Buhari assures on Guinea Bissau’s future

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari Wednesday assured that as the Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) contact group on Guinea Bissau, he will do his best to ensure that the country did not relapse into crisis.

He gave the assurance while receiving the Prime Minister of Guinea Bissau, Umar El-Mukhtar Sissoco-Embola, at the State House, Abuja, and expressing satisfaction on the gradual return of normalcy to the West African country.

Assuring the visiting Prime Minister of Nigeria’s continued support to political stability in Guinea Bissau, President Buhari urged the leaders to work hard to reach a lasting solution to the political crisis in the country.
He congratulated the new Prime Minister on his appointment and urged him to put the interest of the country and its people ahead of everything else.

In his remarks, Sissoco-Embola described President Buhari as his role model, adding that his country will continue to thank the government and people of Nigeria for standing by them in their moment of crisis.

He also pledged his country’s commitment to improved ties with Nigeria.

Speaking through an interpreter later, the Prime Minister told correspondents after their closed door meeting that he was in Abuja to deliver President Jose Mario Vaz’s message to President Buhari, asking him to pay an official visit to Guinea-Bissau.
He said he also used the opportunity to brief President Buhari on the socio-political development in that country and thanked the people and government of Nigeria for their support and assistance to Guinea-Bissau.

He said: “We should not forget that Nigeria leads the Contact-Group for Guinea-Bissau and of course also because of the weight of Nigeria in the comity of nations and that is why I’m here to inform Mr President of development in that country.

“And also to thank Mr President because the time when almost everybody abandoned us it was Nigeria that remained with us and supported us, assisted us until today when we have started to have stability in the country.
“We are here to develop further relations between the two countries not only in the context of South-South Cooperation, in the context of ECOWAS, but also bilaterally between the two countries.
“And it is in that context that my President asked to ask President Buhari to also come and visit Guinea-Bissau because Nigeria is our privileged partner.”