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Guinea-Bissau: ECOWAS backs parliament speaker as interim president
The coup leaders in Guinea-Bissau and west African mediators agreed on Friday that parliamentary speaker Manuel Serifo Nhamadjo will lead a transition government, ruling out the return of the toppled team.
The Nigerian official leading the west African mediation effort indicated that there was no chance the former government would be restored.
There “is no question of the return” of former prime minister Carlos Gomes and former interim president Raimundo Pereira, who were ousted on April 12, said Nurudeen Mohammad, Nigeria’s state minister for foreign affairs.
“We have taken the decision which is the will of the majority of parties. The president of the National Assembly will lead the transition,” he explained.
Mohammad is leading an Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) delegation which arrived in Bissau on Thursday and engaged in long discussions with the junta, political parties and civil society.
At the end of April the junta named Nhamadjo interim leader, but he refused, saying his nomination was not legal.
However with the blessing of ECOWAS, he has now accepted.
