[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 44 (Wednesday, March 8, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H1199-H1200]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                DEMOCRATIC AND SAFE ELECTIONS IN NIGERIA

  (Ms. JACKSON LEE asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor where I am always 
reminded of the privileges of this Nation. That is why we fight so hard 
to end voter suppression, oppression, and the denial of the right to 
vote.
  This institution is the cradle of democracy. This past weekend we 
were in Selma, Alabama, where really the first start of democracy and 
the right to vote was reignited in the 20th century.
  As Nigeria, our ally and friend, begins to look at its national 
elections, I call upon the Nigerian diaspora to insist on democratic 
and safe elections and to be assured that the count is accurate and 
that the people's voices are counted.
  As the chair of the Nigerian Caucus in the United States Congress, I 
must insist that our ally gives the same rights and privileges that we 
fight for in the United States: the unfettered right to vote and for 
the vote to count.

[[Page H1200]]

The fact is that the vote is your birthright and it is your voice.
  I hope that the Nigerian Government and all of those in the Nigerian 
diaspora will stand for democracy and the right to an unfettered vote 
in the Nigerian elections.

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