issues because of terrorism. niger actually borders of nigeria to the north and so it is interesting that tinubu is leading this committee because a lot of nigerians feel that we are not actually addressing the security issues in our own country. i5 security issues in our own country- security issues in our own count . , , ., country. is he up to the task? do ou country. is he up to the task? do you think country. is he up to the task? do you think ecowas - country. is he up to the task? do you think ecowas and - country. is he up to the task? do you think ecowas and with | do you think ecowas and with nigeria at the helm, what do you make of the situation and the way that they have been handling it? handling it? because of nigeria s handling it? because of nigeria s uncertainty i handling it? because of - nigeria s uncertainty issues there is uncertainty if tinubu is up for the task and in the past when ecowas has tried to deploy standby forces it has taken weeks to put it toget
in the basement of the presidential palace in the capital niamey since he was removed from office by the military last month. meantime, west africa s regional organisation ecowas aims to send a parliamentary committee to niger to meet with the coup leaders. the bloc s military chiefs were meant to hold talks on the crisis on saturday, but the meeting was cancelled without explaination. let s get more on the situation in niger. with me is policy consultant and editor at the africa center and the republic, temi ibirogba. as we just heard, a parliamentary committee made up of west african leaders plans to meet with the coup leaders. what do you make of the way regional leaders have been responding to this coup? so, ecowas is currently being chaired by the resident of nigeria. nigeria has been facing their own insecurity
countries in the region. the nigerian president has come out forcefully as the head of ecowas, trying to walk this back so i think there is no small amount of effort under way right now trying to walk this back. will it be successful? i don t know, but i certainly don t think that 48 hours after the coup, we can abandon the billions of dollars and the tens of millions of people that we have been engaging with and supporting in niger, just because some very small group of disgruntled army officers decides that they don t want to lose theirjobs and they re going to take this entire country hostage. i think that would set a very bad example for the rest of the region. cameron hudson, an analyst on african security at the centre for strategic and international studies, as always, great to get your insights. protests are taking place across israel against the government s planned judicial overhaul for the 30th week in a row. it s the first saturday
there was a great deal of benefit to the country from western donors so i think that we will see that there is pressure on this new regime. we ve seen protests both for and against the coup in niger, so i think it s really, how does russia try to take advantage of this and are they able to take advantage of it i m using the tactics we know they ve used in mali and burkina faso, disinformation, propaganda, corruption, those kind of things. it will be something we have to watch very closely, for sure. so, cameron, what comes next? because we have calls today from the african union for the coup leaders to return to their base. as you say, they ve given that deadline of within 15 days. ecowas, also due to meet. do you see this coup has a done deal? i d like to not see the coup as a done deal and using
the words of anthony blinken, there is still time for diplomacy and that seems to be the message we re certainly getting from washington. i think there is a lot of behind the scenes diplomacy at work right now with countries in the region. the nigerian president has come out forcefully as the head of ecowas, trying to walk this back so i think there is no small amount of effort under way right now trying to walk this back. will it be successful? i don t know, but i certainly don t think that 48 hours after the coup, we can abandon the billions of dollars and the tens of millions of people that we have been engaging with and supporting in niger, just because some very small group of disgruntled army officers decides that they don t want to lose theirjobs and they re going to take this entire country hostage. i think that would set a very bad example for the rest of the region. cameron hudson, an analyst on african security at the centre for strategic and international studies, as always