sometimes when the problem is bigger than him, he will rally support from everybody and just give money to the person and say, hey, if we don't do it for us, who will do it for us? So that's how they asked for us came. And so I was really impressed by what he was doing, even though he didn't want to mention that part of it. He just talked about his election. I was being modest. I was quite impressed with what he said, especially about preparation. Because people wake up six months to elections and say, they want to contest or three months to elections. He said he had been preparing for at least two years and he was taking money every month and putting in a dedicated bank account. The young people who criticize the old brigade shouldn't go back to the same old brigade to come and sponsor them. So he's actually lived by his principle and what he espouses. He's proven it. And he's shown that you can actually finance yourself, you know, exactly if you deliberate about it. And I think that's a very big lesson. Okay. So get prepared. Not too young to rule is there. There's so many other laws now that have been put in place to make sure that the place is conducive enough for us all to contest if we need to contest. But like he said, borrow a leaf from Richard. When we are crying about God, terrorism, and then you're going to the how do they call it the old stock, old cargo, old generation, whatever name you want to call them to sponsor you. It's an investment. And whoever invests wants return on investment. So if you want your own tenure in whatever capacity to be tied to someone else's grace, well, that will be left for you. But like Richard said, be prepared. We'll take a short break now. And when we return, we'll be joined by our second guest, Demo Lasso, a media consultant and public affairs analyst. Stay with us.