Idris Wase to lead ECOWAS parliament mediation team to Niger

The Community Parliament of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), or ECOWAS Parliament, has appointed Nigeria’s lawmaker, Idris Wase, to lead ten other parliamentarians to mediate with the Niger junta.

The move is a last-ditch attempt by the subregional body parliamentary body to prevent a military confrontation with the Nigerien military, who forcefully took power from democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum.

The ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government led by Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu had already ordered the activation of ECOWAS of the subregional standby force to return the country to democratic rule after initial attempts at dialogue failed.

But ECOWAS Parliament members, after a webinar on Saturday, August 12, opted to give a last chance at peace by inaugurating a mediation committee to convince the junta to allow democracy to return.

The ad hoc committee will be led by Wase, a former Deputy Speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives.

The committee has been mandated to interface with the military juntas in Niger, Guinea, Mali and Burkina Faso to accelerate the return to democratic rule in those countries.

The move is also part of the parliamentary diplomacy option to support the mediation effort of the ECOWAS in sustaining democratic governance in the sub-region.

It was part of resolutions reached at the end of the Virtual Extra-Ordinary Session of ECOWAS Parliament, convened by the Speaker, Sidie Tunis, to deliberate on the Niger political crisis.