Abuja — Ahead of the April general elections, the United State of America (USA) has warned that the international community will not accept anything short of a free, fair and credible elections in Nigeria, even as it insisted that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must live up to its responsibility of ensuring that nobody or group manipulates the process.
The position of the American government was made public when the US under secretary of state for civilian security, democracy and human rights, Maria Otero led an eight-man delegation on a courtesy visit to the management of INEC yesterday in Abuja.
Even as the talks were held behind closed doors, Daily Champion gathered from reliable sources that the US envoy was full of praises for INEC for the way it has handled its activities so far, and also challenged the commission to be more proactive.
Daily Champion gathered that the delegation reminded INEC that all eyes were on Nigeria as she prepares for the elections adding that due to the strategic position of Nigeria, the elections must not be allowed to be flawed.
Before the discussions went into closed doors, leader of the delegation, Maria Otero said they were visiting INEC again as an important organization and as part of efforts to work closely with the bi-national commission that Nigeria and the US worked out together as recognition of the important partnership between the two countries.
She commended the INEC chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega for his commitment in delivering an election that will be able to stand the test of time.
She said: "I want to begin with commending you Mr. chairman the very important and very good work of INEC in preparing for this election and in carrying out very important responsibilities that are essential in order for Nigerians to be able to participate in a fair and free and transparent elections.
"This is a very good opportunity to acknowledge this important outcome of your work so far and to have an opportunity to also speak with you about what challenges you see that remain, what concerns you have as you move elements forward and also for us to be able to voice some of the questions that we have. Perhaps as a way of beginning one of the questions that I will ask you would be your assessment of how the voter registration process went".
Responding, Jega thanked the delegation for the interest shown in the electoral affairs of the nation adding that the presence of the team would afford the Commission and delegation an opportunity to go over some issues earlier discussed and to compare notes especially on the outcome of the voters registration exercise.
He reiterated the quest of his commission to deliver a credible election that will give Nigerians their true leader.
"Basically we wanted to do very good and credible voter registration exercise and to create a frame work for a continuous sustainable voter registration using the biometric capture and information technology to establish a good data base of register. It was very challenging but we were able to do it and we are satisfied with the results I must say that we will continue to remain grateful to all our development partners especially the US and the contributions that we have received through partnerships and collaborations with many institutions and agencies in whose contributions of expertise and consultancies and discussions and reports have really helped tremendously towards the success of the exercise".
He said it is the responsibility of Nigerians to insist that the right things were done to ensure that the dream of free, fair and credible election will be realized.
Meanwhile, Prince Adedeji Soyebi, INEC national commissioner in charge of Information, while answering questions from newsmen on the outcome of the meeting between INEC and the US delegation said the delegation was full of praise of the Commission on its performance so far.
He said: "The delegation brought goodwill message; they commented on the voter register and other electoral activities basically on how to achieve credible and successful elections, it was commendation and commendation, they were very happy with us".
He equally revealed that INEC was going through the figures recorded as number of registered voters during the registration exercise with a view to reconciling them with the final number released.
Soyebi said the commission will use the opportunity to look into some claims especially that of Niger state government who claimed that the number declared for the state was lower than the actually registered voters.
Nevertheless, the national commissioner insisted that on no account will INEC rely on the figures declared by the State government as purportedly recorded during the registration, but would instead reconcile the figures recorded during registration and the final figure declared to determine the true position of the number in the state.
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