This is CBSI in the world. I'm John Bats. So Gregory Coppoli, editor and publisher of Defense

and Foreign Affairs this year. And we've been discussing Niger and the small West African

states that have turned out their elected leadership for military dictatorship and Niger being

the most recent. But the largest and most important state in West Africa, all of Africa,

certainly sub Sahara, is Nigeria. And Nigeria, recent election to Nubu, the new president,

who was a practice politician, is not, is normally, is automatically the head of equals because

it's the richest. Gregory, what is the risk for Nigeria? And Nigeria has the largest army.

It could intervene on its own. Does it want to?

Well, as I said, the Nigerian army, like the rest of the regional armies, are preoccupied with

fighting counterinsurgency wars against these Islamists and and abandoned free forces.

So no, Nigeria does not want to spend its armed forces, its army in particular, across the

border into Niger, which is why it's doing everything it can to stave off the situation.

And when we talk about coups in West Africa, we have to bear in mind that the February 25th

election in Nigeria itself was tantamount to a coup because it was a distortion of the electoral

process, which resulted in a present to Nubu coming into office. But facing legal challenges,

which are yet to be addressed. But the reality is that President T'Nubu, like his counterpart

in Sierra Leone further up the West African coast, they they have really manipulated the

electoral systems to stay in power, to gain power. And so these are de facto coups themselves.

So you asked the question is whether Nigeria was getting ready for a coup. Well, they've had a

de facto coup already this year. And the question is whether that becomes a military coup.

Now, the process of intervening in Niger is going on. Very often that Niger and Nigeria

are literally have overlapping populations. This is the problem with the colonial boundaries.

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