By Abdullahi M. Gulloma
Abuja
President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday had a closed-door meeting with elections observers from the African Union (AU), the Commonwealth and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
The election monitoring teams were led by former President of Ghana, Mr John Kuffour.
Briefing State House correspondents after the meeting, Kuffour commended Nigerians for the peaceful conduct of the elections.
He said the observers were at the State House to brief President Goodluck Jonathan on their findings across the country.
He said: “We appreciate that the processes are not yet done till the results are declared, then of course the aftermath of the declaration.
But we have come this far and we wanted to give an interim report to the authorities that mandated us to come and to the world and to Nigerians in particular, to let everybody know that Nigeria so far has been at peace with the process. And so we appeal to Nigeria to continue in this mood throughout the entire process, so that at the end of the day the people of Nigeria will be satisfied with themselves that they used the process to get the government they want and they deserve.
“Nigeria succeeding will be not only in Nigeria but to West Africa and to the continent; we will all be made proud of the success here achieved by Nigerians for themselves and for all of us.
“Well, at this point some of us will go back to our homes and we couldn’t go without coming to the State House here to congratulate the president and the deputy for the good work they have done; because it is under their watch that these peaceful, transparent, credible elections have been happening and it is natural they be congratulated for the work done so far.”
