NGE Visits Fashola As Biennial Conference Begins In Lagos

 

                    Worried by the    trend of the 2015 election campaigns, Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State yesterday urged media practitioners in the country to set agenda that will guide and shape political debate in 2019 election campaigns.
Fashola who made the appeal while receiving the members of the Nigerian Guild of Editors led by its President, Mr. Femi Adeshina at the Lagos House, Alausa Secretariat, Ikeja, said that issue based election campaigns would increase participation in future electoral process, saying “even the children would freely participate in future election campaigns and town hall meetings.”

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (right) with the President, Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), Mr. Femi Adesina, during the visit of the guilds to Lagos House, Alausa Ikeja....yesterday. Pic: Bunmi Azeez

He said, “Though there is no nation without conflicts, I think in all that has happened, one thing was missing in the last election; we didn’t see our children there.

“One question I have continued to ask myself is that if this is about the future, why do not our children come to the campaigns or the town hall meetings? Why don’t we have sessions where school children on excursion begin to get involved? How many parents can allow their children to come, given the atmosphere that we’ve created? Yet, we say this is about tomorrow?

“This is one of the issues we all must reflect on, and I hope that it will manifest itself even in your relations. You (editors) know better than all of us what the issues are. And we expect that you will tackle as well as confine the candidates who are seeking to lead and see who best articulate the issues,” the governor added.

He noted that if future, elections especially the 2019 elections, are centered on germane issues, it would be peaceful and free of tension.’’

Fashola said that he disagreed with popular school of thought that argued during the elections that there was no difference among the contending parties.

“I disagree with that and vehemently so. I can argue for a whole year and give you 101 reasons why the parties are different. I hear some people say that ‘nobody is talking about issues’. But security was an issue, corruption, economy were all issues. What do we want to talk about again, if those ones are not issues?

“So, we need to raise the bar in political discussion in order to douse the tension, which has been about people who really don’t want political discussions to be about issues,’’ Fashola said.