[ 2011-04-18 ]

Nigeria’s High Commissioner to Ghana, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro

Nigeria gets it right finally, economy and employment next, says Obanikoro
Nigeria’s High Commissioner to Ghana, Senator
Musiliu Obanikoro is all celebration – that the
ruling Peoples Democratic Party of Nigeria has won
national elections – and more so for getting the
national elections process right this time around.
But he says Africa’s sleeping giant has her
economy to fix, and as well create employment in
order for Nigerians to live their true status as
giants of the continent.

“What is next is to get the economic situation
in order”, he told Radio Gold Monday morning via
phone, “create employment and the President has
set an agenda – he has unveiled his power sector
agenda, a roadmap; he has also unveiled his
roadmap for the energy sector, and of course for
the unemployment (among) the youth in this
country. If we are able to get these three agenda
right, and in addition to that is the security
issue, I’m sure we will be able to stabilize the
country, to grow the economy sufficiently to
create jobs for Nigerians, then at least Nigerians
can now begin to see themselves as the true giants
that they have the capacity to be.”

Commenting on how Nigeria this time round pulled
through its national election against chaotic
instances in recent history, Obanikoro said a
globally creditable election in Nigeria was bound
to happen given evolutionary principles. “…you
will see that things evolve naturally and
gradually, it doesn’t happen overnight.

“We’ve had twelve years of democracy now in
Nigeria, there is no doubt in my mind that yes,
we’ve had our challenges, but I don’t expect
us to continually repeat the mistakes of the past.
And again, you (Ghana) had your own election, you
did extremely well, that became a challenge to
Nigeria – we cannot just call ourselves Big
Brother and not be able to rise up to some of the
challenges that are coming up within our own
sub-region here. So I think it became a challenge
and we felt that we should be able to have a free
and fair election, an election that the
international community will accept as creditable.
I think that is what we have done - it became a
challenge for every Nigerian and I’m happy that
we’ve been able to live up to that.”

Senator Obanikoro said celebrations of the massive
election victory started Saturday evening, (ahead
of Nigeria's Independent National Electoral
Commission, INEC’s declaration), given that the
trend of polling station results reported so far
point to a massive win for the ruling government.

Source - BBC

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