A Lagos-based interest group, Advocate for Good Governance, has faulted the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) against for opposing Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s second term bid.
According to the spokesperson of the group, Biyi Adebiyi, Lagos has remained the most cosmopolitan and ethnoreligiously tolerant state.
“The statement credited to MURIC condemning the approval of second term for Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, by the leadership of the APC in Lagos is insensitive, unnecessarily divisive, and completely against the sterling provisions of the 1999 constitution as amended on the issue of 2nd term for elected state governors,” he said.
The group also stated that the assertion by MURIC that the end of governor Sanwo-Olu’s first term signalled the eight-year tenure of a Christian’s occupancy of the governorship seat in Lagos as “mischievous, misleading and legally incorrect”.
“Sanwo-Olu, once elected, automatically assumes the right to contest for another term of four, by the provision of the Nigerian constitution, despite that his predecessor was a Christian. This right is sacrosanct and inalienable and can only be abrogated by the Lagos electorates in a general election,” he added.
“We will therefore advise MURIC to spend the next few years to diligently search for a competent and perhaps tested hand like the present incumbent to replace him in 2027.
“In the meantime, we seriously plead with this highly-esteemed religious organisation to allow the wishes of the Lagos APC members as manifestly declared by the party leadership to prevail in the interest of good governance and developmental progress of Lagos which has been the hallmark of Sanwo-Olu’s positive impact in Lagos since his assumption of office.”