Niger coup: Lamido calls Tinubu a novice in international diplomacy, offers suggestions 

 

 

President Bola Ahmad Tinubu has been referred to as an amateur in the field of international diplomacy by Mr Sule Lamido, a former governor of Jigawa State and one of the founding members of the main opposition, the Peoples Democratic Party.

 

This former Jigawa governor made this comment  in response to the position adopted by ECOWAS about the coup in the Niger Republic.

 

According  to Mr Lamido, President Tinubu had in the past few weeks, found himself in a tightrope and a state of dilemma regarding the best way to handle the Niger crisis.

 

He suggested that  the President harvest from the connection and wisdom of Nigeria’s former Presidents and Heads of State in dealing with the crisis.

 

“since the coup d’etat in Niger some weeks back, President Tinubu has found himself walking on a very tightrope.He has never been exposed to international diplomacy and can fittingly be called a novice in this field. The fact that he is an emperor with the total dominance of the most populous and prosperous State of Lagos does not confer on him any wisdom in diplomacy,” lengthy Facebook post by Mr Lamido partly read.

 

“But he is also the luckiest Nigerian president had he desired to harvest from the wisdom and experience of former Presidents and Heads of State Nigeria is so richly blessed with. I thought President Tinubu would have from the onset looked into the chemistry of the cocktail called ECOWAS before taking a weighty decision on any issue that affects the region and its consequences on his country.

 

“Had he done so, he would have found out what is the history of one of the oldest members of the region, President Alassane Quattara of Ivory Coast.

 

“There was a time when Quattara’s nationality was in dispute, that his ancestral country was Mali. President Lauren Ghabbo disqualified him from running as president even though he was at once prime Minister of Ivory Coast! But today he is the President of Ivory Coast.”

 

His comment comes as the President Tinubu led ECOWAS ordered the bloc’s troops to prepare for a possible invasion of Niger. The order came against many calls for the adoption of diplomatic measures to return Niger back to Democratic rule.