Britain has threatened to deny visa to Nigerian politicians who would disrupt the 2023 elections.
The British high commissioner to Nigeria, Ms Catriona Laing issued the threat in Port Harcourt yesterday when she visited Rivers State for the first time.
She advised the state governor, Mr. Nyesom Wike and the minister of transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi to work and ensure peaceful 2023 poll in the state.
“It is essential that there’s a peaceful election in Rivers State. It’s going to be a crucial part of his (Wike) legacy, how the election goes in this state. We’ve been saying the same thing to Amaechi.
“Another thing we will be doing is to remind people that if people do incite violence or act violently, we will be prepared to deny them visas to the UK. We will make that statement clear and say it over again,” she said.
She sympathised with Nigeria on the multifaceted challenges the country has been grappling with adding that Britain would be struggling if it had the same problems.
“I do have some sympathy for Nigeria because if we as UK have one of these problems your country is having today, we will be struggling. Here, you deal with everything, from insurgency to kidnapping, to piracy off the Gulf of Guinea and you don’t have such a large army and police force for a country of this size.
“The only way you turn this thing around is that government has to build the trust of its people, to have the people working with the government to deal with criminality. That’s how successful anti-criminal operations work.
“People willingly report those committing crime, working with police to identify criminals, same with the military on the insurgency situation.
“It’s only when the community is on the side of the police and security services that they can turn around the situation,” Laing said.
On the expectations for Nigeria’s 2023 elections, Laing said: What happens in the elections is very crucial, not just for Nigeria, but Africa to the world. You (Nigeria) are a large democracy.
“It doesn’t have to be a perfect election. There would be problems, but we want it to be better than the last one. We want it to be secure, peaceful, the process should be run well, and you need to get people to register,” she added.
On her choice of candidates, she said: “My ideal candidates would be two younger presidential candidates, both with female vice presidential candidates,” she said:
