President Bola Tinubu has reacted to the recent military takeover in Central Africa Gabon.
Ajuri Naglale said this while addressing state house reporters on Wednesday in Abuja, according to a report by PUNCH newspaper.
A team of revolutionary military forces had on Tuesday sacked the Gabonese democratically elected president Ali Bongo.
On Wednesday morning, troops from the Gabonese army working for the Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions delivered a nationally televised speech explaining their plans to succeed President Ali Bongo.
The coup occurred just hours after Ali Bongo was declared the winner of Gabon’s presidential election, giving him a third term in government.
The soldiers highlighted that the coup was “necessary” for the growth of the West African country and that the main reasons for it were serious institutional, political, economic, and social issues.
The recent coup in Central African country has raised concerns about a trend of military takeovers, which experts have labelled as a threat to the the future of democracy across the African continent.
In reaction to the events, President Tinubu cautioned that African leaders should hold power rather than gun-toting generals.
Speaking further, the President also warned that electoral disputes related to violence should not be allowed to perish on the African continent.
His words
“His excellence is watching developments in Gabon very closely with deep concerns for the country’s social economic stability and the seeming autocratic apparently spreading to different regions of our beloved continent.
“The president, as a man who has made personal significant sacrifices in his own life in the course of advancing and defending democracy, is of the unwavering belief that power belongs in the hands of Africa’s great leaders and not in the barrel of a loaded gun.
“The president affirms 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.
“Till this end, the president is working very closely and continuing in communicating with other heads of state in the African Union for a comprehensive consensus on the next steps forward with respect to how the crises in Gabon would play out and to how the continent would respond to the contagion of autocracy we have seen spread across our continent.
