 Welcome to the Advocates on Plus TV Africa. Your weekly reminder that important conversations are necessary for a center society. On Friday in Nigeria turned 61 and in view of this we examine a quote by the 32nd President of the United States, Franklin Roosevelt, which says, true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which the cattle ships are made off. So my advocacy today is on the need and importance of Nigerians rising to serve and save the country. Felix talks about human capital development in the context of the wealth of a nation. Raymond is talking about the hopes of Nigeria with the arrival of its new age. And finally, Amoni wraps the conversation with his thoughts on another independence. As always, your panelists are here to share ideas aimed at provoking thoughts with no holds but stay with us. Arising to serve and save Nigeria. While growing up, my friends and I looked forward to participating excitedly during the recitation of the Nigerian National Pledge. The National Pledge is just a six sentence that carries in it the whole resources, wisdom and the exact things we must do to change the fate of our nation, Nigeria. I must say I didn't really appreciate the deep meaning of the words and lines that made up the whole anthem. But somehow I remember very well how reciting the anthem bonded everyone together irrespective of background, tribe, ethnicity or even social class. The first line talks about faithfulness, loyalty and honesty. But today, how many of us Nigerians can truly boost about their commitment to the application of the words, not just at individual levels but as a tool for national development. For over six decades, we have had a generation of leaders who have complete disrespect for the foundation upon which we should build one of the most enviable and prosperous nations in the world. And sometimes I wonder, how exactly do they sleep well at night? With our overwhelming population, Nigerians have one of the most sophisticated minds on earth. We are globally recognized for the innovations and changes we lead around the world and across industries including health, technology, finance, engineering, entrepreneurship, agriculture, etc. Today, how many of these Nigerians living in Nigeria or elsewhere are serving Nigeria with all their strengths? With our abundance of resources, the least Nigeria should have is an environment that inspires its people to serve using their strengths and capacities. Unfortunately, with the corruption-infested leadership system, citizens are forced to live to other nations or serve them themselves at all costs. Because people who should have made the environment conducive for service are ignorant, heartless and incompetent fellows who had no business being in the positions of authority in the first place. The system seems to me it was designed to drain the citizens' dreams and frustrate the people. The mind of an average Nigerian, especially the youth, is filled with junk and it is difficult for the mind to return to its original state once it has been stretched in a given direction. In this case, in what direction is the majority stretching their minds? Your guess is as good as mine. How sincere are we defending our unity, which is one of the first sets of our entem. As the very first factor that is supposed to bind us together before we can think of deploying and achieving big results at an individual and national level, we have failed to understand that nothing great has ever been achieved by a people so divided. What do we do? First we need to go back and pick up our towels at the very spot we had our baths. Nigeria is 61 years and I can boldly tell you that majority of our youth don't even know the history of Nigeria as a nation. Quite unfortunate, we had to feed and grow with the crumbs that were provided by fellow Nigerians, our leaders, who thrive on the calamity of the nation. But young people must arise and obey the call to make Nigeria take her place among the committee of nations. Nigeria must arise to serve and save Nigeria. We must respect our diversity and embrace our uniqueness. And in the end, we just have a little thing that divide us and much more that connect us as a people. God bless Nigeria at 61. So, that's really my thoughts. I don't know what you think about this. We're quite interested in Ramond. You know, one thing I admire about you is your auspokenness, communicating your thoughts especially with the environment, with respect to the environment. But on the second thoughts, I agree with quite everything you said, the second one thing, defining an average Nigerian. There is no specific generic term to define an average Nigerian. In clear terms, who is a Nigerian, can you define Nigeria? A Nigerian is an individual that believes in the coexistence of other Nigerians in this particular geographic region. But the Nigeria in question is not just a geographical location, it's a group of neighbors around you. So, everybody has to be responsible for themselves, how they need to build themselves intellectually in terms of building up their capacity to give something back to the society. In this case, the other neighbors around you. So, the key was the Nigerian and Nigerias. Nigerian is the individual. Nigeria is the group of people around you. Not necessarily a geographical location within the West African region. And the average Nigerian mindset is not filled with junk in the sense that it depends on you. It's garbage and garbage out. So, some persons actually may do something very bad because that's what unfortunately every system