Investors will make decisions after elections – Envoy

The Nigerian Ambassador to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Dr. Eniola Ajayi, has said peaceful, fair and violent-free elections will encourage investors to make critical investment after the country’s general elections.

A statement said Ajayi spoke in Lagos during an event on this year’s ‘World Peace and Understanding Day’, organised by the Rotary Club of Lagos.

Commending Lagos Rotary Club for organising the event, at a time Nigerians was going to the polls, the ambassador stated that peaceful elections had become imperative for a more stable and predictable political environment, that would attract foreign investors.

“Investors would only invest, and also increase their investment funds, if convinced that such investments would be secure in a stable domestic market,” she said.

Ajayi, who is a former Ekiti State Commissioner maintained that the country had the potential to become the investment hub of the world, if it ensured the process bringing its leaders were peaceful, fair and transparent.

She said, “What we face currently is that investors are waiting till after the election to make investment decisions in Nigeria. There are no sentiments. It is purely a business decision; hence the need to make the process as peaceful, as possible.”

While highlighting other benefits of peaceful elections, the ambassador added that countries with a culture of peaceful elections develop a more robust civil society, greater freedom of speech and expression, as well as press freedom.

She said for a government to enjoy some form of legitimacy and trust from the people, the electoral process that would usher such government in, must be seen to be free and fair.

Such government, she noted, would attract developmental support and engender the confidence of international organisations, once elected through the proper democratic process.

Speaking at the event, the Chief Host/ District Governor, Rotary International District 9110, Rotarian Omotunde Lawson, described the programme, organised to commemorate the club’s 118th year anniversary, as a testament to its commitment to peace, across the globe.