{"id":7246,"date":"2018-01-16T19:49:20","date_gmt":"2018-01-16T19:49:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=7246"},"modified":"2018-01-16T19:49:20","modified_gmt":"2018-01-16T19:49:20","slug":"why-we-insisted-on-respect-for-constitutional-change-in-the-gambia-buhari","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=7246","title":{"rendered":"Why we insisted on respect for constitutional change in the Gambia – Buhari"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Garba Shehu<\/strong>, Senior Special Adviser to the President, Media & Publicity
\nPresident Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday in Abuja expressed disappointment that he and other leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) had to use strong-arm tactics to get Yahya Jammeh, the former Gambian president out of office after failing to win re-election.
\n\u201cWe had to go through those actions because it was the only option for Nigeria and ECOWAS,\u201d President Buhari told Mr. Adama Barrow, the President of the Gambia who succeeded Jammeh.
\nPresident Buhari recalled that in spite of all entreaties, the former\u00a0President refused to accept the outcome of the election he superintended which was widely accepted as credible.
\n\u201cWe thank God for the role He allowed us to play in the Gambia.\u00a0 We believe in multi-party democracy.\u00a0 In Africa, it is absolutely necessary but for the system to work and one to come out of it clean, there is need for patience.
\n\u2018\u2018Patience on the part of leaders is also necessary in view of ethnic and religious diversities that prevail.\u00a0 Leaders must be patient, hardworking and resourceful,\u201d he said.
\nPresident Buhari counselled that if African countries can get the institutional structures of democracy working properly, the continent will emerge from the process of development successfully.
\nHe urged the Gambian leader to uphold the legacy of free and fair elections which he described as the biggest guarantee for democracy.
\nComparing experiences with the new leader of the Gambia, the Nigerian leader said one of the biggest challenges facing Nigeria is unemployment.
\n\u201cSixty percent of the 180 million people are under 25 years.\u00a0 They all wish for a secure future.\u00a0 Those of them who are educated feel they are more qualified for employment.
\n\u201cWe have studied the problem and are doing our best to stabilize the situation.
\n\u2018\u2018We took over from a party that had been in power for 16 years.\u00a0 During those years, the country earned an unprecedented amount of money as revenue, never seen at any time before.\u00a0 It is noteworthy that, no matter how grudgingly, the people are accepting that we are doing our best,\u201d he said.
\nAt the end of the meeting, the President announced that representatives of both countries will deliberate and advise the leaders on how best to strengthen the existing level of cooperation between the two states.
\nPresident Barrow said he came to thank Nigeria and its leader in person for ensuring the completion of the democratic process in his country which had stalled back then following the refusal of Jammeh to accept the election results.
\nThe Gambian leader said his country received the support of Nigeria in many spheres, citing education, administration, justice and security sectors and requested President Buhari to continue to be of assistance.
\n\u201cWe will never forget Nigeria for the help it has rendered to us since independence,\u201d the visiting Gambian leader said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Garba Shehu, Senior Special Adviser to the President, Media & Publicity President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday in Abuja expressed disappointment that he and other leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) had to use strong-arm tactics to get Yahya Jammeh, the former Gambian president out of office after failing to win […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":7247,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7246\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}