has good and bad people. So, people should not see Nigerians as bad people. We got some persons that were involved in fraud there for Nigerians are fraud and no. We got some bad people there for their bad no. Everybody should be responsible for their own way with respect to other people, giving back to society. So, what do you want to say? Okay, so let me also call to a point of a little disagreement. I think we've blamed leadership for too long. And I've come to a phase in life, a phase of taking responsibility. And part of what I want to ask us to begin to do is to take responsibility. So, I was having a conversation with someone some time ago. And he asked, where do the leaders come from? Leaders are from you and me. And a lot of times, people like us, when we get into leadership positions, we actually change. Now, I think part of the issue is that for so long everybody has had an individualistic agenda. So, who cares about the common good? Well, you will say the leaders should be caring about the common good. But it is unfortunate that the people following, I feel to care about the common good. So, if our leaders are not taking us forward, let us, the followers, begin to take us forward. And how do we do that? Look at the office set of our nation. Public sector, private sector, where you have a lot of addicts. Is it the leaders that are there? No, people like you and I. So, if everybody begins to do something right, decides to do something right, at a stage, the leaders that we have would not have any choice but to conform. You know, basically why that actually came up, if you look at when I was actually speaking my mind, what I mean by average Nigerian youth is filled with junk. Find a place where there are two things you need to pick out. First is that we have people, like you said, who are actually getting involved in anything just because they are serving themselves, not because they are serving the nation. It's a different thing to get involved in an activity because it's for the good of everyone, even if you're not benefiting anything directly. And so we have a system where I talked about Nigerians living both here and those living elsewhere. How is it, I've been to a couple of countries where there are people irrespective of wherever they are, they still channel the end product of their activity, their sweat, everything back home. So how many of us as Nigerians, even those of us that are alive, that are opportunity to be here, we are talking to the world, are we really here because we are on the average, because we are here because we want to contribute to nation building or maybe because we are here for the grams. Because we need to come to a time where we want to tell ourselves the truth. We need to be very overtake responsibility because these days people are not so intelligent that we have to find other ways to navigate through the truth. So we have to find ways to cut corners. We have to start taking responsibility to serve the nation and save the nation. Irrespective of what we think about it, go out there, when we talk about the average, what we take average, Nigeria is over 200 million people. How many of these people that you are talking about are coming out to produce their result? When we have more bad people that are more profound, how many of the people who are doing good are bringing out the good work that they are doing without really any ulterior motive? Do you understand what I'm saying? It's not like there are no good people. I know the work that you are doing in the social space. We know quite a lot of other young people that are doing a lot of work in the social space. But we must have a time where we are doing this because we really, really want to contribute to nation building. I think Mr. Raymond is online. Mr. Raymond, do you have any thoughts to say on this about Nigeria's coming up to serve and save Nigeria? Alright, so I quite agree with the sense that has been expressed there in the studio. For me, the title of your advocacy is quite, it's actually, it hits the point in terms of the two key issues that are before us. The first, the title says arising to serve and save Nigeria. So arising suggests to me that yes, so far we have not been doing what we ought to be doing. And if it has taken 61 days for us to do that, well, good and fine. People say that when a man wakes up, that will be his own money. So if we are choosing to that 61st years and from now onwards will be our money, then we should do it. Because doing that will now lead to the other extreme of your title, which is saving Nigeria. Nobody is going to save the country for us. We can all travel to Canada, travel to UK, post all kinds of funding things on Twitter about Nigeria. It doesn't end the narrative because you are living as an individual. You have not left in the real sense a part of you is still here. You are only living physically. But when you get there, the whole essence of home or fatherland, of motherland dance on you the more. So the responsibility to save Nigeria is also ours. We have blamed leadership for why we are here. We have blamed leadership and it has become even boring in a way, if you ask me. We are young Nigerians. The future of this country rests on our shoulders. We are the turning point generation. We are going to take from where our forefathers, whom we claim have failed us, are going to retire into. Responsibility is actually ours. And like the father, we are having this conversation. And I quite imagine that many Nigerians out there also share this collective sentiment. And we can only