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00:00the candidate of a youth party YP for it just a local government election holding on July 12
00:202020 yeah 25 do what are your plans what do you what are you looking up to do in it you
00:27separate venture you are elected as the local government chairman of it your son well I mean
00:34first of all you talk about my plans I have what I call the rise plan it's my economic plan to
00:44transform it user which projects to create about 15,000 jobs generally improve the hospitality
00:53landscape retrain the young people in that corridor and completely transformed the environmental
01:00outlook you know in Etiosa so if you look at the rice plan are of course means recycling waste to
01:08wealth Etiosa alone generates close to 200 tons of waste you know every day and if you look at that
01:16cumulatively over an entire it's about 73,000 tons of waste my plan obviously is to transform particularly
01:26food waste into biogas using the latest technology that will provide energy to power at least 10,000
01:34homes that same amount of waste if you know recycled can power 15,000 homes with cooking gas and of course
01:43can power you know diesel engines for transportation within you know Etiosa in itself so on recycling alone
01:53because thankfully you know that the Lagos State has domesticated its electricity you know its electricity
02:02you know what's it called again the electricity policy has been domesticated in Lagos State where it can
02:08generate and transmit its own electricity locally so my plan is to be able to plug that waste recycling
02:15into the grid in Lagos State to be able to power homes you know in Etiosa but more importantly is that I want
02:22to raise an environmental core of at least 10,000 young people that will be working in and around the
02:28value chain of the environment whether it's collecting waste efficiently and effectively whether
02:35it's transporting this waste to dump sites or to collection centers or whether it's recycling these wastes
02:41this entire value chain which will also include you know educating residents and people in marketplaces is going to
02:50create at least 10,000 jobs and that way you know we can keep a very healthy environment in that corridor and more
02:57importantly there seems to be typhoid fever is endemic you know in Etiosa and that's largely
03:04because of the amount of pollution that comes from whether it's food waste or plastic waste or all the waste you know that are
03:11generated there because of the poor hygiene you know in the environment you have people coming down with a lot of typhoid fever and so
03:18not just the fact that we're going to create jobs and the fact that we're going to create wealth from the waste that is generated there we also want to combat the health challenges
03:27that people are dealing with you know in that particular environment and that's what we want to do in terms of environment
03:34we also want to invest in critical skills development now in Etiosa you know that the the predominant business there is hospitality it's real estate
03:45and of course the creative economy and those are the three major sectors upon which we want to drastically improve the skills of young people in that area and I'm not talking you know
03:57you know makeshift or hard big skill training programs that most people are used to I'm talking about the kind of skill programs where people are certified
04:05you know whether as electricians whether as furniture makers and things like that so that they can directly be plugged into that ecosystem
04:15where there's constant construction happening you know in Etiosa and they have jobs and these are jobs that will pay nothing less than the minimum wage
04:23and so that training is going to produce very high skilled labor force that will power the construction industry in that particular corridor
04:32of course you know we also are going to train a lot of people in hospitality because also that area is known for it's almost the hospitality haven if you asked me
04:42and so we're going to train people you know not just to be regular receptionists but to build their capacity to climb the ladder in the hospitality industry
04:52you know where they can function at supervisory and managerial levels you know just beyond being waiters and in fact even at at you know the very bare minimum as waiters or or bartenders
05:04there are specific skills that many places you go to around the country they don't have the kind of skills to work in those places they just do things anyhow
05:14so we are going to empower people with those skills so that they can fill that particular sector you know effectively and the same thing we're going to do
05:22in terms of you know the tourism plan that we have you know to strengthen the tourism sector in that particular environment and we're going to do that obviously besides the training
05:34is to invest you know in the beaches along that places to invest in public parks especially water parks in that area so that it also ties to supporting the environment
05:46and finally we're going to empower communities you know and empowering communities my vision is to bring people together to drive
05:53you know a vision for an etiosa that will become one of the most important districts or municipalities in the entire continent and the only way we can do that you know is to strengthen our community by first making it safe and secure so that we can power 24 hour economy and you know that every time an economy
06:15every time an economy runs for 24 hours it creates 30 percent more jobs than the daytime jobs that you already have so in a nutshell I believe that the rice plan that I'm proposing and putting forward will make etiosa safer will create meaningful jobs you know for young people will put monies in the pockets of young people through my creative credit fund
06:37and more importantly will make that the most important tourist destination in the sub-region and that is what my vision for you know that local government is but more importantly are you looking at any plans for education most especially primary education probably to work in collaboration with the state government to provide basic primary education for etiosa
07:07yeah I mean of course of course there are plans for you know primary education and primary healthcare to strengthen those very two important institutions I believe in the quality or the power of education to transform lives to transform communities and to transform nations so of course I'll be making significant investments in primary education and to that extent you know what I intend to do basically is to improve the quality of teaching in the classroom environments we want
07:37I want to hire better teachers and to hire better teachers and ensure that they are better enumerated that they are better trained so that they can impact our children better in the classroom I also want to improve the classroom learning experience so that students are not going into conditions you know that demotivate them and conditions that make them struggle to learn so we're going to improve you know the learning experience for students you know in that particular local government and I'm you know going to do that by investing
08:07investing in technology and like I said you know the two most important things is the learning environment and the quality of teachers who are teaching in the classrooms and so we're going to hire the best teachers we're going to train them and improve their enumerations like you rightfully said in collaboration with the state government so that we can have better outputs you know you know from the quality of teachers we put before students in that class and so that
08:37we're going to have a lot of schools in the middle income families go through where they have to pay premium for primary school education for their children many of whom cannot even afford that because because public schools are really not an alternative for them I think by you know improving the quality of our primary school in that area will reduce the burden for many low and middle income families who can free up those resources that will drive consumption in that particular area so just by improving classroom
09:07experience and improving the quality of experience and improving the quality of teaching and the entire environment we give parents an alternative to reduce the burden that they face in paying you know hundreds of thousands if not millions for their children to attend primary schools and so they can attend public schools and free up resources you know to do other things that they want to do you know to improve the standard of living in their home so yes education is a real priority for us.
