BUHARI CONDEMNS BURKINA FASO COUP; SAYS HIS '83 COUP WAS DIFFERENT

Abuja, Nigeria

President Buhari in an exclusive chat with Dissociated Press, Friday, condemned in the strongest terms the coup in Burkina Faso by members of its army, effectively truncating democracy only weeks to a general election.

"As Africans we reject unequivocally the truncating of democracy by gun wielding soldiers," Buhari said.

When asked if he did not feel conflicted as someone who himself benefitted from a successful coup which overthrew a democratically elected government, he sighed, paused and replied:

"You see my coup was different. My coup was a good coup. There are good coups and there are bad coups. But that is not even the main issue. I have repented. Can someone not repent again? If a boy has been going around sleeping with women and now he has stopped, can he not advise younger boys not to go around sleeping with women?"

Mr Buhari first came to power in a military coup in December 1983 which toppled the democratically elected regime of Mr Shehu Shagari, before defeating Goodluck Jonathan in 2015 in a general election to become president a second time.

Mr Buhari further advised all dictators to repent from dictatorships.

"You see now America is my friend. In '83 when I did a coup, America was not my friend. They like me now because I did an election. Everyone needs to be America's friend. They don't like using guns to get power. I mean, they like guns freely available in their country for everyone without discrimination but that is only because their citizens are not going to wake up and do a coup. People should learn from me."

Mr Buhari was recently received very warmly by the US President Barrack Obama.