The Nigeria Air Force (NAF) has condemned the social media for helping in promoting the false propaganda of the terrorists on the crashed MI-171 helicopter at Chukuba Village in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State. In a statement today, August 16, NAF expressed worry over the consequences of circulating a video on social media platforms depicting the alleged wreckage of the crashed helicopter, with bodies of the victims. “While the NAF regrets such unfortunate incidents, especially as they involve the loss of lives of our colleagues, the Service will never shy away from unravelling the probable cause of the crash with a view to drawing lessons. “For those aiding and abetting the propaganda tendencies of terrorists, deliberately or inadvertently, by spreading the videos of the alleged crash site with gory pictures of dead military personnel, the need to rethink the consequences of their actions on the morale of troops, families of deceased personnel as well as on Nigeria’s national security is imperative.” The statement, signed by the Director of Public Relations and Information of the Nigerian Air Force, Air Commodore Edward Gabkwet, said that it is not in the character of the NAF to respond to such claims, particularly one peddled by terrorists, but that concerns expressed by well-meaning Nigerians on the need to address the propaganda became imperative. “Like all military organizations involved in counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operations, incidences of fatalities, mishaps and crashes are sometimes inevitable. “For the NAF, the last 8 years has seen an increased level of air operations in efforts at checkmating the nefarious activities of terrorists and criminal elements in the country. “With heightened levels of air operations, occasioned by an enhanced fleet, the likelihood of air mishaps and accidents at times become unavoidable and inevitable due to various reasons. “Indeed, the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Hasan Abubakar said this much when he hosted Governor Umaru Bago of Niger State, yesterday, 15 August 2023, at his office where he noted that the rates of aircraft accidents/incidences are directly proportional to the heightened level of air operations. “For the NAF and indeed, the entire members of the Armed Forces, our resolve and determination to bring the current security situation in Niger State and indeed, all troubled spots in the country remains unshaken. “Infact, if anything, we are determined more than ever before, to take on the enemy frontally until they are brought to their knees. “While calling on all Nigerians to continue to support the Armed Forces of Nigeria and other security agencies as we all jointly confront our common enemies, the NAF wishes to appreciate the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, for his message of condolence and words of encouragement. Our appreciation also goes to other well-meaning Nigerians for their support.”
Former Nigerian First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan stormed Aso Rock Presidential villa, Abuja, today, August 16, on solidarity visit to the current First Lady, Senator Olufemi Tinubu. From left: Dame Patience Jonathan and Senator Oluremi Tinubu.
Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State has appointed and sworn-in Caretaker committees for Local Government Council Areas, Local Government Development Areas and the Area Office in the state. The Governor had written to the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, seeking approval for the appointment of the Caretaker committees, which was promptly approved. The Governor’s letter to the Assembly reads in part: “In view of the urgency of need for a functioning local government system and the arising necessity due to non-existence of legitimate and democratically elected Local Government Executives across the Local Government Councils in Osun State, I hereby forward the attached list of Caretaker members for all the Local Government Council Areas, Local Government Development Area and Area Councils across Osun State, for your consideration, pending the holding of Local Government elections in line with the relevant provisions of the law. “I seek your expeditious approval so as to properly re-shape and direct the administration of the third tier of government in Osun State.” Immediately after the Assembly approved the appointees, they were screened. The swearing-in of the Caretaker members, according to a statement by the spokesperson to the Governor, Mallam Olawale Rasheed, held earlier today, August 16, at the Bola Ige House, Abere , Osogbo.
