The United Kingdom yesterday emphasised the need for a successful transition to a new civilian administration in 2007, adding that the process must be based on transparent, free and fair elections.
The country�s High Commissioner to Nigeria, Sir Richard Gozney, gave its position in Abuja where he also urged President Olusegun Obasanjo and his government to work assiduously towards the conduct of credible, free and fair general elections next year.
He said his home government desired that a new democratic government emerged on May 29, 2007.
Gozney, who spoke during a chat with newsmen at the launch of the National Roll-out of the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Course for Trainers of English Language Teachers, also urged aggrieved losers in the gale of impeachments sweeping across the country to seek redress in the court of law.
The British Envoy stated that Nigeria was at the threshold of history as May 29 would mark the first time a democratically elected government would hand over to another, stressing that it was desperately important for Nigerians and her foreign friends to make sure that things worked reasonably well for the country in the build up towards the 2007 general polls.
He said: �Never has Nigeria managed eight years of continuous democracy. Therefore, it is important that the dates of 14th of April schedule for gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections and 21st of April for the presidential elections hold.
�It is equally important that the transfer of power takes place soon after.�
Gozney added: �We look forward on the 29th of May next year to celebrating eight years of President Obasanjo�s reform programmes and cheering him and all his ministers and his administration for what they have done and looking forward to another four years or more of reform changes, bringing the sort of standard across public life, which Nigerians want from the civilian government bringing them closer to realization.
�So that is important, the April dates and May date would be very important and it would enable the friends of Nigeria to go on joining in encouraging, helping, providing the sort of support, which Nigerians want.
�We didn�t support NTI (National Teachers Institute), we didn�t support English language training during the military governments but we do now and we want to continue doing so.�
The High Commissioner, commenting on the recent impeachments in Anambra and Plateau States, said: �The impeachment of governors is a matter of the Nigerian law. It is a matter for the court to decide. If the people feel that impeachment is wrong, they should take it to the court, right away to the supreme court.�
He added: �You have a law based system of civilian administration. And if the people are unhappy about what has happened, it is for the law to decide whether the unhappiness is well founded or not.�
In his remark, the Chief Executive of the National Teachers Institute (NTI), Dr. Ahmed Mohammed, was full of praises for the British Council for contributing towards enhancing the quality of spoken and written English in Nigeria through the CPD, which is a programme meant for the training of teachers of English language in primary and secondary schools in the country.
Gozney lamented the abuse of English language despite its status as the nation�s official language, cause by serious shortfalls of teachers of English in our schools and the inadequate opportunities for continuing professional development provided not only to school teachers but also trainers of English teachers was, however, glad that the one year duration CPD course will now address the issue of substandard English both in the public and private lives of Nigerians.
Nov172006