09:34it is not it is not just enough for you to have very good plans great plans but I want to I also want to interrogate your relationship with its local government you know some of the things we have in this country is that you see people who doesn't live in the particular local government they just spring up they want to come and be the local government chairman what was your relationship what relationship have you developed
10:03So I mean I mean I have I have I have very long standing relationship with that local government I mean first of all I just I don't just live and work there in fact I tell you a quick story when I first I don't want to see when I first came into Lagos because I've always been coming to Lagos all my life my mother is from
10:26you know I've always you know I've always been from Lagos and I've always visited Lagos but as an adult you know who was ready to come and work and pursue my dreams when I first stepped into Lagos I think around 2010 or 2010 2009 or 2010 I moved into Etiosa lived somewhere in Abraham Adesonia Estate and that was where my love affair with the environment began and so you take that several years forward to when everyone set up office and
10:56you know, in Etiosa, and I was doing well, grew my business around this particular local government.
11:03But I got frustrated with the lack of public services in that area.
11:07And the first thing I did when I noticed the quality of governance, you know, in Etiosa was very poor,
11:13was to launch a community newspaper called the Leki Post, which I ran for five years.
11:19And we're printing about 5,000 copies, you know, bi-weekly, that's every two weeks,
11:24and we distributed it for free.
11:26And through that newspaper, I was able to develop, you know, close relationships with community leaders
11:33who were constantly giving us stories of the things that were happening in their community.
11:38And I got to learn a lot more.
11:40I mean, you know, coming into Etiosa sometime in 2009, I thought it was, you know, a place built in heaven,
11:49because you only see the luxury buildings.
11:51I never knew that there were communities, backward communities, forgotten communities,
11:58impoverished communities, just behind many of these high towers.
12:02And that newspaper opened my eyes to a lot of these things.
12:06I went into so many of these deprived and forgotten communities, like I talk about,
12:10many of them who never had electricity.
12:12You know, we fought for them, you know, for the government to provide transformers where necessary.
12:17People who were facing injustice or were repressed, you know, my newspaper at the time, you know, fought for many of these people.
12:25So that really helped me build very local, strong ties, you know, with many parts of the communities, you know, in that corridor.
12:34And it's an experience that I will cherish for a very long time, because it's almost amazing to see what it meant to a local carpenter
12:45that his story got into a local newspaper about a pain point that no one was listening to.
12:51And then we gave him a platform to tell his or her story.
12:55When people are unjustly evacuated, you know, from what, you know, we call slums, and we told their stories, you know,
13:02they felt empowered, they felt listened to, and they felt heard.
13:05So in a nutshell, I think nothing gave me more to immerse myself in that community like the newspaper did,
13:14because, I mean, I broke bread with different ballets, you know, with kings, with market women,
13:21and that gave me a deep understanding of that community, and hence, you know,
13:27nursed the ambition of wanting to really transform it, given the potential that is inherent there.
13:32You've told us a lot of things you want to achieve, if you, if you are elected as a local government chairman of ISTEOSA.
13:39But before then, you have to win the election.
13:43Oh, yes.
13:44And to win the election, you are going to contest against a ruling party.
13:49Yes.
13:51And if you look at the history of Lagos, since 1999, it has been the ruling party clearing all the local government elections.
14:02How confident are you that you will be able to defeat APC in the election?
14:12I think that's an interesting question.
