Nigeria’s permanent representative to the United Nations (UN), Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, has said the recent coups in African countries are regressing democracy on the continent.
Speaking with newsmen in New York on Saturday, Muhammad-Bande said the effects of the coups would spiral into a setback for prosperity. According to him, African countries fought for the sovereignty of their nations and should be at liberty to choose how they would live.
“In the same vein, people also should be free within their own nations to determine how they live and so that is not a big thing to act, it is simply consistency with this, for any setback, must be called out as a setback”, the UN official said.
Muhammad-Bande said the need for democracy is not a new concept, noting that it is enshrined in the charters of the African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States, (ECOWAS).
The recent coups in Africa have been widely condemned by foreign countries and global organisations. The Gabon coup, which happened in August, was the most recent and came on the heels of the July coup in Niger Republic.
Burkina Faso also witnessed a coup in 2022 while Chad, Guinea, Sudan, and Mali recorded military takeovers in recent years.
