Chidi Samuel
Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, says Nigeria will do everything possible to help The Gambia have a peaceful resolution to its political crisis. He said he was optimistic that the Gambian President Yahya Jammeh would listen to the voice of his people to resolve the political impasse in his country.
The Nigerian foreign minister made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja.
It will be recalled that Mr. Jammeh lost the December 1, 2016 election to rival Adama Barrow. He initially accepted the result and congratulated Mr. Barrow, but later recanted saying he would not step down. He had since promised to defend Gambia against any outside aggression in apparent response to a statement credited the the President of the ECOWAS commission that military force maybe deployed to force him out.
Mr. Onyeama believes that in spite of the Gambian leader’s stance, Mr. Jammeh would honour the call of the ECOWAS leaders to bow out of office at the end of his mandate on January 19.
According to him, “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.
President Muhammadu Buhari, who is heading a mediation committee on the Gambia’s political impasse, had led other West African leaders to meet with Messrs. Jammeh and Barrow on the issue.
Other leaders in the ECOWAS delegation were Presidents Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia, Ernest Koroma of Sierra Leone, and John Mahama of Ghana.