- Says meeting with junta fruitful
From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Envoy to Niger Republic, General Abdulsalami Abubakar (retd), on Tuesday, expressed confidence that the diplomacy deployed to resolve the crisis in that country will not fail.
Abubakar, who is a former Nigerian Military Head of State, gave the assurance while fielding questions from State House Correspondents at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, after a meeting convened by President Bola Tinubu, who is the Chairman of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the ECOWAS.
The Community had rejected the Niger junta’s objective for a transition power presumably to a democratic government within three years.
The head of the military junta, General Abdourahmane Tchiani, in a televised address, had said: “Our ambition is not to confiscate power. Any transition of power would not go beyond three years.”
Abubakar, who over the weekend met with the ousted President of Niger, Mohamed Bazoum, and the leaders of the junta in the country, said he had delivered the terms of the Tchiani-led junta to ECOWAS.
According to him, correspondences had begun between the West African regional bloc and the military in Niger, noting that the line of contact opened by ECOWAS through his appointment as envoy had been very fruitful, expressing hope that something concrete will soon come out of it.
“As you are aware, the ECOWAS Heads of State and Government have made me an envoy to Niger Republic and we were there over the weekend to see the military people and discussed to find a way out of the lacuna we find ourselves.
“So that’s why I’m here this afternoon, together with the President of the ECOWAS Commission, to give a report back to Mr President on our discussions in Niger. I must say that our visit to Niger has been very fruitful and that it has opened an avenue to start talking and hopefully, we’ll get somewhere”, he said.
On the divergence in opinions of both the regional bloc and the junta about return to quick return to democratic rule, Abubakar said “Well, like I said, we’ve started talking, they have made their own points and then I made my report to the Chairman of the ECOWAS Heads of state and President. He will now consult with his colleagues and then the ding-dong starts and we’ll get somewhere hopefully.”
On if there was any possibility of avoiding military action, he said “Hopefully diplomacy will see the better of this. Nobody wants to go to war, it doesn’t pay anybody, but then again, our leaders have said if all fails and I don’t think all will fail, we’ll get somewhere we’ll get out of this mess.”
Also at the meeting were the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr Omar Touray, and the National Security Adviser (NSA) to the President, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu.