Don’t Go To War With Niger, El-Rufai Warns ECOWAS

Posted by Nwa Diokpa Latest Headlines, News Across Nigeria Tuesday, August 22nd, 2023

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – A former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has cautioned the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) not to use military intervention in Niger Republic.

The African Examiner recalls that ECOWAS chairperson, President Bola Tinubu, had stated that the bloc had resolved to use force as a last resort if the Niger coup leaders do not step aside and relinquish power to the ousted President Mohamed Bazoum.

Also, after a meeting of the bloc’s defence chiefs in Accra, Ghana’s capital city, ECOWAS stated on Thursday, that it had started the activation of its standby force in Niger.

However, in a Twitter post on Tuesday, El-Rufai stated that military intervention would be a war between brothers.

“As ECOWAS beats the drums of war, I recall the 1970s rock classic by Dire Straits – ‘Brothers in Arms’, because a war within our subregion is a war between brothers.

“Indeed, the people of Niger Republic are one and the same with those living in Northern Nigeria. Let us bend therefore over backwards to avoid this civil war between brothers,” he writes.