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From Aidoghie Paulinus, Abuja
President of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission, Omar Alieu Touray, has said that the sub-regional bloc is not at war with the Republic of Niger and its nationals.
Touray stated this following ECOWAS’ planned military action in Niger to reinstate ousted President Mohamed Bazoum.
Touray maintained that the planned action is not a war on the country or its people, but to give them back the good they deserved.
Touray, while speaking at a press conference yesterday in Abuja, further explained that ECOWAS has not taken and would never take any action against the interest of Niger and its nationals.
“We would like to use the opportunity to reassure the good people of Niger Republic that our major concern is for their welfare as we work assiduously to restore civilian rule and political stability in the country, and indeed in the other ECOWAS member states currently under military rule in the spirit of solidarity and collective security which is at the heart of our integration agenda,” Touray said.
Touray also lamented the growing cases of coups in the West African sub-region.
Touray said: “Coup d’etat is a tragedy for our regional efforts at consolidating democracy after the political crises of the 90’s exemplified by the civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Through collective efforts of our community, the region was stabilized and the foundation for democracy and the rule of law restored.
“Indeed, until about three years ago, all leaders in the ECOWAS region were democratically elected. Unfortunately, the ill winds of coups started blowing again recently and the region has experienced three successful coups and two failed coups. The current development in the Republic of Niger adds to the list of attempted coups d’état in the region. So, you can understand why the Heads of State and Government have decided that this is one coup too many and resolved that it was time to end the contagion. The situation in the Republic of Niger is particularly unfortunate as it comes at a time the country is doing comparatively well in terms of security and economic growth.”
Explaining the rationale behind ECOWAS’ planned military intervention in Niger, Touray stated that the ECOWAS security architecture, which has informed other security arrangements within and outside the region, is anchored on a number of instruments.
“These include the 1991 ECOWAS Declaration of Political Principles; the Revised ECOWAS Treaty of 1993, the 1999 ECOWAS Protocol relating to the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peacekeeping and Security as well as the 2001 Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance.
“The deployment of the ECOWAS Standby force is provided for in the 1999 Mechanism. Specifically, Article 25 expressly stipulates the conditions for the deployment of such a force. Among other conditions, the article provides that the force can be deployed ‘in the event of… an overthrow or an attempted overthrow of a democratically elected government.”
