President Muhammadu Buhari will Thursday depart for Bamako, Republic of Mali on a one-day visit, following the briefing by the ECOWAS Special Envoy to the country, former President Goodluck Jonathan.
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.
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.
Former President Jonathan was at the State House in company of President of ECOWAS Commission, Mr Jean-Claude Kassi Brou, on Tuesday to brief President Buhari on the unfolding situation in Mali, necessitating the visit of ECOWAS leaders to consolidate on the agreements reached by various parties.
“We will ask the President of Niger, who is the Chairman of ECOWAS to brief us as a group, and we will then know the way forward,” President Buhari had said.
He thanked Dr Jonathan for his comprehensive brief on the situation in Mali, “which you had been abreast with since when you were the sitting Nigerian President.”
The former President had filled in President Buhari on his activities as Special Envoy to restore amity to Mali, rocked by protests against President Keita, 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.
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 President Keita.
Riots on July 10 had led to the killing of some protesters by security agents, causing the crisis to spiral out of control, hence the intervention by ECOWAS.
The regional leaders are expected to meet with key stakeholders in the Malian political crisis with a view to helping them to find common ground in the search for solution.
After a three-day mission to Mali last week which ended last Sunday, Jonathan and his mediation team recommended the formation of a government of national unity with members drawn from different interest groups in the country, including the ruling coalition, the opposition parties and the civil society.
It also recommended the establishment of a technical committee to be set up by ECOWAS to monitor the implementation of the proposed measures which also include the reconstitution of the dissolved constitutional court as well as the resolution of the dispute over 31 legislative seats recently set aside by the defunct constitutional court.
Many stakeholders and interest groups have so far welcomed the proposed unity government as a means of resolving the political impasse. However, the opposition backed M5 coalition are yet to come on board, as they have continued to insist on the resignation of President Keita among other tough demands, even after meeting with the Jonathan-led team many times.
While in Bamako the Jonathan-led mission which was in Mali one month after the visit of ECOWAS Ministerial Mission held consultations with different stakeholders including President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, Prime Minister Boubou Cisse, Imam Mahmoud Dicko, members of the M5-RFP collation , the majority coalition in Parliament, judges, heads of international agencies, diplomats, members of Civil Society as well as women and youth groups