Former governor of Kaduna, Nasir El-Rufai has warned the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) against considering military intervention in Niger Republic.
This comes after ECOWAS Chairperson, President Bola Tinubu, declared that the group had decided to employ force as a last resort if the Niger coup leaders do not cede control to deposed President Mohamed Bazoum.
In a tweet on Tuesday, El-Rufai said a war within the sub-region would be a war between brothers.
“As ECOWAS beats the drums of war, I recall the 1970s rock classic by Dire Straits – ‘Brothers in Arms’, because a war within our subregion is a war between brothers,” El-Rufai tweeted.
“Indeed, the people of Niger Republic are one and the same with those living in Northern Nigeria. Let us bend therefore over backwards to avoid this civil war between brothers.”
Last Thursday, after a meeting of the bloc’s defence chiefs in Accra, Ghana’s capital city, ECOWAS said it had begun the activation of its standby force in Niger.
The Defense chiefs supported demands for diplomacy as a technique for mediating, but the group claimed that every aspect of possible military involvement had been planned and was being fine-tuned.
This included the timing, resources needed and how, where and the day to deploy such force.
El-Rufai’s call to avoid military intervention in Niger is the most recent appeal from stakeholders in northern Nigeria
The Northern Senators Forum (NSF) had also asked Tinubu to exhaust all diplomatic means in resolving the crisis.
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