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2011 Elections: Fashola Gives Recipe For Free And Fair Elections

Jan 20, 2010 - Ahead of the 2011 General Elections, Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), Wednesday called on the Federal Government to faithfully implement the recommendations of the Electoral Reform Committee which it set up in 2008 in order to achieve free and fair elections in the country next year.

Governor Fashola, who made the call at the Lagos House Marina while playing host to an independent technical committee of foreign experts invited by President Umar Musa Yar’Adua to assess the readiness of the nation’s electoral supervisory body, Independent National Electoral Commission, to conduct the 2011 General Elections, also asked the Federal Government to ensure that all the electoral rules are enforced.

The Governor said the Electoral Reform Committee has brought not only a huge stock of integrity with it through its leadership and membership but its recommendations have found a mass appeal across all sections of the country, adding, “in a manner of speaking, you will have a majority preference for the implementation of the content and substance of its recommendations”.

According to the Governor, who said Lagos State had lent its voice to the recommendations of the Committee, “We received them when they came here as they went to other parts of the country on a fact finding mission and I set up an advisory committee of the Government to put together what we could gather as feelings and aspirations and anxieties of our people about electoral issues within our State”.

“After they had submitted their report, we invited the State Committee on Electoral Reforms back to look at how the final report of the National Electoral Committee took on board what we had recommended and I am glad to say here that we are satisfied with the outcome of the work of the National Committee as, indeed, I believe many states are”, the Governor said.

On the enforcement of all electoral laws as a sine qua non for a achieving a successful electoral exercise in 2011, Governor Fashola said, “The natural consequence of electoral reforms is that it is always possible that certain people violated rules or did not comply with rules and this is the time to begin to ensure that those who did not comply are brought to book and made to realize that those rules are not cosmetic. They were made for the overall benefit of the whole society”.

The Governor said such enforcement would not only have a salutary effect on the electoral process, but would send a very strong signal to both the national and international communities that the country is committed to having free and fair elections pointing out that at all levels of the electoral process there are people with specific roles from polling booths to collation centres to registration centres and these people have duties imposed on them by law.

“The Electoral Act specifies these duties and also specifies sanctions for non-compliance with those duties. I don’t recall that at anytime when we have bemoaned unsatisfactory results, people have been asked to account. I think it is important that they should start”, he said.

The Governor described elections as a very important contest for deciding who a community should entrust with its resources to best manage them for the overall benefit of the greatest number of the people in that community , adding, “It defines in many ways the level of development and the standard of living of the people of that community”.

The Governor who said the problems that had characterized trhe nation’s electoral process are not unique to the country but are universal, pointed out, “I believe that every country has had problems with management of elections. Even till today, the issues have not been totally resolved”.

Earlier, in his opening remarks, the leader of the Committee, Professor Darren Ken from the University of Massachusetts United States of America said the Committee was invited by Mr. President to assess the readiness of INEC for conducting the 2011 General Elections in the country adding that the Committee was in Lagos to seek advice and the contributions from the Governor.

According to Prof. Ken, who was accompanied by Dr. Jens Peter Dyrbak from the United Kingdom and Mr. I.A. Iwejuo from the Presidency, Abuja, the Committee will visit other states of the Federation where it will also meet other state governors and political leaders for similar advice and contributions.

Also present at the occasion were the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mr. Rotimi Agunsoye, the Chairman of the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission, Justice A. Adeyinka amongst other top government functionaries.