21st October, 2010
Political leaders all over the country have been asked to imbibe Rotary International’s 4-Way Test in their dealings with the Nigerian people. Col. Chris Ugokwe (rtd), gave this advice at the investiture luncheon of Mrs Betty Ojo as the 5th president of Rotary Club of Ogudu GRA, Lagos, at the weekend.
Col. Ugokwe, who was the chairman of the investiture ceremony, said the bane of Nigerian politics has been the neglect of the electorate by politicians after they are voted into power. Urging the electorate to vote the right calibre of people in 2011, the former chairman of National Population Commission, urged political leaders throughout the country to take critical decisions based on truth, fairness to all concerned, goodwill and better friendship and benefit to all concerned.
Speaking in a similar vein, Professor Taiwo Osipitan, the guest speaker of the event, remarked that Nigeria can only move forward when politicians realise they were voted into office and are responsible for the well-being and common good of the electorate.
Referring to the landmark judgement that removed Engr. Segun Oni from office as the governor of Ekiti State last week, the university don explained that the only way to avoid election rigging in 2011 is for the government and its appropriate agencies to begin massive education of the electorate on how to vote and make sure that their votes count.
Professor Osipitan also counselled that the Federal Government should make the election time-table less staggered as this is only a waste of human and material resources, and that it encourages election rigging and other social vices that have been main features of our electoral history in Nigeria since independence.
Chief (Mrs) Betty Ojo, the new president of Rotary Club Ogudu GRA, advised parents, especially mothers, to pay adequate attention to the education and upbringing of their children so that they don’t become willing tools for perpetration of election malpractices in 2011’
The new president of the club also said that one of the reasons the club has taken up the upkeep of two of the children in Rev. (Mrs) George’s Little Saints Orphanage, from nursery to the university level, is to breed responsible members of the society who will be able to contribute their quota to positive development of Nigeria in the nearest future.