CITIZENS COMPASS— Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Thursday, said heaven would not fall should the ruling All Progressives Congress lose electrons under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
He said this is because Democracy is gradually taking its place under the watch of Mr President.
Sanwo-Olu cited the ruling party’s loss of the Osun governorship election.
The governor was speaking at the seventh annual lecture organised by Freedom Online at the Sheraton Hotel in Ikeja, Lagos, where he discussed Nigeria’s democracy and preparations for the 2027 elections.
He said the incumbent governor, Ademola Adeleke, defeated the APC candidate, Bola Oyebamiji. Adeleke won the election on the platform of another party, defeating Oyebamiji by more than 60,000 votes.
“Under this President, the ruling party can lose a state in the South-West in an election year, and the sky does not fall. That is what a maturing democracy looks like,” he said.
He also claimed Tinubu was a “lifelong democrat” and said the president was committed to strengthening Nigeria’s democratic system.
“There was a time in this country when ‘federal might’ was a phrase that a ruling party used without irony,” Sanwo-Olu said.
“INEC must be ready in every polling unit on the 16th of January and again on the 6th of February, and each of us has a duty to help it be ready,” he said.
“A mandate is only as strong as the process that produced it. No office in this land is worth the life of a single Nigerian and no victory won by the wrong means is a victory at all,” he said.
“Voters may not be economists, but they are excellent accountants. They know whether their State built the road it promised. They know whether the primary health centre has a nurse in it. They will bring that ledger with them to the polling unit,” Sanwo-Olu said.
“I am asking for a rigorous press. Check the facts, mine included. Call out disinformation wherever it comes from, including from my own side,” he said.
