Kazeem Ugbodaga

The Lagos State Government has charged the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari to declare June 12 Democracy Day in honour of the late politician, Moshood Kashimao Abiola, MKO.

Special Adviser to the Governor on Political and Legislative Powers Bureau, Muslim Folami, made the call at a ministerial press conference in Alausa, Lagos, southwest Nigeria on Monday.

He said there was need for the Buhari administration to declare June 12 Democracy Day rather than May 29 in view of the sacrifice Abiola made in the entrenchment of democracy in Nigeria.

Folami stated that the Lagos State Government would make representation to the government of Buhari to look for a way to make June 12 Democracy Day to immortalise Abiola.

“It is not only the Lagos State Government that is crying for June 12 to be made Democracy Day, but many Nigerians because Abiola paid the supreme price for our democracy. We will talk to the government in power that this is what people are asking for. Now that our man will now be at the helm of affairs, we believe June 12 will be earmarked as Democracy Day and not May 29,” he said.



Folami also defended the Lagos State House of Assembly for not passing the Freedom of Information, FOI bill since 2012 even when Ekiti State passed the same FOI into law two years ago under the administration of former Governor Kayode Fayemi.

He said there were due processes to be followed when passing such a crucial bill that is meant to enhance press freedom, explaining that there might be a mistake somewhere which is delaying the passage of the bill.

However, 26 bills were still pending before the Lagos State House of Assembly about a month left for the dissolution of the Assembly in June.

Some of the bills have been pending since 2012. They are Lagos State Revenue Administration Bills, 2012; Lagos State House of Assembly Budget and Legislative Research Office Bill, 2012; Freedom of Information Bill, 2012; Lagos State Sunset Agency Bill, 2013; Lagos State Health Management Agency Bill, 2014; Lagos State Properties Protection Bill, 2013; Lagos State Examinations Board Bill, 2014; Lagos State Anti-Terrorism Bill, 2012, among others.

However, Folami, while speaking on terrorism, said there was need for increased intelligence and counter-terrorism actions against terrorism in the country, saying that multi-national military cooperation and foreign military assistance were strongly advocated with disclosed parameters of engagement to secure the sovereignty of Nigeria.

He also made a case for State Police, saying there was need for it now or in the future so as to police the states effectively as federal police force was inadequate for the teeming populace.
http://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2015/05/05/lasg-to-buhari-declare-june-12-democracy-day/

So this is what we want to burden GMB with.. what about FOI domestication in LASG.

what about an independent justice system not influenced by cash and kind donations from LASG

I can see it is business as usual. But something is definitely changing. Continue. .this is exactly how bokoharam started. Keep breeding frustration

They have come through the back door.But hey,June 12 is dead and gone.This is second republic democracy,and not the first where MKO belongs to.
We are in second republic being championed by the likes of Alex Ekwueme,Edwin Clark,etc,and not the failed democracy the MKO's of this world.it will be an insult to the memory of those who stake their lives,both dead and alive,to bring to reality the current democracy which Buhari himself has benefited from,for him to reverse the date to the date of first failed democracy.

Those ass-holes in LASG should be preoccupied with institutionalizing democracy in Nigeria,by signing FOI bill into law in Lagos state,than this unnecessary derailment of progressive democracy in Nigeria,which is tantamount to coup on this previaling democracy.

Voice of d street