Buhari Urges Guinea Bissau Leaders To Respect Country’s Constitution

President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed over the unfolding political situation in Guinea Bissau following the dismissal of the Prime Minister, Domingos Pereira and his cabinet by President Jose Mario Vaz.

Mr. Buhari was “deeply concerned” about the event, his spokesperson, Femi Adesina, said, and in demonstration of “true African solidarity and brotherhood, President Buhari had sent former President Olusegun Obasanjo as his Special Envoy to mediate and help find a solution to the crisis brewing in Guinea Bissau”.

The president said Mr. Obasanjo embarked on the first leg of his mission by consulting with the current Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, President Macky Sall of Senegal in Dakar on Friday.

“It is regrettable that while Chief 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,” Mr. Adesina said.

President Buhari appealed for calm and called 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 urged 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.