Nigerians lauded for their patience, orderliness during Saturday’s Presidential polls
Nigerians deserve great commendation for the extraordinary patience, orderliness and peaceful conduct they exhibited during the presidential and federal legislative elections on Saturday 28th March 2015, the Head of the ECOWAS Election Observation Mission (EOM), former Ghanaian President John Kufuor has declared.
Speaking after observing the accreditation of voters, actual voting and the counting of ballots in a number polling centres in the nation’s capital Abuja, the chief of the regional observer team said the Nigerian electorate turned out in their numbers and in spite of the initial challenges of slow start of the electoral process caused by the late arrival of electoral officials and voting materials in some centres, conducted themselves in an orderly manner to exercise their franchise.
“Nigerians demonstrated a rare determination and commitment to democracy,” the Head of the ECOWAS poll observation mission said, adding that going by the reports of the regional observers deployed across the country, Nigeria would have recorded a successful electoral process.
“We pray that Nigerians should accept the outcome of the elections to show a good example that will impact positively on the region and the rest of Africa given the country’s strategic importance,” he further affirmed.
Former President Kufuor, who was accompanied by the President of the ECOWAS Commission, H.E. Kadré Desire Ouédraogo and other members of the ECOWAS election technical support team visited voting centres in Kubwa, Lugbe, Galadimawa, and Asokoro areas, and rounded off the tour by observing vote counting at the Post Office polling centre at Area 10, Garki.
Reiterating his observation during a meeting with a US delegation led by the Under Secretary of State for Africa, Mrs. Lynda Thomas-Greenfield at the ECOWAS Commission’s Election Situation Room, Niger House in Abuja Central Area, the Head of the ECOWAS election Observation Mission said that indications from the electoral process showed that Nigeria was on the right path.
Mrs. Thomas-Greenfield echoed this sentiment, and commended Nigerians for their patience.
She, however, noted that the country, its friends and supporters “still has a lot of work to do” in deepening its democracy.
The ECOWAS Election Observation Mission, made up of 250 observers deployed to five of Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones, except the North East, is expected to issue its Preliminary Declaration on the country’s presidential and federal legislative polls on Sunday, 29th March 2015.
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