In a swift response to military coup in Niger Republic, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has enforced a no-flight zone over the country.

The decision was announced today by the ECOWAS, at an urgent meeting following the increasing tension stirred by the military actors who are attempting to take over in Niger.

This significant move which includes air and land border closure, is seen as a crucial reaction to the recent ascendancy of the junta, which has stirred significant unrest in the country and poses a threat to political stability within the region.

The ECOWAS leadership believes that the imposition of a no-flight zone will help curb the junta’s influence and hinder any potential allies from providing aerial support, even as leaders of the coup fear that the regional body could stage an imminent military intervention in the capital of the Sahel country.

In addition to the no-flight zone, the regional body has agreed on immediate financial sanctions over the coup, and has given the junta a week to cede power, while noting that a use of force has not been ruled out.

ECOWAS also insisted that President Mohamed Bazoum remains recognized as president of Niger, and called upon member states and the international community to uphold and respect these decision, in an effort to help restore peace and stability in the republic.

Speaking at the emergency meeting which he presided over today, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu who serves as Chairman of the ECOWAS denounced the coup by military leaders in Niger Republic, saying Africa has come of age.

Briefing leaders of the regional bloc, Tinubu registered the displeasure of ECOWAS at the coup d’état in the Niger Republic.

“Africa has come of age, we reject coup and interruption to constitutional order,” the Nigerian leader said amid applause.

“As African leaders, it is our sheer responsibility to foster stability and progress, placing the wellbeing of our people at the forefront of our endeavours.

“Working together towards their prosperity and happiness must always constantly be our goal and consistently, we will stand with our people in freedom and our commitment to the rule of law and not the barrel of gun.”

Late Wednesday, General Abdourahamane Tchiani, the chief of Niger’s powerful presidential guard took power after a military coup. The action has since been condemned by the United Nations, African Union, the European Union, the United States among other world and regional leaders.

Tchiani, 59, has shunned the limelight despite a stellar military career which saw him lead the elite 700-member unit from 2011 up until now.

On Friday, Tchiani declared himself leader after staging a takeover that began on Wednesday when his presidential guards seized President Mohamed Bazoum and sequestered him in the presidential palace.

[Channels TV]

Thousands of supporters of a military junta that took power in Niger earlier this week have marched in the capital, Niamey, with many waving Russian flags and chanting the name of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The demonstrators on July 30 set fire to the door of the French Embassy, while the army tried to restore order.

The French Foreign Ministry urged the junta to "ensure the security of our diplomatic missions and consulates," while the office of French President Emmanuel Macron said France "will not tolerate any attack against France or its interests."

Former colonial power France and the European Union suspended financial aid and security cooperation with Niger on July 29.

Junta leaders said they overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum on July 28 because of what they claimed was the threat of "imminent military intervention" by the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

ECOWAS planned an emergency summit in Abuja, Nigeria, on July 30 to discuss the situation in Niger.

Russia's Kremlin-connected Wagner mercenary group has a presence in neighboring Mali.

Before the coup, Niger was considered the most reliable remaining partner for Western efforts to combat jihadists in the Sahel region. France has 1,500 troops in Niger to conduct joint operations with Niger's military, while the United States and the European Union have provided security training and assistance.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Binken, traveling in Australia, said continued U.S. aid was conditioned on "the continuation of the democratic governance and constitutional order" in Niger.

The African Union has issued an ultimatum to the junta to restore Niger's democratically elected government within 15 days. Failure to do so, the bloc said, would force it to take "necessary action, including punitive measures against the perpetrators."

Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world and relies on some $2 billion in annual international assistance.

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters

Former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar on Saturday attended a crucial meeting of leaders and stakeholders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The meeting which lasted over two hours was held at the residence of a chieftain of the PDP and former Foreign Affairs Minister, Chief Tom Ikimi, in Maitama, Abuja.

Naija News reports the meeting had in attendance former Delta State Governor and 2023 PDP presidential running mate, Ifeanyi Okowa, suspended party chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, and other party leaders.

