BREAKING: President Tinubu Speaks on the Coup in Gabon

Nigeria’s president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, responded to the overthrown of the democratically elected president of Gabon, Ali Bongo, by a military junta in the most recent coup in Africa.

Top military officials reportedly made an appearance on Gabonese national television on Wednesday morning to declare they were “putting an end to the current regime” and annulling an election that President Ali Bongo Ondimba won, according to official results.

President Tinubu expressed his deep concern for the political situation and the sociopolitical stability in the African nation alongside his counterparts from other nations in response to the development.

Speaking on behalf of Tinubu, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale told journalists on Wednesday in Abuja that Tinubu believes that the rule of law and a faithful recourse to constitutional resolution of electoral disputes must not be allowed to perish in Africa.

‘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,’ Ngelale said.

“The president 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,” he continued.

According to Ngelale, Tinubu stated that “our great continent must never ever allow the rule of law and a faithful recourse to constitutional resolutions and instruments of electoral dispute resolution to perish.”

In order to reach a comprehensive agreement on the next steps forward regarding how the crisis in Gabon will play out into how the continent will react to the contagion of autocracy we are seeing spread across our continent, he said the Nigerian leader is working very closely and continuing to communicate with other heads of state in the African Union.