Niger Coup: They are our brothers, don’t deploy military – El-Zakzaky tells Tinubu

<p>The leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky has cautioned President Bola Tinubu from deploying military forces in Niger Republic, stating that they share history together hence they are Nigerians brothers.</p>, <p>El-Zakzaky stated this while addressing a group of Qur’an reciters as they visited him in his Abuja residence.</p>, <p>The Islamic leader further accused France and the United States of wanting to use Nigeria to attack the Niger Republic.</p>, <p>“All of a sudden, France and the US want to use Nigeria to attack Niger. This is very shocking given the fact that Nigeria and Niger are one people. Even if southern Nigeria does not see it that way, we, in northern Nigeria, had empires founded by Shehu Usman Danfodio and Kanem Borno. It was the territories of such empires that were carved out to create Niger and Nigeria.”</p>, <p>“I once told you Gazargamu is the capital of Kanem Borno right? The fortification of the city is intact because there still exist remnants of the buildings. It may interest you to note that half of the fortification is on the Nigerien side of the border and the rest is in Nigeria. When our borders were partitioned, they did not take our history into cognizance.”</p>, <p>“As I keep telling you, Borno territory was partitioned into four parts, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, and Niger. Most of the territory was part of Borno. Furthermore, if you look at the territory of the Shehu Usman empire, from Borno up to Sokoto, each city was partitioned into two”, he said.</p>, <p>El-Zakzaky further stated that “If you look at the territory of Hadejia, some part of it was annexed to Niger. A part of Gumel’s territory is part of Niger. If you cross the border of Maigatari, you are still part of Gumel’s territory but were ceded to Niger. A part of Kazaure is also part of Niger.”</p>, <p>“This is the same fate that befell Daura. A large part of Daura also became part of Niger. Katsina was also partitioned into two parts: Katsinan Maradi and Nigeria’s Katsina. They are