hope that some ways, somehow we can begin to turn around, talk this around for the betterment of this great nation. Alright, thank you Mr. Raymond. Felix is next after this break. North of nation, human capital development, Elijah Felix. Human capital development simply puts is the framework for building or developing skills, knowledge and abilities in an organization, which in turn improves an organization or community's effectiveness. Across the world, nations have been making efforts to tap into the endless possibilities of human talents to enhance growth and development. Narrowing down to the Nigerian contents, it could be inferred that we have overlooked the expert of human development, thereby diminishing the core of nation building. As a nation reflecting on our human capacity progress, we can see that much has not been achieved through the years. And at 61, despite the lag in that regard, the youth are thriving to achieve safe development by creating something out of nothing. This is evident in the offshoot of thin tech or other tech-related businesses. No doubt Nigeria is blessed with talented individuals and great minds. Looking beyond inanimate resources is a step ahead in developing the nation's human potential. Human capacity development plays a huge role in the workforce of any given society, not just to develop competencies at various levels, but act also as a major eradicator of poverty in society. The big question is how do we tap from the good mind of human capital development? First, we need to implement the strategy of target demography, which is the youth and the women. Secondly, putting machineries and strategies in place, like creating opportunities, building national and global partnership to enhance skills development, especially in technology transfer, imbibing the culture of intergenerational mentoring and relevant skill transfer. Addressing basic issues like security, intercultural differences, infrastructure and head care system. In addressing the aforementioned, the conversation and strategies to strengthen human development in Nigeria can be put to motion through addressing necessary needs and the government adopting a progressive and global centric approach. The world as it is is a global village and development skills are becoming more universal than ever because eight great treasures lies in the human personalities. I think this is a very, very amazing opinion thoughts that you have here because no nation can ever, ever thrive without human capital development. It has to even be the foundation for any form of nation building, any form of development because yes, the infrastructures are good, but then who are the people that will build infrastructures? It has to be people who are well-equipped, who are well-built, who understand the vision of a nation. It's actually the humans, the people, the citizens that will cast a vision for where they want their nation to be. They understand what the infrastructure is, they are the ones to manage, maintain and sustain whatever plan, projects that are being built. So I really think that human capital development is very, very powerful and you also mentioned something being global centric in nature. So I think we also have to understand that our competition is no longer our neighbors in the village, no longer village people, right? Our competitions are now people in China, people in Russia and all that and I think it's very, very amazing. Well, before you just speak with me, I just want something from Raymond. Raymond, this is kind of in a way related to what you said before about the issue around serving and the rest. And we cannot go beyond Nigeria as Nigerian. I tell people that Nigeria is not a geographical region, it's your neighbors. Now the question is, in the issue of dealing with an average mindset, because this is a mindset thing, and then developing the mind, mind works like a software, how can we intentionally remove the quote unquote, the junk for some, not all Nigerian youth, because we need to market our country as a great one, as we are great people. So I think that the first thing that has to happen is that we must learn how to take care of basic things. So there's a quote I learnt when I started building that if you learn how to take care of basic things around your life, you will open up your mind to think about big things. So the problem I think that we have as average Nigerians is also the fact that we keep struggling with basic needs, we keep struggling with basic things, we keep struggling with electricity. Now you're talking about tech, you're talking about all those things, you can't press a laptop, you can't do anything, you can't generate an idea if there is no electricity, if there is no power. You can't move from one place to another if the roads are bad. So I think first thing we need to do is to address basics. How do we address the basic needs? If we can address all those basic needs, then we will start opening up our mind to think about big things, because junk is trying to beg for food, literally two things we no longer matter anymore, because those ones have been taking care of. Think about developed countries. The things we are praying for are not even a prayer there. The things we are sweating to fast 21 days, 72 days praying and fasting, it doesn't matter there, look at the quality of their thoughts. So until we get the basic needs, sort them out, nothing else is going to matter. Ya, your thoughts sir. So I think we Nigerian youth have done really very well within the huge constraints that we have in our