Uranium And Gas Blood

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Beyond the grandstanding of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS to force the military junta in Niger Republic to restore democracy in the country or face military intervention lays the fact that the European Union and America are set to break Russian gas and uranium supply monopoly by inciting ECOWAS to wage proxy war in Niger Republic over a $13 billion gas project in the guise of restoring democratic rule in that country  which has uranium in commercial quantities

 By Miracle Egbo

 July 26, 2023 is just a mere date.  But to the citizens of Niger Republic, the date has a lot of historical meaning. That is the day the military junta deposed the democratically elected government in Niger Republic led by Mohammed Bazoum. It is the government the citizens at various fora condemned its bad governance of Bazoum which they averred has not allowed them to breath. The military junta amongst other derivables listed poverty, bad governance and callous exploitation by the western nations as reasons for which they are out to stop what they referred to as inhumanity to all in the name of democracy. Since that putsch, the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS led by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of Nigeria who is the chairman of the body threw caution into the winds when it gave the military junta one week ultimatum to restore democracy or face military intervention that would force the junta out of power and restore the deposed democratically elected government.

Facts orchestrated by Tentacle revealed that restoration of democracy in the country is not the underlining reason for the effusive efforts of the ECOWAS in making sure that the military junta in the country is forced to return power to the man whose government policies has been roundly rejected by the electorate who are all praises for the junta, even volunteering to be recruited into the country’s army to resist any external aggression.  It was gathered that the grandstanding of the ECOWAS led by President Tinubu is located in the fierce fight to sustain economic gain accruable to the nations pushing for the war notable among them being Niger’s uranium and a $13 billion gas project that runs from Nigeria through Niger republic and Algeria into Western Europe.  Information has it that in 1970s a deal to build gas pipeline from Warri in South south Nigeria via Niger Republic and Algeria into Western European countries was signed by the three countries. Even though the idea was initiated by the European Union (EU) and America at the time to checkmate Russia’s monopolistic tendency in gas supply to Western Europe, it was not attractive to the western world because to the policy makers there, the project was not viable hence it was put in abeyance not because Nigeria was not interested in making money but must kowtow to the whims of the western world even at the detriment of her economy.

Information has it that the Ukrainian war being prosecuted by Russia further heightened the need for the Western nations to dust the gas pipeline project files that have gathered dust and even cobweb in the cabinet of the European nations. The files were pulled out of the cupboard and re-introduced to Nigerian government in 2022 shortly after the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

Investigation has it that between the 1970s and 2002, so many things happened that made the Trans Saharan Gas Pipeline (TSGP) project from taking off including terrorism in the Sahel region. But on July 28, 2022, the Algerian, Nigerian and Nigerien Ministers of Energy signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoS) for the implementation of the TSGP from Warri South south Nigeria, co-signed by the Algerian Minister of Energy and Mines, Mohammed Arkab, Nigerian former Minister of State (MoS) Petroleum Resources Timipire Sylva and the Nigerien Minister of Energy and Renewable Energy, Sani Mahamamdou at the end of the work of the third tripartite Ministerial meeting in Algiers, Algeria’s capital city.

It was after the Russian-Ukranian war started that America and EU began to cut off from Russia’s gas and uranium and started coming back to revive the $13 billion TSGP project in order to liquidate Russia’s energy monopoly. Before now the US had allegedly blown up the Nord Stream Gas Pipeline which ran and supplied gas from Russia to the EU.

Under the TSGP, Nigeria will become the major supplier of gas to EU, while Niger Republic will be the biggest supplier of uranium to EU and US. Unfortunately for the neo colonialists-EU nations and US-the Niger junta took over power and said they will not be part of the TSGP project anymore, they promptly blocked the project. The action by the Niger Republic junta became a big challenge to EU and America which had sanctioned Russia for invading Ukraine. The EU and American energy crisis has begun-uranium and gas from both Nigeria and Russia to America and EU and uranium from Niger Republic and Russia to America and EU have been blocked.