Some of the former governors who attended the meeting were Babangida Aliyu (Niger State), Aminu Waziri Tambuwal (Sokoto), and Ibrahim Shekarau (Kano).

Also at the meeting with Atiku were seven serving governors of the party.

They were Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa State (Atiku’s state), Bala Mohammed (Bauchi), Sheriff Oborevwori (Delta), Godwin Obaseki (Edo), Ademola Adeleke (Osun), Caleb Mutfwang (Plateau) and Lawal Dauda (Zamfara).

Details Of Discussion Between Atiku, PDP Leaders Emerge

Former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar held a closed-door meeting on Saturday with some of his allies in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in order to prevent former Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike from hijacking the leadership of the party, a source has claimed.

Naija News earlier reported that Atiku on Saturday attended a crucial meeting of leaders and stakeholders of the PDP in Abuja which according to him was productive and had a lot of collaborative energy.

Though Atiku did not disclose further details about what transpired during the meeting, a source told Daily Trust on Sunday that the meeting was called to discuss how to make one of the ex-governors succeed Iyorchia Ayu as the PDP National Chairman.

According to the source, loyalists of Atiku within the party were the ones who attended the meeting and that is why the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) members were not invited.

It was further revealed that the aim of the meeting is to prevent Wike from hijacking the PDP structure and making one of his men the national chairman.

[NaijaNews]

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has described as “outrageous falsehood” claims that Aisha Dahir-Umar, its director general (DG), was paid “millions of dollars” for estacode during COVID-19 lockdown in 2020.

Reports circulating online further alleged that there were documents showing how the monies were paid into her account.

But in a statement issued on Sunday, the commission said it was impossible for any government official to claim foreign travel allowances in 2020 when there was a global restriction on international travels and most airports were closed, forcing people to work from home and hold virtual meetings.

The commission said all rates for estacode payments are standardised and foreign trips require strict documentation, “including air tickets, stamped passport pages and evidence of number of days spent”.

“Even if the DG were to spend two years abroad non-stop, her estacode allowances would not be up to a million dollars,” it said.

PenCom linked the reports to the current jostling for appointments in the country.

FULL TEXT OF THE PRESS RELEASE

Management would like to alert the public to the renewed campaign of outrageous falsehood against the National Pension Commission (PenCom) and its Director General, Mrs Aisha Dahir-Umar, over some imagined financial impropriety. Although the promoters of this fiction went to the extent of manufacturing documents and listing non-existent bank accounts to make the fabrication look real, a fiction remains a fiction and can never become the truth no matter how many times it is repeated and recycled.

It was alleged that the Director General was paid millions of dollars as estacodes for foreign trips she did not embark upon in 2020. This poor attempt at calumny is exposed by the fact that there was a global lockdown in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic during which international travels were restricted. Offices were shut down and most people had to hold virtual meetings. It is, thus, most outlandish to suggest that any government agency would claim to be paying allowances to its officials for international travels when most airports were shut down globally.

More so, official foreign trips require strict documentation, including air tickets, stamped passport pages and evidence of number of days spent. Rates for estacodes are standardised. If the DG were to spend two years abroad without returning to the country for one day, it would still be impossible for her to claim a million dollars as estacode. The desperate fabricators need to respect the intelligence of Nigerians.

We are aware of current political intrigues in the country caused by the jostling for appointments, but we believe there are more decent ways of going about it than peddling tales by moonlight and using notorious online outlets to push the lies to unsuspecting readers. The public is implored to ignore these fake documents and the discredited allegations being recycled at the slightest opportunity. The Commission has nothing to hide and will continue to run a transparent and accountable system.

[TheCable]

Pope Francis on Sunday called on Russia to return to the agreement that had allowed the safe passage of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea to world markets.

The Ukraine grain deal was agreed last year and allowed around 33 million tonnes of grain to leave Ukrainian ports, helping to stabilise global food prices and avert shortages.

“I am calling on my brothers, the authorities in the Russian Federation, to re-establish the Black Sea initiative so that the wheat could be safely transported”, Francis said during his weekly Angelus prayer.

