APA-Bissau (Guinea Bissau) Nigeria’s new president said his stint as current chair of the West African regional grouping will be spent fighting against coups and their orchestrators in the region.
Elected by his peers to lead the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) from 2024, the new Nigerian leader, Bola Tinubu, has no intention of making friends with the region’s coup plotters or regional militaries who would entertain such ‘treachery’ in their countries.
Speaking at the sixty-third ordinary session of the organisation’s Heads of State and Government in Bissau on Sunday 9 July, he defended democracy as “the best form of government even if it is very difficult to manage.”
“We need it to be an example for the rest of Africa and the world. We will not allow coup after coup in West Africa,” said Tinubu who succeeds Guinea-Bissau’s Umaro Sissoco Embalo as Ecowas chair.
The Nigerian leader assumed office two months after being elected by Africa’s largest economy, replacing his predecessor Muhammadu Buhari, who completed his two four-year terms.
However, since 2020, three member states of the regional organisation – Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso – have suffered five coups.
Although no new sanctions were imposed on these countries following the Bissau summit, ECOWAS is calling on the three juntas to respect the agreed deadlines for handing over power to civilian leaders.
On the eve of the summit of heads of state on Saturday 8 July, the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) took an important decision in favour of Mali.
It decided to lift the country’s suspension from its bodies and institutions.
Mali has been ruled by the military since August 2020, under the leadership of Colonel Assimi Goita, and is facing a serious security crisis in the fight against jihadist groups that have overran large swathes of the country.
On 18 June, the military authorities organised a referendum to revise the constitution, the first step before presidential elections scheduled for the first quarter of 2024.
ODL/ac/lb/as/APA