Press Releases

Let Us Stand Up To Be Counted For A Noble Cause In 2010 – Fashola Urges Nigerians

Dec 31, 2009 - As Nigeria joins other nations of the world to usher in the New Year 2010, Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN) has urged Nigerians to stand up and be counted for a noble cause that will enhance good governance in the country.

In his New Year Message to Nigerians, Governor Fashola said such cause would include manifesting attributes of a DNA change by fulfilling their part of the social contract through paying their taxes and other civic responsibilities, playing expected roles during elections and shunning acts that imperil democracy, law, order, harmonious co-existence and good neighbourliness.

Governor Fashola said standing up for a noble cause in 2010 would mean “doing our utmost, as individuals, groups or institutions, to ensure that achieving truly representative and participatory governance becomes an attainable ideal and not an enduring mirage in our clime”.

Describing the New Year as significant in more ways than one, the Governor declared, “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”.

Governor Fashola said standing at the dawn of a brand New Year “is indeed a most gratifying yet humbling experience”, adding, “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”.

According to the Governor, although many would dismiss the year 2009 as having produced little or nothing to give cheer, probably, because of the many challenges that confronted the nation, the missed opportunities and the backlash of the global economic meltdown, such impression was capable of beclouding the real gains of the year.

“In Lagos State, 2009 produced the superb form of 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”, Governor Fashola said.

The same year 2009, the Governor said, produced men and women of the various security agencies who kept the city safe, the collaboration between the Public and the 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”, the Governor said.

Thanking “Lagosians and all men and women of goodwill for their confidence in our Government without which our work would have been more difficult”, Governor Fashola urged them and all Nigerians to pray for the nation and Lagos 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”.