*Photo: Chief Ekungba addressing the gathering*
National Coordinator of Bola Ahmed Tinubu Ambassadors ( BAT Ambassadors),Chief Jamiu Ekungba has called on people across the 18 local government areas of Ondo State to participate more in the electioneering process.
Chief Ekungba who is also a of the All Progressives Congress (APC) made the call in Akure, Ondo State capital, at a mobilisation meeting and inauguration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu Ambassadors For Nigeria’s Greatness (BANG) at the state and local levels.
The Ekun Agbara of Owo Kingdom, Ondo state said : “People have been working and canvassing. But now, we shouldn’t be thinking of elections alone, we should think of our roles and responsibilities. What are the lines you must not cross and what are the things you can do to help our candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. That’s why we called this meeting.
“The day of election is also very important and we need to educate these people of their responsibilities and what they should expect at the polling unit so that the election will go very smoothly, plain and fairly”.
He added that “The group here today are those people we gathered from our support group that are special, the truth of the matter that people don’t take in mind is that a lot of Muslims don’t vote, though it is right because God does everything but it is the same God that says it in the Holy Quran that we should work harder and turn back to Allah.
“The Muslims have this very bad attitude to electioneering, that’s why we are putting them together to talk to them religiously, to let them know that participating in election is also religious, it’s also a manner we have taken from God. There are group of Muslims that believe that democracy is haram, they are the people we are talking to”.
“In what is called Fatwa, the religious opinion of learned people all over the world, all of the them had come to say whatever the political system in your environment, we Muslims should partake in it, so that we can be part of governance. We have gathered these people here today to talk to them that they have a lot of jobs to do, we want Muslims to partake in the electioneering process as ordained by the religion”.
Also speaking, Mr Surajudeen Abdulazeez Folayemi, the Ondo State Coordinator for BAT Ambassadors said “In Ondo State, we have over 1.5 million registered voters. In the elections that have happened in the last dispensation, we have always recorded 600 or 700 which means that almost a million people are not coming out to vote, this BAT Ambassadors (group) is out to go and hunt for those who are not coming out to vote, those who have lost hope in governance, those who felt that the government is just using them to butter their bread, we want to bring out and give them a renewed hope, that with their participation, we will get it right. That is the essence of the BAT Ambassadors”.
“We have a lot of Muslims here today because most of the people that have lost hope in government, in democracy are Muslims, especially in Ondo State. They are not involved in governance, the population of Muslims in the present government or even the past government has not been up to 2% or 3%.
“We want to tell them that there’s hope, with their participation, we can get it right. We equally have programs to reach out to those who are not equally Muslims in the nearest future”.