The Member of Parliament (MP) for the Bawku Central constituency and a Member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament, Mahama Ayariga, says it is too late for diplomacy to be used in resolving the Niger crisis.
He said that diplomacy would not achieve ECOWAS’ intended results.
Ayariga made this comment in an interview with Bernard Avle on The Point of View on Citi TV on Wednesday.
“It is too late to be talking about diplomacy because, given the posture of the military junta in Niger, I doubt if diplomacy will achieve the results that ECOWAS is asking for– which is that they leave office and hand over power to the former president. It will be difficult for the military junta [to do that],” he stated.
Ayariga emphasized that ECOWAS had backed itself into a corner, meaning that whether or not it carries out its military intervention, it will be criticized.
“I think where we are, ECOWAS has backed itself into a corner. If we don’t respond the way that we have threatened to respond, we are damned, and if we respond that way and we don’t respond effectively, we are damned,” he noted.
Meanwhile, there have been several calls for ECOWAS to exercise restraint in its intended military intervention in Niger by engaging in a robust and swift diplomatic and political move to resolve the crisis.
Some others have said that the ECOWAS’ proclamation of a military intervention was hasty and have therefore rejected the military option in solving the political impasse in Niger, indicating that the recourse to naked force in resolving the current political impasse was most undesirable and unacceptable.