I AM PREPARED TO DIE FOR 2011 ELECTIONS – TUNDE BAKARE

The Convener of the Save Nigerian Group, Pastor Tunde Bakare, Wednesday said
that he was prepared to lay down his life in ensuring that the 2011 general elections is free, fair and credible adding that he would ensure that nobody terrorizes Nigerians in discharging their civic responsibilities.

Pastor Bakare, while delivering a lecture on, “Towards a credible election in 2011”, at the 7th annual general meeting of the     Association of Resident Doctors, Federal Medical Centre [MC], in Abeokuta urged the Independent National Electoral Commission [INEC] to make use of the Modified Open Secret Ballot System of voting in the next elections.

He said “I am not a member of any political party in Nigeria. What I’m doing today is out of my love for God and my country. If I have to give my life during the course of what I am doing, there is no other better way to go back to my creator than that. I salute the courage of my wife and my lovely children. I will do anything until we have credible elections in Nigeria.

“It is to this end that the Save Nigeria Group has duly notified INEC in writing excessive petitions that will overwhelm the Courts of Appeal, it is in our national interest to embrace the Modified Open Secret Ballot System of voting in the 2011 election.

“That way, rigging and other fraudulent electoral activities may be drastically reduced or minimized and, consequently, there will be fewer petitions which should be properly taken care of before victorious candidates in the election are sworn in”.

He described the 2011 elections as the last opportunity to rewrite the nation’s history which had not functioned for most of her 50 years of independence.

Bakare noted that voting was the civic responsibility of the citizenry, adding that the masses can only support an administration which had emerged through free and fair election adding that the rule of law be strictly adhered to with an independent judiciary in a democratic setting like Nigeria.

“Voting is our civic responsibility. The moment you do not register and vote, you have no right to complain about bad governance or bad leaders. It is only when and election is free and fair that
citizens will have confidence in the government and be committed to supporting it to succeed.

“One of the prerequisites of a free, fair and credible election is the existence of an independent judiciary to interpret electoral law.
Until Nigeria begins to practice government of laws and not just of men, true democrats and democracy itself will remain endangered species in our clime.

“We (SNG) are coming to Abeokuta very soon to monitor things by our self. We are going to shine our eyes ‘kokroko’.  I am very much interested in Ogun State. If anybody thinks he will terrorize us in
2011, he will lose”.