Isopi: EU Election Observation Report Has Nothing to Do with Our Relations with Nigeria

•EU awards postgraduate scholarships to 135 young Nigerians

Michael Olugbode in Abuja

The Head of the European Union Election Observation Delegation to Nigeria, Amb. Samuela Isopi, has said recent report of its independent election observation mission has no connection with the EU-Nigeria relations.

He insisted that there were already talks on improving the existing strong relations.

Isopi, disclosed this yesterday, while briefing on the 2023 Erasmus Scholarship Award programme to 135 Nigerians to study in various European countries.

She said the report of the EU Election observer mission was an independent one which the host country was at liberty to accept or reject.

She said presently EU leaders and Nigeria leaders are in talks on how to improve the already existing relationship.

She said: “European Union Observation Mission in Nigeria or anywhere else in the world, they provide an intensive, independent and impartial assessment of the electoral process.

“What does that mean? It means that they assess whether the electoral process was conducted in line with international, regional and also national obligation agreement of the conduct of the democratic election that the country has subscribed to.

“Election observation missions from the EU and any other International missions are not political and do not pursue any political objectives.

“The European Union as you know has a very strong and established worldwide methodology and experience and again it is a worldwide recognised actor in that field.

“It is not the first time that the Nigeria election body has invited the European Union to deploy an independent election observer mission. The EU has constantly been deploying election observation missions since 1999. I think this was the seventh one and every time the mission had offered reports, the reports have been objective, and the purpose of those missions is to offer reports about what happened.

“And more importantly, to offer recommendations on how to improve the process, and then it’s up. It is the responsibility of the host country, the responsibility of the partner countries and elections management body to decide if they want to make use or not of the report.”

She added: “Our experience with Nigeria so far is that they have been very positive and the report of the International observation missions including the European Union have helped a lot and have helped guide the action and the report process.

“On the impact on our relationship, we don’t think that there will be an impact, we have very strong relations with the country and there have been phone calls between the leaders.”

She noted that the EU “is also a partner to INEC providing technical and financial support and as far as we are concerned we want to continue to engage with the largest democracy in Africa and that is Nigeria and we will continue to cooperate with Nigeria.”

Meanwhile, the EU has offered postgraduate scholarships to 135 young Nigerians in top European universities, under its flagship educational programme, Erasmus+.

At a press briefing in Abuja, Isopi, said the figure places Nigeria on the number one spot among beneficiaries of the EU postgraduate scholarships in Africa in the past five years, and among the top five globally.

 In recent years, the EU has been ramping up support to the academia through the EU’s key funding programmes: Erasmus+ in the higher education sector, and Horizon Europe for research and innovation.

Erasmus+ offers many opportunities apart from its flagship scholarship programmes: it supports mobility and short stays in Europe for researchers, students and staff, capacity-building of universities and TVET institutions through joint projects with sister European institutions, etc. Horizon Europe offers opportunities for Nigeria-based researchers and research institutions, in particular through the “Africa Initiative II”, which is addressed to African scientists.

Isopi revealed that the EU Delegation to Nigeria would host a, “Study in Europe Fair” in Nigeria’s two biggest cities of Lagos (October 28th) and Kano (October 26th), to enable prospective Nigerian students explore opportunities of higher education in Europe, noting that the events would also serve as a platform to match-make Nigerian higher education institutions with potential EU partners, in collaboration with the diplomatic missions of the EU Member States in the country.

She explained that the Study Fairs, which would be open to the public, would also provide opportunities for exchange of experiences and information, and for networking for Nigerian students, academics, parents and professionals who are actively interested in studying in Europe.

 According to her, the 135 Nigerian EMJMD awardees were in the initial batch of beneficiaries, as announced by the organisers of the programme in Brussels.

The number was likely to increase and most of the awardees would start their Erasmus plus journey in September 2023.

Ahead of that, the EU Delegation would host a pre-departure orientation for the awardees on Wednesday, July 19 2023.

The postgraduate programmes would run for 12 to 24 months and would see each beneficiary studying in universities in at least three different universities in as many countries during the duration of the programme.