Tinubu resends Islamic clerics to Niger for fresh talks with military junta

President Bola Tinubu on Thursday sent a delegation of Islamic leaders to Niger Republic for another round of talks with the leaders of the country’s military junta.

This is the second time in two weeks that Tinubu, who is the chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), will deploy religious leaders to Niger for talks with the dissident soldiers who toppled President Mohammed Basoum on July 26.

An Islamic cleric, Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi, had on August 6 led a delegation of Islamic clerics to hold talks with the coup plotters on the restoration of constitutional order in Niger.

READ ALSO: ECOWAS rejects Niger military junta’s three-year transition plan

Tinubu approved the return of the clerics to Niger after a meeting with Bauchi and other Islamic leaders at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The delegation is expected to meet with the leader of the military junta, Gen. Abdourahamane Tiani, and explore possible solutions to the political crisis in the landlocked West African nation.

Tiani had in a meeting with the ECOWAS delegation led by Nigeria’s former head of state, Abdulsalami Abubakar, last weekend in Niamey proposed a three-year transition programme in Niger.

The West African bloc had since rejected the proposal and demanded a quick restoration of democratic government in the country.

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