Coup: I Feel For Tinubu Because This Is Happening At The Time He's ECOWAS Chairman– Chekwas Okorie

The founding National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and a well-known member of the Ohaneze Ndigbo, Chief Chekwas Okorie, has offered his opinion on the unfolding coup in the Republic of Niger. His remarks came as news spread that troops in Niger had ousted President Mohamed Bazoum.

Olusegun Obasanjo, the former president of Nigeria, is acting as an envoy on behalf of ECOWAS to address the crisis. In an exclusive interview with The Sun paper, Chief Chekwas Okorie expressed concern about the situation and emphasised the need for caution.

He said, “I pity President Tinubu since this is occurring while he is the chairman of ECOWAS, but he should be careful how he handles the problem. Going to war would not be good for us since the other nations will not provide many resources and troops, and when the fighting begins, it will be similar to Nigeria vs the Niger Republic.

“And when you have a large population of your people who believe that they have cultural and religious affinity with the people you are going to fight, you may have sabotage within the system, which includes the military, and that is dangerous,” he further emphasised.

Okorie sympathised with President Tinubu, who is ECOWAS’s current chair, and counselled him to tackle the problem with caution. He underlined the possible difficulties that a war would bring up and issued a warning against the thought of starting one. Okorie pointed out that there may be an imbalance in the case of a conflict since the ECOWAS member states might not contribute much in the way of men and resources. Okorie brought out the cultural and theological similarities between certain Nigerian groups and those in the Niger Republic, speculating that these links would lead to internal sabotage, even within the military ranks.

Okorie advocated a strategic course of action rather than military action. He recommended that ECOWAS impose severe penalties on the Niger junta. By doing this, it is hoped that the people of the Niger Republic would become more and more unhappy with the state of affairs and overthrow the junta on their own. Chief Chekwas Okorie advocated for tough sanctions to persuade the people of the Niger Republic to take action against the junta while urging prudence and emphasising the necessity for a non-military solution to handle the continuing situation in Niger.

Strategically, going to war is not suggested, he said. Again, Nigeria’s economic collapse does not support that. Therefore, I would suggest that ECOWAS insist on extremely strong sanctions in order to encourage the Niger Republic’s citizens to overthrow the junta when they see that things are not going well in their nation.

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