The example of the Republic of Benin Republic
I am impressed by the alacrity shown by the newly elected President of the Republic of Benin, Romuald Wadagni, upon assuming duty. In just a few days, he has gone round to visit his neighbours. He was sworn in on May 24, and a week or so later, he visited Nigeria’s President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on […]
I am impressed by the alacrity shown by the newly elected President of the Republic of Benin, Romuald Wadagni, upon assuming duty. In just a few days, he has gone round to visit his neighbours. He was sworn in on May 24, and a week or so later, he visited Nigeria’s President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on June 1. The day after, he was with the President of the Niger Republic, General Abdourahamane Tiani. On the same day, he hopped into Burkina Faso to see the Head of State, Captain Ibrahim Traore.
Why? I understand that even before he won the election, he had promised to make the insurgency eating up his country a priority. The Republic of Benin shares a long border of about 800km on its eastern side with Nigeria and two shorter ones on its northern side with the Niger Republic (277km) and Burkina Faso (380km). The four countries, along with the Republic of Chad, Mali, and Guinea, all share the grief of the banditry perpetrated by a host of insurgent groups. Benin is a latecomer to the insurgents’ incursion. They only arrived there in late 2021, acquiring bases in the national parks in the northern part of the country, where Benin borders both the Niger Republic and Burkina Faso. In a short while, terrorist activities escalated in Benin.
The president’s visit to Nigeria was unsurprising, as the two countries have long maintained close ties. We recall that in December of last year, Nigeria’s security forces helped to thwart an attempted coup in Benin, highlighting the strong security partnership between the two neighbouring countries. What excited me was President Wadagni’s visit to Niger Republic and Burkina Faso. Since the military coups in Burkina Faso in 2022 and the Niger Republic in 2023, Benin has kept the two countries at arm’s length, in accordance with the ECOWAS Protocol that maintains a strict zero-tolerance policy against unconstitutional changes of government.
Cooperation among the three countries came to a standstill as only recriminations came to be exchanged between them. Hitherto, Benin’s relationship with the Niger Republic has been chummy. Niger is a landlocked country. The Port of Cotonou in Benin has been the easiest route for importing its essential supplies and exporting its raw materials. Today, the only bridge linking the two countries, separated by the River Niger, is reportedly closed and guarded by heavy security. It is the same story with Burkina Faso. It is equally landlocked and relies on the goodwill of its coastal neighbours, the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo and the Republic of Benin for its imports and exports.
The fact that all four countries closed their borders with Burkina Faso led to a dire economic situation for the country. It is in this light that one can view the importance of President Wadgani’s move towards détente with his erstwhile estranged neighbours. In both countries he visited, the emphasis was on reopening the border and deepening collective efforts to fight shared security threats. I consider President Wadgani’s quick move a valiant endeavour worth emulating by other countries.
It is a lesson for us in Nigeria, where we have been treating our neighbouring countries with levity, particularly since the Tinubu administration came to power. We have ignored our neighbours and treated their leaders with haughty indifference and disdain. Nigeria has a border of about 2,000 km with the Republic of Cameroon and shares deep, age-old historical ties with its people. At least five states of the federation, Borno, Adamawa, Taraba, Benue and Cross Rivers are on that border with shared ethnicity, language and religion. Yet President Tinubu has not set foot in the Cameroon Republic since he came to power in 2023.
Though we don’t have a meaningful land border with the Republic of Chad, we share suzerainty over Lake Chad and its innumerable islands, where Boko Haram insurgents are very active. President Tinubu has been to the Republic of Chad only once, and even that was a ceremonial event commemorating the installation of President Derby. The configuration of the relationship with the Republic of Niger is even worse. We share a common border of some 1500km whereby seven states of the far north, Borno, Yobe, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto and Kebbi States lie contiguous to the regions in the Republic of Niger.
All along the border and deep within the countries, there are shared ethnicity, language (Hausa and Kanuri), religion, and common historical ties. President Tinubu has not been to the Niger Republic since he came to power. To worsen matters, Tinubu has fully implemented ECOWAS stance on the unconstitutional change of government that occurred in Niger in 2023. The common border has since been closed. There were even threats of invading Niger to restore constitutional government. Obviously, this has not gone down well with the regime in Niamey, which has also been hostile to Nigeria.
This has deeply ruptured communal and trade relations, as well as efforts to fight the insurgents. It is time we rethink this ECOWAS Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance. We need a common ground for all West African countries to meet and fight the growing insurgency. To begin with, President Tinubu needs to emulate President Wadgani and embark on serious legwork by visiting Niger, Chad, and Cameroon.