Religion Not A Factor In Leadership- Fashola

BY OLASUNKANMI AKONI & MONSUR OLOWOOPEJO
LAGOS—GOVERNOR Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State,
yesterday, condemned the demand by some Christian
religious groups in the state that a Christian should be
his successor in 2015, saying, “do they really believe in
God? It is only God that can insist.”
The state chapter of the Pentecostal Fellowship of
Nigeria, PFN, has recently called for a Christian to
succeed the governor in 2015.
Fashola, 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.”