14:14And I believe this is even the most important question in the local government season.
14:20And I'm glad you are the one asking that question.
14:22I think that the APC haven't won elections in Lagos State over time because they have been the most popular party.
14:32They've dominated local government elections because, one, there's usually voter apathy.
14:38Less than 3% of people turn out for local government elections.
14:42The second is that they have a systemic suppression vote mechanism where they intimidate people from other political parties who want to come and vote on election day,
14:56which also goes back to foil the voter apathy that I talked about, you know, earlier.
15:01But three, and most importantly, is that the referee, which is supposed to be LISEC, that organizes elections in Lagos State,
15:10have over the years been found to seemingly, unwittingly, sometimes inadvertently, promote the interest of the ruling party.
15:19So they have not been a fair umpire over the years.
15:22They haven't created a level playing field for people to compete and test their popularity.
15:27They simply have just been the vehicle upon which candidates have been coronated from the APC.
15:33Now, what are we going to do differently, you know, this year, given the challenges that are confronting us?
15:40I think the first is that part of my campaign strategy is that I have simultaneously also pursued a legal strategy.
15:47And that legal strategy is to dismantle the systemic corruption and the institutional rigging that takes place in local government elections.
16:00And the first thing that we're attacking is the fact that LISEC doesn't have the powers to delineate words in Nigeria.
16:08It is only INEC that is being conferred the powers by the Constitution to delineate words.
16:14And, I mean, I'm sure that you've been following the story in Delta State, the word that INEC tried to delineate, you know,
16:22that's causing problems between Shaqiri and Ijo.
16:24We're talking about four polling units.
16:27And the entire state is under a lot of pressure because people are clamoring that INEC should not do that.
16:36And, you know, they are reeling out the consequences of that action.
16:38But here we are in Lagos State, where LISEC brazenly, consistently interferes with words and delineates polling units across board every single local government election season.
16:53It is not only unconstitutional, it disenfranchises people who come out to vote on election day.
16:58Because that means once you come out to vote on election day, you will be told that this is not your polling unit.
17:05Because there's a likelihood that by redistributing the polling unit, you would have been moved from one point to another point.
17:11And that disenfranchises you completely.
17:13In fact, as I'm speaking to you today, there is no political party that has the polling guide for an election that is six weeks away.
17:20And a polling guide is supposed to tell you where the polling units are located in whatever words that they have illegally delineated in the first instance.
17:29So not only did you usurp the powers of delineating words, you still do not even have the fairness of mind to share what you have already delineated with other political parties.
17:42So if we're trying to train agents now to fill polling units, I don't know which agent is going to fill any polling units because we don't even know where the polling units are going to be located.
17:52Right. So this is why we have gone to court or this is why we'll be going to court to compel INEC to stick with the words and registration areas as already delineated by INEC.
18:06Because in any case, no state conducts elections without getting voters' register from INEC, isn't it?
18:12It is INEC that gives you the voters' register to conduct elections.
18:16So where do you derive the powers to then delineate this polling unit?
18:20So we're going to challenge that to the very end.
18:24The same way we're also challenging the fact that, and this is also where we need your help, you know, as media organizations,
18:30we seem to have accepted that elections should hold in 57 LCDs and local governments in Lagos.
18:38It's a complete aberration.
18:40It's against the Supreme Court's decision that ruled clearly in 2004 that there are only 20 recognized local governments in Lagos.
18:49The Supreme Court at the time also said, if you want to create more local governments,
18:54you pursue a constitutional amendment process that will then recognize the new local governments that you create.
19:01Last year, the president, through his attorney general, took 36 governors to the Supreme Court
19:06to demand autonomy for local governments across the country.
19:10The Supreme Court agreed with the president.
19:13And in one of the reliefs that the attorney general sought
19:16was that states that refused to comply with Section 1 and 7 of the Constitution
19:21would lose their right to receive funding for local governments from the federation account.
19:27And one of the provisions is that Section 1, Schedule 1 of the Constitution,
19:31clearly lists the amount of recognized local governments in Nigeria.
19:35And so by virtue of that, running or contesting elections into LCDs that do not exist
19:42is a complete aberration, is an illegality that should not continue.
19:48And I believe that civil society organizations and the media
19:51should constantly hold LISEC to fire that you're running or contesting elections
19:56into illegal LCDs that are strangers to the Constitution.
20:00The attorney general has said that local governments come and open bank accounts at the CBN.
20:04Who is going to open bank accounts in Lagos?
20:07Which of the 57 people?
20:09That's the million-dollar question.
20:11So in Etiosa alone, right, Etiosa normally should cover from Obalende to Shungotedo.
20:17But within Etiosa now, we have five LCDs.
20:20So the question is, which of these LCDs is going to open accounts with the CBN?
