Some Nigerien residents in Accra Friday morning, August 18, 2023, picketed at the forecourt of the Niger embassy in Ghana’s capital. The protestors who expressed their displeasure with the military junta for the coup told the Ghanaian media they want democracy to be restored by reinstating Mohamed Bazoum as president of the Republic.
Speaking with the media, a youth who prayed General Abdourahmane Tchiani, leader of the junta, to hand power back to Bazoum told him to go and do what is required of the military rather than toppling civilian leadership.
“My message is that they let Bazoum come back because he is the president the people voted for. They should go and fight with the Jihadists. They killed more than 200 people. What’s more than that?” he fumed.
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Another said, “we don’t need soldier, we need democracy. The whole Africa, we need democracy. [Those who went to the stadium to support the coup] this one is a ‘kalabuley’, it’s not right. Now we need our president to come back to take his seat.”
“My people in Niger should support Bazoum Mohamed to come back. I want the soldiers to listen to me, I am talking to them to hand power over to Mohamed Bazoum. Only Bazoum can solve Nigeriens problems but not soldiers. Bazoum is very good, he doesn’t have any problem, he loves everybody, he loves every Nigerien,” a third protestor added.
They have been complaining that the border closures have worsened the cost of living since food prices have gone up with businesses collapsing from the time the announcement of the coup was made.
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“I don’t like [coup d’etat], my people [here] don’t like, Nigerien people don’t like. It affects everything. We went to clear goods but they have been stacked at the border. Plenty people have lost money, plenty people have lost their businesses, they have come back empty handed and become poor because of the close of the border. Who caused that? The soldier. Everything was cheap in Niger but since the soldiers came, everything has gone up especially food prices. There is no electricity, they have closed the border, nothing is going in, nothing is coming out,” he lamented to the media at the country’s Accra embassy.
Meanwhile, the ECOWAS Committee of Defence of Chiefs of Staff will be completing their two-day meeting in Accra today, with the invasion of Niger with standby troop a bigger option on the table following the outcome of the Day One of the extraordinary meeting.
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