President Bola Tinubu says socio-economic sanctions imposed on Niger Republic won’t be lifted without “positive adjustments” by the military junta.
Tinubu, the Chairperson of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), said all diplomatic options will be exhausted with the coup leaders before any resort to military intervention.
He insisted that any forceful removal of a democratic government remained “wholly unacceptable.”
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According to a statement by the the President’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, the ECOWAS chair stated this when he received the Nigeria Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs (NCIA), led by the Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, at the State House on Thursday.
Tinubu noted that the alternative of kinetic intervention in Niger Republic had not been jettisoned.
“I must thank you for your several visits to Niger Republic, Your Eminence, but you will still have to go back. My fear has been confirmed in Gabon that copy cats will start doing the same thing until it is stopped. We are neighbours with Niger Republic, and what has joined Nigerians together with their great people cannot be broken.
“Nobody is interested in a war. We have seen the devastation in Ukraine and Sudan. But, if we don’t wield the big stick, we will all suffer the consequences together,” the President warned.
President Tinubu noted that Nigeria, under General Abdulsalami Abubakar, instituted a nine-month transition programme in 1998, and it proved very successful, leading the country into a new era of democratic governance.
The President saw no reason why such can not be replicated in Niger, if the country’s military authorities were sincere.
“Your Eminence, please don’t get tired, you will still go back there. The soldiers’ action is unacceptable. The earlier they make positive adjustments, the quicker we will dial back the sanctions to alleviate the sufferings we are seeing in Niger,” the President affirmed.
