Nigeria and Niger DiplomaticWar By Shola Agboola

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Ordinarily I would have ignored the unsolicited advice to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu from a Nigerian retired General, who referred to himself as a war tactician, but who from all indications is generally known as a frustrated politician; but the urge within me to set the records straight couldn’t be resisted.
It is no more news that on July 26 2023, there was a military takeover in Niger Republic, which resulted into the emergence of one General Abdourahamane Tchiani as the new Head of Government
who overthrew the civilian President Mohamed Bazoum.
While the whole world condemns any form of military takeover especially in Africa, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu approached the Niger issue with topmost diplomatic gesture as the leader of ECOWAS, by summoning an emergency meeting of West African leaders.
It was a unanimous decision of the West African leaders to order the immediate reinstatement of the deposed President Bazoum or else General Tchiani should be ready to combat the strong West African Military Force.
As the ECOWAS leader, President Tinubu has commendably despatched a high powered delegation to go and jaw jaw with the Military High Command in Niger.
While not completely jettisoning the observation of this retired General, it will be necessary to doff the diplomatic prowess of President Tinubu, who took a justifiably bold step by disconnecting the electric power supply to Niger Republic.
This is definitely not an invitation to war as insinuated by the cowardly comment of this so-called patriotic war tactician.
The operation which former President Buhari, who had double allegiance to both Nigeria and Niger failed carry out since 2018 has now been boldly executed by President Tinubu.
I wander how many of the present crop of politicians and critics of Asiwaju still remember the Niamey Conference of October 24-26,1963 when an Act in respect of Economic Cooperation among the member States was enacted. The countries involved then were Nigeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Chad and Benin Republics.
The striking kernel of that Agreement was that *”with the construction of hydroelectric dams in Kainji and Jebba by Nigeria government; the other countries would not embark on damming the river again, in order not to adversely affect the reservoirs in Nigeria”*
*”It was also agreed that Nigeria will provide electricity to Niger and the neighbouring countries involved.”*
Ever since Nigeria had been fulfilling her own part of the Agreement .
However, in contravention of the United Nations Treaty Series, Vol.587 No.8507; Niger started the construction of Kandaji dam with impunity in 2018.
Former President Buhari who didn’t hide his allegiance to Niger Republic couldn’t even protest. Rather he deemed it necessary to construct a Rail line from Nigeria to Niger. With no opposition from their godfather, who couldn’t check mate them, Niger went further to create the Kandaji Ecosystems Regeneration & Niger Valley Development Programme, with the added advantage of securing World Bank, African Development Bank, French Development Agency and the Islamic Development Bank all funding.
Painfully enough, Nigeria, being a member of all these Institutions under President Buhari refused to protest against the contravention of an existing UN supervised agreement.
For their kinsman Buhari to be on the throne then was a great opportunity for Nigeriens.
Now that we are blessed with a courageous President who owes no allegiance to Niger Republic, and who now saw and grabbed the opportunity to activate the clause of the Agreement, what is needed is unalloyed cooperation for Nigeria to reclaim her leadership position in the sub-region.

*Dr Shola Agboola*
*DG, Tiwa n’Tiwa*
&
*President, Independent Voters’ Forum*