Speeches

Flag Off The Voters' Registration Exercise In Lagos State

Jan 10, 2011 - Dear members of the Action Congress of Nigeria, Mr. Chairman, members of the party Executive Committees at National, State, Local Government and Ward levels, we have decided to flag off the advocacy and enlightenment process for the forthcoming Voters' Registration Exercise by holding this Consultative meeting with you our stakeholders for many reasons.

The first is that you have done it before and all of you who are our proud members already know what to do.

Secondly, your previous experience in this process has been put to very good use because it has enabled you to vote for your party whose progressive and people oriented policies has resulted in the enthronement of a Government in Lagos State that has become a model in Nigeria and beyond.

The success of our Party has spread to other States like Edo, Ekiti and Osun State that have now become models of good governance that our country has desperately yearned for and which our Party is demonstrating that Nigeria can have.

Thirdly and perhaps most importantly, the success of our party has endeared us to many people, some of whom have joined us and many of whom are waiting for us, and a lot more who identify with us and who will support us.

It is our duty and responsibility therefore to ensure that these armies of supporters get the opportunity to do so by participating in the democratic process.

These are some of the reasons why this process is starting with you. You were the ones who lit the fire of hope, prosperity and a brighter rewarding future that is spreading across our country like wildfire.

You deserve therefore to be the torch bearers of that flame to reach many people who identify with it.

Some of those people are members of are your employers or employees and their families, your landlord or tenants and their families, your friends or colleagues at work, your banker, your barber, your newspaper vendor, your taxi driver, your customers in your banks, restaurants, beer parlors, hotels, your students in school, your teachers in various institutions of learning, your church member, your mosque member, your club member in our various social clubs and so many of our friends, associates and relations that we have daily and frequent contact with, who before now have not participated in the electoral process even though they support our party and Government.

By what you have done through our party, you have excited their interest to participate in the electoral process and you therefore deserve to be our first ambassadors to lead the crusade of the importance of participating in the Voters' Registration Exercise as the surest means by which they can contribute to keeping this flame of hope, prosperity and a brighter and rewarding future burning.

You must therefore leave this premises with one resolve, which is to ensure that all these people I have mentioned and those that I have not mentioned are persuaded to register not only themselves, but their family members, friends and anybody that they have contact with who is 18 years old and above.

Nothing can be too important for us in Lagos State and than to take our destiny in our own hands in the way that we have always done.

The only way to ensure the continued transformation of our State and our lives is by our votes and anybody who wants to vote at the general elections must be registered first.

Our message therefore is simple every Lagosian must be registered first.

I trust that with your usual passion, commitment and purpose driven energies, we will all leave here today to start the mobilization from house to house, street to street, ward to ward, Local Government to Local Government, through our community leaders, CDAs and CDC, Baales, Obas, leaders of opinion, market men and women, religious leaders to tell everybody that we must all be registered first.

This exercise will take place in the various polling units used in the last election and new ones that may be set up and it will be our duty to point out the locations especially to those who did not vote before or who are going to be eligible for the first time.

I thank you all for coming. I thank you for your attention and I am sure that our effort will be rewarded beyond our expectations.

Eko o ni baje o.

Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN
Governor of Lagos State