(GIN) — As the new head of the Economic Community of West Africa (ECOWAS), Nigerian President Bola Tinubu is facing pressure from some neighbors and his own government to reject a military solution to the troubles in Niger, where members of the military recently removed President Mohamed Bazoum of Niger in a coup.
Last week, the 15-member ECOWAS bloc gave the Niger coupsters a week to return Bazoum to power or face “all measures…[which] may include the use of force.”
“We are ready, and as soon as we receive the order to intervene, we will do so,” Christopher Gwabin Musa, a Nigerian Army general and the 18th chief of defense staff of Nigeria, told Radio France Internationale’s Hausa service on Monday.
But voices against a military solution are growing louder. Algeria has now joined Mali and Burkina Faso as being categorically against any military intervention in Niger, according to Ennahar TV, citing President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
“A military intervention could ignite the whole Sahel region and Algeria will not use force with its neighbors,” Tabboune said in an interview with local media.
On Saturday, Nigeria’s Senate urged the government to look at “political and diplomatic options,” supporting other steps being taken by Nigeria and ECOWAS to reverse the coup while rejecting the option of military action.
President of the Senate Godswill Akpabio suggested that the president did not seek the approval of the Senate to go to war in the Niger Republic.
“The Senate has not asked for approval of the Parliament, approval of this Senate, to go to war, as [is] being erroneously suggested in some quarters,” Akpabio said.
“Rather, Mr. President and the Commander-in-Chief had expressed, and I quote: ‘a wish to respectfully solicit the support of the National Assembly in the successful implementation of the ECOWAS resolutions as outlined in the said communications.’”
Tinubu refuted the Senate’s claim, maintaining that the Senate had been informed of the measures, which include “military build-up and deployment of personnel for military intervention to enforce compliance of the military junta in Niger should they (the coupists) remain recalcitrant.”
Not following the military solution may create new problems, said Djiby Sow, a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies in Dakar. “If (the West Africa countries) don’t go in, it will be a major problem of credibility. They have laid down a red line.”
Meanwhile, ECOWAS has imposed a no-fly zone on Niger and has been sending emissaries to the junta in attempts to restore democracy.
The ECOWAS ultimatum has been rejected by neighboring Mali, Burkina Faso, and Guinea—all countries of the Sahel belt across Africa.
Meanwhile, a message from Bazoum, who has reportedly been locked in the presidential palace by his own guards for 10 days, appeared in an opinion column published in the Washington Post. He called on the U.S and other allies to help restore constitutional order.
“I write this as a hostage,” the president said in his opinion essay. “Niger is under attack from a military junta that is trying to overthrow our democracy.”
He warned that attacks from jihadist groups could increase and that Russia could expand its influence in the region if the coup leaders remain in power.
But sanctions could weaken the economy of Niger, one of the world’s poorest countries, and therefore stoke support for the junta and Islamist groups that offer money and shelter.
“We want diplomacy to work, and we want this message clearly transmitted to them (the military) that we are giving them every opportunity to reverse what they have done,” said ECOWAS Commissioner Abdel-Fatau Musah on Friday.
But he warned that “all the elements that will go into any eventual intervention have been worked out,” including how and when force would be deployed.
Back in Niger, Adama Oumarou of the capital Niamy told an Agence France Press reporter: “We’re going to fight for this revolution. We’re not going to retreat faced with the enemy, we’re determined…We were waiting for this coup for a long time. When it arrived, we breathed a sigh of relief.”