Military coups a setback for Africa, says Nigeria’s UN envoy

Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, Nigeria’s permanent representative to the United Nations (UN), says the recent coups in African countries are regressing democracy on the continent.

Speaking with NAN in New York on Saturday, Muhammad-Bande said the effects of the coups would spiral into a setback for prosperity.

He said 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.

“And people who do not understand the meaning of military rule should be told, this is not the way the continent or the sub-region wants to go or the way the world wants to be.

“And we want to be clear concerning the right of people to choose freely, because we also had to fight to free ourselves from colonialism, one country after another, some more peaceful than others.”

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(pictured).

Burkina Faso also witnessed a coup in 2022 while Chad, Guinea, Sudan, and Mali recorded military takeovers in recent years.