Fashola asks opposition to accept election results

Former Lagos State Governor and ex-Minister of Works, Housing and Power, Babatunde Fashola, has called on Nigerians to see elections as imperfect activities. He urged everyone to focus on making democratic institutions stronger instead of always arguing about election results.

Fashola spoke on Friday at The Platform, a public policy event in Lagos to celebrate Democracy Day. He said that running elections across the country is complex and achieving total perfection is hard, according to Vanguard.

He explained that big elections, especially presidential ones, require a lot of planning across the nation. This creates problems that no electoral body can fully solve.

"Elections are an imperfect event because they require a large logistical operation across a federation," Fashola said.

He pointed out that there are thousands of polling units in Nigeria that need to follow the same rules at the same time, often under different conditions.

"The reality of a presidential election is that all polling units across the nation have to be doing the same thing at the same time. The question then is how we assign blame when things go wrong, especially when the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission cannot be everywhere at the same time," he said.

Fashola noted that problems in elections are not just a Nigerian issue. He believes that even countries with long-standing democracies face similar challenges while trying to improve their systems over time.

He said that mature democracies know elections may not always be perfect, but they keep working to strengthen institutions and processes without losing the public's trust in election results.

"In other jurisdictions, they accept these imperfections and aspire to improve, but they also accept the results," he said.

The former minister also shared his worries about some political figures rejecting election results. He warned that this attitude could slow down the progress of democracy.

"It seems to me that an unwillingness to accept the outcome of an election perhaps blinds the unsuccessful participants from seeking and taking up the role of opposition for the development of society," he said.

Fashola stressed that opposition parties have an important job in democracy and should work for national development, no matter the election results.

He also pointed out that democracy is more than just elections. He urged citizens and political leaders to talk about broader democratic values and how to govern well.

"If we are to discuss democracy beyond elections, the question I ask is: What kind of democracy do we want?" he asked.

His comments were part of a larger discussion at The Platform about Nigeria’s democracy, governance, accountability, and the duties of both leaders and citizens in keeping democratic institutions alive.

Fashola emphasized that while elections are a key part of democracy, true democratic growth is shown by how institutions, political leaders, and citizens uphold democratic values long after the votes have been counted.