The beauty of democracy is that it makes everybody feel equal. It gives power to the ordinary people and brings them closer to those they have chosen to lead. This was what happened at the Lagos State House, Marina before the Independent National Electoral Commission declared Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), winner of the gubernatorial election in the state.Everybody was equal, including Fashola who had been a bit far from people due to some security protocols and perhaps his tight schedule of office.Expectedly, he won the poll but prior to the announcement of the results, he looked ordinary among the crowd who sat endlessly in the room with their eyes glued to the television.Except the empty chairs and the big television on the open field, every person, including journalists clustered in the large room to record the mood of the governor.He was inside a smaller room with his wife, son and a friend of his son. In the parlour were the wife of the former governor, who is now the Senator-elect for Lagos Central, Mrs. Oluremi Tinubu, the state Deputy Governor-elect, Mrs. Joke Orelope-Adefulire and her husband, state security officers and some of the governors aides.At exactly 3:10 pm, INEC began to announce the results, which eventually brought some fun and laughter. The governorship election in Lagos had thrown up some heavy weight candidates and minnows. At a point, it looked as if the light weights would fizzle out through various alliances but they stood their ground and entered the ring but lost woefully.Their scores at the poll were amusing. In alphabetical order, the INEC Returning Officer had announced the scores of the National Conscience Partys candidate, Comrade Ayodele Akele who did not score more than 1500 out of over two million votes. The All Nigeria Peoples Partys candidate, Abdu Tokoya and his counterpart for Social Democratic Mega Party, Otunba Jaiye Randle also scored below 2000.Intermittently, as the scores were announced, the audience roared to ridicule the losers. As the ACN score was being announced, the audience paused, waiting for the final declaration and possibly to see the countenance of the man of the moment.Fashola stepped out of the room with his wife, Abimbola, and two kids. He walked into the waiting hands of well-wishers and party members who had gathered in the room for more than three hours.At this moment, his aides had quickly turned to choristers as they sang various tunes to herald the pouring and eventual drinking of Champaigne.The governor moved from one person to another, shaking their hands. He ensured that he did not leave anybody out of the exercise.To him, the victory belonged to members of NYSC, especially those who lost their lives.He said, This threshold is really their day and they have shown that good things have begun to evolve in this country. They have stood up for their generation and I think they have been better for this nation. First they gave us a voter register and we accepted it, secondly they gave us an election and by many standard of our previous performance we accepted it, in spite of the challenges. In that process, many of them lost their lives, they are heroes, they are martyrs, I want to use this opportunity to appeal to everybody who holds office from today to remember that the corps members shed their blood so that they can hold office and I think they must not die in vain. The only way we can continue to immortalize their efforts is to go out there and do the work that the electorate demand of us and change the lives of the people to make things better within the means of our ability.He commended the effort of Lagos residents, describing them as dogged fighters who had stood for him and with him in the last four years, adding that his re-election was a victory for Lagos, good governance and better development of the people.On behalf of the Action Congress of Nigeria, I accept this very overwhelming mandate that the people of Lagos have given to me, my deputy, Mrs. Joke Orelope-Adefulire, our three senators, 24 House of Representatives candidates and 40 House of Assembly members. For me, this is a victory for democracy. I thank God almighty for this great day. Yesterday, the 26th of April was a day of triumph and victory for progressive governance.Everything was possible yesterday, but God willing, good governance prevailed. I have so many people to thank, our natoinal party chairman, the party chairman at the state level , my party, our leader, the Asiwaju of Lagos and so many people, my wife , my children, my parents, members of the Lagos family, those who opened their palaces to receive us, those who opened their town halls and town meetings to us and their markets to receive our message of goodwill, I thank you all, I thank the public servants , all the transport workers, the okada riders, the market men and women, everybody, members of the media for taking our message far and near.In his overall view of the election, Fashola lauded the leadership of the INEC for conducting the freest and fairest elections in the history of the country. He said, I will like to thank the leadership of the INEC, most times, things pointed to disaster and difficult times ahead, but I think that with these elections, we have reasoned with ourselves and said that we would not accept certain things anymore. There is still a lot of work to do about our elections, but this is progress and we must build on it. I would like to congratulate Professor Attairu Jega and all of his team. Especially, let me single out the electorate, this is a bigger mandate than the mandate that brought me into office. Its almost double. My understanding of it is that it is demanded of us to do more than we have done. On behalf of the members of my team and the ACN, I assure you that you will not find us wanting; we will double our efforts to make your lives better. We will do whatever we can to use our resources. At this point, let me also congratulate the other parties and other candidates, we had a good race, and let me say, the electioneering is now over, it is time to get to work.In her comment, the deputy governor-elect, Orelope-Adefulire promised to give total support to the governor, saying Section 93 of the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria, Sub Section one and two has spelt out my role as the Deputy Governor. Any assignment given to me by the governor will be carried out effectively to the very best of my ability.I thank the people of Lagos State for giving us the opportunity to serve them, on behalf of my governor, I thank them very sincerely for voting us, the ACN candidates in all the elections. I promise on behalf of the governor that we would serve them diligently to the best of our ability and we would not let them down, she said.
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