ECOWAS Security Council to Meet over Niger

(PANA)--The ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) mediation and security council is scheduled to meet in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, on 24 August on the situation in Niger, where the authorities claim a recent referendum has paved the way for the president to change the constitution so he can remain in office for another three years.

An ECOWAS commission source told PANA on Tuesday that the council, which will meet at the ministerial level, would devote its 27th meeting to the situation in Niger, while not ignoring other West African hotspots. ‘This meeting is an indication of the importance attached to diffusing the crisis in Niger by ECOWAS. The council is one of our mechanisms for dealing with the security situation in the West Africa sub-region,’ the source said.

President Mamadou Tandja of Niger, who has been in power since 1999, has cracked down on the press and critics of his tenure-elongation plan after dissolving the constitutional court and the parliament and assuming the power to rule the Uranium-rich country by decree. The opposition has continued to insist that President Tandja, 71, must respect the constitution and step down in December, when his constitutionally-allowed two five-year terms in office are due to expire. The president has countered by saying that the people want him to remain in office.

The ECOWAS commission has been engaged in efforts to get the Nigerien authorities to abide by their constitution and the ECOWAS Additional Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance. Former Nigerian head of State, Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar, has also travelled to Niger as a special envoy of the ECOWAS chairman, President Umaru Yar’Adua of Nigeria, while a delegation of the ECOWAS council of elders has also intervened in the crisis.

In July, a tripartite delegation including the ECOWAS commission president, UN’s top representative in West Africa Said Djinnit and an African Union envoy to Niger Ambrose Niyonsaba met with President Tandja in Niamey in an effort to diffuse the crisis. Tandja’s supporters said the overwhelming ‘yes’ votes in the 4 August referendum has strengthened the president’s hand and paved the way for him to stay on, despite growing international criticism and threat of sanctions.

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