Ndume Urges Tinubu, ECOWAS To Lift Sanctions On Niger
Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume has urged President Bola Tinubu and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to lift economic, trade and other sanctions on Niger Republic.
According to him, the five-month sanctions are seriously affecting the people of Niger, instead of the Gen. Abdourahamane Tchiani-led military government.
Ndume made the call, Tuesday, at his Government Reserved Area (GRA) residence, in Maiduguri, Borno State, while lamenting the sanctions on the 26 million people of the French-speaking West African country.
Beside the economic hardships in Niger, the people in the border areas of Kano, Zamfara, Borno, Katsina, Sokoto, Jigawa, Kebbi and Yobe states, in Nigeria, are also seriously affected with the economic and trade sanctions.
He asserted that sanctions should rather be placed on the Tchiani junta that unlawfully toppled the democratically elected government of President Mohamed Bazoum on July 26, 2023.
“The decision of ECOWAS to place economic sanctions on Niger was, however, rushed, instead of the National Assembly to dialogue with the junta,” he said, warning that about 100,000 displaced persons from Abadam, Guzamala and Mobbar local councils were taking refuge in Diffa Province for over a decade.
Ndume, therefore, called on Tinubu to negotiate with Tchiani by sending four former military heads of state, including retired Generals Yakubu Gowon, Abubakar Abdulsalami, Muhammadu Buhari and Ibrahim Babangida.
He said the diplomatic negotiations could also retain the “respect and dignity” Nigeria has with ECOWAS, African Union (AU) and the international community.
The Borno South senator and Vice Chairman of Senate Committee on Appropriation warned that the sustenance of economic sanctions will continue to make the people suffer with rising cost of living in Niger and the border areas of eight states in the country.
On the cut-off of electricity to Niger, he said the Tchiani junta had already secured about 50 megawatts of electricity from solar energy. He noted that the supply of electricity to Niger was not free, as there was an agreement with the Nigerien government that it would not build a dam across River Niger that would affect the flow of water into the Kainji Dam.
The legislator attributed the Nigerien recent coup to bad leadership and governance at the national and provincial levels. Ndume also faulted Tinubu’s implementation of a 50 per cent transport subsidy during the Yuletide. Out of the six state capitals in the NorthEast region, he said, only travellers to Gombe State benefitted.
“None of the five bus operators are shuttling commuters to Yola, Damaturu, Maiduguri, Bauchi and Jalingo,” he added. The Guardian also learnt that the luxurious bus operators in the country had suspended their trips to the region since 2014, because of the incessant Boko Haram attacks on roads.