Yushau Shaibu The hurriedly declared resolution of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to deploy troops to restore democracy and reinstate the ousted President Mohamed Bazoum of Niger Republic, after the military takeover of power on the 26th of July, might have been influenced by the need to avoid foreign interventions that could lead to the kinds of destruction and agony evident in Syria, Yemen, Libya, Sudan, and elsewhere. In its keen and swift desire for a resolution to the crisis, President Bola Tinubu, on behalf of ECOWAS, raised special envoys, comprising former Nigerian leader, General Abdulsalam Abubakar; the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Abubakar III and the president of the ECOWAS Commission, Alieu Touray, to mediate in the unfolding crisis in Niger. Unfortunately, the Nigerien Coup leader, Abdourahmane Tchiani, snubbed the ECOWAS delegation by refusing to receive them, even though he later received the former Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. It was quite disheartening that the official delegation was not even given access to leave the airport in Niamey in the endeavour to meet with Tchiani and Bazoum. It is gratifying that Tinubu subsequently constituted another powerful delegation, comprising top Islamic clerics, to open talks with the junta in Niger, which has now agreed to dialogue with the ECOWAS on the way forward in the country. The latest action by ECOWAS is possibly to checkmate what appears to be an evolving annual ritual, evident in the past three years, in which military personnel in Francophone countries in the subregion are overthrowing democratically elected leaders. The coup plotters removed Presidents Ibrahim Boubacar Keita of Mali in 2020, Alpha Condé of Guinea in 2021, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré of Burkina Faso in 2022 and now President Mohamad Bazoum of Niger in 2023. The military juntas, led by Colonel Assimi Goïta in Mali, Colonel Mamady Doumbouya in Guinea, and Captain Ibrahim Traoré in Burkina Faso, were mostly trained by the U.S. In fact, Goita and Doumbouya attended a 2019 US military training exercise in Burkina Faso. Surprisingly after taking over, they also drove away French troops and allegedly invited Russian mercenary forces in as their replacement. While increasing complaints about poor governance, escalating poverty and insecurity are often cited for the coups, a deeper factor is the geopolitics of resource access and control. This involves foreign interests’ desires to explore and control the abundant mineral resources of West African nations. Hence, the ascendant tension in Niger and the wider subregion are impelled by the imperialist and economic rivalry between the East and the West. As it is now, if appropriate steps are not taken to defuse the budding conflict in Niger Republic, the ongoing proxy war between Russia and NATO/USA over Ukraine, can easily creep into West Africa, where diverse groups of mercenaries and Western Special Forces are already stationed across different locations, and with the military bases just waiting for instructions from their commanders for armed actions to break out. In many instances, military actions and interventions are not only carried out on battlegrounds but they are first activated in the minds of the public through crude propaganda. The conflict in Ukraine, for instance, exposes how the Western media – essentially – display their extreme biases in reportage, as they engage in psychological warfare, propagating one-sided and selective facts, while censoring counterclaims and obvious facts. Rather than striving for fair, conflict-sensitive, and objective reports towards the promotion of peace, they are advancing a highly inflammatory and pernicious form of war journalism and thereby escalating the crises in the process. This appears to be working to certain ends. A similar instance of this that we should never forget in a hurry is the conspiracy involving the Western media over the so-called accumulation of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and the democratisation campaign in Libya, which led to the elimination of the leaders of the two mentioned countries, Saddam Hussein and Muammar Ghadafi, and to the death of scores of innocent citizens through the aggression of the allied forces and NATO. In considering the unfortunate case of poor Ukraine, which has become the battleground for the flexing of muscles between Russian mercenaries and Western (US/NATO) Special Forces – with attendant devastation that would take several years, if not decades, to recover from – care should be seriously taken so that West Africa does not become next theatre of a proxy war between foreign powers driven by agenda that is far from the liberation of the subregion and larger continent from their debilitating challenges. Although the Russian government does not have military bases in Africa like US and France that represents NATO do, its presence is strongly felt through the activities of the Wagner Group of armed mercenaries, which executes the government’s military cooperation agreements, especially in a number of West African states. While Wagner’s fighters are hired by African leaders for regime protection and to consolidate their holds on power, the Group, founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin as a private military company, operates with the permission of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The mercenaries are hired to suppress dissent, guard natural resources, engage in direct combat with adversaries, bolster weak official military forces, and explore newer areas of strategic vulnerability towards rooting out the West’s declining influence in many sensitive spots around the world. Of its numerous engagements, the Wagner Group is more keenly involved in providing security cover for well-laden but remote mineral sites that are