The Niger Coup And Nigerian Concern -By Collins Akinujomu

Quite a number of Nigerians have become bothered about the sudden concerns the government of Nigeria is exhibiting over the recent military palace coup that took place in the Republic of Niger leading to the ousting of the 63 year old President Mohamed Bazou, while some has attributed the Federal Government’s actions to different reasons, some took the point of departure from the maiden speech of President Bola Tinubu as Chairperson of ECOWAS where he clearly stated “There is no more coup in West Africa” and equally his reaction to the situation where he stated in another speech that “I wish to say that we are closely monitoring the situation and developments in Niger and we will do everything within our powers to ensure democracy is firmly planted, nurtured, well rooted and thrives in our region” while certain people considered this presidential declarations as just futile political speech with Bola Tinubu aiming to extend his Godfatherism influence beyond the border of Nigeria and hence preferred the president should focus more on stabilizing the country from the economic quagmire she just landed into, others perceived these reactions as the right cause for Nigeria as a neighboring country to Niger. Whatever the case, the purpose of this piece is to attempt to justify Nigeria’s reaction to the Nigerien situation.

The actions of any state on the international scene are solely determined by the foreign policy of such state, and hence Nigeria’s foreign policy has been anchored on two major things, among others, as stipulated in Section 20 of the 1999 constitution of the FRN as amended, which are: Promotion and protection of national interest; and Promotion of African integration and support of African unity. Also, in the seven cardinal principles of Nigeria’s foreign policy, Africa is the centerpiece and Good Neighborliness is an integral part.

As stated in 1 above; Africa is the centerpiece of Nigeria’s foreign policy. Due to the distinguished nature of Nigeria (size, population, and vast resources) and its status as one of the earliest African states to attain independence, the country has since been considered a frontier in African politics. The implication of this is that whatever happens in any part of Africa automatically becomes a concern. Nigeria, through her bilateral relations with other African states, has been seen to have been performing a ‘big brother’s role, just like America, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and China have been seen doing in their respective regions. In the same vein, using the Concentric Circle analysis, the West Africa region has remained the first focal point for Nigeria in pursuing her foreign policy, which is why the country has remained a major power and donor to ECOWAS.

From 2 above; Good neighborliness, the historical experience of Nigeria during the 1967-1970 civil war made Nigeria realize the necessity to shift focus to ensuring the security and political stability of neighboring states of Chad, Cameroon, Benin, and Niger in the West African region, during the war, some of these countries aligned with the Biafran forces, providing humanitarian and technical support in fighting the Nigerian government, when Nigeria was eventually able to suppress the secessionist forces in ‘no victor and vanquish’ resolution, the experience influenced Nigeria’s decision to adopting a ‘good neighborliness policy’ in a bid to ensure no border country will be left to be political unrest to prevent any future external threats to Nigeria, this has since culminated into Nigeria’s national interest, this is also similar to what Russia is doing in preventing Ukraine from joining NATO

Also, the Boko-Haram trajectory and its affiliated ISIS group expansion to Nigeria’s border countries (Niger and Chad in particular) and the fear of consequence that may emanate from this are another major reason Nigeria is concerned about the political situation of neighboring countries, including the Republic of Niger

It was in the same spirit that former President Mohammadu Buhari, on August 3, 2022, donated 1.4 billion Naira to Niger for the purchase of armored vehicles to tackle insecurity. Nigeria has the responsibility of protecting and ensuring political stability in the West African Region; this and many others are what comes with the responsibility of being a regional power.