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“Illegal power takeover will no longer be tolerated in West Africa” – Tinubu warns

Published

1 year ago

July 10, 2023

Nigeria’s President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu has condemned the military takeover of power across the West African sub-region.

Tinubu who just emerged Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States on Sunday, conveyed his position in his speech at the 63rd Summit of ECOWAS leaders in Bissau.

He vowed that ECOWAS under his watch will no longer tolerate an illegal seizure of power and warned the military in West African countries to steer clear of politics.

“We will not allow coup after coup in West African sub-region. We will take this up seriously with African Union and extend that to European Union, Britain and America,” Tinubu said.

Although the president’s speech against illegal takeover of power in West Africa comes as opposition parties challenge his electoral victory in the court, he stressed that democracy remains the best.

Tinubu added; “Democracy is very tough to manage, but it is the best form of governance, and we all ascribe to it. We must bite back. We can’t sit like toothless bulldogs in ECOWAS.

“We should serve a warning to exploiters that our people have suffered enough. We should make a pledge here that in furtherance of our region’s economic recovery and growth, we will commit to democracy, promote democracy and the rule of law”.

Over the past few years, democratic governments have been toppled in military coups in Burkina Faso, Chad, Guinea, Mali and Sudan.

Meanwhile, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, (SERAP) recently announced that it will institute a legal action against President Bola Tinubu in court.

SERAP threatened to sue the president for ‘illegally’ increasing his salary and that of Vice President Kashim Shettima by 114 percent.

The civil society organisation, in a tweet on Wednesday, described the salary increments of state governors and lawmakers as outrageous.

SERAP wrote: “We’re suing the Tinubu administration over its outrageous and illegal 114 per cent increase in the salaries of the President, vice president, state governors and lawmakers, while over 133 million Nigerians live in extreme poverty.”