‘Why Nigeria-led ECOWAS Cannot Declare War on Niger Republic’

Chuks Okocha in Abuja

As the deadline given by the Economic Community  of West Africa States (ECOWAS) leaders for the reinstatement of democratically elected government in Niger Republic ended Sunday,  the annual vacation of the House of Representatives may have invalidated any deployment of Nigeria’s armed to oust the coup leaders in the Republic of Niger.

A Nigerian based United States (US)  constitutional legal expert and human rights activist, Emmanuel Ogebe, in a statement said the annual vacation by one of the arms of the National Assembly, the House of Representatives said that the two arms of the National Assembly must in a joint session give approval before there is a deployment of the military against any country.

Ogebe said: “Section 5 (4) of the Nigerian constitution, provides thus; Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this section: (a) the President shall not declare a state of war between the Federation and another country except with the sanction of a resolution of both Houses of the National Assembly, sitting in a joint session; and”(b) except with the prior approval of the Senate, no member of the armed forces of the Federation shall be deployed on combat duty outside Nigeria.”

Ogebe  explained that  “Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (4) of this section, the President, in consultation with the National Defence Council, may deploy members of the armed forces of the Federation on a limited combat duty outside Nigeria if he is satisfied that the national security is under imminent threat or danger: “Provided that the President shall, within seven days of actual combat engagement, seek the consent of the Senate and the Senate shall thereafter give or refuse the said consent within 14 days.”

According to Ogebe, “Section 217 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria allows military action defending Nigeria from external aggression; and maintaining its territorial integrity and securing its borders from violation on land, sea, or air; or perform such other functions as may be prescribed by an Act of the National Assembly.”

The constitutional legal expert and human right activist further said:  “Regardless of what horse trading is going on today with the senators planned meeting with the president, the senate cannot pass an act for war authorisation this week because the House of Representatives has already gone on recess.

“Mr. Tinubu does not even have a cabinet or a defense council. Any declaration of war now would be illegal. The seven-day deadline to the coupists ended hours ago.”

He reiterated that “The bigger irony is that in trying to push Nigeria to reverse the Niger coup militarily, the US risks triggering a coup in Nigeria.

“The army is overstretched on deployment in 30 out of 36 states while fighting two wars – against ISIS and the Fulani militia both ranked 1st and 4th deadliest terror groups at one point by the Global Terrorism Index. The coupists in Niger have given the same complaints that Nigerian troops have and there is just so much the military can take (in fact conditions in Nigeria are worse.)

“Will Tinubu really go the way of US president Bush who invaded Iraq on a false basis, some think, to distract from his election legitimacy or will he like Qatar bribe the US with host facilities to relocate their Niger base to? After all, America is in Niger largely because of Nigeria but instead of Nigeria.”, Ogebe explained.

According to Ogebe,  “Sadly it is another US policy push heading for disaster. The US had tried to pressure President Jonathan to legalize gay marriage and it backfired resulting in an over 90 per cent endorsement of the criminalization of homosexuality instead. Apparently the US did not learn from recent history”.

He said: “The question arises – if Nigeria spent $12Billion and hundreds of military lives to protect by proxy America’s lone African child, why would it locate its troops in an adjacent French-speaking country that was susceptible to a coup rather than a military ally and top trade partner that was no longer vulnerable to coups?

“It’s a very complicated situation but it originates with policy ambivalence and the Niger debacle is just the latest manifestation of America’s aforesaid schizophrenic Nigeria policy,” he stated.

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