Africa should be proud of Obasanjo, says Guinea Bissau President

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NIGERIA: THE President of Guinea Bissau, Jose Mario Vaz, has declared that the former Nigerian President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, is one of the greatest African leaders that the continent should be proud of.

He said that to have Obasanjo as an African leader in this century is indeed a blessing to Africa and the world.

Vaz made this disclosed on Thursday when he met the ex-President at the Presidential wing of the Muritala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.

The Guinean leader, who met Obasanjo shortly after the end of ECOWAS meeting in Abuja, said that he flew to Lagos to see Obasanjo.

He commended Obasanjo on the mediatory roles he played in the political crisis that engulfed his country.

Barely three months ago, President Muhammadu Buhari picked Obasanjo to wade in into the rift generated in Guinea Bissau following the sack of the Prime Minister by the President.

Vaz had dismissed Prime Minister, Mr. Domingos Simoes Pereira and his cabinet, but Obasanjo, who was appointed as the Special Envoy to mediate and find panacea to the rift, met with the Chairman of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Authority of Heads of State and Government, President Macky Sall, who is the President of Senegal.

They both met in Dakar and began deliberations on the way out, GatewayMail learnt.

Buhari had said then that the decision by Vaz to appoint a new minister when negotiation was still ongoing was a bad omen for the country.

“It is regrettable that while Chief Obasanjo was still consulting with President Sall, President Jose Mario Vaz of Guinea Bissau proceeded to appoint and swear-in a new Prime Minister in the person of Mr. Baciro Dja, a development that has worsened the political situation in his country,” the president said in a release signed by his Special Adviser (Media and Publicity), Mr. Femi Adesina

But shortly after the resolution of the rift, Buhari, who praised Vaz and his people for the peaceful resolution of the political crisis that left the country without a government for 37 days, applauded the laudable role played by Obasanjo, who was also adopted by ECOWAS as the regional body’s Special Envoy on the political dispute in Guinea-Bissau.

Buhari praised Obasanjo for a job well done and commended the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government for its steadfast commitment to peace, security and progress in Guinea-Bissau and the entire West African region.

“President Buhari welcomes President Jose Mario Vaz’s acceptance of the solution to the recent political crisis proffered by Chief Obasanjo and congratulates Mr. Carlos Correia on his emergence as the new Prime Minister of Guinea-Bissau,” Adesina, said.
“He urges President Vaz and Prime Minister Correia to work together harmoniously to move their country forward as envisaged by authors of the Guinea-Bissau constitution which splits the executive arm of government into the Presidency and the Premiership,” Adesina quoted Buhari to have said.
Vaz, who spoke through an interpreter after his almost one hour private talk with Obasanjo, said: “We have come to visit Baba to appreciate him for coming to Guinea Bissau.  You know President Buhari appointed him special envoy to come and mediate in our crisis and he was able to put everybody on the same level,” the said.
The President added: “He really played important role in finding political solution to the situation we faced in Guinea Bissau and I told President Buhari that I needed to come and say thank you and wish him a merry Christmas.”
While stressing that Obasanjo also further played his fatherly role in Africa, Vaz said: “When I told him about the situation in Burkina Faso, I asked Baba to look into Burkina Faso as he did for Guinea Bissau.  I should be frank to say that Baba is one of the greatest leaders in Africa. We must all be proud to have him in this continent.”
Obasanjo, after seeing Vaz, said that he played the role of a special envoy to bring peace and stability to Guinea Bissau.

“It was just that the President seems not to get all that he wanted and the political party leadership seems not to get what they wanted too,” he said, adding: “But, we were able to resolve all this.  I think he is just a man that appreciate such good deeds and that was why he came.

“I also asked him how far they are now doing and he said everything is going fine.  And he wanted to go to my village from here, but I said not now, may be another time.”

• Story by Temitope Odupitan