The British High Commission to Nigeria has restated its commitment to spend £47. 4 million on Deepening Democracy in Nigeria Programme Phase 2 (DDiN2).
The British Deputy High Commissioner, Mrs. Harriet Thompson said in Abuja at the weekend that the first phase of DDiN was implemented in 2011 with £33 million pounds of the total amount disbursed in the second phase from 2014 to 2020.
Mrs Thompson at an interactive session organised for journalists by the Commission, said that the event was part of the Commission’s activity to commemorate the 2018 International Day of Democracy with the theme, “Democracy under strain: solutions for a changing world.”
DDiN is a funded programme under the Department for International Development (DFID) arm of the Commission geared towards supporting democratic governance around the world with focus on Nigeria.
Thompson said: “democracy is key to development because it is a system whereby people can express their feelings on how they are being governed.
“The people of Nigeria know what they need and democracy creates such platform for them to be able to say what they want in terms of investment in basic amenities.
“We will ensure that people have the right to vote and be voted for, mobilise women, youths and people living with disability to exercise their franchise.
“We will also support the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure conduct of credible elections in 2019.”
She, however, stressed that the British Government has no intention of influencing the outcome of the forthcoming general elections and also has no preference for any candidate.
The Head of DFID Nigeria, Mrs Debbie Palmas, said that DDiN2 is a six- year programme with strategic outcome to support growth of responsive electoral and democratic institutions.
She explained that DDiN2 would be focused on values of freedom and respect for human rights as essential elements of democracy.
She said there was a need to strengthen democracy and seek answers to challenges it faced.
According to her, the DDiN2 is to support well-prepared and well-administered national and state elections with measures in place for independent observation and to mitigate risks of violence.
Palmas said the project also aimed “To increase National Assembly’s capacity for responsiveness in law-making representation and oversight and to improve public participation in governance and electoral process, particularly women, youth and people living with disabilities.”
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