He urged eligible voters in the 2022 Ekiti State gubernatorial poll to participate in the election saying, “I humbly urge many of them to start mobilizing and enlightening the people and sacrifice on election day, leave their comfort zone and come out like other people to vote.”
The Bishop warned against vote selling and encouraged eligible voters to guard “their future from being mortgaged in the hands of irresponsible leaders.”
“Vote wisely and elect a governor that can give the citizens an enduring legacy and not the cosmetic and momentary one,” Bishop Ajakaye appealed at the event that was organized to mark the 2021 Annual Lecture/Award presentation of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Correspondent Chapel, Ekiti State Council.
The winner of the polls will need to consider accommodating opposition members, the Catholic Bishop recommended during the event that took place in Ado Ekiti under the theme, “Ekiti Politics and The Search for Great Leadership.”
He went on to caution against those he referred to as “one-off politicians” who only appear during elections.
“I have also observed that it is when the election is coming that all manners of politicians begin to emerge. They are one-off politicians,” Bishop Ajakaye observed, and added, “They will set up all manners of empowerment programs and when the election is over, you won’t see them again. That is why we have to be careful.”
He advocated for “a strong” electoral system similar to that of the United Kingdom and the United States of America saying, “If not for a strong system, the former American President, David Trump would have trumped Americans. They have a system that can checkmate tyranny. Good and efficient governance shouldn’t be traded for anything.”
“This is why you cannot joke with the politics of the USA and the United Kingdom,” the Nigerian Bishop has been quoted as saying.
He added in reference to the UK and U.S., “The parliamentarians are really distinguished and honorable in nature and character. They work effectively with the executive and the judiciary to avoid a chaotic, cynical and hopeless society. There is no interference, but mutual trust.”
“For those agitating for zoning, the best must emerge from that zone to be Nigeria’s President, not recycled, weak and incompetent person,” Bishop Ajakaye further said in reference to the political practice in Nigeria in which “political parties agree to split their presidential and vice-presidential candidates between the north and south of the country and also to alternate the home area of the president between the north and south of the country.”
