Guinea Bissau PM lobbies Akufo-Addo for ECOWAS cash

By Papisdaff Abdullah. Consensus Prime Minister of Guinea Bissau, Aristide Gomes, has appealed to Ghana’s President, Nana Addo Danqua Akufo Addo, to persuade his colleague Heads of State within the ECOWAS sub-region to assist Guinea Bissau out of its political crisis and also to hold national elections come November. The Guinea Bissau leader made the request when he paid a courtesy call on President Akufo- Addo, at the Jubilee House as part of his West African sub-regional tour to seek help for his country. In his address, Prime Minister Gomes said his country needs a total of nine million Euros (€9m) in order to conduct it’s elections in November this year. So far, the country has been able to raise 2 million Euros of the needed amount for the elections. He therefore requested of President Akufo Addo to compel ECOWAS to contribute 2.5 million Euros towards the elections. Additionally, the Consensus Prime Minister asked West African leaders to maintain peacekeeping troops currently serving in his country. He observed that their continued presence in Guinea Bissau is critical for the peace of the state. The Ghanaian President in his response said he and his colleagues consider Guinea Bissau as a very important state within West Africa and therefore supporting her out of its current political challenges is a very important duty. The President to this end, indicated that he will champion efforts to get all the help Guinea Bissau needs beginning this Saturday when the President of ECOWAS visits him. He also assured that at the next ECOWAS Heads of State meeting and African Union Summit coming off in a few weeks, matters concerning Guinea Bissau will be thoroughly dealt with. Aristide Gomes became Guinea-Bissau’s Prime Minister on Monday, 16th of April, 2018, in what President Jose Mario Vaz said would put a definitive end to years of political crisis in the small West African nation. Prime Minister Gomes who served as Prime Minister of the former Portuguese colony from 2005 to 2007, is thus Consensus Prime Minister of Guinea Bissau. Gomes is tasked with leading Guinea-Bissau to fresh presidential and parliamentary elections set for November, 2018. Guinea-Bissau has been in the grip of a power struggle since August 2015, when President Vaz sacked his then Prime Minister, Domingos Simoes Pereira. Gomes, 63, succeeded Augusto Antonio Artur Da Silva, who was named in late January. Prime Minister Gomes was accompanied by Guinea Bissau’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Yoad Botiam Co.