The U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, Marybeth Leonard, has revealed that the government of the United States had supported the Nigerian government with over 25 million dollars through different programmes toward achieving free, fair, and credible elections.
Leonard made this known while speaking in a roundtable with some journalists in Abuja, on Thursday, noting that the U.S. government supported a credible electoral process but did not support a particular party or candidate.
She said the U.S. had been very present in Nigeria’s democratic journey since 1999, commending Nigeria for upholding a peaceful, and consistent democracy.
“So we have long been involved in democracy and governance through programmes in Nigeria, and probably we are spending about 25 million dollars with particular reference to this election.
‘We are doing many things. First of all, we are sponsoring an independent observation mission with some very high-powered delegation, U.S Veterans, who are independent of us, but we have played a role in facilitating.
‘We have worked with INEC itself, on some of the technical aspects. For example, we trained some 1,800 technical workers on how to troubleshoot the BVAS, and those people in their turns have trained hundreds of thousands of other people.’
According to her, on election day, people would be around to know how to fix arising problems.
‘We have done a lot of trying to facilitate diversity of participation in elections, to make it easier for a lot of people with disabilities. We are encouraging youth and women to vote.“We have worked with journalists to train them on how to spot misinformation, how journalists engage during electoral processes, and we have worked with security agencies.
‘I think we have had a well-rounded interaction regarding this election and again, we are really looking forward to seeing the peaceful elections,‘ Leonard said.
Leonard urged the presidential candidates and political parties in the general elections to preserve the nation’s democracy by respecting the Peace Accord they committed to and encouraging peaceful polls.