Niger Coup: ‘Why Lawmakers, Nigerians Must Support ECOWAS Resolution’

A socio-political organisation, Social Rehabilitation Gruppe (SRG) led by Nigeria-born United States-based medical doctor, Dr. Marindoti Oludare, has thrown its weight behind a decision of the Economic Community of West African Countries (ECOWAS) to intervene in the military take-over in Niger Republic should the coupists refuse to restore democracy to that country.

Oludare, in a statement on Sunday, noted that he was bewildered by the failure of some of Nigeria’s lawmakers to grasp the full weight of the abortion of democracy in neighbouring Niger Republic, at a time military rulership is abhorred globally.

The SRG Convener/ National Coordinator stated, “I have watched with a great deal of bewilderment some TV interviews and social media posts made by some Nigerian senators that seem to undercut the ECOWAS resolution on the Niger coup; the views expressed by some Nigerians on social media regarding the situation is also discombobulating.

“For those average Nigerians, I can understand their median age of 18 years or thereabout; implication being that majority of the entities posting online was either never born or didn’t have the mental awareness enough to remember the terror of Nigeria’s long years of military rule.

“They do not know that the very opinion that they were expressing freely will deprive them other freedom in a military rule.”

He added that the justification for the utterances of senators seeking waivers for Niger’s military junta was benumbing and hard to explain.

“Maybe because majority of them was not yet in politics prior to ’99. Should this trend of military coup be allowed to succeed and spread to Nigeria, who do they think will be amongst the earliest casualty of such a coup? The politicians,” he lampoon’s.

Oludare stressed that the pacifist-isolationist views of these senators beggars belief, stressing that Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere.

Nigeria, he said, protects its democracy by preserving democratic governance in all its neighboring countries.

“The failure of ECOWAS to intervene immediately after the first coup in Mali on August 18 2020 has led to a contiguous spread of coups all across the Sahel region.

“We now have 13 coup attempts in the longest latitudinal expanse of Africa spreading from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. This is the reason ECOWAS’s action/inaction regarding the situation in Niger will be a watershed moment, not just for Niger OR WEST AFRICA but for the whole of the African region.

“It is time we exterminated all undemocratic tendencies and reverse the continental drift towards all forms of autocracies, both democratic and undemocratic autocracy.

“This is an imperative for the economic growth and a march towards a better life for all the people in the region. The military is never the answer, “they bring sorrow tears and blood, their regular trademark”.

Analysing the situation further, Oludare stated, “To get a perspective for an intervention beyond the Niger coup situation, one needs look no further than the history of what led to the emancipation of Africa from the throes of colonialism and imperialism.

“While navigating the treacherous waters of World War II, the 32nd president of the United States Franklin Delano Roosevelt(FDR) visited the British Gambia on his way to meet with the British Prime Minister (Winston Churchill) and while driving through the capital of Bathurst (now Banjul), he saw the deplorable nature of life of the Gambian peasants, this reinvigorated him to rekindle his previous discussions about a post-war world without territorial aggrandization more forcefully with the British PM who had earlier indicated an unwillingness to dismantle the King’s empire.

“The end of WWII led to the Atlantic Charter that formed the United Nation which planted the seeds for the decolonization of Africa and ensured the European countries granted freedom to their colonial subjects.”

He said he had long held the view that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the FDR of Nigeria, adding, “I will implore that after the Niger affair becomes resolved, there should be a wider effort aimed at ending the perpetuation in power across the the sub-saharan Africa by both the trans-mutated and organic democracies across the region and the remaining pouchiest should be given an ultimatum to transition to democratic rule within a defined period of time.”