“We are constantly praying for martyred Ukraine, where the war is destroying everything, including the wheat, which is a major offence to God because wheat is his gift to feed humanity and the cries of millions of our brothers and sisters suffering from hunger are lifting to the sky,” he said.

Russia two weeks ago refused to extend a deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey, under which Ukrainian grain exports passed through the Black Sea to reach global markets, including Africa, easing pressure on food prices.

Moscow withdrew from the agreement after protesting for months that the parts of the deal that allowed for the export of Russian fertiliser were not honoured.

Following Russia’s pullout, wheat prices have risen.

AFP

The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has rejected the Federal Government’s 25% increase to the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure.

The decision was made during the association’s National Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Lagos, and a communique was issued on Saturday, July 29, with signatures from the association’s president, Orji Emeka Innocent, secretary-general, Chikezie Kelechi, and publicity and social secretary, Umar Musa.

Doctors insist on earlier demands. 

The doctors insist on their original demand, which is the full restoration of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CMSS) to its value at the time of its approval in 2009.

The communique expressed strong disapproval of the 25% increment in the basic salary of doctors and the accoutrement allowance calling it “paltry”. 

The statement reads, “NEC vehemently rejects the paltry 25 per cent increment in the basic salary of doctors, as well as the accoutrement allowance,” It went further to insist they stand on their earlier demands “for full restoration of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure to its right value as at the time of the approval of the structure in 2009,” 

Strike continues

Orji emphasized that the strike would continue until the government demonstrates significant progress in addressing the association’s demands, as outlined in the earlier ultimatum.

The doctors’ demands encompass the immediate payment of the 2023 Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF), concrete measures for the upward review of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS), and settlement of all salary arrears owed to its members since 2015.

What you should know 

Earlier in the week, resident Doctors across the country embarked on an indefinite strike after the expiration of their two weeks warning strike on July 19.  

The demands of the doctors include payment of arrears dating back to 2014,2015, and 2016; an upward review of the consolidated salary structure for medical doctors to reflect changes in exchange rate and inflation since 2014 amongst others.

To placate the doctors, the Federal government, through the office of the National Salary and Wages Commission, offered an N25,000 accoutrement allowance for medical and dental practitioners in the country.

The federal government also increased the salary of medical doctors by 25% for those in CONMESS grades 1 to 6 and 35% for those in CONMESS grade 7.  

In a letter from the FG, it states the cost of the increase will be from the overhead budget and will be effective from June 1, 2023.  

[Nairametrics]

So a military coup has been announced in neighboring Niger and there are some Nigerians secretly wishing for a military coup in Nigeria because of the present problems facing the country but they must realise that the problem is not about democracy, whether or not it is a sound system of government. Instead, it is the so-called practitioners of democracy who use it as a mask for state capture that is the problem.

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority; still more when you superadd the tendency of the certainty of corruption by authority.”

Lord Acton’s famous quote above typifies the actual problem associated with governmental power and its exercise by men and women. The use, management and control of political power over military force, financial resources and determination of peoples’ freedoms will always lead to abuse, corruption and armed conflicts, ultimately, when exercised by an individual or a group of individuals without checks. It is this understanding, which is considered a problem, that made many countries of the world, especially in the Western Hemisphere, adopt political systems that limit the powers and influence of government and those who operate it. The idea is to protect and secure liberty, which is the essence of living life to its full potential. Therefore the story of democracy transformed from being a government of the majority (which is a dictatorship in itself) to that which operates the principles of checks and balances to avoid the concentration of power in individuals or small groups.

But when a society has become dysfunctional because of long-standing poor leadership, in the case of Nigeria, where its survival and stability are threatened by an intractable insecurity situation and the uncertainties of economic hardships, the prevalent mob psychology in such a situation is often that of longing for a messianic rule. Yet nothing can be more futile!

Permit me, please, at this point, to write in the first person only for the sake of adducing some credence. So I have lived through many military coups, counter-coups and phantom coups in this Nigeria, at least five of them in my short life span of 50 years. Given the processes we adopted to achieve independence as a people and country, those coups were needless and could have been avoided. I have studied Nigerian history with zest and a focus on the remote causes of the Nigerian Civil War. Interestingly, at 14, I read Guy Anorld’s Modern Nigeria from cover to cover, giving me an insight into how the country fared after the civil war. History has been my fancy since then. Thanks to my mother and the exciting educational environment the ever-great Prof. Ambrose Alli provided us in then Bendel State.