often under the constant threat of non-state actors. Meanwhile, as mercenaries are having their ways in the African region, NATO through the US continues to carry out joint military exercises with other allies and partners in contiguous territorial spaces within the region. For instance, the US Africa Command (USAFRICOM), headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany (another NATO member), is one of the US Department of Defense combatant commands, with a geographic or functional mission that provides for the command and control of military forces for peace and war. It has military bases in select African countries. In the West African rim of the Sahel, for instance, the United States under President Joe Biden has two military bases in Niger – Air Base 101 in Niamey, and Air Base 201 in Agadez, which was constructed at the cost of $110 million. The American interventions in Niger have included the deployment of special operations forces, unmanned aerial vehicles and drones by its Air Force, while the CIA has engaged in counter-terrorism operations. After its ejection from the other francophone countries in West Africa, France (NATO member), with the support of America, has reinforced its presence in Niger and despatched hundreds of its operatives to the southwest of the country, towards the Malian border. Niger previously served mainly as a transit base for France’s operations in Mali. And just recently, precisely in May 2023, in a new strategic partnership, Niger accepted 1,500 French soldiers on its soil to bolster its armed forces, at a time of a great security threat. Before then the European Union (EU) had accepted the call from Niger’s parliament to station special operations forces (SOF) in the country in order to counter its problems of insecurity. Note that the security of EU and NATO are inter-connected having respectively 27 and 31 member states, of which 22 states are members of both. It is also worth noting that the US and French Special Forces have jointly and discreetly undertaken major military operations within the ECOWAS region. It could be recalled that at some point the US special forces secretly came into Nigeria and killed several kidnappers while rescuing a 27-year-old American citizen, Philip Walton, who was abducted in Niger in 2020. Similarly, during the Tongo Tongo ambush in 2017, when armed terrorists attacked US and Nigerien soldiers in an ambush, French aircraft swiftly responded to this and brought the fire-fight to an end. Although some Americans and Nigeriens were killed during the military intervention, many soldiers actually survived that operation. While ECOWAS is struggling to ensure that the Niger crisis is resolved amicably, some Nigerians are unmindful of their provocative behaviours and statements. It is quite shameful that those who never experienced a civil war or a military coup, are the ones clamouring for a military intervention in the world’s most populous black nation on the basis of myopic sentiments. Any attempt to disrupt the current democratic administration, under the leadership of President Ahmed Bola Tinubu, will not only lead to the dissolution of the country but would unleash on each region monumental security challenges that it barely has the capacity to contend with. Imagine an ‘explosion’ of terrorism in the North-East, banditry in the North-West, kidnappings in the North-Central, volatile militancy in the South-South, violent secessionist agitation in the South-East, and cultism in the South-West. No single region will be willing to stick its neck out in furtherance of any campaign for a united country thereafter. In a nutshell, I agree with the recent position of the Arewa Economic Forum (AEC) supporting the deepening of democratic principles in the subregion and urging ECOWAS to allow the socio-economic reality of Nigeriens to govern their choices. While suggesting that sanctions should be targeted at the military junta and its cronies, the Forum yet admonished that ways have to be found to protect innocent citizens, especially vulnerable people, including traders, women and children, from these penalties. Being one of the poorest nations on earth, any further deterioration of the precarious living conditions of Nigeriens would activate hordes of new migrations into Nigeria for succour, which will invariably burden our current economic situation and put further pressure on our scarce national resources. All said, Nigeria must avoid going into a new war when the country is yet to contain ISWAP-Boko Haram terrorism and the pervasive acts of banditry, especially along the Northern corridor. Dialogue and diplomacy should be sustained towards resolving not only the Nigerien but also the ECOWAS crises. _Yushau A. Shuaib, author of “An Encounter with the Spymaster” and can be reached at www.YAShuaib.com yashuaib@yahoo.com
Kenya has reintroduced a small subsidy to stabilise retail fuel prices for the next 30 days.
According to the energy regulator, the measure, in response to public anger over the high cost of living, is a reversal of the government earlier policy which removed the subsidy.
On coming to office last September, President William Ruto removed fuel and maize flour subsidies put in place by his predecessor, saying that he preferred subsidising production rather than consumption.
The move was also aimed at cutting government spending as the government seeks to get a handle on debt repayments that have forced it to deny market speculation about a possible default.
But the subsidy cuts as well as recent tax hikes have increased living costs and contributed to violent anti-government protests in recent months.
The energy regulator said that the maximum retail price of a litre of petrol would remain constant at 194.68 shillings ($1.35), shielding consumers from an increase of 7.33 shillings, which the government will shoulder through a price stabilisation fund.
Retail fuel prices are set in the middle of each month. The government also applied small subsidies on kerosene and diesel, the regulator, known as EPRA, said.
The move did not amount to a reinstatement of the subsidies, since the regulator is using the petroleum development levy to stabilise prices, rather than asking for exchequer support, said Daniel Kiptoo, the director general of EPRA.
“We are basically giving to Kenyans the money that we have collected over the past couple of months,” he told Reuters, referring to the levy, which is charged at the rate of 5.40 shillings per litre of fuel.
Officials from the energy ministry and the finance ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Fuel prices shot up when Ruto removed the subsidies. They spiked again in July after the government pushed through parliament a contentious law that doubled the fuel tax.
The protests organised in response to that law were called off last month after the opposition and Ruto agreed to talks to resolve their differences, the second such attempt this year.
Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole | Photo credit: Premium Times
Former Governor of Edo State, now a Senator, Adams Oshiomhole has detailed the “terrible economic situation” inherited by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
He said: “the government (of Tinubu) inherited a terrible economic situation. Everybody knows it.”
Answering questions from newsmen today, August 15, shortly after an audience with Vice President Kashim Shettima at the Presidential villa, Abuja, Senator Oshiomhole said that Tinubu’s government inherited an economy in which the country’s total national revenue was barely enough to service it debt burden, “spending 96 percent, which is to say that every N100 Nigerian earn, 96,000 is going to repay debts, to service debt.
“So, you have only 4,000 left to pay all the salaries. So, nothing can be worse.”
Senator Oshiomhole said that Tinubu and his team came in office, determined that they will have to do business unusual; to arrest the drift; stabilize the economy and then begin to move forward.
“Some painful decisions are necessary. It is like any of us that has been unfortunate to have an ailment that requires surgery.
“If you want to pretend, you can be applying Vaseline, perfumes, creams and wear babariga to cover all the manifestations of that disease.
“But a trained doctor that believes in the ethics of medicine will tell you that you need a surgery. Surgery will be painful in the short run.
“They will give you a little bit of pain relief, but they only relief the pain. They won’t cure the disease. You need surgery and they wheel you to theatre.
“It might take three months, six months, but when you recover from that surgery and you bounce back; and you obey all the rules of the game, some of which may require a new way of life; it may require change of lifestyle. “You’ll be back and you find out that you can do a relay race because you are fit.
“I think that is the kind of analogy we can draw in terms of where we are now.”
He said that already, the president and vice president have shown courage in terms of the decisions they have taken, which is a radical movement away “from one in which if you are well connected you could make billions without adding value to one in which if you want to make money you have to work.
“We have moved away from a situation where CBN can favour you and you become a billionaire or they can pauperize you and your business collapses.
“Yes, it has created its own challenges, but I don’t know of any drug without side effect. “Doctors will always tell you that every drug might cure your ailment but it will have a side effect. “So, in taking it you have to do cost and benefit analysis.
“On the whole, I believe that the broad economic, specific macro economic policies that have been put in place so far, both in terms of monetary policies and in terms of fiscal policies, is the best way to start.”
He recalled when recently, in the life of ex President Muhammadu Buhari, a minister of finance distanced herself from the monetary policies of a CBN Governor and they were not talking.
“If the hand and the leg are not walking in harmony, then there is no way you can get to your destination.
“So, I think we are in a better situation now. But my plea to Nigerians is, when I say I will bail you out, I will fix a complicated system that is malfunctioning, I believe everyone knows that the more terrible the situation is, the more time I will require to take the right decision.
“Given the paucity of data and all the other basic infrastructure you need to take some quick decisions are not present, but decision has to be taken.
“When I was a governor I did the same thing. I said, let me use my first six months to take the first decisions.
“I might lose few friends in the process but when those decisions begin to manifest and translate to benefits I will regain, not just the friends I have lost, I will definitely win more friends.
“That’s what happened in Edo and by the time I was running for my second term, I got more votes than I got in my first term because some of the difficult decisions I took in my first term came to fruition.
“So, there is no quick fix and there is no miracle in the life of nation states.
“As they say, leaders and statesmen think of tomorrow, the short-sighted politicians think of what is politically convenient.
Vice President Kashim Shettima has made it known to the executives of Google, a leading global technology company, that Nigeria had missed industrial and other revolutions in the past and will not be left behind this time, in knowledge-driven age.
“We missed the agricultural age; we missed the industrial age and we are now in the knowledge-driven post-industrial age.
“We have the potential and a unique opportunity to fill the anticipated global talent deficit.”
Shettima, who spoke today, August 15, while playing host to the executive members of the global technological experts at the Presidential villa, Abuja, expressed happiness at Google’s proposed N1.2 billion grant initiative for one million jobs for Nigerians.
He said that the proposed grant of N1.2 billion to support the Tinubu administration’s digital jobs initiative is commendable and worthy of emulation by other companies.
He stressed the desire of the government to create more job opportunities, saying that there is need to walk the talk.
“It is easy to pontificate but very difficult to bring all of the ideas to fruition. I want to assure you that this administration is ready to partner with you.
“Nigeria is ready for business. The President that we have now wants to leave a legacy that Nigerians will be proud of many years after.”
The Vice President spoke about the potentials of Nigeria’s young population, saying: “we have a unique opportunity to harness the potentials of our huge youth population to create millions of jobs in the digital sector.
“We have more English-speaking people than many countries in Africa and beyond.
“Access Bank is doing a lot in terms of digital skills, training 1,000 youths in digital skills to create employment opportunities.
“We are working with Wema Bank, the Bank of Industry and other partners on this project. We are willing to partner with Google, we will work closely with you for the good of our nation.”
This was even as the Director of Google in West Africa, Olumide Balogun said that the company is excited about the Tinubu administration’s vision of creating one million digital jobs and is committing over N1.2 billion in grants to support the initiative.
He said that the company, through the programme, would provide digital skills to over 20,000 youths and women to enhance and improve their lives and livelihoods, and also enable several startups grow and create thousands of jobs in the sector.
Also, the Google Africa’s Director of Government Relations and Public Policy, Charles Murito, said that the company remains committed to investing in digital infrastructure across Africa, and that digital transformation in the continent can be the driver of the targeted technology jobs.
He spoke about the potential in Africa, saying: “Google cannot achieve its vision and objectives if it doesn’t cover Nigeria effectively.”
The Google initiative is designed to train 20,000 Nigerian women and youth in digital skills.
The programme is facilitated through a grant from Google’s philanthropic arm to “Mind the Gap” in partnership with Data Science Nigeria and the Creative Industry Initiative for Africa. This initiative aligns with President Bola Tinubu’s administration’s commitment to increasing the participation of young Nigerians in the digital economy by creating 1 million digital jobs.
The delegation from Google also includes, Programme Manager, Google Africa, Ms Oluwatamilore Oni; the Government Affairs and Public Policy Manager, Mr Adewolu Adene and Communications and Public Affairs Manager for Google West Africa, Mr Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade, among others.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has painted the picture of how the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN’s) mismanagement of the nation’s economy has landed the country in seriously mess, even as he reassured the citizens that there would be no more increase in the price of Petrol.
“I will continue to be open to Nigerians on the challenges our nation is facing with respect to the illiquidity in the market, in terms of foreign exchange, as a result of what is now known to have been a gross mismanagement of the Central Bank of Nigeria over the course of several years preceding this time.”
Speaking through his Special Adviser on media and publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, at the Presidential villa, Abuja, today, August 15, the President said that despite the fact that so far, fuel in Nigeria is cheapest amongst the countries in the West Africa sub-region, there would be no longer Increase in the price, which is now between N610 and N617.
“The official position is that there is no increase in prices at this time and that Mr. President is convinced, based on information before him, that we can maintain current pricing without reversing our deregulation policy by swiftly cleaning up existing inefficiencies within the midstream and downstream Petroleum sector.”
President Tinubu warned however, that “we are not yet out of the turnel: there is still a bit of darkness to travel through to get toward the light. And we are pleading with Nigerians to please be patient with us.”
The President said that there are presently inefficiencies within the midstream and downstream petroleum sub sectors, which once very swiftly addressed and cleaned up, “will ensure that we can maintain prices where they are without having to resort to a reversal of this administration’s deregulation policy in the petroleum industry.”