Consequently, America and EU have no better option than to persuade ECOWAS to begin to wage a proxy war on Niger Republic having invested a whopping $13 billion in a space of few months without any hope of not going back to Russia to bow. To wage this war, Nigeria’s president, Tinubu has become a willing tool in the hands of the Western imperialists.

The snag, according to informed source, is the fact that the western nations such as France that has for years exploited the poor rustic country would want the exploitation to continue and the only option available is to use ECOWAS as a pawn in the economic war the European nations want to wage against Niger Republic. One, now that the gas that the European nations are getting from the Russia has been seriously threatened since the Ukrainian war broke out, and Niger Republic junta has backed out from the gas pipeline project that connects Nigeria to the European nation, if ECOWAS continues with its threat of war. EU and America are looking at the $13b already gulped by the project and the likely economic loss or otherwise that the nations are expected to lose if the war is waged because the head of the military junta has vowed to discontinue the gas project as a sure way of getting pound of flesh from the exploitative European nations who have subtly pillaged the patrimony of the country for years.

Sources insisted that in a watertight strategy to strangulate the economic holds of the European nations in the Africa especially West Africa is in the offing, Vladimir Putin the President of Russia has thrown the weight of his country around Niger Republic and other African countries seeking liberation from EU and American exploitations, assuring the military junta that they are going to support them to wage the war, if any, against ECOWAS.  According to the source, the impending war in Niger Republic as orchestrated by ECOWAS is a proxy war between Russia and the rest of the European Union who, are bent on scuttling the economic powers of Russia as it affects gas supply which, Russia has been supplying to them for a long time before the Ukrainian war broke out.  Based on the economic sanctions slammed on Russia by EU, the supply of gas to the European Union has been halted and the EU have been looking for alternative of gas supply from other continent which they found in Nigeria, and are doing everything humanly possible to make sure that the gas pipeline project that is 75 per cent completed is not scuttled by the military junta in Niger Republic, the reason for prodding the ECOWAS to insist on reinstatement of the deposed president of the country.  Curiously, according to the source, the European Union did not include uranium in the sanction against Russia as the Ukraine war broke out because they are heavily dependent on the supply from Russia for industrial and other developmental projects in the Europe that requires uranium.

However, Russia in bid to penetrate the African region has intensified efforts at making sure that economic aides of various shapes and seize are extended to Africa.  The only way to sustain monopoly of gas supply is to make sure that the gas project involving Nigeria and European Countries are scuttled by encouraging the Niger military junta to back out of the project since the pipelines must go through her soil promising them maximum support in resisting the war if ECOWAS made well their threat.  To show their steel resolve of their promised support, Russia has since sent Wagner Group members’ fighters to Niger Republic to shore up the Niger army, and has gone a step further assuring the military junta of arms and ammunition to prosecute the war should ECOWAS made good their threat of military intervention in the country. Sources maintained that Russia is frantically working to cause revolution against European colonies in Africa especially West African country by the African nations.

Military analysts are of the opinion that even if ECOWAS is going ahead to prosecute the war in Niger it is going to take up to four or five years before it could penetrate the country.  According to them, the only country that has the capacity to raise the number of troops to prosecute the war is Nigeria but the eternal crisis that is rocking the country ranging from the menace of Boko Haram, Banditry to self determination agitators that is scattered all over the geo-political regions in the country.  Some of the analysts averred that Nigeria would be the casualty of the war because of the proximity of the country to Niger.  Some leaders of Nigeria, according to investigation, have their kiths and kin in Niger, there is inter-marriage between the citizens of Nigeria and Niger.

It is on record that if the war is prosecuted as planned, Nigeria will be the epi-center of the war because other neighboring countries have backed the Nigerien junta in the war.

As at the time of going to press, the African Union, AU has suspended the membership of Niger, a move according to informed source will not make the junta to shift ground because they are resolute in making sure that the ousted government of Bazoum never sees the light of the day any longer.  Instead the transition committee set up by the junta has been mandated to draw up a transition time table, and make sure that all the corrupt politicians are not allowed to contest in the election.

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