US working hard to ensure non-violent elections for Nigeria — US Ambassador

As Nigeria prepares for its Presidential election, come 14th February 2015, many countries across the globe continue to express their positions. •United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Ambassador James Entwistle The United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Ambassador James Entwistle, while explaining the merits of transparent leadership, gave the US position in respect of the up-coming Nigerian election. He said that the US is ever willing and ready to support Nigerian government, stressing that no other country has done more than the US is doing for Nigeria. Entwistle also stated that the US government is working very hard to ensuring a non-violent election in Nigeria. In this exclusive interview withVera Samuel Anyagafu and Victor Gotevbe,Ambassador Entwistle, in addition to campaigning for non-violent elections in Nigeria, made clear the reason US government turned down the request to sell arms to Nigeria, the mission of Okpabana, and many more. Excerpts; What is your assessment of the political development in Nigeria? I think it is quite a tremendously exciting time in the Nigeria democratic rule. One of the things that our two governments have in common is big, huge democracies, and it is a wonderful thing. As we head towards your general election in February, 14, one of the things that the US is working very hard down here is to talk about the importance of non violent elections. I have been talking about this for over a year. Our Consul General, Jeffery Hawkins and others have been delivering the same massage. But I think it is clearly important to make that case and I would be very impressed to see that Nigerian media and civil society and Nigerian entertainment stars, like Tu-face Idibia and so on, are campaigning and picking this up. Now,I meet with a lot of Nigerian politicians, I meet a lot of candidates, and whenever I talk to them, I always emphasise the importance of non-violent elections. And then I ask them if they would publicly take a non-violence pledge in front of cameras, making clear that they would not condone any fomented or organised thuggery or form of violence. The response I use to get, we are talking about both sides of the parties here, I usually get a response, something along the line as well, that “myself, I swore non-violence. I would never do that, but if the other man starts it, or if I am not happy with the results, maybe I will have no choice.” And I always responded by saying that is not enough non-violence pledge. Non-violence pledge is that I would not do it no matter what. And f I see it starting I will do everything I can to stop it, than to start it. That is what I mean by non-violent pledge. That is the campaign that I will continue. That is the campaign that if as we get closer and during elections, there is violence and is clear who is behind it, my government will not hesitated to speak up. But I think it is even more powerful, when it comes to individual Nigerians. When that man comes and he wants your vote, make clear what you expect of him. I think sometimes our countries settle for too little from the politicians. In all our democracies, we should be tougher and be of higher expectations. Also in terms of US approach to trying to help INEC a bit, we are doing great with civil society, especially to help to organize and support Nigerian elections observers, which I think is much more important than international observers. To summarise know the US is incredible excited to support our most important partners in Africa, as it is getting ready to have a huge democratic experience and I think is great. We know the US govt. has made some level of intervention. You have been able to support us with some light military equipment and intelligence. Nigerians would want to know why the turn down on the request for you to sell arms to us to support the fight against terrorism? Take it from me, as President Obama’s representative to this country. No one is doing more than the United States to support Nigeria. We cannot always talk about the details in public, but I know the corporation continues. Transfers of equipment are under consideration. Information sharing continues. We continue to train your officers and so on. Very often, that training focuses on our experience to countering insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan. And what we have learnt this is one of the most difficult jobs in the world. How do you find an enemy that has mixed itself in the civilian population? Could not care less how many civilians were killed. How do you combat someone like that? That is really hard. So we are bringing people who have had such experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan and sharing that experiences we think can help. On the equipment issue, you know the US transfers military equipment to a number of countries around the world.