9th October, 2023
By Emmanuel Oloniruha
Sani Yabagi, the chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council of Nigeria (IPAC) is leading the Council’s Election Observer Mission deployed to monitor the Liberian general elections holding on Tuesday.
IPAC National Publicity Secretary, Chinyere Oge-kalu, made this known in a statement in Abuja.
Oge-Kalu said the observer team made up of Nigerian political party leaders, who are already in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, is led by the Council National Chairman, Sani Yabagi.
Other members of the team according to Oge-Kalu include National Chairmen Muhammed Nalado of Accord Party, Chief Ralph Nwosu of African Democratic Congress (ADC) and Hajiya Zainab Ibrahim, Deputy National Women Leader of All Progressives Congress (APC).
She said that the delegation was to ensure democratic processes and principles were duly followed to guarantee a positive outcome that would deepen the roots of democracy on the continent.
“Efforts by undemocratic forces to reverse the gains made in entrenching Democracy in the West African sub-region in recent time have become a cause for serious concern around the globe especially, Nigeria.
“The presidential election taking place on Tuesday, Oct. 10 in Liberia has attracted more than a passing interest of the international community of democrats like the IPAC,” she said.
She added that “to underscore the importance of this mission, the former President Goodluck Jonathan is leading the African Elders Forum amongst other notable regional bodies to observe the elections.”
Oge-Kalu quoted Yabagi speaking to journalists on the team’s arrival in Monrovia, as urging Liberians to use the election to rekindle faith in democracy in the African continent.
“As the chairman of the largest organization of political parties in Africa, my expectation is that this election in Liberia will rekindle our faith in democracy.
“Also the democratic tenets in the West African Sub-region in particular and the entire African continent in general,” Yabagi said.
The IPAC observer mission team is expected to return to Nigeria on Oct. 11.
Over 2.4 million Liberians head to the polls to elect a president and members of their legislature.
Currently, there are 19 candidates hoping to replace incumbent President George Weah of the Coalition of Democratic Change (CDC), who is seeking a second six-year term.
The two main challengers are former vice president Joseph Boakai and businessman Alexander Cummings.
Both men were previously in a four-party opposition alliance, the Coalition of Political Parties (CPP).
However, in spite of the initial success, the coalition has since broken up after reported disagreements over who gets the presidential ticket in this election cycle.
Also in the running is Liberian People’s Party’s Tiawan Gongloe, a renowned human rights lawyer and professor of law who served as the country’s solicitor general during the Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf administration.
The former president became Africa’s first elected female leader in 2006, but inclusivity in politics is still a mirage in many parts of the continent, including her native Liberia.
Only two of the 20 contenders in Tuesday’s presidential vote are women, one of whom is Sara Nyanti, a former deputy special representative in the United Nations Mission in South Sudan.
Weah, who is running for a second term, has boasted that he will secure outright victory in the first round of elections.
He has been in office since 2017.
(NAN)