“Towards more Credible, Free, Inclusive Elections in Nigeria.” And at, the keynote address was given by Professor Chidi Odinkalu, and he noted that, he sort of traced the trajectory of our presidential elections, of which we’ve had six, because he counted the 1979 presidential election, the 1983 one, and then the botched June 12th presidential election, and then ones we’ve had in this our Fourth Republic, so we’re really, we’ve been on a trajectory. And I also looked at it and reflected how in this Fourth Republic we kind of marked time on, for the first three elections up to 2007,

On the IDEAS segment with Ayo Obe, she’s discussing with comments made by the Governor of Kaduna State Nasir el Rufai, alleging interference by foreign observers and they face the consequences. A lot of reactions to comments made by Nasir el Rufai.
Well as you know Rotimi, election observers have been in the news recently. But I think it’s … for us to be able to understand the context, against which election observers come, I think it’s important as you say, for us to know: Why do we have observers?

On the IDEAS segment it is the Transparency International Corruption Perception for 2018, the Index, we’re going to be looking at in the segment. We can do much more, is what, well basically, the spirit of that report is. So welcome to Countdown 2019 and welcome Ayo Obe.

Well, what we focus on here in this section of the programme is the, are the issues of Integrity, Ethics and Accountability and the role that they play in our Democracy. And I just wonder, in the context of Nigerian politics, and as one of those who is seen as … I don’t want to use the term ‘new breed’, but people who have a new approach to doing politics, how do you think you’ve been able to, to not so much to talk about those issues, but to actually reflect them in the way that you’ve been campaigning, the way that you’ve declared your campaign, the way you emerged as the candidate, and how you’ve been going, how you intend to go forward with those ideals.

o, it’s great to have you on the show. I should say that Richard is one of the real veterans when it comes to reporting on the judiciary in Nigeria. And at the moment he’s publishing a news magazine on the corruption cases, called “The Corruption Cases Digest”, and in that he looks not only at the actual cases that are being brought on the issue of corruption, but also on corruption issues in our judiciary. And that Richard is what we’re about to talk about today.

Thank you Aghogho and welcome Rob and Nnamdi to the IDEAS segment of Countdown 2019. Please also remember that you can check out the editions of this programme on our website which is www.ideasradio.ng and you can also tweet at us @ideasradiong. And of course, you can get me at @naijama, which is me going on and on about things which may or may not be to do with Integrity, Democracy, Ethics and Accountability.

Well, I think that INEC is coming out with fresh guidelines, or they’re going to be released on Monday, according to reports, and I do hope we’re going to be able to get Festus Okoye who, apart from being a veteran of the civil rights pro-democracy anti-dictatorship struggle, is also an expert on election matters, and that presumably is why he’s now a Commissioner of INEC and he’s actually the Commissioner in charge of Voter Education and Publicity.

Let me tell you briefly about Hassan Taiwo Soweto, who is a socialist and long-standing working class and youth activist. Graduate of Fine and Applied Arts from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. He’s also a member of the Democratic Socialist Movement, National Coordinator of the Education Rights Campaign. Through this group he’s played major roles in the struggle for better funding and democratic management of public education in Lagos, Ogun State and across the country. He says if he’s elected he intends to bring all his experience as an activist to fight for development in his constituency and defend the interest of the working class youths and masses. Welcome to Countdown 2019.

Dr. Tokunbo Pearse. He is a senior lecturer, Department of English, University of Lagos. He’s also a public affairs analyst. He lived and worked in the United States from 1986 to 2006, and was actively involved in politics, working on the campaign teams of a number of congressmen and also of former Governor of New York, George Pataki. He was Associate Professor, Department of African Studies, Brooklyn College. In Nigeria he worked as the campaign manager of Mrs. Funso Williams in the 2007 Lagos Governorship poll. He was also the Director-General of the Musiliu Obanikoro campaign for the governorship of Lagos State.