Akpabio said Tinubu didn’t ask us for permission to wage war against Niger; urges Tinubu to seek political solution; “Coup will have ‘Devastating’ fallout for Region, World”_Bazoum

The President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, has debunked claims that President Bola Tinubu, requested the permission of the upper legislative chamber to launch a military offensive against the Niger Republic.

This followed widespread reports that the President had written to the senate on Friday, August 5, 2023, seeking their support for Nigeria’s military intervention in Niger Republic.

However, while explaining the context of the President’s letter, Akpabio said Tinubu only requested the parliament’s support in the successful implementation of the Economic Community of the West African States (ECOWAS) resolution regarding the military intervention in Niger Republic.

He made the clarifications during the plenary session on Saturday, August 5, 2023.

“The Senate recognises the fact that President Tinubu, by virtue of his correspondence, had not asked for approval of the parliament or approval of the senate to go to war as being erroneously suggested in some quarters.

“Rather, Mr. President and commander in chief had expressed and I quote ‘A wish to respectfully solicit support of the national assembly in the successful implementation of the ECOWAS resolutions as outlined in the said communications,'” Akpabio stated.

He added that the leadership of the senate has been mandated to further engage with the President on the best approach to resolve the Niger issue.

The Nigerian Senate on Saturday advised President Bola Tinubu and the Economic Community of West African States to engage further to strengthen political and diplomatic options available to them against the use of any military action to resolve the crisis in Niger republic.

The senate reached the position after considering Tinubu’s request for support to implement ECOWAS resolutions to restore democracy in the landlocked country.

The meeting which lasted more than two hours behind closed doors condemned in very strong terms the coup in neighboring Niger republic and resolved to engage more with President Bola Tinubu on the political situation in Niger.

It would be recalled that ECOWAS had threatened to use military force to restore democratic order in the neighbouring country following the forceful takeover of power by the military junta headed by Gen. Abdourahamane Tchiani.

Part of that resolution included closure of all land borders with Niger, banning all flight from and to the country, cutting Niger off electricity and stopping goods in transit to the country from Lagos and other eastern seaport.

All of these was as ECOWAS called on member states to prepare for possible military action to force the hands of the military junta to reinstate ousted President Mohamed Bazoum.

Meanwhile, pressure mounted Saturday on the leaders of a coup in Niger on the eve of a deadline set by the West African regional bloc ECOWAS for the military to relinquish control or face possible armed intervention.

Former colonial power France, with which the junta broke military ties shortly after taking power on July 26, said it would “firmly” back whatever course of action ECOWAS took after the Sunday deadline expired.

“The future of Niger and the stability of the entire region are at stake,” the office of French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said after she held talks in Paris with Niger’s prime minister, Ouhoumoudou Mahamadou.

ECOWAS military chiefs of staff have agreed a plan for a possible intervention to respond to the crisis, the latest of several coups to hit Africa’s Sahel region since 2020.

“All the elements that will go into any eventual intervention have been worked out,” ECOWAS commissioner Abdel-Fatau Musah said on Friday.

These included “the resources needed, and including the how and when we are going to deploy the force”, he added.

“We want diplomacy to work, and we want this message clearly transmitted to them [the junta] that we are giving them every opportunity to reverse what they have done,” Musah said.

The elected Niger President Mohamed Bazoum said Thursday that if a coup attempt to depose him is successful, “it will have devastating consequences for our country, our region and the entire world.”

In a column in The Washington Post, Bazoum called on “the US government and the entire international community to help us restore our constitutional order.”

The appeal was Bazoum’s first lengthy statement since his presidential guard detained him on July 26 and took control of the Niger government.

“I write this as a hostage,” Bazoum wrote.

“Niger is under attack from a military junta… and I am just one of hundreds of citizens who have been arbitrarily and illegally imprisoned.”

“This coup must end, and the junta must free everyone they have unlawfully arrested,” he wrote.

Bazoum, who came to power after democratic elections in 2021, said his country had been a bulwark of hope in a region increasingly buffeted by extremism and ruled by military juntas.

“In Africa’s troubled Sahel region, Niger stands as the last bastion of respect for human rights amid the authoritarian movements that have overtaken some of our neighbors,” he wrote.

He warned that Niger’s neighbors have increasingly invited in “criminal Russian mercenaries such as the Wagner Group at the expense of their people’s rights and dignity.”

“The entire Sahel region,” he said, “could fall to Russian influence via the Wagner Group, whose brutal terrorism has been on full display in Ukraine.”

Terrorist movements like Boko Haram, he added, “will surely take advantage of Niger’s instability, using our country as a staging ground to attack neighboring countries and undermine peace, safety and freedom around the world.”