Ahead of the 2015 general elections, Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State has called on Nigerians to vote leaders based on merit.
According to him, voting based on religious or ethnic sentiments can deny the country producing quality leaders.
Fashola said this while addressing a large gathering at the monthly draw of the Lagos Home Ownership Mortgage Scheme on Wednesday.
The governor advised Nigerians to be wary of politicians, who he said only remembered them during the election period, when they make superficial promises. He urged the electorate to critically assess the track records of the politicians and their political parties before voting for them.
He said, “It is election time and they will start coming with vote-catching promises, but they have never kept their promises before.
“We on our part, see promises as something sacred and must be kept. We make promises and we keep them. We promised to deliver 200 homes monthly and we have kept our promise. These are the physical examples that we keep our promise and it is not about tribe or religion.
“When you are making your choice, forget about religion; forget about tribe because you are not choosing us to come and pray for you, but to work for you. God has already chosen the reverends and the imams who will pray for us and give us full spiritual diets.
“What we need now are people who will help us face our physical battles like providing electricity, schools, security, health care and jobs. That is what we need”.
Fashola, whose tenure comes to an end May 2015, also lampooned the President Goodluck Jonathan administration for the worsening state of security.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria said it was unfortunate that Jonathan had left the country worse than he met it.
He said, “They enjoy making promises they cannot keep. You have heard promises about security, not so? Promises made four years ago. But, we handed them the Federal Republic of Nigeria, with all its component parts intact and we are back four years after with some parts of Nigeria already taken away from them and they are saying the next four years will be better”.
Earlier in his welcome address, Executive Secretary of Lagos HOMs, Mr. Akinola Sageo, stated that the scheme had so far held nine draws and given out 331 homes. He added that there were 78 homes in eight different schemes available for Wednesday’s draw.