President Tinubu provided a set of graphics, president by the NNPCL, to show the present cost of refined petroleum motor spirit in each of the West African nations that are Nigeria’s neighbours.
The graphics show that in Senegal, pump price today is N1,273 equivalent per liter; Guinea at N1,075 per liter; Côte d’ Ivore at N1,048 per litre equivalent in their currency; Mali N1,113 per litre; Central African Republic N1,414 per litre, saying: “Nigeria is presently averaging between N568 and N630 per litre.
“We are presently the cheapest, most affordable purchasing state in the West African sub-region by some distance. “There is no country that is below N700 per liter.
“We have seen that at the inception of our deregulation policy as of June 1, we have seen PMS consumption in the country drop immediately from 67 million litres per day consumption, down to 46 million litres per day consumption.”
President Tinubu asked all stakeholders in the country to hold their peace.
“We have heard very recently from the organized labour movement in the country with respect to their most recent threat.
“We believe that the threat was premature and that there is a need on all sides to ensure that fact finding and diligence is done on what the current state of the downstream and midstream petroleum industry is before any threats or conclusions are arrived at or issued.”
The President said that he is determined to maintain competitive tension within all sub sectors of the petroleum industry and to ensure that the policy drawn up as well as policy implemented would follow so that there would be no any single one entity dominating the market.
“The market has been deregulated. It has been liberalized and we are moving forward in that direction without looking back.”
An aircraft belonging to the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has crashed in Minna, the capital of Niger State.
A statement today, August 14, by the NAF Director of Public Relations and Information, Air Commodore Edward Gabkwet, said that the aircraft departed from Zungeru Primary School in Niger State en-route Kaduna but was later discovered to have crashed in a village in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State.
The Air Force said that the aircraft was on a casualty evacuation mission when the crash happened.
The statement read in part: “A Nigerian Air Force MI-171 Helicopter on a casualty evacuation mission crashed today, August 14, 2023, at about 1.1.00 pm Chukuba Village in Niger State
“The aircraft had departed Zungeru Primary School en route Kaduna but was later discovered to have crashed near Chukuba Village in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State.”
The casualty figure is not yet known as at the time of filing this report.
But Gabkwet said efforts are ongoing to rescue the pilots and passengers on board.
“Efforts are currently ongoing to rescue the crew and passengers on board the helicopter, while preliminary investigations have commenced to determine the probable cause of the crash.”
The acting Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Folashodun Adebisi Shonubi has cautioned the parallel market operators to tread gently else they will soon be operating at a great loss.
“The speculators should be careful because we believe the things we’re doing when they come to fruition may result in significant losses to them.”
The CBN boss, who spoke to newsmen today, August 14, shortly after a meeting with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the Presidential villa, Abuja, referred to the changes in the parallel market which he said are not driven by pure economic demand and supply “but are topped by the speculative demand from people.
“If you look at the official market, you will find that that market has been fairly stable and the spreads of the difference are not fluctuated as much.
“We do not believe that the changes going on in the parallel market are driven by pure economic demand and supply but are topped by speculative demand from people.
“Some of the plans and strategies which I’m not at liberty to share with you, means sooner rather than later, the speculators should be careful, because we believe the things we’re doing when they come to fruition may result in significant losses to them.”
The CBN Acting Governor said that President Tinubu was very concerned about some of the goings on in the foreign exchange market and asked what could be done to stabilize and what could be done to improve the liquidity in the market.
The President, he said, is also worried about the goings on in the various other markets, including the parallel market, and about its impact on the average person.
Shonubi said that so far, a lot of activities that the CBN carried out are purely local and are still referenced to the exchange rates in the parallel markets.
‘We have discussed and shared with him what we’re doing to improve supply.
“My presence here is more about the concerns the President has. He needs to know that we are doing something about it, assurances of which I have given him totally.
“We are looking at it and we’re doing things which will significantly impact the market in a few days time. And we will all see it.
“The intention is to ensure that the environment operates at a level that’s more efficient, but also that is very reasonable and does not have a negative impact to the best that we can have on the lives of the average person.”
