President Muhammadu Buhari has charged the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Network of Electoral Commissions (ECONEC) to ensure the consolidation of democracy in the West African sub-region through peer support by respective Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs).
The President gave the charge on Monday in Abuja while formally declaring open the 6th Biennial General Assembly of ECONEC and International Symposium on the “Promotion of Inclusivity in the Electoral Process”.
Buhari, who pledged the continuous support of Nigeria to the realization of this objective, said that it was in view of this that, within the limits of available resources, Nigeria has responded by providing material and technical support to ECONEC like the recent logistics support to Sierra Leone, deployment of experts from INEC to assist in cleaning up the voters’ register in Liberia ahead of the Presidential run-off election in 2017 and the provision of voter’s registration equipment to Guinea Bissau which facilitated the conduct of parliamentary election in March this year.
President Buhari, represented by the Secretary to Government of Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Gida Mustapha, assured of Nigeria’s continued assistance, saying credible election in the sub-region is not only good for democracy and periodic elections but it is also good for overall sub-regional stability.
Also speaking, the INEC Chairman, who also doubles as the ECONEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, in his opening remarks, said: “A critical issue for the future of ECONEC is funding.
“While we appreciate the support of ECOWAS and the development partners, we agreed last year that each member country shall pay the sum of $5,000 per annum to support the activities of the Network.
“I am glad to report that many countries have fully paid their dues for two years. This is a very encouraging show of confidence in the management of the Network,” Yakubu said.”
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