Nigeria assures international community of credible, peaceful 2019 polls

Nigeria has assured the international community that the 2019 general election will be credible and peaceful.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, gave the assurance at a press briefing in New York ahead of the upcoming high-level General Assembly debate.

Onyeama explained that President Muhammadu Buhari had assured the international community that under his watch, there would be credible election because he had himself been a victim and had challenged election malpractices up to the Supreme Court.

He said Buhari had experienced how a political party in power organised elections to favour themselves and would not perpetrate same.

According to him, the President is a strong believer in the electoral process and added: "We can be certain that he would ensure credible and peaceful election in 2019".

"A good example is (Ademola) Adeleke (PDP gubernatorial candidate for Osun) who is contesting election and the security agency invited him but he (Buhari) said he has to conclude the election before he is invited. We also saw recently when the National Assembly was invaded and the head of the agency that carried out the invasion lost his job. So he has zero tolerance for the abuse of the rights of Nigerians. We went to The Gambia to ensure that democracy was sustained when the former President refused to leave power. So it will be an irony if he (Buhari) does that. So you can be sure that he would do everything possible to ensure a smooth general election. But he has also put security measures in place to ensure a peaceful process," Onyeama said.