Later in life, I obtained a post-graduate degree in the Law of Armed Conflict. After all of these experiential sojourns, my conclusion is that military rule has been a curse to Nigeria and should never again be contemplated by any Nigerian who means well for present and future generations of the people who currently make up the territory that is today referred to as Nigeria.

People can adopt various forms of government to suit their aspirations. In a continuum of governmental systems with monarchy on one end and democracy on the other end. Between them are various shades of governments that tilt to either side. So there are autocracy, totalitarianism, dictatorship, fascism, oligarchy, plutocracy, gerontocracy, theocracy, meritocracy, etc. And the list of typologies appears endless, with newer shades that are driven by the competing ideologies of Marxism and Capitalism that have set countries of Latin America and Africa in history as theatres of conflict and brutal power-mongering, leading to widespread political instability, poverty, corruption and untold loss of human lives.

Eminent political scientists have held that there is no perfect system of government, especially democracy. Yet however faulty the principles and practices of democracy may be, it appears to be the system closest to achieving peace and stability that can guarantee liberty and progress for the world's countries.

Now imagine a world without the influence of the United Kingdom and the United States, despite their sins. Their citizens are undoubtedly happier and possess greater freedoms than those who live in Russia and China, where dissenting opinions by citizens are not tolerated. Then compare the rich and stable countries of Scandinavia to North Korea and realise that the practice of modern democracy remains the denominator for stability and prosperity which has made countries that practise democracy more prosperous and stable. Many Africans are prepared to risk their lives at sea and in the horrid desert just to set foot in Westen Europe. And even Indians, Pakistanis, Syrians and other nationals make the West their preferred destination point of migration. Democracy is the difference!

According to Acemoglu and Robinson in their book: Why Nations Fail, “Countries such as Great Britain and the United States became rich because their citizens overthrew the elites who controlled power and created a society where political rights were much more broadly distributed, where the government was accountable and responsive and where the great mass could take advantage of economic opportunities.”

Nigeria must strive at all costs to remain on the course of democracy, like India, a country which hasn’t recorded any military takeover since its independence in 1947 but has continually used its democratic structures and institutions to solve its many problems that were more difficult than the ones facing Nigeria presently. Nigeria must immediately work at a leadership recruitment system where faithful public servants will emerge, not those who capture government for self-serving purposes.

Nigerians must say a big NO to any military takeover. Never again! There is no non-alignment on this issue. Nigeria should have nothing to do with a Russia that starts an unprovoked war in Ukraine and uses Wagner forces to destabilise Mali and Burkina Faso. Nigeria must stop its incipient enslavement to Chinese loans and influence and rise to define its future and greatness with a preparedness to pay the price of sacrifice and innovation.

Therefore, Nigerians must banish the thought of a military deus ex machina in the present Nigerian situation!

Frank Tietie
Lawyer & Social Commentator writes from Abuja

Leaders making up the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Authority of Heads of State and Government are presently converging on Abuja, the nation’s capital, for an emergency meeting expected to deliberate on the next line of action regarding the coup in the Republic of Niger.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, is expected to preside over the meeting, which kicks off in a few minutes at the Presidential Villa.

Among African leaders who have arrived at the venue are the transitional President of Tchad, Gen Mahamat Kaka, President. Umaro Mokhtar Sissoco of Guinea-Bissau and Togo. Others are Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma and President Alassane Ouattara of Côte d’Ivoire.

Others are President Macky Sall of Senegal, President Patrice Talon of Benin Republic, President Nana Akofo-Ado of Ghana and President Adama Barrow of The Gambia, among others.

Recall that President Tinubu had reacted sharply to the political unrest in Republic of Niger, when he warned that ECOWAS would not accept coups in the continent.

Soon after, news broke out that the military had successfully seized power in Niger.

[DailyPost]