Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola has declared that the choice of who succeeds him as Lagos Governor in 2015 will not be determined by religious sentiment but rather on the character of the person that would provide good leadership and governance to the people of the state.
Fashola condemned the demand by some Christian religious groups in the state that a Christian should be his successor in 2015, saying that if people truly believe in God, they will understand that it is only God that can insist on anything.
The governor who spoke while declaring open an inter-faith conference in Lagos, with the theme: ‘Peace, Religious Harmony and Good Governance: Issues and Challenges’, argued that the insecurity in the nation would reduce drastically if everyone embraced religious harmony.
According to him; “People have said that they want one particular governor and I have ask myself two questions – the people who said that they want one particular governor or said that there must be this particular governor, are they still conscious that it is an election where a choice has to be made? If there are two democrats, they should expect that citizens must have a say in who is sworn-in as the governor of their state.
“Secondly; I wonder when I heard those things. You can insist, but can you insist that you will be alive in the next one hour. I know that things can rub off badly, you may be on the wrong side of the government policy, but we must trust ourselves.
“We have integrated more than 50 years ago rather than toying with what we are doing at the moment. The danger is too much, this cloth will not tear in one straight line; it will tear in shreds if we pull it too far and let us restrain the pull on the cloth. It is no longer a new cloth; it is a well worn cloth and when a well worn cloth tears, it doesn’t repair well.”
The governor insisted that religion should not be made as the yardstick to determine his successor, saying “Good governance means different things to us. It may mean that there are more religion institutions of one faith than the other in the state; that maybe good governance for some people. And for majority, good governance is just food, the ability to get a job and provision of social amenities. For those people, the faith of the governor is never their problem.”
It would be recalled that the state chapter of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN, recently called for a Christian to succeed the governor in 2015.
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