Abubakar Y. Ojima, Abuja
President Muhammadu Buhari has declared Nigeria’s readiness to work aggressively to restore democracy in West African States, which recently slid back to military rule.
The President gave this vow while speaking at an interactive session in Washington DC, according to a statement by Garba Shehu, his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity.
The statement quoted the President as saying that “the recent reversals (coups) witnessed in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Guinea are most unfortunate indeed and ECOWAS continues to effectively remain engaged with these countries.”
Buhari said Nigeria would “aggressively work” with stakeholders to “improve the quality of governance in the West African sub-region where the survival of democracy is currently challenged.”
According to the Nigerian leader, such aggressive efforts would be required in order to restore democracy to all the Member-States of ECOWAS as indeed the entire African Continent. President Buhari also called on stakeholders in the international community to partner with Nigeria and its electoral body to deepen and stabilise democracy in Nigeria and the rest of Africa.
At the interactive session titled ‘A Conversation with President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria,’ the President, whose tenure ends on May 29, 2023 said his administration remains determined to ensure the conduct of free, fair, and transparent elections whose outcome would be largely accepted by the contestants.
He said: “Since 2015, the conduct of our elections continues to steadily improve. From the 2019 general election, the by-elections and the off-season elections in Edo, Ekiti, Anambra and Osun States were conducted in largely improved contexts to the satisfaction of contestants and voters,” he said.
On the role of the international community, the President said through its observation of the electoral process, the credibility of the elections can be further enhanced to make the acceptability of the outcome to the contestants and political parties a non-issue.
Buhari said democracy would be enhanced in the sub-region through targeted investments that can bring dividends to the electorate. The President said it was critical to create robust means of livelihood for the people, just as it was important for the political class to promote accountability and transparency.
