- President Tinubu collaborates with AU leaders to respond to Gabon’s coup, emphasizing the importance of rule of law
- He works towards consensus on next steps while monitoring Africa’s sociopolitical stability and autocratic trends
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is collaborating closely with other African Union (AU) Heads of State to develop a comprehensive consensus response to Gabon’s military coup.
Ajuri Ngelale, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, stated this Wednesday afternoon during a briefing on the situation in Gabon.
He stated that the president was keeping a close eye on the country’s sociopolitical stability as well as the autocratic contention spreading across Africa.
He quoted President Tinubu as saying that the rule of law and faithful recourse to constitutional resolutions and electoral dispute resolution instruments must not perish from the continent.
Ngelale said:
President Bola Tinubu 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.
The President as a man who has made significant, personal 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 people and not in the barrel of a loaded gun. “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 forwards 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.
The coupists struck early Wednesday, annulling Saturday’s election, which Bongo had been declared the winner.
The soldiers declared the dissolution of the republic’s institutions, including the parliament, and closed Gabon’s borders, claiming to be acting on behalf of the central African nation’s security and defense forces.
Noureddin Bongo Valentin, one of Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba’s sons, has been arrested for “treason”.
The deposed president, as well as some of his family members, have been placed under house arrest.
Ian Ghislain Ngoulou, Bongo’s son and close adviser, as well as his deputy, two other presidential advisers, and two top officials in the ruling Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG), were arrested.
According to a military leader, they were accused of treason, embezzlement, corruption, and forging the president’s signature, among other things.