The Federal Government, led by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has allayed any concerns about a military takeover in Nigeria by claiming that the nation has completely embraced democracy and that its democratic institutions are strengthening.
Following the most recent coup in Africa, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, made this statement.
Remember how certain military officials in Gabon seized over and put Ali Bongo, the country’s former president, and his family under house arrest? In Central Africa is Gabon.
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Following the coup, which raised the total number of coups on the continent in the previous three years to seven, the soldiers claimed that the presidential vote from last Saturday, which extended the Bongo family’s longstanding control, had been invalidated. This brought a sudden end to the Bongo family’s 56-year rule in the country.
Military forces launched a coup in the Niger Republic a few months before to the coup in Gabon, detaining President Mohamed Bazoum of that West African nation.
Mohammed Idris asserted in an interview with Newsmen that Nigeria was not in any way threatened by recent coups in other African nations, saying, “I can tell you that there is no fear or apprehension at all.” Since then, we have moved past it and have been a democracy with strengthening democratic institutions.
The minister stated, “Nigeria is a different country. Nigerians will no longer accept such, so it will be difficult for anyone, at this point of our national development, to come out to do that or for us to start nursing any apprehension. We have very strong democratic institutions, so it is very difficult for anybody to just take up arms against the state. So, there is no apprehension at all.
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“We have to stand up against military takeover anywhere on the continent. That does not mean we are afraid that such could happen in Nigeria. The fact that something like that happened elsewhere does not mean we have to live in fear. No, we have gone past that.”
The Minister discredited any scheme to reform the military and added that Nigeria’s democracy was still peaceful and stable.
He added, “That does not even arise. Let’s not talk about what does not even exist at all. Nigeria is stable and peaceful, and all our democratic institutions are very strong and are getting stronger. Like I said, there is no fear or apprehension at all.”
Mohammed Idris insisted that President Bola Tinubu, who also serves as the Chairman of ECOWAS, had no desire to go to war with the Niger Republic.
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He said, “The President is interested in the peaceful resolution of this conflict. Of course, he has maintained consistently that there is nothing off the table, but the preference and number one choice for Mr. President is that there should be a very peaceful resolution of the conflict there or the return to democratic order.
“The President is a democrat, and there is no way he will not support democracy anywhere in the world, particularly on the African continent. So, discussions are ongoing, and the fact that something has happened in Gabon does not in any way take away the President’s eyes from the issue in Niger.
“We are not beating the drums of war, and war is the last resort for anybody. The President is not interested in war; he is interested in the peaceful resolution of the constitutional disorder there.”
He stressed that consultations were ongoing on the Niger coup.
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