Nigeria’s President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has reacted to the latest coup in Africa, where a military junta ousted Gabon’s democratically elected President Ali Bongo.
Some top military officers appeared on Gabonese national television on Wednesday morning, announcing they were “putting an end to the current regime” and cancelling an election that, according to official results, President Ali Bongo Ondimba won.
Joining his counterparts from other countries in reaction to the development, President Tinubu, expressed his deep concern over the political situation and the socio-political stability in the African country.
Speaking on behalf of the Nigerian leader, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, told journalists on Wednesday afternoon in Abuja, that Tinubu believes that the rule of law and a faithful recourse to constitutional resolution of electoral disputes must not be allowed to perish in Africa.
“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is watching developments in Gabon very closely with deep concern for the country’s sociopolitical stability and the seeming autocratic contagion apparently spreading across different regions of our beloved continent,” Ngelale said.
He added: “The president, as a man who has made significant personal sacrifices in his own life, in the cause of advancing and defending democracy, has all of the unwavering belief that power belongs in the hands of Africa’s great people, and not in the barrel of a loaded gun.”
Ngelale added that Tinubu affirmed that “the rule of law and a faithful recourse to constitutional resolutions and instruments of electoral dispute resolution must not at any time be allowed to perish from our great continent”.
He said the Nigerian leader is working very closely and continuing to communicate with other heads of state in the African Union towards a comprehensive consensus on the next steps forward with respect to how the crisis in Gabon will play out into how the continent will respond to the contagion of autocracy we are seeing spread across our continent.