environment. I like what you said about electricity. If you have to, because there are times when you might be working and then power goes. Let's say you don't have an inverter, you are using a desktop computer. Now the woman power goes. Your brain shall start shutting down. Your train of thoughts is disrupted. You might never be able to come back to that. So there are a lot of things that the Nigerian youth has had to grapple with for so many years. It's really impressive how well we have done globally, especially in the area of tech. The Nigerian youth have done very well. So if you look at it from the perspective of human capital development, one of the things you will see is that the Nigerian youth has learned to be self-taught. Let's be very honest. Many of us go to universities, but we come out of universities really unemployable. There are people that, in those days I heard of people that studied computer science. Never saw a computer, never put on a computer. So they had to teach themselves. They had to take certifications, do CCNA. The Nigerian, every Nigerian can just keep learning, keep pushing and keep learning. So you need to admire how much we have achieved or done as self-taught people. So imagine what would now happen if we can be structured and carry everybody along. We can push everybody along, we can put the right things in place. I think it's already happening. Mr. Raymond is online. Mr. Raymond, do you have any thoughts to share with us? Thank you very much. For me, I think it was Mr. Raymond, my namesake on the finals today, who talked about going back to the basics. And I quite agree in the context, in our own context, where we have a situation where all the basic social structures that would give the average Nigerian the traction to thrive in a situation where they are lacking, then you can imagine what becomes of the world of our human resource. So I'm talking about investment in education. This is a country where we have over 10 to 12 million out of school children. What does that tell you? We have a young population which ought to be a strength, an economic strength as it were. Unfortunately, because of the poverty or the poor investment in education, that number is becoming sort of a liability. The thing is, what you said, I quite agree with what all of us said. But the idea is, it amazes me how the government spends so much money and energy talking about tangible resources. Let's say inanimate tangible resources like we have good in Zamfara that is causing a very big conflict. They deploy soldiers, a lot of them have died there, protecting Nigeria, protecting the resources for Medugama in the same if you go to countries like Platu and then you go to the Niger data region, the oil region. Now we don't see government putting in effort in supporting youth that could bring technological revolution. You know we have a lot of young guys doing a lot of stuffs and then when they walk around the streets with their bags, the next thing the police is asking you, what are you using the laptop to do? What's up with your iPhone? I think it's been a very, very great challenge for us but I hope that we get to conquer that in the next 61. Money wraps up after the break. Another independence day. One nation bound in freedom, peace and youth. I recited the national anthem and it played daily for six years. I was in primary school. Some of us just recited, crammed and recited. We never understood the import of the powerful words we mouthed daily. Years later, many of us still do not understand. It is that time of the year again, October. We will reminisce about the good old days. I did not so good one. Some will look back with nostalgia. Some will regret. But at the end of it all, we will move on till it is another October. The nation has been bereft of freedom, peace and unity. Many of us fear to move freely even within our comfort zone. Mine is Lagos. We fear being kidnapped. We fear being mugged even on open roads. Anavid recreational bicyclist, Afolabi Magmugunje. I will say his name. Afolabi Magmugunje died from stab wounds from robbers. Who only took his phone where he was waiting for his riding bodies. He could have been me. Riding is one of those joys I wish to indulge in till my body resists. Afolabi did not make it a story for another day despite the fact that he rode several kilometers to seek medical help. We are quick to blame everyone but ourselves for the decay we have in Nigeria. We are quick to line up behind political figures who had no corporate value but promote personal and sectional ideas. But we can have peace. We can have unity. We can have it or when a few of us inculcate the right spirit. Stella Adadevo put a life online for public health. Some of our colleagues barely escaped the years so others can live. Many medical doctors in public hospitals are carrying the burden of the cost of medical expenses of indigenous patients. Imagine if more of us have these kinds of dispositions. A Nigerian cab driver in the U.S. identified as Adikule returned $700 that was forgotten by a passenger in his car. Ola Inka Adini, a cab operator and the Airport Carrier Association of Nigeria, also returned $2,400 and an international passport that was forgotten by a passenger. We should strive for the resilience of the flying igus, of the demand miracle fame. The march created a footballing record and Nigeria became the first team to come back from four goals down and then go on to win a FIFA World Cup match at any level. Or the Atlanta 96 team that beat football superpowers to win Nigeria an Olympic gold. At