President Umaro Embalo of Guinea Bissau has named a major street in Bissau, the capital of Guinea Bissau in honour of President Muhammadu Buhari for his honesty, discipline and fear of God.
The Guinean president disclosed this during a state dinner with President Buhari and President Macky Sall of Senegal.
He disclosed that Buhari’s relationship with him is like a father to son, adding that the Nigerian leader played key roles before and after his election as the president of Guinea Bissau.
Speaking during the dinner at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, President Sall commended Nigeria’s support for the war against terrorism in the Lake Chad Basin areas and President Buhari’s support for the efforts of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) toward the restoration of peace and constitutional order in Mali.
He said, “What I can say on Mali is that I did know that ECOWAS was very involved since the beginning (of the political crisis). Of course, Mali is one of our great countries in ECOWAS.
“As you know, Mali is under occupation by terrorists, even Niger Republic, and I want to salute the great action of Nigeria against Boko Haram and how Nigeria is supporting the cost of war even in all the Lake Chad Basin area.
“Nigeria is also supporting ECOWAS including Mali, Niger and in Burkina Faso where we have a very serious situation.”
Sall reiterated the commitment of the ECOWAS leaders to continue to support the transitional government in Mali to enable it meet the December 2021 deadline of conducting elections in that country.
The visiting president said: “Although, we had a big political crisis in Mali, but hopefully today everything there is better as we continue to give support to the country’s transitional arrangements.
“So we will help and we will continue to support and we hope by the end of December of next year they will come back to the normal constitutional order and they will have elections and they can come back very strongly with the nations of ECOWAS.
“So, what I can say is today everybody is helping Mali, we lifted the sanctions and ECOWAS has shown a big leadership during this crisis.’’
The Senegalese leader further revealed that they had fruitful bilateral talks with President Buhari bordering on security, economic, COVID-19 as well as regional and global issues.
“I’m not here for a summit. I came with my young brother, President Embalo, to pay this visit, to discuss with him (President Buhari), of course, about bilateral relations and also about the region, Africa, about the COVID-19 and all problems we are having in this world.
“So, let me thank President Buhari for hosting us in an African traditional way and it’s a big honour for me again to tell him; `thank you, President Buhari, thank you for hospitality; thank you also for the officials you brought this evening.’’
