The British government says it is monitoring the electoral processes in the Bayelsa, Kogi and Imo States governorship November 11polls with keen interest.

British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Richard Montgomery made this known in Abuja when he paid a courtesy visit on the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje.

The envoy expressed satisfaction with Nigerian politicians for resorting to legal means to resolve disputes arising from the conduct of the 2023 general elections in the country.

According to him: “I as British High Commissioner have a role to understand the politics of this great country and to engage with the political parties to understand both the priorities and the challenges and opportunities of the political process in Nigeria so that I can understand your great country better and explain it to my ministers back in London.

“And so it’s been a great pleasure to come and call on you and also to understand your perspectives on a number of issues.

“Obviously, there are topical concerns that we have touched on like the gubernatorial elections, the runoff elections in Imo Bayelsa, and in Kogi states.

“That we wish to understand and are watching carefully to see the process and the way it is carried out.

“We’ve discussed a number of the legal issues present in the political domain at federal and state level. And it’s important for us as a diplomatic mission to understand how those processes are playing out.

” And we are very admiring of the way that Nigeria is using the courts to settle disputes of elections at every level when they occur. And we appreciate that process.”

Ganduje thanked the British Government for its sustained interest in Nigeria adding that as a former colony of the British, Nigeria has a lot to learn in terms of management of the democratic process.

He assured that the APC would do all within its powers to sustain the tenets of democracy in the country.

He noted: “We are so pleased to have you especially that the relationship between Britain and Nigeria is a long history. You are our colonial masters. We got our independence from you, you know our country.

“Even though things are dynamic, things are changing. But all along since before independence during independence up to this moment, we always have representative for a UK in Nigeria. So I will not take much time to tell you who we are because you know who we are.

“Let us know that we started with a political system similar to your own because we borrowed from you and you assist us. After having independence you assisted us to form political parties. And to conduct elections during that time.

“We thank you for coming and we are looking forward to have stronger ties. And we’re looking forward to learn more from you because you have older political institutions than our own country.

“You have seen it all but our own is an evolutionary one, which we want to take our institution to a much higher level to a strong level, anything you do without having a strong institution then it collapses after some time, but we have to have a high degree of sustainability of our institution. ”