20:25So this is the problem, right?
20:27And that's why we have also gone to challenge that only 20 local governments
20:32have the legitimacy for elections to be conducted around,
20:36and they should stick to that.
20:39And thirdly, we are also going to court to ensure that no collation center
20:44is resident in any local government.
20:47Because what used to be the case is that they make the local governments their collation center.
20:51And by virtue of that, they shut out every other political party
20:55that is going into the convention center, to the collation center,
21:00to monitor counting and collation of votes.
21:03Because obviously, they control the local governments.
21:06And their boys typically stop you from going in.
21:08So all of these things, we are trying to pursue a legal process
21:15to compel the umpire to create a level playing field for everybody to compete.
21:21Because that's the only way you can have credible elections.
21:24And that's the only way people will have confidence to come out,
21:27you know, and vote on election day.
21:29So my confidence is not so much on whether they can,
21:35they are more popular than me or than us as a political party.
21:39I know that my opponent is not putting a quarter of the work that I'm putting in.
21:45My opponent has not clearly articulated a vision for Etiosa.
21:50My opponent is not meeting, you know, the people across the community
21:57who are desperate for better governance, right?
22:01They simply rely on the fact that once they have gotten their tickets in the primary,
22:06somebody, somewhere, is going to ensure that they automatically become local government chairman.
22:12But that's what we're going to change this time.
22:14Because we're going to compel the umpire to create a level playing field
22:18so that those votes will count.
22:20And when those votes count, I'm happy if you beat me in a popularity contest, right?
22:25But I'm confident that if it's truly, you know, a representative democracy
22:30and it's a popularity contest, the APCIC today cannot beat us in an election come July 12th.
22:39Then lastly, what's your confidence in LASIK?
22:42I must say, I must say to you honestly, I do not have confidence in an institution
22:49that seemed to have subverted so many of the laid-down provisions of the Constitution.
22:57I'll also give you another example.
23:01The River State election was annulled at the Supreme Court last year
23:05and a rerun was ordered.
23:07And the reason the Supreme Court annulled that election
23:11was because the River State Electoral Commission
23:15breached the constitutional provision
23:19for the time frame allotted to conduct elections.
23:23So you know that by virtue of the Constitution,
23:25you're supposed to give 150 days to an election.
23:28The idea is so that, again,
23:33INEC typically stops new voter registration 60 days to an election.
23:36So once you give 150 days,
23:38you give a window for new voters' registration to happen,
23:43for people to collect PVCs,
23:44those who have lost can replace and things like that.
23:47And then INEC can close that 60 days to the election.
23:50But the River State Electoral Commission did not do that.
23:53They just simply counted 90 days to the general election
23:58and announced the election.
24:01And the Supreme Court struck it down.
24:03That is the exact same thing that LISEC has done in Lagos.
24:07They simply calculated 90 days
24:09from when the tenure of the current people will expire
24:14and then announced an election.
24:16And so they did not give the required extra 60 days
24:19to announce elections so that for proper preparation,
24:23elections and all of that.
24:25And that's just one.
24:26Two, is that the legal framework,
24:30the laws that are surrounding the governing of an election,
24:34many political parties were completely blinded.
24:38It took a pali at LISEC's office
24:41for us to realize that the Lagos state local government law
24:46had been amended and setting provisions
24:49had been snuck into it,
24:51even after a public hearing
24:53that many of us had attended last year
24:55and submitted memoranda,
24:56nobody knew when the law was passed.
24:58They said it was passed sometime in January 10 or 11
25:02during the fracas.
25:04So we didn't even know when the law was passed.
25:08So we're going into an election
25:10where people were not clear about the guidelines,
25:12were not clear about the legal framework
25:14surrounding the elections.
25:15So we're just running blind into it.
25:18So I cannot have confidence in an institution
25:23that simply looks like, you know,
25:27and I choose my word carefully,
25:29they look like they're playing a script, right?
25:32And except, of course, you know,
25:35they are forced to do the right thing at every step,
25:39you're going to have a coronation exercise
25:41and not an election.
25:43And that's why we have taken steps
25:44to challenge all of this illegality.
25:48And thankfully, the chairperson of LISSEG
25:50is a retired judge.
25:52So at least that, you know,
25:54gives us some hope
25:55that when many of these matters get to court,
26:00we have somebody in LISSEG
26:01who is a former member of the judiciary
26:03that, you know,
26:05will be happy to adhere
26:06to judicial decisions,
26:09you know, at the end of the day.
26:10But at the moment,
26:11I just don't have, you know,
26:14any confidence whatsoever
26:16that these elections will be free or fair.
26:18Like I said earlier,
26:20we don't even have the polling guide.
26:22So what are we doing?
26:26Thanks very much.
26:28Thanks for your time.
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