Nigeria – A former governor of Ekiti State Ayodele Fayose said he is in support of the military coup in Gabon, reports The Guardian.
On Wednesday, August 30, military officers in Gabon announced that they have seized power and placed President Ali Bongo under house arrest.
The coup was carried out after the Central African state’s election body announced Bongo had won a third term.
The officers declared on television that the election results were cancelled, borders closed and state institutions dissolved, after a tense vote that was set to extend the Bongo family’s more than half century in power.
Reacting to the event on Channels Television, Fayose questioned why an individual will be in power for decades.
“I’m very happy with what happened with Gabon, I don’t like military incursion in politics but I want to say to you Nigeria is different because we have reasonably stabilised the democracy,” Fayose said.
“We may have our flaws; remember that now in Nigeria you can see uninterrupted democratic process, you can see that you know after four years there will be an election. Nigeria has gone from one party to another party, one person to another person in a space of time.
“But in a country where one man is spending 30 years, 20 years, 40 years, they must boot him out of the place whichever way, that’s different from Nigeria setting,“ he said.
Fayose, who said Nigeria is not there yet in the final order and again Nigeria is a 200 million population, noted that Gabon is a country of 2.5 million population, while Ekiti, a state he governed for eight years is more populated than Gabon.
He said the military coming in should equally allow a process, a transition, possible shortest transition to allow these things to be perfected.
“You can’t spend more than a particular number of years but don’t compare it with Nigeria. I’m not saying anything cannot happen but no coup and Nigerians when you mention such they will go and report you.
“They will come and carry you in the house. Because the moment you hear about coup and you do not report it let me say you deserve to be killed,“ Gauose added.
