(4 minutes read) (global ties)
- Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, representing ECOWAS has reached Mali to meet junta officials in the capital Bamako. He is the interlocutor between ECOWAS and the Mali’s military junta
-  He will also meet   Mali’s military leader Colonel Assimi Goita
- Â His main mission is to restore civilian rule in the trouble-torn West African Sahel country
Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, representing ECOWAS has reached Mali to meet junta officials in the capital Bamako. He is the interlocutor between ECOWAS and Mali’s military junta. He will also meet   Mali’s military leader Colonel Assimi Goita. His main mission is to restore civilian rule in the trouble-torn West African Sahel country.
Mali’s military junta urges five- year time for restoration of civilian rule. However, Jonathan insisted that the country should transit to civilian rule at the earliest. He described the seizure of power by the military junta as an aberration. Junta usurped the power in August 2020 and has been overlooking the international pressure to handover the levers of power to the civilian government. Mali, one of the poorest countries in the world, has a population  of 21 million. Mali’s army dominated legislature has recently approved a bill allowing the junta to rule for up to five years. However, the analysts maintain that non -elected legislators, alibi people nominated by the military, do not have the right to pass such a bill.
In the meantime, a number of Africa watchers feel that Mali’s assertion to have five- year lead time for conducting elections is only a public posture to gain more time, The military junta may settle the time for restoration of civilian rule within 12 to 16 months. The main reason adduced to by the junta for capture of power from  the elected government was to suppress the ongoing jihadist conflict, which the civilian government could not do.
 Mali, a former French colony has been in the grip of calamites let loose by the Jihadists for quite some time, which had resulted in the death of thousands of people and displacement of people from the trouble torn areas, who fled to safer places. To suppress the growing rebellion against establishment in the Sahel region, the EU, particularly France, has been deploying their troops. French President Emmanuel Macron said recently that his country was withdrawing the troops from Mali on account of breakdown in relations with the junta.
