By Ayo Yusuf
In a bid to appear more a government of transition than a military regime the Niger junta has assured the nation that it won’t stay beyond three years.
In a televised address on Saturday, the new military ruler, General General Abdourahamane Tiani said, “our ambition is not to confiscate power,” and assured the citizens that he and his group would organise elections for a democratically elected government within the said period.
He described his government as a transition government determined to return the country to full democracy but warned that any attempt to forcefully dislodged them would be effectively resisted.
According to him, “If an attack were to be undertaken against us, it will not be the walk in the park some people seem to think.”
He charged that the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, which has threatened to remove him from power after he failed to obey a previous ultimatum is merely a conspiracy of foreign powers which is planning to take over the country.
“ECOWAS is getting ready to attack Niger by setting up an occupying army in collaboration with a foreign army,” he claimed, although he stopped short of naming the country he meant.
In his 12-minute speech, the junta leader denounced what he called the “illegal” and
“inhuman” sanctions levied by ECOWAS against Niger since the military seized power.
He also announced a 30-day period of “national dialogue” to draw up “concrete proposals” to lay the foundations of “a new constitutional life”.
Despite his belligerent address however, General Tiani’s appeared to be relenting his previous hardline stance as a delegation from ECOWAS which arrived in the country for a final diplomatic push Saturday was allowed to see deposed president Mohamed Bazoum, who has been held with his family at the president’s official residence since officers from his personal guard seized power on July 26.
The delegation said it met
former president Bazoum “in good spirits”, though he remains under detention and his electricity was still cut off.
The meeting came after growing international concern over his conditions in detention and the threat by the ECOWAS chair, President Bola Tinubu of Nigeria that there would be dire consequences if Mr Bazoum’s health deteriorates.
The ECOWAS delegation led by former Nigerian leader Abdulsalami Abubakar also met with some of the senior officers who seized power, but it wasn’t immediately clear if that included General Abdourahamane Tiani himself.
On a previous visit earlier this month, the same ECOWAS delegation led by Mr. Abubakar had tried and failed to meet him, or Bazoum but were prevented from doing so.
Earlier, Niger’s military-appointed prime minister, Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, had assured reporters that Mr. Bazoum would not be harmed.
“Nothing will happen to him, because we don’t have a tradition of violence in Niger,” the most senior civilian in the new regime said.
Despite the growing flexibility of the military junta, thousands of volunteers turned out in central Niamey on Saturday answering a call to register as civilian auxiliaries who could be mobilised to support the army in case of an invasion.
It would be recalled that ECOWAS defence chiefs met during the week in the Ghanaian capital Accra to fine-tune details of a potential military operation to restore Bazoum if ongoing negotiations with coup leaders fail.
“We are ready to go any time the order is given,” Abdel-Fatau Musah, an ECOWAS commissioner for political affairs and security, said on Friday after the military chiefs’ meeting.
“The D-Day is also decided,” he said.
Risky Operation
ECOWAS leaders were forced to act after Niger became the fourth West African nation since 2020 to suffer a coup, following Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso.
The Sahel region is struggling with growing jihadist insurgencies linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group and frustration over the violence has in part prompted the military takeovers.
ECOWAS troops have intervened in other emergencies since 1990, including civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Ivory Coast, Benin and Nigeria are expected to contribute troops to a Niger mission.
But details of any Niger operation have not been released and analysts say intervention would be politically and militarily risky, especially for regional player Nigeria.
Nigeria is already struggling to contain violence from several armed groups at home, and leaders in the country’s north have warned about spillover from Niger across the border if there is an intervention.
The coup leaders have defiantly threatened to charge Bazoum with treason. But they have also said they are open to talks.
The military-ruled governments in neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso have also said an intervention in Niger would be seen as a declaration of war against them.
In the hours following the coup, France, which fields 1,500 troops in Niger, was asked to back a potential armed move to restore Bazoum to office, sources close to the affair told AFP, confirming a report in Le Monde daily.
“But the loyalists changed sides and joined the putschists. So the conditions were not right to meet the request for support,” the source said.
ECOWAS has already applied trade and financial sanctions on Niger, while France, Germany and the United States have suspended aid programmes.
Also on Saturday, the United States, a major partner of Niger in the fight against jihadists, said that a new ambassador had been installed in Niamey.
Kathleen FitzGibbon, a career diplomat with extensive experience in Africa, will not however officially present her letter of assignment to the new authorities in place, as Washington does not recognise them.
