Niger republic, for the first, and hopefully not the last time, the country witnessed a peaceful democratic transition of power in 63 years. President Mahamadou Issoufou escaped being toppled when he handed over power to Mohamed Bazoum in 2021. The country threaded on the path of democracy in the 21st Century, to the extent that the military deposed President Mamadou Tandja to halt his bid for extension of term in office. However, barely two years after the celebrated transition, the Nigerien Presidential Guards disrupt the country’s democratic thread.
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Judgment is around the corner. In the week ahead, Nigerians will hear the judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Court, (PEPC) on the controversial 2023 presidential election.
Nigeria got men and women who can dire the dreaded and the representation of terror all to live and give a life of sacrifice. Either through blood, or sun and thunderstorms of life.
The recent military coup in Niger Republic has sent shockwaves across West Africa and the world. On July 26, 2023, the Commander of the Presidential Guard in Niger, General Abdourahamane Tchiani, overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum, who had been elected in February 2021 in a historic democratic transition. Tchiani declared himself the new leader of the country and dissolved all the institutions of the state.
As tensions rise in Nigeria’s Southeast region, the two-week sit-at-home order scheduled to commence on Monday, July 31st, has become a subject of controversy.
As the leader of ECOWAS, you immediately invited other West African leaders and an ultimatum was given to Tchiani that Bazoum must be reinstated or else, a strong military force (just like ECOMOG in Liberia and Sierra Leone) will invade Niger Republic and forcefully reinstate him.
The new military rulers in Niger Republic, the country which marked independence day on Thursday, August 3, 2023 have a Sunday ultimatum from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). It is that they give up power and restore elected President Mohammed Bazoum to power or face serious measures, including possible invasion.
It is bad news for Africa. Democracy is once again on the run from the gun. Military adventurers have shot their way into power in six sub-Saharan African countries in three years, between 2020 and 2023. Mali (2020), Chad (2021), Guinea (2021), Burkina Faso (2022), Sudan (2021) and the latest, Mali, a couple of weeks ago as of this writing, changed agbada for khaki.
Not only are military coups becoming frighteningly frequent in West and Central Africa, virtually all of them, it appears, also speak French. For the fifth time in three years in West Africa, soldiers struck again in Niger, Nigeria’s Northern neighbour, where former President Muhammadu Buhari had teasingly longed for refuge from Nigeria’s hostile press.
One of the major sore points in the Nigerian story has been the negative role played by non-state actors in the making and the unmaking of Nigeria – those characters who drag the country back and down, those who seize state assets, those who steal our crude oil, the merchants of death and disgrace who denigrate and devalue the Nigerian green passport and collective humanity but there are also many non-state actors whose actions project the nation positively, reminding us that in the midst of the increasing mass psychosis in our land, the blood of humaneness still runs in some veins.