The Secretary of State to United States President Joe Biden, Anthony Blinken, has commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for his bold leadership in the crisis rocking Nigér Republic.
Blinken gave his commendation via his official Twitter handle on sunday, shortly after the emergency meeting held by the Economic Community of West African States, headed by Tinubu in Abuja.
He thanked Tinubu and revealed that they discussed bilateral and multilateral efforts to resolve the situation in favor of restoring constitutional order in Niger.
He tweeted, “Thanked Nigerian President Tinubu for his bold leadership on the crisis in Niger. We discussed bilateral and multilateral efforts to resolve the situation in favor of restoring constitutional order in Niger.”
Meanwhile, the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the ECOWAS has issued a seven-day ultimatum to the military in Niger Republic, to restore ousted President, Mohammed Bazoum, to office.
The directive came as part of a resolution reached an emergency session of the regional bloc, presided over by the ECOWAS Chairman, Tinubu, in Abuja on Sunday.
The security guard in Niger had on Wednesday, given President Mohammed Bazoum and his family a house arrest at the Presidential lodge.
However, the Commander of the country’s Presidential Guards, General Abdourahamane Tchiani, declared himself the Head of a Transitional Government on Friday on national television.
The ECOWAS however called a meeting on Sunday, to delibrate on developments in the country where President Bazoum has been held by members of his presidential guards for days.
At Sunday’s meeting, the Authority established its recognition of Bazoum as the legitimate President of the country and as well announced the imposition of land border closures and suspension of all commercial flights between the Niger Republic and ECOWAS member states.
According to the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Omar Touray who announced the decision, all Chiefs of Defence Staff of the member states will proceed for an emergency meeting to strategise on effective ways to implement a possible military operation to restore Bazoum to office.
Tourey added that the ECOWAS will not spare any efforts to restore the legitimate President to power.
“Take all measures necessary to restore constitutional order in the Republic of Nigeria. Such measures may include the use of force.
“To this effect, the Chiefs of Defence Staff of ECOWAS are to meet immediately,” he said.
Touray said that ECOWAS has approved the “Suspension of all commercial and financial transactions between ECOWAS Member States and Asia. Freeze all service transactions including energy transactions.
“Freeze assets of the Republic of Niger in Aqua Central Bank. Freeze of assets of the Niger State and the state enterprises and parastatals in commercial banks.
“Suspension of measure from all financial assistance and transactions with all financial institutions, particularly EBID.”
Among the leaders who attended the meeting are President Umaro Sissoco Embalo of Guinea-Bissau, Alassane Ouattara of Cote D’Ivoire and Faure Gnassingbe of Togo.
Others are President Macky Sall of Senegal, President Patrice Talon of Benin, and President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana.
The Transitional President of Chad, Mahamat Deby, showed up and departed before the opening of the meeting.
Meanwhile, Cape Verde and Liberia are being represented by their Foreign Affairs
