Dr. Adam Bonaa, a security expert and the CEO of Security Warehouse, has declared that the leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) are disconnected from the reality on the grounds.
He claimed the leaders of the ECOWAS live in the same subregion as the people, yet the ordinary citizen buys fuel and pays taxes, noting that the leaders did not pay for fuel with their own money, neither did they pay taxes. As such, he stated that the leaders did not know about the struggles of an ordinary person on a daily basis.
The security expert suggested an open discussion with the leaders because “now you have a No flight zone declared in Niger, you have ECOWAS restrictions, and so, for largely our women who are into trading of onions and other things that are coming from this part of the world, they are not coming in anymore. And the prices of the commodities such as onion are going up,” he opined.
“Our leaders are so disconnected that they don’t know what is going on on the ground. If not, they would not have made a decision to declare war in Niger, when they know Niger is home to a lot of natural resources. So, if you declare such a war and send soldiers into a senseless war, the moment we begin to have the soldiers coming back home in body bags, you’re going to have internal upheavals in our military basis in Ghana.”
Dr. Adam Bonaa
As far as Dr. Bonaa is concerned, dialogue should have been the first option on the table but unfortunately, once the junta leaders succeeded in ousting the President, he claimed that Tinubu wanted to flex some muscles as the chairman of ECOWAS and also as the newly sworn in President of Nigeria.
Additionally, Dr. Adam Bonaa emphasized that the Chairman of ECOWAS wanted to be seen as relevant but in the eyes of the ordinary person, his plans have seriously misfired. He noted that the citizens in the ECOWAS nations are united, yet, they face a lot of travel restrictions on borderlines.
He therefore revealed that it was easier to travel from France to the UK or the USA but not for people traveling on African country borderlines. He explained, “because they have put impediments on ordinary citizens. And for the big boys, they fly in with their tea and so, they really don’t know what is going on the ground.”
“Like I asked, do we know anywhere in West Africa where we have ECOWAS standby force, just like we have in Burma Camp? Standby force means they are there and training for all these things. But at the moment, Cote d’Ivoire has contributed one thousand, because Alassane Ouattara himself is guilty of doing a constitutional coup and so, it is in his interest to ensure that the junta leaders in Niger are removed or else you’re likely to have a coup in Cote d’Ivoire.”
Dr. Adam Bonaa
ECOWAS Decision Needs To Be Re-looked At
Moreover, Dr. Adam Bonaa stressed that the whole decision made by ECOWAS needs to be re-looked at because the declaration of war by Tinubu and his colleagues is an “illegality”.
He claimed that this was a proxy war and there was no need to send military officers into Niger; an uncharted water.
“Look at how vast Niger is, where are we going to? Anyone that understands the act of warfare, if you’re the invading party, you must have 3 to 4 times the strength of the people you’re invading. The Niger army would approximately be 8000, if you are going to do that by 3 or 4 times, you should be dealing with 24,000 minimum. Can we mobilize 24,000 armed men with all the materials and logistics and send them to Niger? We can’t!
“Even as we speak, Burkina Faso, Mali and Algeria are telling us that they don’t want to be part of this thing because they border with Niger. And for us, we don’t even border with Niger but drive around and you’ll find Niger children begging for alms even when there is no war going on in Niger. So, can you imagine that if the first gun is fired in Niger and they begin to come in buses, are you going to drive them away? No!”
Dr. Adam Bonaa
He emphasized that ECOWAS does not have what it takes to do a proper restoration of the Constitutional order in Niger. “It is just the big boys club trying to exert some authority. Because Ghanaians on the street are not interested in sending our soldiers to war, Nigerians are not interested, the other West African citizens are not interested. Even our leaders are not sure of what to do,” he stated.
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