In response to the most recent coup in Gabon, where President Ali Bongo was ousted and put under house arrest, President Bola Tinubu has spoken out.
Remember how some military men based their plan to overthrow Bongo on what they perceived as apparent irregularities in the country’s most recent general election?
The officers had also acknowledged that the general elections on August 26, 2023, had not been organized in a way that would have allowed for the transparent, credible, and inclusive vote that the Gabonese people had hoped for.
They had also mentioned the unreliable and careless government, which had caused social cohesion to continue to decline and had the potential to plunge the nation into anarchy.
Ajuri Ngelale, President Tinubu’s Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, responded on his behalf on Wednesday, saying that the administration was deeply concerned about “the seeming autocratic contention apparently spreading across different regions of our beloved continent.”
According to Ngelale, the President, who has made major personal sacrifices in his own life to advance and defend democracy, is adamant that power should rest in the hearts and minds of Africa’s great people rather than at the end of a loaded pistol.
He said the President
“affirms that the rule of law and a faithful recourse to the constitutional resolutions and instruments of electoral dispute resolution must not at any time be allowed to perish from our great continent.
“To this end, the President is working very closely and continues to communicate with other Heads of States in the African Union towards a comprehensive consensus on the next steps forward with respect to how the power in Gabon will play out and how the continent will respond to contagious autocracy we have seen spread across our continent.”