Governor Fashola (SAN) made this known while updating the State House Correspondents at Lagos House, Ikeja on what transpired at his meeting earlier in the day with the Independent National Electoral Commissioner in Lagos, Mr Akin Orebiyi, who paid him a courtesy visit, stated that he has been briefed about the readiness of INEC to commence the distribution exercise from Wednesday 8.30a.m to 5.30p.m in the evening daily and lasting till Sunday.
“A captain does not leave a ship when there is crisis and I must make sure all the passengers are safely evacuated so I want Lagosians to get theirs first. As a Governor, I enjoy certain privileges but I can’t go ahead of them so I want them to take the fullest benefit of this exercise before I collect mine”. Mr. Fashola said
He advised all those who have registered freshly to also proceed to the Polling Units where INEC has made arrangements to distribute the PVC to them, stressing that in case there are difficulties the state Government would continue to work with INEC towards providing solutions.
“I would keep an eye to see this new phase of the exercise. It allows the people the opportunity to vote and as I said, this exercise would start tomorrow. There is five days to do this, so that as many people as possible and hopefully everybody who is registered can get theirs at their poling units”, he stated.
I know people have tried. I have heard people say they have been to the places, the Ward Offices eight times and some four times and for me if you have made that kind of efforts, the real success must come in not giving up and I don’t give up and that is why I continue to address the issue. I have made State broadcasts, I have granted interviews, I won’t give up on our people. They must get a chance to participates so the people themselves must be willing to persist and to persevere so that they will get an opportunity to have a say in how their affairs are ordered by being able to vote at the next elections”, he explained.
Responding to a question on what his views are concerning the various court cases being instituted against the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential candidate on his eligibility, the Governor said he has heard about some of the law suits but doesn’t really have the full details of what the claims are.
He added that to a large extent they tend to either seek to challenge certain things and that so long as they are valid challenges, they may be legitimate as no one can shut people away from the Courts.
“That is what I always say whether or not the claims they bring before the court has merit or not, but all of the judicial officers are Nigerians and they feel the impact of what is going on in their country and I always presume that they will act according to the law and do justice according to the law and not according to emotions and sentiments and in doing so also there is also a public policy consideration here that the nation must not go down because when all is said and done these is all about a contest to serve.” Governor Fashola added.
“It is a contest about ideas, one side believes that their ideas are better and another side believes that well this current idea can be improved upon. Ultimately let us all remember that it is about us and our people and our nation and people must remember that this democracy took some lives. Some people lost lives so that we can exercise this liberty and freedom, people must remember yesterday and in so doing yesterday must become a compass for how to deal with today and how to proceed to the future and the liberties that we take for granted today were at one time things that we struggled to have and so for me it is democracy that must win in this contest of ideas”, Governor Fashola reiterated.
“I also belief members of the legal profession will act responsibly and this is really a test of our love for our country. Whether we put our country’s interest above personal interest or vice versa? But ultimately democracy should win, the people should win. There are so many things that are defining about this election. If the existing order is preserved by the will of the people then so be it. If also the advocates of change have the day, then so be it but it also must mean that in that situation if the advocates of change have the day it also means that Nigerians want to try something else, it is not that they dislike anybody and you know it means for the first time as a people and as a country we have completed the cycle. We would have changed a government that we think has not given us what we want not necessarily because they are bad people but because we just want to try the other side”, he explained.
Via: Tribune
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