Press Releases

Fashola Receives Electoral Reform Committee Report
• We will ensure an improved electoral process , he says

Jul 13, 2009 - Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), Monday received the report of the State’s Electoral Reform Committee, vowing that the Lagos State Government will employ its knowledge and resources to ensure that there is an improved and revised electoral process in both the State and the country.

Speaking during the short ceremony at the Lagos House, Ikeja, Governor Fashola also expressed conviction that the 2011 general elections and all subsequent ones will show some marked improvement.

He told the audience comprising members of the State Executive Council and members of the Electoral Reform Committee, “As a Government, we will do everything in our power, knowledge and resources to ensure that there is an improved and revised electoral process not only in this State, but in this country”.

Governor Fashola said it is the collective responsibility and in the interest of Nigeria and Nigerians that the next election shows some marked improvement, adding that the wealth of opinions and recommendations from many segments of the society point to the fact the nation’s electoral problems must be solved.

“I am convinced that this is an issue that, as a nation and as a State, we will find solution. I am convinced that the wealth of opinions and suggestions and recommendations point to the fact that this problem must find solution”, the Governor said.

Noting that electoral reform lies at the heart of the nation’s march to prosperity, Governor Fashola declared, “I think we need to take on our responsibility. We cannot ask the taxpayers to bring money to organize an election and then we ask them to go and participate in that election and after they have done all that, the only duty that remains with us which is to make their vote count, we expect the taxpayers again to take responsibility for that”.

“To all of us who are involved in organizing election, I think the sooner we begin to respond to the growing anxiety and concern of taxpayers about how we manage electoral process, the better we will be for it”, he warned.

The Governor thanked the Chairman and members of the Committee for their commitment to the assignment recalling that it became necessary to recall them after the National Electoral Reform Committee, to which their first report was forwarded, released its own report.

“Let me, on behalf of Lagosians, thank you very much once again for the very full and sterling work in not only collecting data and sampling opinions but also examining political developments in the country which led to delivery of the first Report which we promptly acted upon by delivering it to the National Electoral Reform Committee”, he said.

According to the Governor, “When the National Electoral Reform Committee released its Report, it became necessary to recall you to come and see how much of your recommendations were taken, what are the new things we did not put to them that have come up, what are the values that the new things bring into the process”, the Governor said

He said the commitment and diligence shown by the members “demonstrates that there is so much to do and everybody, therefore, who has the spirit of service, will have a role to play”, adding, “As I often say, people do not need a title to serve”.

On the suggestion by the Committee Chairman that the Committee be made a permanent body, Governor Fashola said, “I take on board your suggestion that there must be a continuing engagement with this Committee because, for a while, as I foresee, this issue will remain a front-burner issue about how the votes of taxpayers are dealt with; about how the interest and rights of taxpayers are dealt with”, adding that he would be pleased to receive from the Committee “a clear roadmap of the structure of such continued engagement “.

Earlier, in his opening remarks, the Committee Chairman, Professor Bayo Williams, suggested that the Committee be made a permanent body in the State given the fact that “Electoral Reforms lies at the heart of our march to prosperity”.

Commending the Governor for taking a proactive action to assist the nation in the electoral reform process the Chairman declared, “Unless we, as a nation, solve the problems of our electoral process, we will continue to live in the jungle of political depravity”.

Also present at the occasion were the Deputy Governor, Princess Sarah Adebisi Sosan, the Secretary to the State Government, Princess Adenrele Adeniran-Ogunsanya, the State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Olasupo Sasore (SAN) and other members of the State Executive Council as well as members of the Electoral Reform Committee.