Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has asked residents to stop addressing him as ‘Your Excellency’ because according to him, only God can be addressed that way.
In a statement on Wednesday, Sanwo-Olu said he preferred to be addressed simply as ‘Mr Governor’ to foster close ties with the people of Lagos he has been elected to serve.
He said, “It has come to my consciousness to review certain features of citizen-government relations which impede the genuine expression of the democratic spirit of our society and the meaningful exercise of the sovereignty of our people.
“The Office of the Governor has been celebrated as the paragon of excellence, a temple of perfection and a throne of purity.
“This demi-god mystique spreads over the entire machinery of the executive arm of government, symbolising an authoritarian disposition on the governed.
“It has deformed the orientation of elected and appointed persons who are paid from the taxes of the people to see themselves as oppressors who can do no wrong and must be served, rather than serve the people.
“Only God, the Almighty, the Creator, the Protector is the Most Excellent. No man can share His eternal qualities.
“Thenceforth, I wish to be addressed simply as Mr Governor, a title that will constantly remind me that I have been chosen out of so many fellow compatriots to lead a collective salvage of our political economy.
“To give official effect to this announcement, I shall issue tomorrow an executive order that will formally ensure full compliance with this new policy.”
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