DIPLOMATIQUE Why we are supporting Nigeria’s electoral process – EU Envoy
Ambassador Ketil Karlsen is the Head of the Delegation of the European Union (EU) to Nigeria and ECOWAS. In this interview, he speaks on the union’s efforts in addressing the root causes of irregular migration and its support for electoral and democratic
Daily Trust: Is the European Union engaging currently engaging with the Nigerian government on any issue? It would be absolutely impossible to mention everything that we do because in Nigeria, the EU is in one way or the other, engaged in hundreds of projects and engagements. One is the upcoming election. This is on top of your agenda. As you know, the EU has consistently observed elections in Nigeria since 1999. It is our hope that this time around, there would be a long term election observation mission coming here with the necessary expertise to follow from very early until during and after the elections in order to be able to come up with recommendations like you saw the last time, when 30 recommendations were presented.
Our calculations demonstrate that since 1999, we have supported electoral and democratic processes with around 100 million EUROS and currently we are supporting with 26.5 million EUROS. There is a full and strong package of support for all of our Nigerian partners in these very important matters in the run-up to the elections. Our hope is that we can support the national leadership to make sure that yet again Nigeria is demonstrating to Nigerians, Africa and the world that consolidation of democracy here is taking place, that the winner of the election will be the one taking up power. And that there is a real opportunity to use this platform to present to the Nigerian people the policies needed to have the right solutions to the challenges that exist in the country. It is not for us to decide who should be elected, but we can partner with the institutions here in order to bring our experiences to the table, just as we invite Nigeria and other countries to participate in our electoral processes. This is important partnership that is on-going.
Another area of engagement is the issue of migration and mobility. We have taken note of the call from President Muhammadu Buhari to intensify dialogue with partners on how to find durable and long-time solutions to the challenges that we face together. We are stepping up efforts. As I speak to you, the EU has facilitated the safe and voluntary return of 7,720 Nigerians over the last months. For us, it is important that the return is done in an orderly manner, and the returnees are given opportunities to start over again. We hope to provide them, in partnership with International Organisation for Migration (IOM), start-up funding and vocational trainings so that they are not just left alone.
One thing is to address the emergency and urgency of people in distress in Libya and other places, another thing is to make sure that we find the right recipe for the future. That is why we are reaching out to our counterparts in Nigeria to intensify dialogue on how we can together find solution and make sure that the youth of Nigeria are given opportunities. In efforts to encourage regular migration, we are trying to redouble the access to student visa and student exchange between Nigeria and Europe, because this is the kind of partnership that we want to have. Another solution is investing in youth and job creation. That is why the EU has established trust funds that are designed exactly for that. We are promoting very actively to have increased engagement of European bank investments in Nigeria as part of overall holistic solutions to the challenges we face on irregular migration.
On development cooperation, the European Union remains a key development partner in Nigeria. Over the last decade, we have committed around 1.5 billion EUROS in development cooperation to Nigeria. Only last year, we disbursed 200 million EUROS to Nigeria. The secret of any support we provide is really in the interest of national leadership. We are not here to impose the European modality or way of doing business. It is supporting the leadership of Nigeria, civil society and business community.
Over the recent years, there has been increased need for significant humanitarian aid in Nigeria. In the period of 2015 to 2017, we have provided 144.5 million EUROs in humanitarian aid mainly in the Northeast. In 2018, we have set aside 34.5 million EUROS for provision of food aid.
We are working in Borno State and currently in dialogue with Yobe State on how we can expand our support to the area. All together, we have set aside 257.5 million EUROS in our support not only for humanitarian aid but also in our long term development in that region. There is need for military response, engagement in political dialogue and humanitarian aid to those that are displaced. But there is also need to engage in long term development to secure jobs and strengthen local and state institutions so that they can provide all the opportunities. We are working the talk on not only providing humanitarian relief but also engaging in long term development cooperation. We are supporting water and sanitation projects in 14 states to the tune 353.5 million EUROS, reaching and benefitting more than four million people in the country. We have also opted to respond to the call of Nigerian authorities to engage in energy sector. Almost 81 million Nigerians have no access to electricity. That is roughly the size Germany, EU’s biggest member.
DT: What is your assessment of EU’s trade cooperation with Nigeria?
Trade and investment is a natural part of our partnership. EU remains by far the most significant trading partner for Nigeria. About 25.3 billion EUROS was traded in 2017. There is a clear significant surplus in the benefit of Nigeria. Of the trade volume, around 50% more is actually benefitting Nigeria. About 40% of Nigeria’s external market is the European market. We are exploring together on how to expand the trade partnership to make sure that the economy of Nigeria is contributing to long term development through diversification of production, inclusive growth and through looking at key value chains where there is a potential for additional market access in Europe and beyond where there are real opportunities to create additional jobs that are already needed and will be more needed in the nearest future as we see a very significant population growth in the country. DT: The Nigerian government and private sector have raised concerns about the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). Is the EU considering amending the agreement to address those
concerns?
We are in continuous dialogue with all stakeholders here. We appreciate the fact that whether to sign or not is a sovereign decision of any country, Nigeria included. But what we do want is to continue engaging everybody to stress the potential benefits. We are convinced that there will be benefits for Nigeria in engaging in the EPA and lend opportunities for businesses in the country to develop. However, we respect and listen very carefully to all the concerns and we understand where those concerns are coming from most. It is a genuine interest to make sure that industries in Nigeria develop, that the youths get opportunities for employment and that Nigerian industries are not exposed to unfair competition, but actually real opportunities for them to thrive. If that concern exists, then we need to take it serious, and that is exactly what we are doing. We have no illusion that we will force anything upon anybody. We just want to continue our dialogue on this particular issue.
DT: How would you assess Nigeria’s implementation of recommendations of EU’s observers to the 2015 general elections?
It is always a question of whether the glass is half-full or half-empty. We had a mid-term assessment done in October last year. We foresee having a visit of the European parliamentarians that participated in the last election observation in June this year. This is an opportunity for stocktaking on the progress on the recommendations. When we made the last stock-taking, we figured that around three or four of the seven main recommendations had moved significantly. But we also appreciate that it is difficult to draw any conclusion until all the decisions have been taken at all levels. The fundamental calls that we are making at this point in time is to stress the importance of having reforms done in time ahead of the election in order to allow INEC to properly implement the changes. We have noted that not sufficient progress has been made in our view in terms of recommendations on participation of women in the election. We hope that the political parties and all the stakeholders will do more. Also, more can be done in terms of participation of youths.