Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
President Muhammadu Buhari will Thursday depart for Bamako, Republic of Mali on a one-day visit, on a peace mission to help find lasting solution to the political crisis rocking that country.
According to a statement by Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, the visit follows the briefing by the ECOWAS Special Envoy to the country, former President Goodluck Jonathan.
A resistance group, M5, is insisting that the Constitutional Court must be dissolved, and the President resign, before peace can return to the country.
Crisis had erupted after the court nullified results of 31 parliamentary seats in the polls held recently, awarding victory to some other contenders, which the resistance group said was at the instigation of President Keita.
Riots on July 10 had led to the killing of some protesters by security agents, causing the crisis to spiral out of control, hence the intervention by ECOWAS.
The statement goes thus: “The Nigerian President and some ECOWAS leaders led by the Chairman of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the sub-regional organisation, President Issoufou Mahamadou of Niger Republic, agreed to meet in Mali to engage in further consultations towards finding a political solution to the crisis in the country.
“Host President, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and Presidents Machy Sall of Senegal, Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana and Alassane Ouattara of Cote d’Ivoire are expected to participate in the Bamako meeting.
“Former President Jonathan was at the State House in company of President of ECOWAS Commission, Mr Jean-Claude Kassi Brou, on Tuesday to brief President Buhari on the unfolding situation in Mali, necessitating the visit of ECOWAS leaders to consolidate on the agreements reached by various parties.
“We will ask the President of Niger, who is the Chairman of ECOWAS to brief us as a group, and we will then know the way forward,” President Buhari had said.
He thanked Dr Jonathan for his comprehensive brief on the situation in Mali, “which you had been abreast with since when you were the sitting Nigerian President.”
“The former President had filled in President Buhari on his activities as Special Envoy to restore amity to Mali, rocked by protests against President Keita, who has spent two out of the five years second term in office.”
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What a slap on poor Nigerians. This is incredibly very insulting to our nation’s common interests. Just how irresponsible have our leaders become? With all the insecurities in the land, killing of foreign aids, random banditry, kidnappings and killing of Nigerians throughout the nation, from Katsina, Kaduna, Zamfara, Maiduguri down to Kogi and places in the South, we have heard absolutely nothing from our president in this regard. Our plea for all the service chiefs to be changed met with absolute and wicked silence, then we have this news about travels to Mali because of the civil unrest and acts of terrorism ravaging Mali and Malians? If the House of Assembly are not enmeshed in their own mess of looting and corrupt enrichment, this act from the president is a very good reason for impeachment. They need not let him back from Mali.