these times, our drive should come from the positives we have and the people. More of us need to decide to take positive steps to rebuild Nigeria from the ground up since it has become difficult otherwise. Line up when you should. Respect others' time. Respect others' rights to their ideas within the confines of the law. Hold public officials accountable. Educate fellow voters. And perform your civic rights. Maybe one day, one nation will be bound in freedom, peace and unity and to mean more than the lyrics of a song. I really love your thoughts because it really got emotional for me at some point in talking about freedom, peace and unity and when you really look at it, it was even as if we knew when I was sharing my thoughts, I didn't know what you were sharing but that national pledge has a lot that can change our country. Talk about freedom, you spoke about movement, unity and peace when these three things are in place but today we can find them. Most of the times Nigeria has recorded the best of results were periods when these three things were in sync. When we were free to do everything we can do as one nation, when we were very peaceful, we respected our diversity, we appreciated our diversity, our uniqueness and we embraced our differences, we were able to respect our differences we have done remarkably well. But today, when somebody approaches you, the first thing that happens, subconsciously you start imagining where he's from. If you don't imagine where he's from, he's from the state of origin, you're already imagining what's his church. And so when you are asking this thing in your mind even without saying it, you're already breaking that code of that aspect of unity because somewhere something is being broken. Okay, he's not, he's from church A, he's person is from church B, you start questioning the differences, the ethics, the regulations, the dogmas and you start disagreeing with even any other thing that he's doing because he's from this sect. So I didn't think that this is very, very powerful. We really need to go back to the basics like I said. Freedom, we must have to start thinking about this and peace, our unity, must have to be at the crux of the matter. Well, for me I would say, I quite agree with you Raymond. No, the concept of Nigeria, our corporate existence as Nigeria or as Nigerians is more important by the driver and ethnic affiliation. Now the peace and unity is not just an abstract ideology, it's something that is practicable. There are steps we have to take as a people and I agree on in our side because it's not a video we blame the government on. The government, yes, they have a part to play for policy and enactment of uncertain rules and maybe trying to hold institutions and individuals accountable by enforcing laws. But as he people, we, we should see ourselves that everybody is a leader in sense, do something to inspire other persons, do the right thing. Number one, there are things we need to do, strategies we need to imbibe as a people. We should be more inclusive with whatever we do. Let me give you a very practical example. I know of, I heard of somebody that said I would not mention the particular job. He said, is he landlady, if she wants to rent a house and she doesn't like renting a house to this type of tribe, why? Because she thinks that these people are troublemakers or she's not sure of how they will make their money or something, it's not supposed to be. We should not be having prejudicia. Do your things be inclusive. You should be more interested in somebody what the person can offer you as an individual in terms of business and also as a collective coexistence as Nigerians than who the person is in terms of where he's coming from. His tribe has not shown his religion. Don't care about that. But there was something remember that brought up earlier and which is about our perspective, our mindset. The person that does that that says I'm not going to give someone from Nigeria Delta a house or whatever. You also find that that person is also very likely to say I'm not going to give a Christian a house and also very likely to say I'm not going to give a woman a house. They say that. So some of these things comes from the kind of minds right? The kind of mindset that does not allow you to look beyond the box. I was just thinking of something. If you get into trouble in the UK, if someone gets into trouble in the UK you're probably not going to tell the policemen that are you know you're my brother. But in Nigeria if you just think that the law enforcement officer you will try to get favoritism in the future. Now it's because we find it easy to play the ethnic cards both sides and then also because even the law enforcer himself is not just and on what I mean by being just I catch someone, that person that does something is wrong and I say okay go your first time or is the morning go I'm not looking at where you are from or anything but you don't find you probably will not find in other climes where what people do is based on they are looking at are you from this place and in places where there are racial issues you know that there are very clear racial issues like what happens in the US there are very clear racial issues but in our own case it's killing it's killing because we look at like it's not obvious you can't say oh this guy we don't want to make them obvious just like what Fela Nikulapo says some years back Fela he says something that if in South Africa at that time at some point we talk about apartheid the white hitting black what will you say about you hitting