by Kolapo Olapoju

The opposition party, All Progressives Congress, is beaming with immense pride at the moment, owing to the orderly manner in which it conducted its presidential primary elections.

Several of its chieftains and leaders have openly given themselves pats on the back for a job well done, and Lagos state governor, Babatunde Fashola has also joined the bandwagon.

Fashola made the comments on Friday, December 12 at a State Dinner held in honour of the immediate past Chief Judge of Lagos State, retired Justice Ayotunde Phillips and the incumbent Chief Judge, Justice Olufunmilayo Atilade.

According to him, the recently held primary of the party, which was won by retired Maj.-Gen. Muhhammadu Buhari, is a model for democracy in Africa.

He said: “As we celebrate these women, we are also sending out a statement to the whole of our nation that in this state and in this city, that our integrity is more valuable to us than all of our personal lives.

“We are building a country that our children will be proud to inherit from us and that one day they can look back and say thank you for helping us build this country.

“From this city, we have sent a strong message about the politics that we will also play. If I am not mistaken, our gubernatorial primaries had the largest number of aspirants but we conducted it without rancour.”

“None of the candidates who contested have come out to say that the primaries were rigged or that there were more voters than those who were accredited. A candidate has emerged and we are moving on.

“From Lagos, against all the odds, we played host in the last 48 hours to a party’s national convention and primaries that were a model for democracy for the whole of Africa. They are very strong statements that we are sending out that we can lead by example. They are statements that make us stand tall,” Fashola added.

Kolapo Olapoju