{"id":311132,"date":"2011-03-15T12:56:45","date_gmt":"2011-03-15T12:56:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/03\/15\/nigeria-u-s-gives-strong-backing-to-elections-chief\/"},"modified":"2011-03-15T12:56:45","modified_gmt":"2011-03-15T12:56:45","slug":"nigeria-u-s-gives-strong-backing-to-elections-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/15\/nigeria-u-s-gives-strong-backing-to-elections-chief\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria: U.S. Gives Strong Backing to Elections Chief"},"content":{"rendered":"<div readability=\"57.6793751655\">\n<hr class=\"thin clear\" \/><!-- close google_banner_mid div ---><\/p>\n<hr class=\"thin clear\" \/>\n<p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/9c3e48a3llafrica180.jpg\" alt=\"allAfrica.com\" title=\"Visit allAfrica.com\" \/><\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p><!-- begin story layout piece here --><\/p>\n<p>15 March 2011<\/p>\n<hr class=\"thin clear\" \/>\n<p>Washington, DC \u2014 The Obama administration\u2019s top Africa official, Johnnie Carson, has given the head of Nigeria\u2019s election commission, Professor Attahiru Jega, strong public backing.<\/p>\n<p>The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was being \u201cwell-led\u201d by Jega, Carson told AllAfrica in an exclusive interview. \u201cWe believe he is a person of integrity and that he is working as hard as he can along with others to promote a fair election process that is worthy of the Nigerian people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- close google_inset_a div ---><\/p>\n<p>Carson, who is the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, said the Obama administration was giving INEC financial and technical support.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want the Nigerian national elections to be a step forward for Nigeria. We want them to be substantially and significantly better than the last national elections in 2007.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 2007 elections had been \u201cseriously flawed,\u201d he added. \u201cMany people were disenfranchised and were not given an opportunity to vote for national level candidates.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNigeria\u2019s public deserves more, and if they are to have confidence in their leaders and in their democracy, they must be allowed to participate freely and fairly in an election that is well-organized and is well-run.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. recognized that there were \u201cchallenges and obstacles\u201d in the way of an election, which he enumerated as including \u201cproblems in the Delta [and] in the middle belt in Jos between farmers and herders against new inhabitants; problems in the north as a result of the continued activities of Boko Haram and other extremists associated with them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNevertheless,\u201d he added, \u201cif a country like Iraq can have elections, then a country like Nigeria should have elections that are fitting to the aspirations of a country and a people who want democracy, who aspire to have stronger democratic values and institutions and representatives who are the stewards of that democratic process.<\/p>\n<p><!-- end story layout piece here --><\/p>\n<p><!-- close google_banner_subbody div ---><\/p>\n<fieldset>\n<legend align=\"center\"><b>More News on allAfrica.com<\/b><\/legend>\n<\/fieldset>\n<p>AllAfrica &#8211; All the Time<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Read the original post:<br \/>\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/stories\/201103150936.html\" title=\"Nigeria: U.S. Gives Strong Backing to Elections Chief\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nigeria: U.S. Gives Strong Backing to Elections Chief<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> 15 March 2011 Washington, DC \u2014 The Obama administration\u2019s top Africa official, Johnnie Carson, has given the head of Nigeria\u2019s election commission, Professor Attahiru Jega, strong public backing. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was being \u201cwell-led\u201d by Jega, Carson told AllAfrica in an exclusive interview<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-311132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Nigeria: U.S. Gives Strong Backing to Elections Chief - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/15\/nigeria-u-s-gives-strong-backing-to-elections-chief\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Nigeria: U.S. Gives Strong Backing to Elections Chief - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"15 March 2011 Washington, DC \u2014 The Obama administration\u2019s top Africa official, Johnnie Carson, has given the head of Nigeria\u2019s election commission, Professor Attahiru Jega, strong public backing. 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