Kufuor arrives in Nigeria Wednesday to monitor elections

The leader of the ECOWAS election monitoring and observation team, former President John Agyekum Kufuor would arrive in Nigeria on Wednesday to oversee the conduct of Saturday’s presidential elections in that country.

Mr Kufuor and his team would stay until the end of the elections, monitoring what happens before, during and after the polls.

President John Dramani Mahama, who is the chairman of ECOWAS made this known at a media briefing in Abuja last Monday after meeting the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja.

Mr Mahama, was on a one-day visit to Nigeria as the chair of Authority of Head of States of ECOWAS, to solidarise with the people on the upcoming elections and especially get the political leaders and other stakeholders to make the elections free fair and credible.

Early on Monday, Mr Mahama met with President Goodluck Jonathan and the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, "and we discussed all issues that has to do with the coming election and I had firm assurances that everything is set to go and on March 28."

Buhari's concern

President Mahama mentioned that Gen. Buhari raised some concerns during their meeting.

“Of course there are few issues Buhari has brought out, which I will refer appropriately to our monitoring group and I hope that in the discussion that will take place before the election some of the issues that have been raised will be addressed," Mr Mahama said.

ECOWAS satisfied 

President Mahama said ECOWAS was satisfied with the deployment that the various monitoring groups were going to do.

"So the international community are going to have their eyes on the country to witness how the elections go and be able to make decisions and endorsements if everything has gone free and fair.

“The whole of West Africa and indeed the international community is watching your country because we believe that this election is critical and it is another step that consolidates democracy in Nigeria.

“We expect the election to be free, transparent and credible. ECOWAS is going to do everything possible to work with the political stakeholders and the Independent National Electoral Commission to make sure that election process is credible and acceptable to the people of Nigeria," he said.

He said from the briefing he had from the INEC chairman, he was convinced that the commission has done satisfactorily well to be able to ensure that every Nigerians exercise their franchise.

Mr Mahama also met with the leaders of various representative groups that include the AU representative, the UN Secretary General’s representative and the representative of the Commonwealth.

Safety of Nigeria 

The ECOWAS chairman said he felt assured that all the political leaders were looking forward to a free and fair elections.

"I want to affirm to the people of Nigeria that the country is an important one not only for ECOWAS but the African Union.”

“It is the largest economy on this continent. It is also the most populous nation on this continent and safety of this nation is important to every member of the ECOWAS region and so we are all stakeholders in this election.

" It just happened that we do not have to vote but we an interested in what happens on election day here in Nigeria. So for you Nigerians who are to vote, I hope you will rise up to the occasion," President Mahama said.