President Barrow and his Senegalese counterpart, President Macky Sall have traveled to Abuja, Nigeria, to attend the country’s Democracy Day, on the invitation of President Buhari.

President Sall flew from Dakar and had a brief stopover at the Banjul International Airport VIP Lounge, before proceeding with President Barrow and delegation on the official presidential jet of Senegal.

The two will join other African and world leaders as guests of their host, President Buhari.

Nigeria is a strategic regional ally of The Gambia, and under the leadership of President Buhari, was amongst the key stakeholders that negotiated a peaceful end to the political impasse that followed the 2016 Presidential Elections in which President Adama Barrow was democratically elected into office.

Nigeria’s Democracy Day is a national public holiday in the country that commemorates the annulled general election of June 12th 1993.

On June 12th 1993 many millions of Nigerians expressed their democratic will in a general election. The election was presumed to have been won in a landslide by the standard bearer of the Social Democratic Party, MKO Abiola, who contested against Maman Tofa of the National Republican Convention.

Despite foreign observers generally describing the elections as free and fair, the then Military President Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida annulled the elections, citing some irregularities.