The governor who gave the charge in Lagos said the call is necessary even though structures have been put in place to ensure safety of residents.
Governor Fashola, who spoke Sunday at the Onikan Stadium venue of the annual Ramadan Lecture of the State Council of the Ansar-Ud-Deen Society of Nigeria, urged Lagosians to be vigilant and security conscious pointing out that since they live in the territorial area called Nigeria, they should be concerned with whatever happens in the country.
“When the country does well, we do well; when it is challenged, it means that we are challenged because our brothers and sisters are challenged too. This is the season of eternal vigilance. We have put in all of the structures to be sure you have no cause to fear, but you have every reason to be vigilant”, the Governor said.
“In the mosques and in the churches, I know that many of us have a traditional place we sit in the evenings and if you look around you see people who sit there with you every evening, every morning, every Sunday, every Friday’ when you see a strange face next to you, please ask questions, introduce yourself, greet that person and find out who that person is”.
“I know that you also go to churches or other traditional places; some people sit in the middle traditionally, if you are looking for them, you know where to find them and they know who sits on their right and on their left. When we see strangers around us now, ask questions. If the stranger cannot hurt us, I am sure we cannot hurt ourselves”, he said.
The Governor also advised Muslims to eschew struggle for material things, especially at this period, saying the owner of all things, including humans, is the Almighty Allah. He cited an example with the incessant litigations over land and property pointing out that there would be no need for litigations if people stopped fighting over them.
Noting that some people have had cause to complain to him about the numerous litigations over land and properties, the Governor disclosed, “I told them we are the ones that cause it. If we do not fight over land, there would be no need to go to court and if we do not fight over properties which the owners have died there would be no need to fight over land”.
“If we do not fight over money and business and we do not stab one another with knives, there would not be any criminal case. The lawyer will still have what to do for a living. He can be a company secretary, he can engage in business Sports law and numerous other Law practices that will make life to be meaningful”, he said.
Emphasizing on the need to imbibe the Spirit of Ramadan, the Governor, who said a lot of people have also complained of delays in obtaining Certificates of Occupancy (C of O) declared, “None of such people has asked me about C of O for their burial ground”, adding, “While we are here, we owe ourselves all of the duties of organization, of cooperation and of understanding of the State”.
“I do say it that when you fight over land, are you the real owner of such land or the land owns you? Meanwhile, when you now die, do you think over it that you are not the real owner of land because it is in that same portion of land that they will dig and bury you; so are you now the owner of that land or the land owns you?”,he argued.
Governor Fashola appealed to all Lagos residents to embrace the on-going Residents Registration exercise statewide saying the registration card, which according to him, is prepared with the taxpayers’ money, is an important asset that belongs to all the residents irrespective of tribe or ethnic nationality.
Listing some of the benefits of the Registration Card to residents, Governor Fashola declared, “At this period of heightened security challenges, it may become a life-saving document to have in your house, it may help us respond quicker and faster in terms of security crises and it is important for us as a people to know how many we are”.
