Presidiential Elections: Fashola Admonishes Youths

Kazeem Ugbodaga

Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola has told Nigerians to vote out General Muhammadu Buhari if he fails to perform in his first term if given the mandate on 28 March.

Fashola spoke at a Town Hall meeting with students and youths addressed by Buhari at the Muson Centre, Lagos, southwest Nigeria, on Thursday.

The governor said the time had come for people to vote for performance and that those who were first given the mandate and failed to perform should be kicked out through the ballot box.

He urged the youths to defend their votes, which he said did not mean fighting and being violent, but to wait until their votes were counted.

“Vote and defend your votes. It does not mean you should fight. Wait until your votes are counted. Nobody, armed or unarmed, has the right to stop you from voting. It is your right,” he said.

Fashola wondered why a Federal Government that promised to improve technology would be afraid of the use of card reader for the election, saying why did it issue the Permanent Voter’s Card in the first instance?

The governor said this was the best time for Nigeria to change a government that is not performing at the centre and that by so doing, they would make history as the first generation to have changed a bad government through the ballot box in Nigeria.

“If you agree your country is not doing well and you want to change it, it will be the first time a bad government is changed by the people in Nigeria. If you elect Buhari and Osibanjo, you will have succeeded in changing a bad government and if Gen. Buhari and Osinbajo did not perform, you should vote them out,” he said.

Fashola said further that integrity and untainted records stood out Buhari/Osinbajo candidacy, saying that “I have said this to help you make informed decision and not on the basis of what your friend chooses. Buhari is contesting because past leaders have failed to keep their promises.

“It is obvious that the current administration has failed and he too admitted it. He was here in Lagos and asked you to come with him. Come to where? You should ask him. These are some of the issues we should put on the table to make meaningful choice,” he said.

Speaking at the event, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Buhari challenged Nigerians, especially the youths, to resist any attempt to shift or postpone general elections in the country.

According to him, a timely, free and fair election is key to protecting this democracy, even as there is no constitutional provision for frivolous shifts in the date of elections, adding that the whole idea of this election was to save and rescue the country from the current economic free fall, insecurity and high unemployment.

He argued that the current competition in the polity was already getting out hand, with all manner of ploy to resist “change.”

“It is a question of saving the country from free fall. I have not come here to make promises to you, but to tell you that we have a duty to save our nation. And that is what March 28 and April 11 election dates are all about. No Nigerian should accept any postponement because there is no constitutional provision for postponement. We must conduct election and it must be free, fair and credible,” he said.

He added that “the important issue for us is insecurity. Second issue is unemployment, and it affects you all, that, we still have more than 40 years to go. No matter how well I love to live, there is no way I can live another 40 years.

“I want you to reflect how lives have been in the last 16 years of the PDP-led government. What is the strength of the naira from when they took over and now? It is now over N220 to one dollar. To revamp the system, there is need for trillions of naira but where will they get it from? PDP has killed this country in the last 16 years. If we don’t kill corruption in Nigeria, it will kill Nigeria. Many of us are still here because we have nowhere to go in the world than to stay in Nigeria,” he stated.

According to Buhari, “our objective is to throw away PDP and rehabilitate our country. We will not be distracted by their plans and smear campaign. The problem of Boko Haram went haywire when the police arrested and killed their leaders, instead of prosecuting them. It got so bad that Chad, Niger and Cameroon had to come and help Nigerian military to rescue 14 LGAs from the Boko Haram. PDP has killed the country. That is why this election will be very defining, especially for the youth and the change we all want.”

President, Students Union Government, Lagos State University, LASU, Adeyemi Wasiu Onikoro, said their loyalty for the APC candidate was in line with participation in affairs that really affect their wellbeing, saying that they had mobilised at laest 7,000 students to collect their PVCs to be able to vote in the coming elections.

Also, the APC National Chairman, John Oyegun said the future belonged to the youth and they must work to earn their future by voting out bad leadership which the PDP had exhibited in the last 16 years.

“You must from now know that everyone you put in office must be responsible to you. It is not by fighting or setting houses ablaze, but by having a voice and it must be by your vote,” he said.