A member representing Gombi/Hong Federal Constituency of Adamawa State in the National Assembly, James Shuaibu Barka, has advised the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS) to employ all diplomatic options in resolving the political unrest in Niger Republic.
He said a military approach to restore democracy in Niger would not produce the desired result.
Barka, who is the immediate past ambassador to Tunisia told LEADERSHIP that adopting a war approach is not the best option given Nigeriens ties with Nigeria.
The lawmaker said it was difficult to distinguish between a Nigerian and a Nigerien, especially “our brothers and sisters that have inter marriages with Nigeriens amongst the Northern States that share common borders with Niger.”
He queried why ECOWAS leadership did not do the same intervention in Mali, Chad, Guinea amongst others when a similar situation played itself in those countries?
Barka drew the attention of Tinubu and ECOWAS to laws of international conventions, which forbid individual country(ies) from having right(s) to intervene into internal affairs of the sovereignty of others.
While admitting that military rule is unpopular globally, he proposed a round table negotiation that even if the Niger Junta will chart a roadmap for the return of democratic rule in six months, that option should be considered by the ECOWAS.
In his words,” Well, It’s unfortunate that this thing is happening to our neighbor Niger, everybody knows that military government this days is not fashionable all over the world, and nobody would ever accept any military intervention in any country; but then, as it has happened, we don’t have to go straight into military affront or into war because the moment you involve the military, that means, you have triggered the war between nations.
“We know that the international conventions say that internal problems of sovereign nations, other countries should not delve into them. We also have an obligation to defend democracy; but be as it is, we expect a diplomatic solution.
“For now, I’ve been reading in the newspapers that there are some diplomatic shuttles between Niger and the ECOWAS nations. I don’t know how effective that one is but we have to exhaust all those ones first. War is not an option, military intervention is not an option as well as I am concerned.
“We will continue to engage the present military government in Niger, you see, it’s unfortunate that the ECOWAS is reacting now to this Niger internal Political unrest, they would have reacted even when it happened in Mali, Chad, Guinea, unfortunately they did not do that, now it has happened in Niger. So, these are the challenges that, to me, are now facing ECOWAS and the African nations, how do we sort out? Through diplomatic means; definitely, the military will definitely not prevent them forever.
