Niger Coup: Don’t Plunge Our Region Into Senseless War, Catholic Bishops Tell ECOWAS

The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), has told the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Heads of State and Government not to plunge the West African sub-region into a senseless war.

This was even as the CBCN said ECOWAS leaders will gain absolutely nothing by destroying the lives of fellow Africans through a reckless war.

The President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria, Archbishop Lucius Ugorji, stated this in response to the order given to the ECOWAS Defence Chiefs by the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government to activate the ECOWAS Standby Force against the military junta in the Republic of Niger.

Ugorji, the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Owerri, said: “We wish to strongly appeal to the leadership of ECOWAS to exercise maximum self-restraint in their decision to plunge our sub-region into a senseless war at a time when our nation is saddled with many internal economic and security challenges that seem to condemn our fellow citizens to a life of wanton suffering and unreserved misery.

“We gain absolutely nothing by destroying the lives of fellow Africans through a reckless war.”

The CBCN further urged the ECOWAS leaders to listen to the voice of reason and tread the path of dialogue and diplomacy.

“If wars end through round-table discussions, it is only reasonable to have round-table negotiations and resolutions and avoid a destructive war,” Ugorji stated.

On his part, the Archbishop Emeritus of the Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, said the text of the ECOWAS communiqué had a serious contradiction.

According to Onaiyekan, “Items J and K ordering CDS to activate Standby Force against the Niger junta stands in blatant contradiction to what it says in paragraphs D, F and L about peaceful resolution of the crisis and commitment for the restoration of constitutional order through peaceful means.”

“I hope they will give up the use of force so as to make room for peaceful means. They should stop playing with fire at our expense. God save us,” Onaiyekan, a former President of the CBCN and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) said.