Collins Adomako-Mensah, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Afigya Kwabre North Constituency has stated that no African country will benefit from any form of violence in any part of the continent.
Mentioning how onion prices have lately increased due to border closures, he emphasized that whatever happens in other nations would undoubtedly have an impact for other countries as well. He asserted that as a result, authorities must exercise caution in how they respond to the coup in Niger.
“I have said that I will prefer a democratically elected leader to a military intervention. I will always at any point in time prefer that. But at any time, leaders who have been democratically elected, don’t take the mandate of the people for granted. It is very important that we don’t lose sight of the fact that we are where we are because somebody decided to vote for you using his or her thump and that he expects you to exhibit a certain character trait or show a certain kind of leadership.
“And that the continuous oppression or suppression of the people, can lead to a situation where people will take arms and try to overthrow a democratically elected gov’t. So, this is also an advice to all of us. I get up from home, go to parliament and I’m happy about it. I always listen to Okudzeto and he was like “whenever there is coup, the first arm of gov’t that gets dissolved is parliament.” Parliament goes off, the govt in place also goes off, then I lose my job. I wouldn’t want a situation like that.”
Collins Adomako-Mensah
The MP for Afigya Kwabre North also cautioned the government not to take the will of the people for granted and to make every effort to fulfill their desires. He further explained that ongoing issues could contribute to some of these things and that the majority of people did not want a coup or war to break out.
War is Scray
Referring to an article he had read, he stated that he had learned that an ECOWAS representative had been permitted entry into Niger after being denied access to meet with the leader of the Juta and that he believed progress had been made.
He claimed that he became afraid, nevertheless, when he saw more Burkinabe and Mali soldiers invade Niger in a video. He said that knowing that Mali and Burkina Faso were prepared to help the military Junta was a terrifying menace.
He also hoped that ECOWAS would not reach a situation where it would have to attack Niger militarily.
“I’ve seen the leaders meeting in Abuja and I listened to a press conference by one of the leaders and I got a little bit scared. I just hope that we don’t get to a point where we’ll have to fight. I think that there are too many intelligent people around, whom I think should be able to bring cool heads to bear and for us to jaw jaw and settle this matter amicably. I still will appeal to the West African leaders to continue to jaw jaw.
“I strongly believe that we should be able to talk this through and come to a certain form of agreement. If the coup guys are in place and we have a discussion with them, there can be a transition process where we get back to them to have more discussions. I think we should be able to speak with each other and not at each other.”
Collins Adomako-Mensah
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