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Niger Coup: Of Russian Mercenaries, NATO Forces And Looming Proxy Wars, By Yushau A. Shuaib
The hurriedly declared resolution of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to deploy troops to restore democracy and reinstate the ousted President Mohamed Bazoum of Niger Republic, after the military takeover of power on the 26th of July, might have been influenced by the need to avoid foreign interventions that could lead to the kinds of destruction and agony evident in Syria, Yemen, Libya, Sudan, and elsewhere.
In its keen and swift desire for a resolution to the crisis, President Bola Tinubu, on behalf of ECOWAS, raised special envoys, comprising former Nigerian leader, General Abdulsalam Abubakar; the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Abubakar III and the president of the ECOWAS Commission, Alieu Touray, to mediate in the unfolding crisis in Niger. Unfortunately, the Nigerien Coup leader, Abdourahmane Tchiani, snubbed the ECOWAS delegation by refusing to receive them, even though he later received the former Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. It was quite disheartening that the official delegation was not even given access to leave the airport in Niamey in the endeavour to meet with Tchiani and Bazoum.
It is gratifying that Tinubu subsequently constituted another powerful delegation, comprising top Islamic clerics, to open talks with the junta in Niger, which has now agreed to dialogue with the ECOWAS on the way forward in the country.
The latest action by ECOWAS is possibly to checkmate what appears to be an evolving annual ritual, evident in the past three years, in which military personnel in Francophone countries in the subregion are overthrowing democratically elected leaders. The coup plotters removed Presidents Ibrahim Boubacar Keita of Mali in 2020, Alpha Condé of Guinea in 2021, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré of Burkina Faso in 2022 and now President Mohamad Bazoum of Niger in 2023.
The military juntas, led by Colonel Assimi Goïta in Mali, Colonel Mamady Doumbouya in Guinea, and Captain Ibrahim Traoré in Burkina Faso, were mostly trained by the U.S. In fact, Goita and Doumbouya attended a 2019 US military training exercise in Burkina Faso. Surprisingly after taking over, they also drove away French troops and allegedly invited Russian mercenary forces in as their replacement.
While increasing complaints about poor governance, escalating poverty and insecurity are often cited for the coups, a deeper factor is the geopolitics of resource access and control. This involves foreign interests’ desires to explore and control the abundant mineral resources of West African nations. Hence, the ascendant tension in Niger and the wider subregion are impelled by the imperialist and economic rivalry between the East and the West.
As it is now, if appropriate steps are not taken to defuse the budding conflict in Niger Republic, the ongoing proxy war between Russia and NATO/USA over Ukraine, can easily creep into West Africa, where diverse groups of mercenaries and Western Special Forces are already stationed across different locations, and with the military bases just waiting for instructions from their commanders for armed actions to break out.
In many instances, military actions and interventions are not only carried out on battlegrounds but they are first activated in the minds of the public through crude propaganda. The conflict in Ukraine, for instance, exposes how the Western media – essentially – display their extreme biases in reportage, as they engage in psychological warfare, propagating one-sided and selective facts, while censoring counterclaims and obvious facts. Rather than striving for fair, conflict-sensitive, and objective reports towards the promotion of peace, they are advancing a highly inflammatory and pernicious form of war journalism and thereby escalating the crises in the process. This appears to be working to certain ends.
A similar instance of this that we should never forget in a hurry is the conspiracy involving the Western media over the so-called accumulation of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and the democratisation campaign in Libya, which led to the elimination of the leaders of the two mentioned countries, Saddam Hussein and Muammar Ghadafi, and to the death of scores of innocent citizens through the aggression of the allied forces and NATO.
In considering the unfortunate case of poor Ukraine, which has become the battleground for the flexing of muscles between Russian mercenaries and Western (US/NATO) Special Forces – with attendant devastation that would take several years, if not decades, to recover from – care should be seriously taken so that West Africa does not become next theatre of a proxy war between foreign powers driven by agenda that is far from the liberation of the subregion and larger continent from their debilitating challenges.
Although the Russian government does not have military bases in Africa like US and France that represents NATO do, its presence is strongly felt through the activities of the Wagner Group of armed mercenaries, which executes the government’s military cooperation agreements, especially in a number of West African states.
