ECOWAS Chairman, Julius Maada Bio, is in Guinea-Bissau on a herculean but achievable mission

 

 

Abubakar Hashim

 

ECOWAS Chairman, Julius Maada Bio, is in Guinea-Bissau on a herculean but achievable mission.

Herculean due to an already sworn-in government, though military, and a sworn-in civilian Prime Minister, who now absolutely controls the instruments of power.

In this messy atmosphere, Bio cannot force the military to abdicate power voluntarily.

Bio’s mission is achievable through subtle diplomacy, anchored on his military/civil background, when he voluntarily handed over power to the late President Tejjan Kabbah in 1996 in Sierra Leone.

This achievement could likely be attained after the expiration of a one-year transition set by the military junta.

The Guinea Guinea-Bissau coup is unprecedented in the annals of coup formulation and execution.

The exiled former President Umaro Sissoko Embalo announced the coup, his arrest, and finally escaped, first to Senegal, where he was refused asylum, and then proceeded to Congo, where he is now in exile.

Guinea-Bissau, a narcotic and drug-infested state, is prone to coups. The vast majority of its 2 million population live in abject and intolerable poverty.