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BREAKING: Abdulsalam, Tinubu’s envoy, land in Niger, warn military junta, amid tension
Abdulsalami Abubakar, leading the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), dispatched by President Bola Tinubu, to negotiate with the military leaders that sacked that country’s elected President, Mohammed Bazoum, is already meeting with Abdourahmane Tiani, the new military Head of State appointed by the coup makers, last week.
Abubakar, himself a former Head of State, who brokered the current democratic government in Nigeria by transferring power to the first elected civilian government after a 25-year military intervention is seen in a picture discussing with the head of the military junta in the country’s capital, Niamey.
On the heels of the decision of the leaders of ECOWAS resolving last week that the junta in Niger must restore the former President to power, as coups were no longer acceptable in Africa, and ahead of the expiration of the seven-day ultimatum to relinquish power, the former Head of State, accompanied by the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Abubakar, and Alieu Touray, president of the ECOWAS commission, had earlier been pictured landing at the Niamey airport on Thursday before the meeting with, Tiani, who was before the coup, head of Bazoum’s presidential guard.
The Nation reports that the Abdulsalam’s delegation was to hand over a strong message of the consequence of failing to respect the position of ECOWAS that President Mohammed Bazoum should be reinstated, a direct message by President Bola Tinubu, the chairman of the Authority of Heads of State and Governments of the sub-regional body.
Another delegation, the second sent to the country with a similar message, was reportedly led by Ambassador Babagana Kingibe with a mission to persuade leaders of Libya and Algeria – Niger’s Northern neighbours – to lend their support to the pressure on the military usurpers.
The sub-regions Chiefs of Defence Staff, after concluding their meeting in Abuja, have returned to their respective countries to brief their Commanders in Chief on their decisions and readiness for a military offensive, if necessary.
United States (U.S.) President Joe Biden, was quoted on Thursday to have given his total support to ECOWAS decision that the junta should step down, according to presidential spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale, who explained in a statement that the President acted in line with the resolution reached at the end of last weekend’s extraordinary summit of ECOWAS in Abuja.
Niger has been embroiled in crisis since July 26 when a military junta overthrew the Bazoum, who has been under detention since then, after accusing his government of poorly handling the security situation in the country, as well as a gamut of other crimes, including official corruption.
But the incident, had sparked outrage at various levels of the international community, particularly the ECOWAS which gave the junta till August 6 to reinstate Bazoum, after reeling out a rash of sanctions against the country, ranked as one of the poorest in the world, living on aides from the developed countries, despite housing one of the hugest deposits of uranium, a major raw material for nuclear energy.
To underscore its readiness to get the coupists comply with the resolution, the ECOWAS leaders also weighed military option in the country to flush them out, should they rebuff the warning, with its regional forces meeting in Abuja, the Nigerian capital at the weekend, in apparent readiness to strike.
As part of the first move to punish the government, Nigeria the major supplier of electricity to the country, has since cut off power supply, throwing parts of the troubled country and one of its neighbours in the Northern region with a population of over 27 million, into darkness Yesterday.
Even with the Defence Headquarters of the Nigerian military, clarifying that it had yet to receive an order to deploy troops to commence the military operation, help appears already on the way to defend the Niger junta headed by 62-year-old Tchiani with Russia, warning that such action would not be the best option and countries like Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, which already have military governments in power warning that they would back the government in Niamey.
Chidi Odinkalu, Nigeria’s fiery lawyer, law teacher and former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), is emphatic that President Bola Tinubu is pushing to perpetuate himself in office, beginning with gaming the electoral process in 2027.
Odinkalu, Professor of Practice in International Human Rights Law at the Fletcher School, told his host Naija Unfiltered, a popular Nigerian podcast programme, that he was as sure as death that the President would not exit office in 2031, if he succeeded with his current gambit to remain in power beyond next year.
Hear him: “Yes. But as I said, let me repeat myself. There’ll be a third term. President Tinubu has not done all of this just for another four years. There will be a third term. And anybody who is doing, ‘it is not our portion,’ is not reading the evidence.”
To achieve this aim, the activist, who was also emphatic that the National Assembly, would play a role, added: “The current National Assembly is anything but national or an assembly. And if it’s an assembly, it’s not a parliamentary one. Many people have called it a rubber stamp, but I think that is actually abusive of rubber stamps. I think this National Assembly is a disgrace.
Citing how bizarre and completely compliant the national legislature had become to Tinubu, the ex-NHRC’s boss, stated: “If you can change your national anthem in less than 24 hours with no public hearing, no public consultation, no public involvement, it tells you you don’t have a country because a national anthem is fundamental to the construction of a national identity.”
