A pro-democracy and environmental rights advocacy group, Foundation for Environmental Rights Advocacy and Development, FENRAD, has called described as premature, the seven-day ultimatum, tightening sanctions and the screw on Niger by the ECOWAS.
A military coup d’etat staged by soldiers in Niger Republic, a West African nation, had ousted the democratically-elected President Mohammed Bazoum.
In response, the ECOWAS had read the riot act to coupists in Niger Republic, through an 8-point resolution of its Authority of Heads of State and Government, after its extraordinary meeting in Abuja, Nigeria.
Speaking on the development, the FENRAD through its Executive Director, Comrade Nelson Nnanna Nwafor condemned any form of unconstitutional change of government (UCG) as enshrined in the Organisation of African Unity, OAU’s 2000 Lome Declaration known as Framework for an OAU Response to Unconstitutional Change of Government, the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS Charter and 2001 Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance, even in the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (ACDEG) adopted in 2007 by African Union (AU) member states.
The group reaffirmed its belief in all the extant instruments of international law as well as other constitutive laws binding on the sub-region that outlaw unconstitutional change of government.
It however regretted that ECOWAS saw war as among the first options in addressing the Nigerien question.
“We validly state this mindful that there are no easy wars, even as contemporary global events keep showing that modern conventional wars are not easily winnable.
“Russia, for example, could not easily and conventionally decimate a weak Ukraine even with all her military might and sophisticated war machinery after one year now.
“Long-drawn asymmetric and internecine struggles in Africa have heightened instability, altered migration patterns with attendant refugee and humanitarian crises. This is what we believe ECOWAS is not pushing for in the sub-region.
“Shuttle diplomacy should have come first, in which case ECOWAS would be able to meet with and extract commitment from the junta in Niger, including on how to release and reinstate ousted Bazoum. Should that (shuttle diplomacy) fail, the next would be soft power diplomacy, in which case ECOWAS offers appealing choices to the junta for them to restore constitutional order.
“It is only after all the instruments and avenues of diplomacy have been exhausted that a war or military intervention becomes inevitable. Even in intervention, there are levels to military operation depending on the scale and type of hostility.
“There is ‘peacekeeping’ and there is ‘peace enforcement.’ Peacekeeping, usually a lighter military operation, comes first to create a safe passage or corridor in line with international humanitarian law.
“Peacekeeping is followed by peace enforcement, which is a full-fledged military operation/action targeted at coercing parties to a conflict to come to a resolution or ousting illegitimate and unpopular regimes.
“The Foundation thinks that a non-kinetic approach would have achieved a negotiated peace,” the group said.
FENRAD insisted that ECOWAS must also first interrogate the reason for the coup and what can be done to stop its new wave across Africa.
“The questions ECOWAS has not asked are: what are the motivating factors behind incessant coups d’etat happening with a domino effect in the sub-region? What can be done to address them? Are there factors alien to the sub-region which explain these coups?
“In Mali and Burkina Faso, for example, putschists are of the view that the failure of France to flush out jihadists and militant islamists in the Sahel states through the so-called ‘Operation Barkhane’ partly necessitated military intervention, including the need to end all forms of colonial imprints and stranglehold in the sub-region.
“In Niger, the perceived pro-West posturing of Mohammed Bazoum, for example, was adduced largely as reason for the coup. Frankly speaking, the age-old patterns established during colonial and post-colonial days still persist decades after self-government status was attained.
“The fact that these coups d’etat are happening in former French colonies, most of whom long after flag independence still have their national reserves held in the Bank of France and currencies tied in a weak monetary zone known as CFA franc Zone sustained through the policy of Françafrique is what ECOWAS, as an economic bloc, ought to have interrogated.
“What can ECOWAS do differently to end this unequal international economic relations, and to in its place establish one favourable to all parties in the sub-region and beyond?” it said.
The group said the option of war edges the sub-region to a likely endless conflict given that Niger’s neighbours to the west (Mali and Burkina Faso) promised to mobilise in support of the junta in Niamey in event of hostility outbreak.
It said “With war mercenaries and warmongers having mining interests in Africa and running campaign and propaganda likely to reinforce the Cold War narratives, Africa may soon lose men and resources as had been observed elsewhere.
“The Wagner Group, today, is selling an anti-West narrative, and the Foundation is not unaware that with the sack of France’s Operation Barkhane and its subsequent replacement with the Group in Mali, ideological and proxy wars are possible in the sub-region should any conflict happen.
“We urge ECOWAS leaders to weigh their options well as there are no free riders in the affairs of states. Merchants of death are cavorting, ECOWAS should be watchful. East is East, West is West.
“The economies of member states at a a time like this are fragile, already on their knees. 14 of the 15 ECOWAS member states are ‘heavily indebted,’ according to IMF report of 2022, so whose interest is war in Niger in, and who will fund it among member states without further worsening debt burden and poverty?
“We urge ECOWAS to look inward and consider building strong institutions, ones that check corruption, electoral malfeasance, life presidency and the rest.
“Some countries in ECOWAS, like Cote D’Ivoire, have presidents who have gone beyond their constitutional term in office but will prefer to amend the laws and remain in power by other means. Sadly, the same France that ousted Lauren Gbagbo remains tight-lipped.”
