Tinubu Buckles Under The Weight Of Gowon’s Incisive Hammer On ECOWAS’s Unity, Lifts Sanctions
The Oasis Reporters
February 25, 2024
When the West African regional organization, ECOWAS made a u-turn by lifting some sanctions it had placed on the military governments in certain French speaking West African nations and their countries, few people knew about the sledge hammer letter that an ECOWAS founding father, Gen. Yakubu Gowon had written to the region urging them to unconditionally lift the sanctions placed on Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali.
‘Speaking in his opening remarks at the start of the summit, ECOWAS chairman and Nigerian President Bola Tinubu said the bloc “must re-examine our current approach to the quest for constitutional order in four of our Member States”, referring to the three suspended countries, as well as Guinea, which is also military-led.
Tinubu urged Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso to “reconsider the decision” and said they should “not perceive our organization as the enemy”’.
ECOWAS had previously sanctioned them, and in retaliation they went ahead to cut ECOWAS out.
Gowon intervened and now ECOWAS wants them to return. Prof. Ndubuisi Ekekwe says that “this is not a victory for these military rulers but what ECOWAS has done is balanced: do not make lives harder for the citizens”.
Then imagine if ECOWAS which cannot sustain a mere sanction had gone to war on this matter. Happy to have shouted: “This is a pivotal moment for ECOWAS and everyone of us must speak out. From Ghana to Nigeria, Ivory Coast to Guinea, tell your leaders that we do not want a military solution to the crisis in Niger Republic. It must NEVER again be recorded that Africans are attacking one another. And over what ?”
And Marcus Herve Traore has a different perspective and report on the issue:
ECOWAS lifts sanctions on Niger with immediate effect.
At their extraordinary summit in Abuja this Saturday, @ecowas_cedeao lifted economic sanctions against Niger and announced the reopening of borders and flights over the country with immediate effect. Their decision comes less than a month after the AES withdrew from them.
Let’s not forget that their sanctions were imposed on July 30th, 2023, after the coup occurred on July 26th, 2023. They claimed that they took these measures to demand the return of the puppet President Mohamed Bazoum back into office under penalty of armed intervention. These were the illegal, illegitimate, inhumane and irresponsible sanctions:
1. Closure of land and air borders between ECOWAS countries and Niger;
2. Establishment of the ECOWAS no-fly zone on all commercial flights to and from Niger;
3. Suspension of all commercial and financial transactions between ECOWAS Member States and Niger;
4. Freezing of all service transactions, including utilities;
5. Freezing of the assets of the Republic of Niger in the ECOWAS Central Banks;
6. Freezing of assets of the State of Niger and State Enterprises and parastatals in commercial banks;
7. Suspension of Niger from all financial aid and transactions with all financial institutions, in particular the EBID and the WADB;
8. Travel ban and asset freeze for military officials involved in the coup attempt. The same goes for their family members and civilians who agree to participate in any institution or government established by these military officials;
9. Calls on UEMOA and all other regional bodies to implement this decision.
Alright folks, these were the sanctions ECOWAS invented out of nowhere, in the sole purpose of crushing the economy and making the people of Niger to revolt against the new military leadership. I said this before, these sanctions are the results of pure malice, because they banned the imports of food and medicine.
What does that mean? They wanted the people to starve to death? And yes, unfortunately, thousands of Nigériens died.
Benin Republic president, Patrice Talon upon the news of the withdrawal of the AES from ECOWAS made a public statement that the sanctions were not intended to last long. He even admitted that he called two Presidents to remind them that they have to lift the sanctions. My guess, it was Nigerian president Bola Tinubu and Cote d’Ivoire président Alassanne Ouattara whom he called.
The intensity and severity of those sanctions were supposed to make the leaders bend their knees and comply with their demands. But it was about not knowing the Nigériens well and their resiliency.
For the most part, they chose to stand up for the current government, even if that meant starvation and death.
I recall that the former PM of Niger was on French media claiming that Niger was not going to withstand the sanctions without international aid.
Well, here we are, almost 7 months under sanctions. Niger didn’t disappear, Niger is still standing tall and stronger. So, where is that jerk now?
In fact, Niger is standing tall and stronger to the extent that it’s now supplying the AES with cheap fuel. Very soon 1L of gas will cost 38 cents, so $1.45 a gallon, because they now have two oil refineries. Mind you, Burkina Faso also has oil that we haven’t yet touched. Mali has oil that Algeria with the complicity of France has been stealing since the 1960’s.
Anyway, folks, ECOWAS didn’t lift these sanctions because they want to appease the crisis. They themselves started feeling the heat of those sanctions. With Niger having closed its airspace to them, Benin’s port empty, Côte d’Ivoire farm produce destined for exports to the AES rotting with no one to buy them, they had no choice but to lift them.
But, as Captain said last week, even if they lift their sanctions, we will make sure that their exports don’t enter our countries. Please Goita Assimi of Mali @CapitaineIb226 of Burkina Faso, can we also close the AES airspace for 7 months? Let’s give them a taste of their own medicine!
