Ahead of the 2019 general elections, Senate President, Bukola Saraki, called for more collaborative supports from the European Union including the fight against corruption and humanitarian services.
Saraki made the call at the Europe National Day and Celebration of Democratic Governance organised by the European High Commission, on Thursday, in Abuja.
He commended the EU’s commitments in the conduct of previous polls in the country; and added that there was need for continuous supports as the 2019 polls get closer.
He said as the largest donor to the electoral commission, the EU had a very significant role to play in ensuring free, safe and fair elections in Nigeria.
He said: “As the 2019 election is coming up, I think it is the responsibility of all of us Nigerians and our partners, particularly the EU that the conduct of the polls will be better than that of 2015.
“We have done something that has been a reference point in entire Africa, and on how to get elections right.
“I am very hopeful with your support in this coming one, Nigeria can again raise the bench mark on what ought to be done in conduct of elections.
“EU is our important partner which ensures best practices in our democracy, which is why they must tell us things we need to, hear and those do not, which friends are for.”
He also commended the EU in terms of security, training, intelligence, knowledge sharing in the Nigerian armed forces, stemming of fights against terrorism and humanitarian services.
He appealed to the EU to expand its supports towards area supply of equipments to the nation’s armed forces, to strengthen security.
Ambassador Ketil Karlsen, Head of EU’s Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, pledged to continue to partner with Nigeria to achieve its target.
According to her, democratic governance is the core of EU and the defining basis of every activity we carry out in Nigeria.
Karlsen said: “2019 election is near, therefore our engagement in supporting Nigeria values; vision, policies and initiatives can never be about exporting one-to-one European recipes.
“It will promote our partnership and integrated approach, we will make use of all the instruments that we have in our availability to support your activity and mission.
“There is no better means for that than through democratic platforms.
“We will build on the progress seen over the last years in Nigeria and make use of consistent participation of EU observer been used since 1999.”
He added that the partnership between Nigeria and EU would also be driven to find solutions to issues of human trafficking, trade, economic cooperation, among other things.
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