A former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has advised the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) against considering military intervention in Niger Republic.

The chairperson of ECOWAS, President Bola Tinubu, had previously stated that the bloc had resolved to employ force as a last resort if the leaders of the Niger coup fail to relinquish power to the ousted President Mohamed Bazoum.

Following a meeting of the bloc’s defence chiefs in Accra, the capital city of Ghana, ECOWAS announced on Thursday that it had initiated the activation of its standby force in Niger.

Nonetheless, El-Rufai took to Twitter today to assert that military intervention would essentially amount to a conflict between fellow compatriots.

“As ECOWAS beats the drums of war, I recall the 1970s rock classic by Dire Straits – ‘Brothers in Arms’, because a war within our subregion is a war between brothers. 

“Indeed, the people of Niger Republic are one and the same with those living in Northern Nigeria. Let us bend therefore over backwards to avoid this civil war between brothers,” he wrote.