HRM Oba Saliu Muhammed Babatunde Saliu, the Kabiesi of Oworonshoki, Kosofe land, has applauded the independent National Electoral Commission, under the chairmanship of Professor Mahmood Yakub, to have conducted the most peaceful election in the history of democracy in Nigeria.
Oloworo as he is called, noted that INEC did a brilliant job despite the challenges of fuel scarcity and cash crunch amongst other economic crisis that the country is currently experiencing.
The paramount ruler of Kosofe land disclosed to members of the Kosofe League of Journalists that his subject are hungry, most of whom have funds in their bank accounts but haven’t access to them. In his words, he said “The people are hungry, some have money in their banks but they couldn’t access it. I could remember very well that many people came to me and these people are those who have money in their bank accounts, but they don’t even have what to eat. You would see a grown up man coming to you to give him anything just to eat and you know this person is upwardly mobile. They just couldn’t access the money in their bank accounts. So it was one of the major factors that affected the turn out, the turn out was so poor. Lagos state that has over 7 million registered voters and the number of voters is less than 1.5million, that’s too low for Lagos. We thank God that the election was successful, it was peaceful, irrespective of the fact that people had so many challenges, just like the ones I have mentioned, but it was very smooth. We didn’t hear any case of people been beaten, molested or being deprived of their rights to vote.”
Oloworo further stated that the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, would transform Nigeria beyond the imaginations of the people. He said “Now that we have a president elect in the person of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, I believe Nigerian is going to be great again. We were still pretty young when be became the governor of Lagos state and we saw the transformation. He transformed Lagos, he created jobs, he created so many amenities, he built Lagos, he provided so much infrastructures, he had a very good template for Lagos. Lagos started realizing real development during Asiwaju’s tenure when he was the governor of Lagos State. I believe that he is going to do more now that he is the president-elect, by the time he is sworn into office, he would do better and Nigeria will know him for good. I believe there will be so much employments for the youths, there will be so much investments, because I believe many investors will want to come and invest in Nigeria now that he is the President. Like he said in his acceptance speech, that four years course would be four years, there won’t be strike again, he would work together with the ASUU and they are both going to ensure that there will be no more strike.”
When asked for his message to the Oworo people, kabiesi noted that his people in Oworo are very peace loving, he urged them to go about to exercise their voting franchise without fear of intimidation. He said he is confident of the outcome of the voting process. He further advised that his people should not allow an amateur take over the affairs of Lagos. He said, “It is like giving an exotic car to a learner to drive, you know he will definitely mess it up.
Someone who has no experience who thinks governance is just by reading and writing. No, we cannot allow that. This is our Lagos and we cannot allow somebody who does not have experience take charge of our lives. We want a Lagos where people can cohabitate peacefully without any trouble.” He concluded.