While Wagner’s fighters are hired by African leaders for regime protection and to consolidate their holds on power, the Group, founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin as a private military company, operates with the permission of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The mercenaries are hired to suppress dissent, guard natural resources, engage in direct combat with adversaries, bolster weak official military forces, and explore newer areas of strategic vulnerability towards rooting out the West’s declining influence in many sensitive spots around the world. Of its numerous engagements, the Wagner Group is more keenly involved in providing security cover for well-laden but remote mineral sites that are often under the constant threat of non-state actors.
Meanwhile, as mercenaries are having their ways in the African region, NATO through the US continues to carry out joint military exercises with other allies and partners in contiguous territorial spaces within the region. For instance, the US Africa Command (USAFRICOM), headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany (another NATO member), is one of the US Department of Defense combatant commands, with a geographic or functional mission that provides for the command and control of military forces for peace and war. It has military bases in select African countries.
In the West African rim of the Sahel, for instance, the United States under President Joe Biden has two military bases in Niger – Air Base 101 in Niamey, and Air Base 201 in Agadez, which was constructed at the cost of $110 million. The American interventions in Niger have included the deployment of special operations forces, unmanned aerial vehicles and drones by its Air Force, while the CIA has engaged in counter-terrorism operations.
After its ejection from the other francophone countries in West Africa, France (NATO member), with the support of America, has reinforced its presence in Niger and despatched hundreds of its operatives to the southwest of the country, towards the Malian border. Niger previously served mainly as a transit base for France’s operations in Mali.
And just recently, precisely in May 2023, in a new strategic partnership, Niger accepted 1,500 French soldiers on its soil to bolster its armed forces, at a time of a great security threat. Before then the European Union (EU) had accepted the call from Niger’s parliament to station special operations forces (SOF) in the country in order to counter its problems of insecurity. Note that the security of EU and NATO are inter-connected having respectively 27 and 31 member states, of which 22 states are members of both.
It is also worth noting that the US and French Special Forces have jointly and discreetly undertaken major military operations within the ECOWAS region. It could be recalled that at some point the US special forces secretly came into Nigeria and killed several kidnappers while rescuing a 27-year-old American citizen, Philip Walton, who was abducted in Niger in 2020.
Similarly, during the Tongo Tongo ambush in 2017, when armed terrorists attacked US and Nigerien soldiers in an ambush, French aircraft swiftly responded to this and brought the fire-fight to an end. Although some Americans and Nigeriens were killed during the military intervention, many soldiers actually survived that operation.
While ECOWAS is struggling to ensure that the Niger crisis is resolved amicably, some Nigerians are unmindful of their provocative behaviours and statements. It is quite shameful that those who never experienced a civil war or a military coup, are the ones clamouring for a military intervention in the world’s most populous black nation on the basis of myopic sentiments. Any attempt to disrupt the current democratic administration, under the leadership of President Ahmed Bola Tinubu, will not only lead to the dissolution of the country but would unleash on each region monumental security challenges that it barely has the capacity to contend with. Imagine an ‘explosion’ of terrorism in the North-East, banditry in the North-West, kidnappings in the North-Central, volatile militancy in the South-South, violent secessionist agitation in the South-East, and cultism in the South-West. No single region will be willing to stick its neck out in furtherance of any campaign for a united country thereafter.
In a nutshell, I agree with the recent position of the Arewa Economic Forum (AEC) supporting the deepening of democratic principles in the subregion and urging ECOWAS to allow the socio-economic reality of Nigeriens to govern their choices. While suggesting that sanctions should be targeted at the military junta and its cronies, the Forum yet admonished that ways have to be found to protect innocent citizens, especially vulnerable people, including traders, women and children, from these penalties.
Being one of the poorest nations on earth, any further deterioration of the precarious living conditions of Nigeriens would activate hordes of new migrations into Nigeria for succour, which will invariably burden our current economic situation and put further pressure on our scarce national resources.
All said, Nigeria must avoid going into a new war when the country is yet to contain ISWAP-Boko Haram terrorism and the pervasive acts of banditry, especially along the Northern corridor. Dialogue and diplomacy should be sustained towards resolving not only the Nigerien but also the ECOWAS crises.
_Yushau A. Shuaib, author of “An Encounter with the Spymaster” and can be reached at www.YAShuaib.com yashuaib@yahoo.com