Two West African leaders addressed reporters on the resolutions adopted at the recently concluded ECOWAS extraordinary summit in Niger.
Newslodge reported how ECOWAS has approved the deployment of a ‘reserve force’ in Niger to oust the junta if talks fail.
Ivorian President Alhassan Ouatarra and his Senegalese counterpart Macky Sall spoke to reporters in separate interviews in Abuja on Thursday.
Mr. Ouatarra spoke before the end of the summit, as he had to travel back to his country, while Mr. Sall spoke at the end of the summit.
Read excerpts from their interviews below.
President Alhassan Ouatarra
Ouatarra: We had a very good summit. We thank President Tinubu for inviting us, for his hospitality and for the people of Nigeria.
As you know, this is the second summit in 10 days that we have organized in Niger and this is a critical problem that we have to solve. As you know, ECOWAS has made many decisions in the past, both in fact and in law, on coups and the community has always condemned coups and coups have occurred in many countries in the sub-region. ECOWAS has intervened in the past in Liberia, Sierra Leone recently in The Gambia, Guinea Bissau and today we have a similar situation in Niger.
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I would like to say that ECOWAS cannot accept this. This is not a Nigeria vs. Niger issue, not at all. The decision that we have made today and I hope that it will be implemented immediately is an ECOWAS decision, all the heads of state think that we have tried to dialogue with the coup plotters.
We have sent a delegation, high personalities like former President Abdulsalami Abubakar, Sultan of Sokoto, Emir of Kano, former CBN Governor Sanusi, my friend, and many other personalities of this important country, to talk to the people of Niger .
But they are holding President Bazoum hostage. I personally consider this a terrorist act. And we cannot allow this to continue. We have to act.
The position of the Ivory Coast, which has been supported by all the heads of state, is that we have been able to tell these coup plotters that their place is in the barracks. They should go fight terrorists and not try to kidnap a democratically elected president.
So we believe that this is for the credibility of the echoes, all of us are concerned and involved in this decision. So I would like to thank my former ECOWAS President, President Tom Barlow. He himself is a former general, democratically elected now to say what we want is democracy in our sub-region. We do not accept, we will not accept coups d’état and I believe that these coup plotters should leave if they do not let Bazoum out to be able to exercise his mandate. I think we should go ahead and get them out. Bazoum is the democratically elected president. He must be released, he must be able to freely exercise his command.
Q: Are you saying that this is the position of ECOWAS?
Ouatarra: As you can see I have to go now. But this is the position that has been endorsed by most of the heads of state that have intervened. So I want to say that I want to insist that this is not a Nigerian issue. It is an ECOWAS matter, and you know that Niger is part of the West African monetary union, of which I am president, and this concerns the Ivory Coast for that reason. So ECOWAS is even bigger. ECOWAS is almost 400 million people, 240 million in Nigeria, 140 million in the West African currency union. So this is 400 million people. If we don’t have democracy, do you think our countries will be able to get ahead? This coup is not acceptable. We should put an end to it. And I hope it’s unanimous but we’re going to put an end to this. Thank you.
=====President Macky Sall
Q: Can you tell us how the meeting went?
Sall: It was a good meeting.
Q: What is your position regarding the resolution taken?
Sall: I support the action proposed by ECOWAS that we do not accept this coup attempt http://www.ecowas.int/ to stay and that we do everything we can to make sure that constitutional order returns to Niger. .
Q: Why is the ECOWAS position on Niger different from that of other sister countries?
Sall: If we made mistakes in the past, we should try to correct them now. There is always a time to start. I think it was a mistake not to have taken action earlier, but now that we’re in this together, we need to take action to make sure it doesn’t continue.
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Let hear it in the comment below if you do have an opinion on this; INTERVIEW: Coup in Niger: what the presidents of the Ivory Coast and Senegal said about the ECOWAS resolutions