President Muhammadu Buhari will
on Thursday depart for Bamako, Republic of Mali, on a one-day visit.
This will be the president’s
first trip out of the country after Nigeria recorded its first COVID-19 case on
February 27.
The president’s last known trip
abroad was on February 7 when he travelled to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for the
33rd ordinary session of heads of state and government of the African Union.
In a statement on Wedenesday, Femi Adesina, special adviser to
the president on media and publicity, said the trip to Mali follows the
briefing of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, special envoy of the Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to Mali.
Jonathan was appointed by the
ECOWAS to lead its mediation team to help resolve the socio-political tension
Mali.
Jonathan had visited Buhari on
Tuesday and had filled in the president on his activities as special envoy to
restore amity to Mali.
“The Nigerian President and some
ECOWAS leaders led by the chairman of the authority of heads of state and
government of the sub-regional organisation, President Issoufou Mahamadou of
Niger Republic, agreed to meet in Mali to engage in further consultations
towards finding a political solution to the crisis in the country,” the
statement said.
“Host President, Ibrahim Boubacar
Keita and Presidents Machy Sall of Senegal, Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana and
Alassane Ouattara of Cote d’Ivoire are expected to participate in the Bamako
meeting.
“Jonathan was at the statehouse
in company of Jean-Claude Kassi Brou, president of ECOWAS commission, on
Tuesday to brief Buhari on the unfolding
situation in Mali, necessitating the visit of ECOWAS leaders to consolidate on
the agreements reached by various parties.”
There is currently an uprising
against President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita of Mali, who has spent two out of the
five years second term in office.
A resistance group, M5, is
insisting that the constitutional court must be dissolved, and the president
resign, before peace can return to the country.
The crisis had erupted after the
court nullified results of 31 parliamentary seats in the polls held recently,
awarding victory to some other contenders, which the resistance group said was
at the instigation of Keita.
On July 10, riots led to the
killing of some protesters by security agents, hence the intervention of
ECOWAS.
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