By Disun Amosun
Speaker House of Representatives, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila wants election observer missions and monitors in Nigeria to get a wide and balanced view by interfacing with the various stakeholders before making their conclusions on the outcome of the forthcoming general elections.
He urged foreign and local observers to be aware of the multi-ethnic, multicultural, and multi-religious dimensions in the country, which might colour or bring biases into their submissions and warned them to read in between the lines.
Gbajabiamila, who spoke when a delegation of the European Union Election Observation Mission to Nigeria visited him at the National Assembly in Abuja stated that reports on election outcomes could only reflect what truly transpired when observer missions directly and genuinely engaged with multiple stakeholders.
With the multiplicity in the number of political parties contesting the elections and other relevant stakeholders in the process, the Speaker urged his visitors that only wide consultations between them could give the observers a balanced grasp of happenings that would enrich their reports.
The Speaker assured the delegation that Nigeria was fully prepared for the elections and had made every possible arrangement for the process to be successful.
“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”, he said.
