Abuja — African presidents across the continent have spoken out strongly today in support of President Fradique de Menezes, following an army takeover in his island nation of Sao Tome and Principe.
"We condemn such actions in the strongest terms possible," Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo declared, appearing with Menezes at his side at an international conference in the Nigerian capital Abuja. The coup attempt will not be tolerated, said Obasanjo, a former military ruler who won a second term as his country's elected president in April.
The sentiment was endorsed by all of the dozen or so heads of state and government in attendance at the meeting, a plenary of the 6th Leon Sullivan Summit, which was opened on Saturday by President George W. Bush.
"I want to join my voice with that of President Obasanjo in condemning the encroachment on the constitutional government," said Ghana's President John Kufuor, who is current chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas). "All of Africa and its well-wishers must prevail on the encroachers to desist," he said.
Both Kufuor and Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, another plenary participant, said the coup must be reversed and legitimate government restored. "We cannot accept this," Wade said, ending with a warning to the rebels to surrender and a pledge to Menezes that he would be able to return home.
Earlier today, Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano, the new chairperson of the African Union, told reporters in Maputo that he condemned the coup in Sao Tome and demanded "quick restoration of constitutional legality". Other leaders taking part in the Abuja meeting, including Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso, expressed similar sentiments.
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The Rev. Andrew Young, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and Atlanta mayor who is chairing the summit, attributed the trouble to the large petroleum deposits recently discovered in the nation's territorial waters. "I don't know what happened in Sao Tome, but I know nothing happened until someone announced there was plenty of oil," he said.
The speech by Menezes drew the loudest sustained ovation from the warmly supportive crowd. He said when he got the word about the coup, he thought he shouldn't take part in the conference. But Obasanjo prevailed on him, he said, to personally make the case for support of democracy and the rule of law.
"Africa cannot achieve prosperity with bad governments, with repressive regimes, with corrupt officials, with failed states - and also with coups d'etat," he said in Portuguese-accented English. It was the second time in less than a month that the leader of one of Africa's smallest and poorest nations had brought audiences to their feet at a high-level international meeting.
Speaking in Washington on June 27, at the U.S-African Business Summit on a program with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, Menezes said he had promised his people that his country would avoid "the curse of oil," where resource-rich developing nations fare worse than poorer ones. "I will not fail them," he said. "We also cannot fail the millions of other Africans yearning for a better life for themselves and for their children."
