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Zimbabwe: Yar'Adua - Nigeria Doesn't Recognise Mugabe's Election
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This Day (Lagos)
21 July 2008
Posted to the web 21 July 2008
Paul Ohia With Reports
Lagos
President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua has said he does not recognise the June 27 run-off in Zimbabwe in which the country's President Robert Mugabe stood as the only candidate and was returned to power.
The opposition candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, withdrew from the election alleging intimidation by Mugabe.
"Africans must ensure that we anchor democracy on credible elections. We could not recognise the run-off election as the basis of a solution to the Zimbabwe crisis," Yar'Adua said in his first public reaction to the crisis in the Southern African country.
President Yar'Adua, who addressed a distinguished audience of Chatham House think tank in London during his four-day official visit, said that despite the flaws observed in Nigerian elections, the country is committed to the development of genuine democracy.
"Nigeria's goal is a commitment to the development of genuine democracy to ensure that genuine democracy becomes the dominant culture that provides a framework for development on the African continent," Yar' Adua was quoted by inthenews.co.uk as saying.
The President said Nigeria believes in the rule of law not only within but anywhere on the African continent.
Responding to questions about the issue of his own legitimacy, Yar'Adua said he had laid out electoral reform plans for Nigeria in his inaugural address and remained committed to seeing through the changes needed.
"We only deceive ourselves if we continue to pretend that post-election (violence) is not a threat to peace and stability," he added, underlining "our abiding belief that persistent stability cannot survive in a system without the rule of law."
Meanwhile, moves are being made to make the opposition in Zimbabwe and the Mugabe government arrive at a consensus but Tsvangirai refused to sign an accord leading to talks yesterday until mediator Thabo Mbeki, South Africa's President, has addressed some concerns.
Sources in the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai might sign the document as early as today so that talks could begin on ending an impasse with President Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF.
Yesterday, Tsvangirai's spokesman, George Sibotshiwe, said the MDC leader would not sign until Mbeki, criticised for his failure to help end the stand-off, ironed out concerns with parts of the memorandum, which sets out guidelines on substantive negotiations.
"I think in principle the decision is to sign the document. We are committed to the dialogue process," Sibotshiwe told Reuters.
"Our executive and council have already gone through the document and have raised their concerns with the facilitator ... the onus is on the facilitator to ensure that those things are sorted out in order for the signing to happen within the required time."
Asked whether a signing was likely today, Sibotshiwe replied "I cannot answer that. (Mukoni) Ratshitanga, the spokesperson for President Mbeki, is the only person who can respond to that."
Ratshitanga said he was not aware of any plans for Mbeki to travel to Zimbabwe "any time soon" and declined to comment on what concerns the MDC had raised.
Like Yar' Adua, the MDC has refused to recognise Mugabe's overwhelming victory.
The stalemate has dented hopes of halting an economic crisis in Zimbabwe widely blamed on the policies of Mugabe, who has been in power since independence from Britain in 1980.
The meltdown has shown itself in record inflation of well above 2 million per cent, chronic shortages of basic food and other commodities, and extremely high unemployment.
Mugabe blames the crisis on economic sabotage by Western enemies he says have supported the MDC as revenge for the government's seizure of white-owned farms for blacks.
Critics say Mbeki's mediation efforts have made no progress because his soft diplomacy is slanted in Mugabe's favour.
Tsvangirai won Zimbabwe's first-round presidential vote in March.
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Official figures showed he did not get the absolute majority needed to avoid a second-round election, but the MDC insists its leader won outright the first time.
Ummmm..cant wait to hear from all the mugabe apologists on here. any minute now they will log on en masse to denounce this man as a puppet of the west etc etc etc. Again anyone that agrees with the West is either a paid puppet of the west or if they are white is branded a racist!
Yardua knows tha he is irrelevant and incosequential to Great Zim. He runs a country with whole districts where one cannot buy gasoline and other by-products of the black gold despite that Nigeria is reckoned to be the 8th petroleum producer in the world. What a backward place it is compared to Gt Zim !!! True,we have our own problems. But we certainly need the judgement of his type. Keep out of the SADC.
haha Turnex... didnt take long did it! Its funny how as soon as someone critisises Mugabe, people like Akafunboy, who to be fair, doesnt know his @rse from his elbow, tries to discredit them. It happened with Mandela and Tutu when they critisised Mugabe also. When all these people are stacking up against Mugabe, it must come to a head eventually...
awt...it is a crying shame. as I have said before it is people like this that reinforce the baseless prejudice that africans are inferior and stupid!! why can they never see wrong in their own???? even at this 11th hour when mugabe is negotiating with a paid puppet of the west, as they refer to morgan, they are still clinging to the notion that mugabe is a hero and not a zero!!!!
Yar'Adua, Sirleaf, Kagame, Odinga are not members of SADC. It's funny evertime this leaders express their resentment for Mugabe the west is there with a pay check. Odinga travels 12030km to washington bashes Mugabe and leaves with 90million dollar check (bet their is an incentive for him). Sirleaf bashes Mugabe and the military arms of America is right offshore for her disposal(Africom supporter). Kagame bashes Mugabe and all the atrocity he has commited in the region are hushed aside and Rwanda where genocidal idealogy in schools are reaching 97 PERCENT is considered the "HOPE" with westerner preaching like it's the... [Read Full Text]
You're right on one point there, people are not stupid ..... which means that they'll see you for the moronic little boy that you really are. I'd actually bet that with these incendiary posts that you like to put into the mix you're not actually anywhere in Africa, but safely tucked up in one of your hated western countries, nice and safe while you wait for the occasional person who believes your mindless rhetoric to actually act on it.
hey aka..you have failed to respond to my pointed questions. Why is it that during the oh so terrible racist colonial days of the evil Ian Smith you chose to remain in rhodesia. why did you not flee up north to a country governed for africans by a fellow non racist african. but in line with that, why then, once a fellow african took over the country have you found the strength and will to uproot from your country of birth to fly to distant lands in search of and to settle in countries administered by evil racist western leaders??... [Read Full Text]
Yes, how valid is it for President Musa Yar'Adua who owes his presidency to being the brother of Shehu Yar'Adua who was once Olusegun Obasanjo's vice president and who was handpicked by Obasanjo to succeed himself, to criticize Zimbabwe's elections. When you think about it, with all the problems that Nigeria has, it's really a joke that a man who is considered a puppet of Obasanjo by many Nigerians, even chose to publically comment on an election that he has no first-hand knowledge of. Is this how you take the focus away from your own failures? Is it, you help... [Read Full Text]
President Yar’Adua is right in expressing his country’s position on Zimbabwe. The election process in Zimbabwe disenfranchised the voters of Zimbabwe. The elections failed to produce a genuine President of Zimbabwe.
President Yar’Adua also come into power in a similar way as Mugabe, except that the western world gave him a free pass. Other African Presidents should also have condemned the election process in Nigeria. Nigeria has oil and it does not matter what kind of gov’t he runs, as long as his a friend of the western world. African democracy cannot be based on Friendship with the western world... [Read Full Text]
Our glorious president today announced a ZIM$100 million bounty on the head of that white colonial dog Yar'Adua. He is the cause of all our economic unrest and with the white colonial imperialist dog supporter out of the way our great country will return to its rightful place as the true leader of Africa.
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