The speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has urged election observer missions and monitors in Nigeria to get balanced views by speaking to a broad range of stakeholders before making their conclusions on the outcome of the forthcoming general elections.
He said being a multi-ethnic, multicultural, and multi-religious country, different people would naturally have different biases and push opinions that, though they represented their interests, might not necessarily be correct.
Gbajabiamila, who spoke Friday when a delegation of the European Union Election Observation Mission to Nigeria, led by Mr. Barry Andrews, visited him at the National Assembly in Abuja, said reports on election outcomes could only reflect what truly transpired when observer missions engaged with multiple stakeholders.
He advised the mission to speak to not only every political party but also to as many stakeholders as possible, adding that this would help shape the reliability of any report on election outcomes this year, assuring the delegation that Nigeria was fully prepared for the elections and had made every possible arrangement for the process to be successful.
“We are prepared for it, and those saddled with the responsibility, from Mr. President, the National Assembly, INEC, the political parties, and all the other stakeholders along the chain, we are all ready to make the votes count.”
“The electoral law is in place. We have done all we needed to do, and now we have to wait and see how things pan out.
“Election is a process that leads to the final day. It’s very complex, but at the same time it can be very simple, depending on the attitude of the actors. We are hoping there will be no problems in the area of deployment of technology and also security issues, we hope not to worry about it much,” he said.
Earlier, Andrews told Gbajabiamila that the EU Mission was happy to be invited to observe the polls, just as it had done on seven previous occasions.
He gave the assurance that the body had its work cut out and had a reliable data-collection methodology to give a report on the outcome of the polls.
Andrews disclosed that the body would formally unveil its work plan at a news conference to be held on Monday in Abuja, while it would release a preliminary report on the elections two days after the conclusion of voting.
