Niger: Tinubu mellows, dispatches Abdulsalami, Sultan to coup leaders
By Emma Ogbuehi
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Thursday, toned down the marching order on the coup leaders in Niger and opted to
dispatch a delegation to the embattled Republic with a mandate to resolve the current political impasse occasioned by the recent coup in the country.
The delegation, headed by former Nigerian Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar (retd), left for Niamey on Thursday following a briefing by President Tinubu at the State House in Abuja.
The former Nigerian Head of State is joined in the delegation by the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, and the President of the ECOWAS Commission, H.E. Omar Alieu Touray.
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Tinubu, the Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), charged the delegation to ensure a robust dialogue to end the impasse.
The development was sequel to the resolution reached at the end of the extraordinary summit of the ECOWAS held in Abuja last week.
The apparent line of dialogue, came on the heels of the African Union, on Monday, issuing a 15-day ultimatum to the junta in Niger to reinstall the country’s democratically elected government.
The ultimatum coincided with a meeting the coup leaders had with senior civil servants to discuss how they would run the country and as the U.S. and the European Union threatened sanctions against the regime.
The President has also sent a separate delegation, led by Ambassador Babagana Kingibe, to engage with the leaders of Libya and Algeria on the Niger crisis.
Briefing the two delegations, President Tinubu charged them to engage all stakeholders robustly with a view to doing whatever it takes to ensure a conclusive and amicable resolution of the situation in Niger for the purposes of African peace and development, rather than a move to adopt the geopolitical positions of other nations.
“We don’t want to hold brief for anybody. Our concern is democracy and the peace of the region,” the President said.