• President Bola Tinubu speaking at the ECOWAS summit in Abuja [PHOTO: Presidency]
Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu says “autocratic contagion” is spreading across Africa and he is committed to working with other heads of state in the continent to defend democracy.
Tinubu stated this in his first response to the Wednesday coup in Gabon, according to a statement by his spokesperson, Ajuri Ngelale.
Military officers in Gabon, on Wednesday, took over power in the central African country. They said they seized power because elections held over the weekend were not credible.
They cancelled the elections, dissolved all state institutions and closed the country’s borders.
In his statement, Mr Ngelale said President Tinubu is “watching developments unfolding in Gabon very closely and with deep concern for the country’s socio-political stability” and at the “seeming autocratic contagion appearing to spread to other parts of the African continent.”
President Tinubu is leading ECOWAS’ efforts to reverse the coup in neighbouring Niger and has been reluctant to authorise the use of force as approved by the ECOWAS heads of government to restore constitutional order in Niger.
The coup in Gabon, which comes a month after the one in Niger, is the seventh in Africa since 2019.
In a separate statement, on Wednesday, Mr Ngelale said President Tinubu held a “substantive and extended discussion with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, where issues related to the crisis in Niger Republic and the unfolding situation in Gabon were discussed.”
“The two heads of state mutually agreed that the promotion and protection of constitutional democratic governance on the continent remains a paramount priority and that the people of Africa living in the Diaspora around the world, making a huge impact on the sociopolitical landscapes of countries around the world and the economies of countries around the world, continue to urge on the global community to advance the cause of democracy on the continent for the sake of the economic prosperity of all Africans.”
He said Mr Tinubu will continue discussions on the topic with other heads of state in Africa and beyond on the
“The president, as a man who has made significant personal sacrifices in his own life for the cause of advancing and defending democracy, remains steadfast in his unwavering belief that power belongs in the hands of Africa’s great people and not in the barrel of a loaded gun,” Mr Ngelale wrote in his first statement.
“The president affirms that the rule of law and a faithful recourse to constitutional instruments of electoral dispute resolution must not be allowed to perish from our great continent.”
— PREMIUM TIMES
