The most performing governor in Nigeria, Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State has carried out a critical appraisal on last weekend governorship election in Ekiti State and came up with the verdict that the lessons that the result have thrown up are very frightening to the country’s democracy.
Fashola added that, “So the lessons that are supposedly coming out of Ekiti are frightening lessons for me. Lesson about whether the people of Ekiti are really saying that this was all about money and rice. This is because it is very easy to do developmental work but is it difficult to initiate and to execute.
“It must be a very dangerous message to simply suggest that once you give people money then this is the way it will happen.”
Governor Fashola, who fielded questions from journalists after a closed door meeting with Vice-Chairmen of the 20 Local Governments and 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDA) at the State House, Marina, said preference of ‘stomach infrastructure’ to physical infrastructure and development by the people could hamper development of the country.
He said, “I think the first thing to do is to acknowledge the courage of the people especially the governor of Ekiti state, for the leadership and sense of decency that he has shown.
“I believe that in partisan politics, politicians and political parties approach the electorate with challenging ideas, manifestos and with the intention to bring change to the state or country.”
He argued that every election is an assessment of what the people think and how people behave, saying that is what is inherent when votes are counted. If this is about Rice, the people didn’t speak well for development.
