Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday expressed deep concerns at the unfolding political situation in Guinea Bissau and urged respect for constitutional order.
The Nigerian leader made the appeal following the dismissal of Guinea Bissau’s prime minister Domingos Simoes Pereira and his cabinet by president Jose Mario Vaz.
In a statement signed by presidential spokesman Femi Adesina, the Nigerian leader appealed for calm, calling on the leadership in Guinea Bissau to exercise utmost restraint and ensure the maintenance of law and order as efforts continue to resolve the current crisis.
“The president particularly urges the leadership in Guinea Bissau, including the military, to ensure respect for constitutional order, sanctity of life and safety of citizens, and avoid taking any further action that can threaten the fragile democratic institutions recently established in the country,” the statement said.
Buhari had sent Olusegun Obasanjo, a former Nigerian leader, as his special envoy to meditate and help find a solution to the crisis brewing in Guinea Bissau.
Obasanjo had embarked on the first leg of his mission on Thursday by consulting with president of Senegal, Macky Sall, who doubles as chairman of the ECOWAS authority of heads of state and government.
“It is regrettable that while Obasanjo was still consulting with President Sall, President Jose Mario Vaz of Guinea Bissau proceeded to appoint and swear-in a new Prime Minister in the person of Mr. Baciro Dja, a development that has worsened the political situation in his country,” the statement said.
The appointment of Dja, formerly minister of presidential affairs in the small West African country, has been condemned by some senior members of the ruling party who are also mobilizing for a public protest in the coastal capital.
