Mr. Emeka C. Kalu, Director-General, Global Initiative for Good Governance, has described as wrong the stance of Economic Community of West African State (ECOWAS) on the political impasse that engulfed Guinea Bissau.
Kalu, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain and National Director, Special Duties of Peoples Democratic Party Youth Alliance (PDPYA), who spoke exclusively to NEXT EDITION on Friday, said with ECOWAS insisting on imposing the Aristides Gomes-led government on the people of Guinea-Bissau, it was sending a wrong signal to the region and the rest of the international community, thereby giving a false impression that the PAIGC won an absolute majority in the March legislative elections.
According to him, “ECOWAS and the international community can rediscover their footing by reflecting on these two questions: Did the PAIGC belong to a coalition with the APU-PDGB and is this coalition still in existence? Is ECOWAS telling the people of Guinea-Bissau that the APU-PDGB party is forbidden to leave the coalition with PAIGC and form a new majority?”
Kalu, a public affairs commentator, was reacting to President José Mário Vaz dissolution of the government led by Dr. Aristides Gomes on October 28, 2019, an action which he said did not take observers of that nation’s politics in the last six years by surprise.
He said the only surprising development was the involvement of Eng. Nuno Gomes Nabiam, President of the APU-PDGB political party, in the process, insisting that there was need to understand the underlying factors in order to see the loopholes in the stance of the ECOWAS Ministerial Mission in Guineau Bissau.
He reiterated that what had been at stake in Guinea-Bissau was not the superiority battle between President José Mário Vaz and PAIGC (minority/opposition) leader Domingos Simões Pereira, but the respect and observance of the operation of a democratic setup that was hinged on a semi-Presidential and parliamentary system.
Kalu stressed that many people do not understand the nature of Guinea-Bissau’s Parliamentary democracy, which involves coalition formation in incidences where none of the political parties obtains an absolute majority in the legislative elections, adding that this was the case in the 2019 legislative elections.
He added: “Assuming that the coalition Government between APU-PDGB and PAIGC must remain intact for the sake of fulfilling the ritual of concluding the election cycle by organising the November 24 presidential election, even when the two coalition partners believe that the usefulness and viability of their coalition was untenable and unsustainable in relation to aspirations and values of their respective membership and party organs.
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He maintained that in refusing to accept the realities of the political shifts in Guinea-Bissau arising out of the realignments in the configuration of seats in the National Assembly, the ECOWAS and the rest of the International Community were burying their heads in the sand,in the name of attempting to solve the JOMAV-DSP rivalry.
“The International Community must rise above this narrow view of their country’s politics and engage with all political parties and presidential hopefuls in the discussions relating to the holding of free, fair and transparent elections,” he added.
Giving a background to the crisis in that country, Kalu said it all started when the results of last March’s legislative elections were published, and the PAIGC, contrary to its expectations, failed to get the majority needed to govern as it had won only 47 of the 102 seats in the National Assembly.
“In order to form government, the PAIGC had to enter into a coalition with one or more parties with seats in the National Assembly to go past the 50% threshold. Failure to form such a coalition would mean that any other parties could form a coalition and form Government.
“Consequently, the PAIGC leadership reached out to Eng. Nuno Gomes Nabiam’s APU-PDGB Party, which had won five seats in the National Assembly for a coalition.
“The coalition of PAIGC and APU-PDGB political parties is the one that nominated Prime Minister Dr. Aristides Gomes and his government. If APU-PDGB party had objected to this coalition’s formation, the political history of Guinea-Bissau would have panned out differently.”
He maintained that Nabiam, the leader of the APU-PDGB, reached a gentleman’s agreement with Eng. Domingos Simões Pereira and his PAIGC party, that as a result of this parliamentary advocacy coalition with PAIGC, the PAIGC Party would take the position of Prime Minister and return the favour by supporting the Presidential candidature of Eng. Nuno Gomes Nabiam of APU-PDGB party in the November Presidential elections.”
As things turned out, with the PAIGC fronting Eng. Domingos Simões Pereira for Presidency, it became evident that their party did not respect their coalition partners and were not willing to make concessions to their political allies for the sake of the nation’s stability.
“This suspicion and clear breach of political trust is at the centre of the decision by APU-PDGB party to exit the coalition government headed by Dr. Aristides Gomes and enter into a new coalition with a majority in the National Assembly by the Social Renewal Party (PRS) and the Movement for the Democratic Alternative (MADEM-G15).
“This development naturally collapses the government of Dr. Aristides Gomes, with or without the decree by the President of the Republic.”
