EU spends over £100m on democracy - Karlsen

The European Union has spent over 100 million Euros for the support of democratic institutions to strengthen electoral process in Nigeria.

This was disclosed by the Head of European Union (EU) Delegation to Nigeria and to ECOWAS, Ambassador Ketil Karlsen yesterday at youth votes count campus outreach programme at University of Abuja.

He said European Union Delegation has been present in Nigeria since 1999 general elections to strengthen democratic process.

“This is why we have supported with more than 100 million Euros to democratic institution for electoral process,” he said.

He said the EU also spent 26.5 million Euros for the support of INEC, youth, women organisations to strengthen political parties in the country. He urged the youth to participate in democratic process by respecting everybody and their opinion.

He also urged students not to engage in hate speech or violence in solving political challenges of the nation.

INEC youth ambassadors and popular artists, Innocent Idibia, Helen Paul and Cobhams Asuquo urged the students to use their voter’s cards during the next elections.

Also speaking, the President of UniAbuja students Union Government, Bashir Obasanjo said some of the challenges that youth faced in electoral process include lack of knowledge, lack of participation and lack of support and encouragement.