Gabon Coup: Tinubu ‘Working Closely’ With AU To Determine Next Line Of Action

Gabon Coup: Tinubu ‘Working Closely’ With

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has said that he is working closely with the African Union (AU) to determine the next line of action to take in Gabon where the military has taken over constitutional power.

 

Gabonese soldiers on Wednesday announced a coup hours after President Ali Bongo Ondimba, whose family has controlled the country for a half-century, was declared to have been re-elected for a third term in a disputed election.

 

The Gabonese coup leaders also announced the cancellation of the election results, while President Ali Bongo and his family were put under house arrest.

 

Reacting to the latest coup in the French-speaking (Francophone) Central African country, which comes over a month after the July 26 bloodless coup in a West African Niger Republic, President Tinubu, who is the current chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), said the rule of law must not be allowed to perish in Africa.

 

President Tinubu through his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, said he is watching closely with “deep concern for the country’s social political stability and at the seeming autocratic contention apparently spreading across different regions of our beloved continent.”

 

Ngelale, who made this known during a press conference at the State House in Abuja on Wednesday, said that as a man who has made significant, personal sacrifices in his own life in the course of advancing and defending democracy, Tinubu is of the unwavering belief that power belongs in the hands of Africa’s great people and not in the barrel of a loaded gun.

 

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 State 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.”