BY EDMOND ODOK- Hours after a group of Gabonese military officers announced “putting an end to the current regime” and canceling the recent presidential election, Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu has expressed deep concern over the political situation and the socio-political stability in the Central African nation.
Reacting to the Wednesday television announcement cancelling the election which, according to official results, was won by President Ali Bongo Ondimba, the President said the rule of law and a faithful recourse to the constitutional resolution of electoral disputes must not be allowed to perish in Africa.
The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, told State House correspondents, that “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is watching developments in Gabon very closely with deep concern for the country’s sociopolitical stability and the seeming autocratic contagion apparently spreading across different regions of our beloved continent,” he said.
“The president, as a man who has made significant personal sacrifices in his own life, in the cause of advancing and defending democracy, has all of the unwavering belief that power belongs in the hands of Africa’s great people, and not in the barrel of a loaded gun.”
According to the Media Aide, President Tinubu strongly believes 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”.
He further said the President is “working very closely and continuing 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 crisis in Gabon will play out into how the continent will respond to the contagion of autocracy we are seeing spread across our continent”.
Meanwhile, reports said data collected on behalf of Ousted President Ali Bongo indicated that he was on track for a modest but clear victory in the Gabon election, with about 50 percent of the vote, as the new leader announced the coup on Wednesday morning.
Mark Pursey, the Chief Executive of BTP Advisers, said his firm had been working with Ali Bongo for 18 months before the ballot, and that polling showed he was likely to score just under 50 percent in the first-past-the-post system, well ahead of his nearest rival with about 40 percent.
However, the official results showed he had polled closer to 64 percent, out of line with Pursey’s private polling and an exit poll. Also, the data from the private polling conducted on his behalf showed that Ali Bongo was personally popular, even if his government and advisers were far less so while his ill health was apparently not seen as a reason for him to stand aside.
In an announcement on Gabon’s state TV, the coup leaders said their Republican Guard Chief, General Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, had been “unanimously” designated president of a transitional committee to lead the country.
Desire Ename, a journalist with a local media outlet, Echos du Nord, described Oligui as a cousin of Bongo and used to be the bodyguard of Bongo’s father, the late President Omar Bongo. He was head of the Secret Service in 2019 before becoming head of the Republican Guard.
