Catriona Laing, the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, said at the YIAGA Convergence 3.0 opening ceremony on Thursday that she had just returned from Zimbabwe, where she had witnessed elections and saw how strong civil society could be.

“We honestly really believe that the outcome of this election and the conduct of this election is tremendously crucial for Nigeria, for Africa, for the world,” Laing said, saying that the next generation election in Nigeria is “make or break.”

According to the High Commissioner, it has been “a little bit of a rocky road” for Nigerian democracy since 1999 but the country has “stuck with it.”

She said, “the world will be looking at this election” and whether it would be secured and conducted “relatively well” as well as if the electorate would accept the results and rally around the new leadership.

The diplomat added in part, “Speaking for my government and the new US administration, we are very conscious…we need to build a coalition of democracies.”

Liang said it is hoped that the Independent National Electoral Commission would deliver “a good election and the Electoral Act, hopefully, will be passed soon by the President for the electronic transmission of votes.”

She added, “But fundamentally, it needs people to register to vote.”

According to her, while the British Government has been monitoring the voter registration process and it has been going quite well, “we need to up the ante.”