BUHARI: TRANSPARENT AND CREDIBLE ELECTIONS
CRUCIAL TO PEACE IN WEST AFRICA

West African leaders have been urged by President Muhammadu Buhari to do everything in their power to guarantee that elections take place in their nations in an environment of trust, freedom, and transparency.
The President argued that this is the only way to protect the sub-region from the plague of recent unlawful coups in three nations.
On the occasion of Liberia’s 175th anniversary of independence, President Buhari joined other international leaders in Monrovia on Tuesday and delivered a message of goodwill to the country’s leadership and people.
“I would like to use the opportunity of this event to address an important issue affecting three countries in the ECOWAS region; Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
“All the three nations have National Elections in 2023. In Nigeria, we are working towards a free, fair, transparent, credible and acceptable outcome of elections and their results, it is important and necessary for all our countries to key into these resolves, as they are indispensable to peace and stability in our countries and sub-region.
“The deepening of democracy and good governance are essential antidotes to check-mate unconstitutional change of governments, as we sadly witnessed within the last three years, in three countries, within our sub-region. We must strengthen our efforts to guarantee the irreversibility of democracy in our sub-region and Africa,” he said.
“Nigeria’s contributions to the survival and safety of Liberia are well known. The dark period of your country’s civil war from 1989 to 1997, was a period that Nigeria invested hugely for peace in Liberia and indeed stability in the rest of the ECOWAS sub-region. May those dark days never re-surface in our countries and sub-region.”
“Your Excellency’s policy of development launched in 2018 as well as the recently launched youth empowerment programme, targeted at comprehensively addressing the problems of youth restiveness in Liberia, and equally aimed at rescuing the disadvantaged youths, (ZOGOS in local parlance), from drug addictions and other forms of social vices, and transforming them into useful members of the Liberian society, are very appropriate policies to lift the most vulnerable.
“Permit me to assure you and all Liberians that Nigeria, as a good partner and a dependable ally, would continue to support you in these efforts, within the limit of our resources. This brings to the fore, the need for strengthening and broadening the levels of collaboration and cooperation between our two countries, both bilaterally and multilaterally, within the ECOWAS, AU and the UN, to adequately tackle the common national, sub-regional and global challenges.”
Dr. George Weah, the president of Liberia, congratulated President Buhari and other West African leaders for coming, and he specifically praised our President and the good people of Nigeria. We wouldn’t have had peace if it weren’t for your assistance.

GOGAN Media.