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“As We Struggle To Get More, Let Us Not Lose What We Have Got”, Fashola Cautions
• As Save Nigeria Group on protest rally visits Lagos House

Jan 21, 2010 - Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), Thursday addressed hundreds of Nigerians from all walks of life who came on a peaceful rally against the continued absence of President Umar Yar’Adua from the country calling for caution in order not to lose the gains of democracy which have already been achieved.

Governor Fashola who spoke at the Lagos House, Alausa, told the teeming crowd under the auspices of Save Nigeria Group (SNG) led by the General Overseer of the Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare, that even as the legitimate struggle to enthrone good governance continues, there is need to look back and acknowledge the gains already made in the struggle for democracy.

Such gains, the Governor said, include the fact that today the people can hold rallies and speak their minds freely without molestation as well as the fact that the people of Nigeria can go out and protest against bad governance without having to get permission from the authorities.

“In 1993, people like General Alani Akinrinade, and all of the people who stand on this podium today and those who are not here, like late Abraham Adesanya, late Dr. Beko Ransome Kuti, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, late Gani Fawehinmi and others were in the vanguard of the struggle to enthrone democracy”, the Governor recalled.

According to him, “there was a time when we could not even speak to our leaders. We have gained that victory and we must never lose it. There was a time when we could not hold rallies like this; they required us to take permission first. All of these are victories we have gained”.

Acknowledging that it is the legitimate right of the people to ask their leaders to do more and to tell those in authority that they have not done enough, Governor Fashola declared, “Even if your aspirations have been fulfilled, all of us who exercise authority in this country do so for only one purpose; to serve you”, adding that anybody who holds a contrary view and thinks the people are asking for too much “probably misconstrues the purpose of public service”.

Promising to deliver the Group’s message, earlier read by Pastor Bakare, to the Governors’ Forum, Governor Fashola further advised, “As we therefore continue this legitimate agitation, I ask you to purify your hearts of violence and replace it with peace and an unyielding commitment to continue to speak, irrespective of the provocation, in a non-violent manner”.

In the letter titled “State Of The Nation And The Need For Critical Intervention” which it presented to Governor Fashola for onward transmission to the Governors’ Forum, the Group expressed concern over the continued vacuum in the Presidency following the two month absence of President Umar Musa Yar’Adua from the country.

The Group said while it concedes that any human can fall ill, it is piqued by the flagrant violation of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which, according to it, “no matter how objectionable it is, has made provisions for this kind of situation”, adding, “the non-compliance with the Constitution, up till this moment, has heated up the polity just as it has turned Nigeria into a laughing stock of the comity of decent nations”.

According to the Group, “Examples abound in different parts of the world, including Africa, where ailing Presidents have had to transmit power to their deputies when they are not in the position to directly exercise their constitutional duties”.

“The issue that bothers many of our compatriots is that if a clique would not allow a vice chosen by the President himself and who is a member of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) like he is, to exercise power, this clearly makes nonsense of the Rule of Law and the Electoral Process which are two key items in the Seven Point Agenda of this administration”, the Group said.

Expressing displeasure at the public statements and posturing of some governors on the issue, the Group lamented, “Most of the statements have shown indifference to the feelings of Nigerians and are in collaboration with those that are sustaining the power vacuum”.

“We call on the governors today to take a stand with the people on this question of power vacuum in the country before it is too late for everybody”, the group enjoined the governors who, it also believes, “are not oblivious of the likely implication of the present dangerous slide that the country is taking”.

In his message read at the rally Mrs. Ayo Obe, Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka who wrote from New Delhi, India, said the fundamental issue is not about what individual rules or is denied the right to rule or about who leads or who does not but about how the nation is ruled and how the nation is led, adding that the issue is also about how the present vacuum is filled.

“The issue is, What is done in secret caucuses, what is deliberately withheld, delayed, subverted or degraded in time of such a vacuum; ask yourselves the obvious question, who profits?”

Pointing out that without the people there is no nation and without the manifested sovereignty of the people, the people are reduced to nothing, Professor Soyinka declared, “Years of neglect has turned to the rule of contempt; years of contempt to derision and impunity”, adding that the delay tactics over Electoral Reform have only one purpose – “a discredited, illegitimate cabal, gangsters in all but name, seeks to perpetuate itself”.

Urging Nigerians to take the first step, the Nobel Laureate said the first step is to “throw the current instrument of self-perpetuation and enslavement- the present electoral law- on the garbage heap of history”, adding that “2011 cannot be based on the tract of utmost cynicism”.

Also present at the rally were the former Military Administrator of Lagos State, Vice-Admiral Ndubuisi Kalu, General Alani Akinrinade, Mr. Femi Falana, Mr. Supo Sonibare, Dr. Yinka Odumakin, Mr. Odia Ofeima and Dr. Joe Odumakin among many other Human Rights activists as well as members of the State Executive Council and other top government functionaries.