The Speaker of the House of Representatives Mr Femi Gbajabiamila, has urged election observer missions and monitors in Nigeria to get balanced views by speaking to a broad range of stakeholders before making their conclusions on the outcome of the forthcoming general elections.Mr Gbajabiamila, who spoke when a delegation of the European Union Election Observation Mission to Nigeria visited him at the National Assembly in Abuja, stated that reports on election outcomes could only reflect what truly transpired when observer missions engaged with multiple stakeholders.He noted that being a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, and multi-religious country, different people would naturally have different biases and push opinions that, though they represented their interests, might not necessarily be correct.The speaker advised the mission to speak to not only every political party but also to as many stakeholders as possible, adding that this would help shape the reliability of any report on election outcomes this year.The Speaker assured the delegation that Nigeria was fully prepared for the elections and had made every possible arrangement for the process to be successful.The leader of the EU mission Mr Barry Andrews, informed the speaker that the EU Mission was happy to be invited to observe the polls, just as it had done on seven previous occasions.Mr Andrews assured Gbajabiamila that the body had its work cut out and had a reliable data-collection methodology to give a report on the outcome of the polls.COV/IBRAHIM
