By Wale Odunsi President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday decried the rate of coup d’état in Africa. Since August 2020, Africa has...
By Wale Odunsi
President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday decried the rate of
coup d’état in Africa.
Since August 2020, Africa has recorded mutiny in four
countries – Mali, Guinea, Sudan and Burkina Faso.
In January 2022, Burkina Faso’s President Roch Marc
Christian Kabore was arrested after soldiers accused his government of failing
to support them during a deadly insurgency.
In August 2018, mutineers in Mali, headed by Colonel Assimi
Goita, removed President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.
Elite soldiers in Guinea, led by Col Mamady Doumbouya,
ousted President Alpha Conde in September 2021.
A coup was executed in Sudan in October 2021 after an
initial failed attempt. The military later reinstated civilian authority but
remains involved in government.
On Friday, Buhari told the Portuguese Parliament that
Nigeria will continue to seek consensus on the full resumption of democratic
governance in West Africa.
He received commendations from the Parliament’s President,
Augusto Santos Silva on the role Nigeria is playing to stabilize West Africa
and Guinea Bissau.
Buhari regretted that three countries have slipped back to
undemocratic rule, saying that Portuguese ex-colony Guinea Bissau was lucky to
have survived those attempts.
The President said Nigeria will continue to work within the
framework of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to reverse
the unwanted situation.
On the failed attempt in Guinea Bissau, Buhari expressed
confidence that the country and the continent will overcome the problems.
The leader, however, commended the growing trade and
political relationship between Nigeria and Portugal.
“This visit will put in place the firm foundations of a
special relationship between our two countries, the national governments and
the citizens”, he said.
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