your brother you know there is something that Omone said that I really want to emphasize I've always been of the opinion that corruption is not the problem of Nigeria I can't say that anywhere I think if you ask me what is the problem of Nigeria I will simply say that there are no consequences for actions there are no consequences for actions because corruption is very very relative I mean what is corruption are you pointing at the teacher in the classroom that is not standing up to teach the students with all her heart are you pointing at the employer employer that is not paying their worker salary as at when do you are you pointing at the security man at the gate who can't allow you to pass because you don't look like you're going to give him money are you pointing at the staff that is hiding someone's file because they are not giving so I think that there are no consequences for action in Nigeria and when I mean consequences I'm not just talking about even people doing bad things I also mean people doing good things because here we don't celebrate people for the good things that they are doing most of the Nigeria that gets to be celebrated find out is because a foreign eye is beginning to point on them or maybe a foreign eye has taken them out and celebrating them heavily for the little things that you are doing then our people start rushing is our child is our dad the same thing with the negative aspect can we get to a point where people are punished outright without looking at your face without looking at who could be your father you know I had an experience in a particular country that I went to and while at the airport I saw someone who from a country and the person meet an offence that here could have just slide and that was the person try to boycott COVID protocols and they cut the person at the airport outrightly find the person $3,000 just trying to boycott and there was no Jupiter that could reverse that the person paid the person paid $3,000 the person was going to face 5 years in jail so if you are going to pay $3,000 for doing that after paying it I am very sure even inside her room she will never think of boycotting any process and so we have to come to a point here in Nigeria where people are punished outright but here we have laws but how many of them have been enforced how many of the politicians have been sent to jail they just come out and they make a charge of us and so back to what we are also saying we must come to that point for us to achieve freedom we must get to a point where people who are defaulting in the rules and the laws that have been set are being punished because it is only then that the rest of the society will begin to align with an already existing rule and so we can achieve freedom you know that if you are going on the road to ask someone there is a system that have seen what you have done you know that if you jump the traffic or you drink drive nobody will beat you but by the time you get to someone somebody comes and gives you a ticket and you have to pay or you don't drive if these things don't happen we can't talk a bit about freedom because people are just going about doing anything because nobody is catching them we can't talk about unity because right now we already just mentioned about the things that divide us more than connect us together in a place where technology is connecting people we still find this tiny tiny tiny divides around this whole area when even knowledge is global right now you still want to check if this person is your brother before you teach him is this person from this place before I can teach him is this person from my church before I can teach him it's no longer about the result but about who is involved so I really think that we have to really achieve this and the issue of peace like Felix rightly pointed out peace has to be a collective effort can we really start looking after our neighbors even right where we are we need to start getting accountable and it starts with ensuring that our individual goals does not affect the peace and the progress of the next person if that doesn't happen then you're not accountable and so everywhere we start having randomness everywhere and things will begin to get complex what you said actually your right ends where the other person's right begins if you talk about peace like we said we have to practice our inclusion then we should also embrace the fact that we as a people we are diverse in our views, our ideas our cultures, our religion but we should embrace the collective corporate nature of an existence Nigeria where everybody can benefit and aspire to be anything now that brings me to this issue of what happened yesterday that was the video circulating initially and people were saying oh the police wouldn't have attacked this set of individuals because of their religious belief so people should be respected everybody should have that unashiba of Nigeria no Nigerian is more Nigerian than any other Nigerian but everybody can claim to exist together as Nigeria actions and consequences we hope our conversations continue to resonate with you join us again next week on another edition of The Advocate The Advocate continues on our social media platforms on Facebook plus TV Africa hashtag The Advocate NG and Instagram at plus TV Africa hashtag The Advocate NG to catch up with previous broadcast go to plusTVAfrica.com forward slash The Advocate NG don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel plus TV Africa join us next week same time on this station and let's keep advocating for a better society bye