1st January, 2019
As Nigerians celebrate the New Year, a Lagos lawmaker, Mr Tunde Braimoh, on Tuesday urged the citizenry to reflect and make progressive choices in the 2019 general elections.
Braimoh, representing Kosofe Constituency II in the Lagos State House of Assembly, said that 2019 remains a crucial year in the annals of Nigeria’s history.
“As we launch straight into electioneering culminating in the conduct of the elections within the first quarter of this important year, it is time for deep introspection and reflections.
“As a polity, we need to redefine our value system, change our orientation and insist on positive attitude as a people.
“We need to make considered choices to either consolidate on the successes so far recorded by the current government against impunity, corruption, economic sabotage and brigandage, the need to embrace world best practices geared towards actual civilisation, or go back into the woods of abjection, barbarism and anachronism.
“We must decipher the sensibility or otherwise of taking a step forward and taking ten backwards,” Braimoh, Chairman, House Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights, Public Petition and LASIEC said.
According to him, at this critical time of national evolution as a people, Nigerians must be resilient and bid a final farewell to the oligarchy of the rich.
He urged Nigerians to allow the on-going process of national rebirth to play itself out.
“There is no gain without pain, therefore we must resolve and reiterate our nay in unequivocal terms to irresponsibility, unaccountability and misfeasance in government.
“Bearing in mind that sovereignty resides within us, we must take more than a passing interest in matters that affect us,” he added.
The lawmaker urged Nigerians to support the fight against corruption and insecurity.
“We must be more aware of our surroundings. If you see something, you must say something. We must encourage the government of the day to reposition our nation once and for all,” he said.
The 2019 general elections are scheduled for February and March, with the Presidential and National Assembly Elections billed for Feb.16 while the governorship and Houses of Assembly elections are slated for March 2.