We repeat Mugabe is illegitimate-Nigeria
The Nigerian government has reiterated that President Robert Mugabe is illegitimate and the June run-off elections were a farce.
Nigeria’s Minister of foreign affairs, Ojo Maduekwe said Nigeria still mantains its rejection of the June run-off election and its results should not be the basis for any power sharing talks,the official told the News Agency of Nigeria , shortly before departing for Lusaka.
The minister will represent the Nigerian government at the burial of late Zambian President, Levy Mwanamasa.
“I want to use this opportunity to reaffirm that what Nigeria said at the AU summit still remains.
“Our position is that we do not consider the presidential run-off of June as a basis for moving forward; we felt and we still do feel that way,’’ he said.
“We did not say so because we are perfect; we didn’t think that the notion of people living in glass houses, should intimidate Nigeria from speaking up about what is right in Zimbabwe and the rest of Africa.
Referring to comments by Mugabe about “those who live in glass houses’’, Maduekwe said “the glass house” had been reinforced, transformed by rule of law and independence of judiciary.
“There is no basis to apologise to Zimbabwe for our standing firm on democracy, rule of law, good governance, and the triumph of multi-party democracy on the continent,’’ Maduekwe said.
“It costs us money, time and in many instances lives; we have a strategic interest in this matter because quite often when there is democratic failure, it leads to civil unrest that might even lead to civil war,’’ he stressed.
Maduekwe explained that Nigeria could not look the other way because traditionally, its foreign policy focus was on Africa.
“Ours is an Afro-centric foreign policy which really both history and demography left us with no option, because every 4th African is a Nigerian,’’ he added.
Maduekwe observed that the threat to continental stability was not inter-state, but intra-state conflicts which normally emanated from democratic failure to address electoral succession.
He said Nigeria would not interfere in the situation in Zimbabwe because it is the people of the country that would determine their future.
“We are also concerned that there should be no meltdown in Zimbabwe, the economy is already in tartars, and inflation rate is over a million per cent.
“The people of Zimbabwe deserve a lot better than they are going through,’’ Maduekwe said.
Additional reporting by News Agency of Nigeria
Posted by Wellington Chadehumbe
on September 3, 2008. Filed under Local News.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Socialize
Recent Comments