Tinubu Sends Old Soldiers to End Impasse in Niger …Gen. Abubakar, Sultan Land in Niamey

Segun Atanda/

Four days after giving a 7-day ultimatum to the military junta in the Republic of Niger to reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum as democratically elected President or face a range of stiff sanctions, Nigeria has dispatched two old soldiers to Niamey for a dialogue.

President Bola Tinubu, who is the Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, dispatched a delegation led by former Nigerian Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar (Rtd), to Niger Republic with a mandate to expeditiously resolve the current political impasse in the country after a briefing at the State House, Abuja.

Abubakar was accompanied by another retired soldier, a Brigadier-General, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III and the President of the ECOWAS Commission, H.E. Omar Alieu Touray.

According to Tinubu, the action was in line with the resolution reached at the end of the extraordinary summit of the ECOWAS held last weekend in Abuja.

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.

Speaking after the meeting, General Abubakar said the delegation would meet the coup leaders in Niger to present the demands of the ECOWAS leadership.

Both leaders of the two missions expressed optimism on the outcome of the assignments.

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