Also referring to the current move by the President to introduce state police, Odinkalu, wondered how the Nigerian Senate would introduce the bill to that effect and proceed towards the first and second readings, as well as committee stage and passage in less than two hours, questioning how that was possible in normal clime.
Hear him: “Once we finish our elections, we’re going to amend our Constitution, introduce a single six-year presidential term. The current incumbent will be elected until 2031. In 2031, what will happen? The question will be, will he be entitled to run on the six-year term or will he not?
“You will then get the best Senior Advocates in Nigeria telling you the law is not retrospective. That is why the administration is supporting the litigation over President Jonathan’s tenure—not because the Constitution is not clear, but because they will say there is precedent. There will be a third term, and I’m prepared to bet on it.”
“If we continue to pay ransom, we are encouraging these criminals to kidnap more people. The cycle will only continue unless we stop rewarding criminality,” were the words of Dauda Lawal, Governor of Zamfara State, with which he blamed those in the habit of paying ransoms as the major factor fuelling the current wave of kidnapping incidents across the country.
Lawal, on Thursday at the ARISE News/THISDAY Town Hall Conference on State Police and National Security in Abuja, told his audience how he flatly refused to pay a ₦300 million ransom demanded by kidnappers who abducted his brothers in 2019.
Reiterating his opposition to negotiating with bandits and renewed his support for the establishment of state police, Lawal, while recounting the incident, said: “My own brothers were kidnapped in 2019, and the kidnappers demanded about ₦300 million. I told them I was not going to pay a dime. If they wanted to kill them, they could go ahead.”
Stating that his brothers were eventually released without any ransom being paid, he argued that paying ransom usually emboldened criminal groups by providing financial incentives for further kidnappings.
He added: “My position on ransom payments remains unchanged. I will not negotiate, and I will not pay ransom to any criminal, no matter what happens.”
Endorsing the move for the establishment of state police, to enable governors have greater operational authority over security within their states, he regretted that the current constitutional arrangement left governors with responsibility for security without corresponding powers to direct security agencies.
His words: “In as much as I am called the chief security officer of the state, I do not have the command-and-control authority to direct the operations of the security agencies. I’m prepared to support the funding of state police if the proposed policing structure is established. I’m confident that decentralised policing will improve intelligence gathering, response time and the overall fight against insecurity.”
Exactly seven years, two months and four days after he forced Walter Onnoghen, the 16th Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) out of office, Danladi Umar, former Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), on Thursday, found himself in Kuje prison.
Justice Peter Kekemeke, of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), sitting in Maitama, handed the ex-CCT boss the unwelcome package on Thursday, following his arraignment by the Federal Government on a four-count corruption charge.
Umar’s ordeal began after an investigations revealed that he abused his official position by conferring an undue advantage on himself while serving as head of the tribunal, having in 2021, reportedly using his wife’s bank account to collect the sum of N5.5 million from a contractor engaged to paint the headquarters of the CCT in Abuja.
He was also accuse of using the same account to collect another N6million on January 25, 2024, from a contractor who handled the digitisation of the CCT’s records and yet another N2.43 million a contractor paid as tuition fee of his daughter at Baze University, Abuja.
After pleading not guilty to offences, said to be punishable under section 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000, Christopher Mshelia, lawyer to the FG, prosecuting the matter, applied for his remand in a correctional facility, while urging the court to set a date for the commencement of trial.
His pleas to be freed on bail pending the determination of the case, was opposed by the prosecution, which drew the court’s attention to the fact that it had just been served with the bail application, saying it needed time to respond to it, forcing Kekemeke to adjourn the case till July 15 for hearing while the former CCT boss remained behind bars.
Umar, had as CCT Chairman, on January 23, 2019, issued a controversial ex parte order that led to the removal of a serving Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen.
Following the ex parte order, the late President Muhammadu Buhari, on January 25, swore in the next most senior jurist of the Supreme Court, Justice Tanko Muhammad, to take over the leadership of the judiciary as Acting CJN.
Even though Onnoghen later voluntarily resigned his position as CJN on April 4, Umar went ahead and convicted him on April 18, 2019, on the federal government’s allegation that he had failed to properly declare his assets as required by law.
He gave the federal government the go-ahead to confiscate all monies in five accounts belonging to the former CJN, and also removed him as Chairman of both the NJC and the Federal Judiciary Service Commission (FJSC).
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