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The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, on Friday urged election observer missions and monitors in Nigeria to get balanced views by speaking to a broad range of stakeholders before making their conclusions on the outcome of the forthcoming general elections.
He noted that being a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, and multi-religious country, different people would naturally have different biases and push opinions that, though they represented their interests, might not necessarily be correct.
According to Gbajabiamila’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Lanre Lasisi, the Speaker addressed a delegation of the European Union (EU) Election Observation Mission to Nigeria who visited him at the National Assembly in Abuja.
Lasisi noted that the delegation was led by Mr Barry Andrews.
The Speaker stated that reports on election outcomes could only reflect what truly transpired when observer missions engaged with multiple stakeholders.
According to him, the use of more advanced technology in the forthcoming elections was an added advantage, which the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) would deploy to fast-track the process.
“We are hoping there will be no problems in the area of deployment of technology and also security issues, we hope not to worry about it much,” he said.
The Speaker informed the group that an area of concern remained the collection of permanent voter cards (PVC), which he said was still not very high, compared to the number of registered voters.
However, he told the EU mission that sensitisation was ongoing and “it is our firm belief that the number of PVC collections will be ramped up way before the elections proper.”
