Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Sunday in Arusha, Tanzania, said that sanctioning coup plotters without proper implementation mechanisms has not been effective in curbing unconstitutional change of power experienced in Africa.
He described a situation where West Africa experienced four cases of coups d’état in one year as disturbing “because we felt we had put those things behind us.”
Osinbajo spoke during a bilateral meeting with his Tanzanian counterpart, Dr Philip Mpango, on his arrival in Tanzania for the inaugural session of the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights for 2022.
The Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday titled ‘Nigeria, Tanzania united on the need for a global push against the unconstitutional change of governments in West Africa, just energy transition.’
Osinbajo, who spoke about the need to promote democratic governance on the continent against the backdrop of recent coups d’état in West Africa, emphasised the need for other regional bodies on the continent and others in the global community to support actions already taken by ECOWAS leaders.
He said, “We in ECOWAS have experienced in just under a year, four coups d’état including attempts, and it is disturbing because we felt we had put those things behind us, and now they seem to be coming back.
“It is something that we think has to do with more cooperation. AU has been very forthcoming (in condemnation) in saying that we cannot tolerate unconstitutional seizures of power. But sanctioning these coupists without any proper ‘teeth’ has not been particularly effective.
“There might be a need for us to reach out to some of the regional bodies, development financial institutions such as the World Bank, IMF, and the EU. The EU has been quite responsive, but we think that we can do a lot more just in terms of cooperation.”
