Today, eligible Nigerians in 29 out of the country’s 36 states go out to vote for candidates who will become the states governors.Voters will also elect members into the country’s 36 Houses of Assembly. I pray for peaceful,free,fair and credible elections that will usher in godly,visionary,dynamic and people-oriented governments.
In the history of elections in Nigeria,before,during and after her independence from Great Britain on 1st October,1960,the June 12,1993 presidential election has been adjudged as the freest,fairest and most credible election in Nigeria.
Although the late Basorun Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola,GCFR,the presidential candidate of the now-defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP),was coasting home to victory in the said June 12,1993 presidential election,the former Federal Military Government headed by the now-retired General Ibrahim Babangida,for reasons yet to be disclosed,unfairly annuled that election.
But,Nigeria,has since moved on and successful general elections held thereafter.One of such was the Presidential and National Assembly Elections held on Saturday,23rd February,this year.
As said earlier,governorships and states House of Assembly Elections are on-going. May the best candidates win.Amen.
PHOTOGRAPH CAPTION
R-L:A former Governor of old Oyo State (present-day Oyo and Osun States)and Nigeria’s sitting Attorney-General and Minister of Justice,until his assassination in his Ibadan home,on 23rd December,2001,the late Chief ‘Bola Ige,SAN,the late Basorun Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola,GCFR and my humble self,Oloye ‘Lekan Alabi,Agba Akin Olubadan of Ibadanland at Chief Ige’s Bodija Housing Estate,Ibadan,Oyo State of Nigeria home,during the presidential campaign visit by Basorun Abiola to Chief Ige in March 1993. I coordinated that visit, in my capacity as the Secretary-General of the MKO Abiola Dynamic Group and a former Press Secretary to the late Chief Ige when he was the Governor of the old Oyo State.
