Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola has declared that many of the challenges facing the country currently should not have happened if those saddled with steering the ship of the country had played their parts.
Fashola, who was among many other speakers at the celebration to honour late Chief MKO Abiola, acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election a, said many of the challenges are man-made.
“What I think is that our democracy is beset with challenges that are man-made and also institutional. It is these challenges that we must not surrender to,” he said.
“One thing that our democracy cries out largely for is that it should be nourished with law and order. Put differently, we must rise from this anniversary and identify a culture of impunity arising from a deficiency in law and order as the most important single threat to our democratic aspirations.
“If we continue to accumulate rhetorics about law and order, impunity will entrench itself like a very malignant cancer. But if we rise to attack impunity, and excise it like the cancer that it is, law and order will flourish and it will nourish our democracy. This is my most important message today.”
He recalled that the late Abiola had fought hard to win the mandate of Nigerians so he would be able to solve some of these challenges but that this never materialised.
“There are social and economic challenges; these are the pillars on which the campaign of June 12 was built by M. K. O. Abiola in the famous campaign against poverty,” he observed.
“There is also the challenge of a common assault against hope, which was a strong message of MKO’s campaign. As long as our heroes remain, we will stand together to overcome these challenges. We will turn the challenges into stepping stones to reach for the promise of June 12 and the promise of our country.”
The governor lamented that while such struggles as the one that followed the annulment of the election often led to celebrations, it was not the case with Nigeria.
“Regrettably the Nigerian journey has defied such natural trends where struggles climax into jubilant and enduring triumphs,” he said, expressing optimism that the country would one day come out of its current challenges and urging Nigerians not to lose faith in the country.
“Yes, a judge has powers to sit over a court, but our laws did not permit it to sit at night especially when persons to be affected by the decision were not aware. When that attempt failed and the elections held in spite of it, the next attack on June 12 was launched on behalf of the Executive,” he said.
“An election that had been concluded, whose results were already known and the only thing that was left was the official confirmation, was purportedly annulled. There was no provision in our election to annul a concluded election. The only right recognized in our law was a petition by the aggrieved party to the tribunal.
“Let me remind you that it was the refusal to exercise a constitutional responsibility of appointing justices to the bench of the Supreme Court that frustrated the legal battle of MKO to regain his freedom. Our laws did not give the appointing authority the power to refuse to appoint justices.
“Lately and recently, an institution of high learning created by an Act of Parliament which gave the institution its name was visited with an action that at best attempts to mock the memory of MKO. The name of the institution was changed to MKO’s name without changing the law.
“I venture to argue that MKO will have distanced himself from such an action if he was alive. His firm belief in the judicial process in the law suits he defended and instituted are clear evidence of his commitment to law and order.
“Most recently we are witnesses to grounded airplanes and re-called helicopters. No one doubts the existence of these powers for safety and the protection of lives and property. The question on everybody’s lips is what were the reasons for these actions? What is the regulatory regime in that sector?”
He also recalled the controversy that followed the conduct of the election of Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), describing it as a bizarre arithmetic in a contest of numbers where 16 votes have become superior to 19 votes in a perplexing logic. He described it as part of the impunity that now characterises the country, and slammed President Goodluck Jonathan for such comments as: ‘It must either be our way or the highway’, ‘We don’t give a damn’, ‘Whatever will be will be,’ as they would not do the country any good.
“The mere impression or perception of them creates the biggest challenges for our democracy. We must stand up as a people devoid of ethnic coloration, political leaning and religious faith to banish these kind of messages from our national consciousness whether they are imagined or real,” he added.
“When we have done these, we will necessarily have to deal with problem of restoring integrity to our electoral process the way Kenya and Ghana have done if we truly mean to be leaders of Africa.
“There are lessons that we can learn from them about well-meaning and developmental uses of technology to aid electoral process. I stress the word ‘well-meaning’ and ‘developmental’ as distinct from the experience of self-serving multiple registrations, double counting, voters’ de-population and other less salutary occurrences that we have experienced.
“After dealing with the electoral process, we will then be better positioned, in my view, to commonly address our economic challenges. Finally, I will like to say that it will not be the highway in Nigeria because we give a damn. An awful lot of it. And the only thing that will be, is that the promise of the great nation will be realized inspite of the odds.”
Meanwhile, social analyst, Prof. Pat Utomi, who spoke at a parallel June 12 event organised by the State House of Assembly, advised Nigerian politicians to change from their desperation to win elections and rather focus on making the country a better place.
He blamed politicians for making the people lose faith in the country’s legitimate democracy.
“Our democracy has lost its legitimacy over the years,” he lamented. “Unless we have a clear democracy where people speak through the ballot box, we cannot have the kind of legitimacy that we need.
“We are determined as people; we can prevent abusers from leading us to where we are today.”
