U.S. Secretary Blinken Praises Tinubu's ECOWAS Leadership For 'Shared Efforts' To Remove Niger Junta

FILE
August 15, 2023
News

Blinken in a post on his handle on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday praised Tinubu's ECOWAS leadership in what he described as shared efforts with the U.S. to wrestle power from the junta in Niger.

The United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has applauded President Bola Tinubu's leadership of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for its efforts to restore constitutional order in Niger Republic.

Blinken in a post on his handle on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday praised Tinubu's ECOWAS leadership in what he described as shared efforts with the U.S. to wrestle power from the junta in Niger.

Blinken wrote, "Spoke to Nigerian President Tinubu to commend his leadership of the Economic Community of West African States and discussed shared efforts to restore constitutional order in Niger."

France and the US have been accused of using President Tinubu-led ECOWAS to wage a proxy war in Niger.  SaharaReporters had reported that the National Observatory (NO) urged the Nigerian Government and ECOWAS not to allow themselves to be drawn into such a proxy war. The group asked the Nigerian government and Tinubu-led ECOWAS to reflect deeply on the permanent interests of their citizens, the survival of the African people, the sub-region and continent in finding solutions to the threats of anti-democratic marauding forces in Africa. According to the group, genuine peoples' democracy remains a better path to development over any military regime - be it benevolence or autocratic, stressing that democracy must necessarily deliver on good governance and assure prosperity for the citizens if it must be defended. Some Twitter users who reacted to Blinken's tweet have described the US as another proxy, saying that Blinken should mind his business instead of pushing Nigerian President and ECOWAS into a war with Niger.