President Muhammadu Buhari said on Thursday that Nigeria was committed to sustaining democracy in the West African sub-region and would continue to do so within its limits.
He spoke in Abuja when he received visiting Burkinabe President, Roch Marc Christian Kabore, at the Presidential Villa.
The Burkina Faso leader was on a one-day official visit to Nigeria, according to the State House.
Buhari told his visitor, “We are keeping tabs on situations in countries that have elections ahead. We know the countries that are calm and the ones where there have been unfortunate casualties.
“We will always support those who have elections ahead, so that things can go smoothly.”
Burkina Faso has its legislative elections coming up later in November.
Buhari made the pledge to consolidate democracy just days after he had urged African leaders not to exceed their constitutionally-fixed terms in office so as to avoid needless political tensions in their domains.
Kabore heads the Economic, Trade and Liberalisation Scheme of Economic Community of West African States.
He informed Buhari he was in Nigeria for talks on issues affecting the sub-region.
The Burkinabe leader listed the issues to include “convening of a joint commission meeting between Nigeria and Burkina Faso, reported trade difficulties among Nigeria, Ghana, Republic of Benin, and Niger Republic, and the way forward.”
Kabore, who also spoke on the raging COVID -19 pandemic, praised Buhari for putting much efforts to lead other ECOWAS countries to introduce measures to check the spread of the virus, being the Chairman of COVID-19 response in West Africa.
He noted, “I must also applaud your strong leadership against terrorism in the sub-region.”
Presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, quoted Kabore as mentioning the crisis in Mali, saying that “we need cohesion all over West Africa.”
He was optimistic that Tuesday’s summit held in Ghana on the Mali case, would help in fast-tracking efforts by the ECOWAS countries to return Mali to civil rule.
Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo had attended the summit in Accra on behalf of Nigeria.
