In continuation of his on-going State Visit to Portugal, President Muhammadu Buhari Thursday told the Portuguese Parliament Speaker that Nigeria will continue to seek consensus on the full resumption of democratic governance throughout the West African subregion.
Reacting to profuse commendations by President of the Portuguese Parliament, Augusto Santos Silva on the role Nigeria is playing under the present administration, stabilizing West Africa and Guinea Bissau in particular, President Buhari regretted that three countries in the subregion have slipped back to undemocratic, military rule saying that the former Portuguese colony was lucky to have survived those attempts.
While attributing some of these reversals to the process of development which the new nations will pass through, he said Nigeria will continue to work within the framework of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, to reverse the unwanted situation, stressing that “we have to go back to proper democratization.”
On the failed attempt to topple the elected government of Guinea Bissau, President Buhari said in the process of national development, “we can’t do hop, start and jump,” meaning that there are no shortcuts, expressing strong confidence however that the problems will be overcome. “We will try to support him (meaning Oumarou Sissoco Embalo, the Prime Minister of Guinea Bissau).”
President Buhari said his visit to the parliament where he was honored with a ceremonial parade and a standing ovation inside the chamber by its 120 membership was an eye opener to things he had read in history books in his school days.
He described the growing trade and political relationship between the two countries as momentous, expressing hope “that this visit will put in place the firm foundations of a special relationship between our two countries, the national governments and the citizens of our two states.”
