A chieftain of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, Chief Bode George, has expressed his concerns on the Economic Community of West African State’s (ECOWAS) determination to wage war on the Niger junta government if diplomatic measures prove ineffective.
President of Nigeria and Chairman of the ECOWAS, Bola Ahmed Tinubu has set up a meeting with the community on Thursday to discuss what the next step would be in their efforts to reach out to the government. Previous attempts to reach the junta government were not granted audience.
The junta government remains determined to their cause as they have vowed not to bow to pressure from external forces in order to defend the territorial integrity of Niger.
In an interview with ARISE NEWS on Tuesday, Bode George, who is a a former director of the Nigerian National War College, now recognized as the Nigerian Defence College, stated that the government needs to pace it’s pursuit of diplomatic action rather than delving into military action as the next step as the consequences may be grave.
“Before you go to war, you teach your boys the national interest of your country. Anything that falls out of that is not a major concern to you. But if anybody infringes on your national interest, then you can go to war. Because you are going there to defend something so vital to your country. And learning from the ECOWAS experience, and we say to them, how can we go again, to Niger? What is the benefit and what do we have as the benefit of going to Niger? My appeal is that the ECOWAS heads of state should be more careful.”
“War is not a tea party. It is better to jaw-jaw than war-war.”
The chieftain expressed his ideology that the colonialism method of the French is to blame for the current predicament of the Niger as well as their current ties with the nation. He stated that the West African nation is “fighting something not akin to their own system.”
“When you divorce (from a country), you divorce. You move. Look at all the mineral resources that are there in Niger. How much are they paying? I mean the French, How much are the French people paying the Nigeriens? What is the development? Mass lands of Niger is bigger than Nigeria. But the population is small. They are still the poorest nation in the world. Their people are in abject poverty.
“So whatever we can do in terms of talking is better than what we can do if we send troops there. Look at our nation. Yes, we haven’t gotten to the zenith, we haven’t gotten to the El Dorado. We are still battling ourselves, the type of constitution we are running and listening to the discussion about ministers being appointed.
“Those are normal developmental crises which we must resolve and Nigeria as a nation Now have we settled down? The economic situation in this country, today people are still blatantly hungry and they are angry, the insecurity, in the land, is unmatchable. So why would we now commit and when they start, they would expect the big brother, Nigeria, to pump so much money. Look at the financial indexes of our nation today. The last time we went to ECOWAS, it was much much better and we were much more stable economically in this country. So why do we want to commit a lot of funds that we would use to develop the country. Let us have a smile on our faces in this country.
“Let’s help ourselves first before we help others.”
The former NWC director stated that the reason the previous delegation had failed was due to the government’s rush to dissolve the issue rather than taking time to allow the junta to settle in before approaching them diplomatically.
“There is no way you will have a dictatorship that will last that long without inflicting unimaginable pain amongst the people. The people are dancing and shouting and saying ‘yes’. It takes time. They will find a way to reach whoever is the head of state he himself will soon find out that all that glitters is not gold.”
He also stated that the move might be too hasty to plunge Nigeria into war as the electoral tribunal process is still “We are still waiting for the end of the electoral process and then you go and commit yourself to war He also stated that the diplomatic approach would be beneficial to Nigerian states who share porous borders with state as it would be detrimental to them and family members they may have who reside thee due to insecurity issues plaguing the areas.
“Let’s calm the nerves. Let the man be there. No matter what, we will discuss it with him.”
Glamour Adah
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