Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed to ensure that Gambia has a peaceful handover of political power. According to
Buhari who spoke through the minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyema on Thursday, January 4, in Abuja , Nigeria will do everything possible to help Gambia avoid political crisis.
He also expressed optimism that The Gambian President Yahya Jammeh would listen to the voice of his people to resolve the political impasse in his country.
Onyeama expressed hope that Jammeh would honour the call of the ECOWAS leaders to bow out of office at the end of his mandate on January, 19, 2017.
“We will like to believe that he will listen to the voice of his peers in the sub region ECOWAS. “And that he will also listen to the voice of his people but above all he will follow the democratic path. So, we will do everything possible to bring that about.
“Essentially, we want a peaceful resolution to the issue, you know we have experienced conflict in our country and we know how far back in development conflict can take a country to.
“So we will do everything possible to help Gambia have a peaceful resolution to this political crisis”, the minister said.
Meanwhile, President Jammeh had accused West African regional body, ECOWAS of declaring war against his country, when he was asked to step down for president- elect Adama Barrow.
He vowed to stay in power in spite of losing the December, 1, 2016 election to rival Adama Barrow and promised to defend Gambia against any outside aggression in a New Year speech broadcast on state TV.
The Gambian president had initially conceded defeat in the vote, but he changed his mind days later – raising fears that regional powers might have to intervene to oust him.
