The risk of electoral violence in Nigeria was high due to exacerbating conflicts in the Delta region, the North-East and for the decades-long conflict between pastoralists and sedentary farmers. Fully aware of the main challenges, the country’s Independent National Electoral Commission (NEC) was committed to resolve the problems related to the situation of internally displaced people and other vulnerable groups to constituency delimitation and many others. In order to support the NEC in tackling these challenges the EU sent an Electoral Observation Mission EOM in 2015 to assess the general elections in the country and has been engaged intensively on the follow-up of the recommendations on both the political and technical level.
Therefore, the overall objective of this assignment was to contribute to the consolidation of democracy and to support institution building and transparency in Nigeria in the context of the implementation of the EU EOM recommendations of 2015.
The specific objectives of the Mission were to:

• Assess and report to the European External Action Service and the EC on the progress made in electoral reforms since the delivery of the final report of the 2015 EU EOM.
• Review and adjust the set of EOM recommendations to the developments regarding electoral and legal reforms as well as the current institutional, political and social context; new recommendations were given to improve future electoral processes, with specific focus on recommendations that could be implemented prior to the next Parliamentary elections in 2019 or prior to the next Presidential elections in 2018.
• Inject momentum in implementing recommendations of the 2015 EU EOM and address shortcomings in view of future elections by meeting all relevant stakeholders, including the national authorities, the election management body representatives, political actors, civil society, representatives of the international community and the media