The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) envoy on the Niger Republic crisis, Retired General Abdulsalami Abubakar, has disclosed that discussions with the military junta on how to resolve the ongoing political crisis in the country were fruitful.
Abdulsalami made the declaration after submitting a report on their visit to Niamey to President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday.
Accompanied by the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr Omar Touray, the former Nigerian military ruler said the regional bloc would continue to explore all options.
The retired general said the ECOWAS delegation met with the military junta in Niamey on Saturday and talked about how to resolve the crisis amicably.
His words: ‘’As you are aware, the ECOWAS Heads of State and Government have made me an envoy to Niger Republic, and we were there over the weekend to see the military people and discussed to find a way out of the lacuna we find ourselves.
‘’I must say that our visit to Niger has been very fruitful and that it has opened an avenue to start talking and hopefully we’ll get somewhere,’’ he said.
Abubakar further stated that the delegation also presented the three years transitional plan of the junta to Tinubu, who would table it before the region’s Heads of State and Government.
On the possibility of engaging in dialogue instead of military options to resolve the Niger crisis, Abubakar insisted that the leaders still want to employ diplomatic options.
‘’Hopefully, diplomacy will see the better of this. Nobody wants to go to war; it doesn’t pay anybody. But then, our leaders have said if all fails and I don’t think all will fail. We’ll get out of this mess,” he assured.
Politics Nigeria recalls that Abdulsalami, during the Niger meeting in Niamey, met with ousted President Mohamed Bazoum, who was reported not to be receiving adequate health attention along with his family.
