Lagos State's Governor Fashola Declares Friday As Workfree Day

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), Wednesday declared Friday, November 7, 2014, as work-free day in the State to enable public servants, who have registered previously with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the 2015 General Elections, to collect their Permanent Voters’ Cards. In a radio and television broadcast to the residents, Governor Fashola said the work-free day was expedient because of the importance of the coming elections in the life of the people pointing out that the most important process in the coming general elections was the registration and possession of a voters’ card.

Emphasizing the importance of the exercise, the Governor said the desired prosperity and the brighter rewarding future being sought after by the people, both for themselves and for their children, would be determined by their willingness or otherwise to sacrifice time to key into the election process by collecting their Permanent Voters’ Cards for the elections.

He declared, “The prosperity and the brighter rewarding future that we all seek, for ourselves and our children over the next four years, will be determined by what we do in the next few days”, adding that no sacrifice could be too much a price to secure a better future over the next four years and beyond.
Governor Fashola, who noted that in order for democracy to be truly representative, it must be participatory, added that such participation confers eligibility and imposes a duty on all the citizens from the age of 18 years to vote in the elections even as it also enables them to have a say in the elections.

“Election is a process, starting from voters’ registration, to balloting, to announcement of results and to election petitions and swearing in of elected persons. The first duty is to register as a voter, to be eligible to vote at the General Elections next year. This means that the process for elections has started”, the Governor said, adding,”So for the avoidance of any doubt, elections have started”.

He urged Private Sector employers of labour to create opportunities for their employees in order to enable them to also collect their Permanent Voters’ Cards adding, “This is the time when we must take that civic duty very seriously by making the sacrifice, by creating the time, by making the effort to ensure that our names are still on the Voters’ Register, if we voted or registered at the last election”.

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