Speeches

Let Us Stand Up To Be Counted For A Noble Cause In 2010

Dec 31, 2009 - So soon, Time, the most dynamic constant in human existence, has turned full cycle. We are at the dawn of a brand New Year. It is, indeed, a most gratifying yet humbling experience to witness, nay celebrate, the birth of another year.

As common with such critical junctures in Time, stocktaking is a standard item of a mixed celebratory menu. Given the seeming intractable challenges of our national life, missed opportunities and the backlash of the global economic meltdown, the temptation for many to give in to despair and despondency while contending that nothing has been accomplished, is quite attractive.

But while acceding to the fact that there were near misses here and there in the last year, we cannot in all honesty say that the year 2009 was a fruitless year because saying that will mean denying the real gains we have made in that year. It will also tantamount to the defeatist attitude of seeing the glass as half empty rather than half full.

In Lagos State, 2009 produced the superb form of the men and women of the State’s Public Service and our partners in the Private Sector who continue to manage our waste round the clock. It produced our traffic managers who daily work hard to ensure that the city does not grind to a halt in spite of daunting challenges.

The Year 2009 produced men and women of the various security agencies who kept our city safe. It also produced the collaboration between the public and private sectors that made it possible to continue to run the Emergency Toll Free numbers 767 and 112 as well as the hosting of the biggest Eyo Festival, the highly successful Under-17 World Cup and the Nigerian Bar Association Annual Conference of 10, 000 lawyers.

Perhaps, most importantly, 2009 produced more law-abiding individual and corporate citizens who signed up to the commitment to keep the infrastructural development of the Lagos Mega-City going by paying their taxes to enable the Government deliver more roads, bridges, classrooms, jetties, hospitals, markets and other social amenities.

Those men and women stood up to be counted for something in 2009 and as we engage in both stocktaking and projection making, the fresh year offers an opportunity to us all for a solemn resolution to stand for something in 2010.

Indeed, as the precursor to the next General Elections in 2011, the year 2010 attains significance in more ways than one. The global human community to which we belong waits with bated breath to see what the nation has done to surmount the over five decades of difficulties in conducting credible and acceptable elections.

Standing up for something in 2010 as individuals, groups or institutions would mean doing our utmost to ensure that achieving truly representative and participatory governance becomes an attainable ideal and not an enduring mirage in our clime.

Standing up for something in 2010 would require every citizen manifesting the attributes of a DNA change by fulfilling their part of the social contract in governance through payment of taxes and other civic responsibilities as well as playing expected roles during elections. Standing up to be counted for a noble cause in 2010 would mean shunning acts that imperil democracy, law, order, harmonious co-existence and good neighbourliness.

I cannot end this without thanking all men and women of goodwill, all Lagosians for their confidence in our Government without which our work would have been more difficult.

As we begin to make resolutions on what we intend to achieve this New Year, let us all remember to pray for this nation and this State that the New Year will usher in new thoughts, new attitudes and new initiatives especially those that will uphold and expand our vision and mission to make our country greater and our State one of the most developed mega-cities of the world.

I wish us all a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

Eko O ni Baje.

BABATUNDE RAJI FASHOLA (SAN)
GOVERNOR OF LAGOS STATE