Special Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations for West Africa and the Sahel

The President of the ECOWAS Commission, Jean-Claude Kassi Brou and the Special Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations for West Africa and the Sahel, Mohamed Ibn Chambas held in Abuja, on 8 October 2018 their regular consultation on forthcoming elections in the ECOWAS Member States. They took note of the outcome of the presidential conventions of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) parties and reaffirmed ECOWAS and UN collaboration and commitment in support of the forthcoming February 2019 Nigerian general elections.

They congratulated the presidential candidate of the ruling party – the All Progressives Congress (APC), His Excellency President Muhammadu Buhari and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), His Excellency Atiku Abubakar, former Vice-President on their emergence as flagbearers from the primary elections conducted by their respective political parties. They also extended congratulations to all other presidential candidates already designated as flagbearers by their respective parties. They similarly wished them a successful campaigning period and entreated all candidates to embark on issue-based campaigns which would focus on their programmes for Nigerians.
All presidential flagbearers were encouraged to ensure violence-free elections by conducting campaigns devoid of hate speech, language likely to incite people to violence or any disruption of the electoral process. ECOWAS and the United Nations pledged to work with all Nigerian stakeholders for peaceful, credible, transparent and inclusive elections in February 2019.
Done at Abuja, 8 October 2018