Again, diplomacy wins, by Simbo Olorunfemi

As I expected and stated elsewhere, the incident in Burkina Faso that led to the detention of 11 Nigerian Air Force personnel and our military aircraft was one that the Burkinabè Authorities were going to mine maximally and leverage for diplomatic gains.

Having been largely kept at arm’s length by Nigeria and ECOWAS since things went south, following the coup, the suspension from ECOWAS and the formation of AES, this offered an opportunity for the Burkinabes to hold on to something concrete to make them feel important beyond the feel-good stunts put out in propaganda videos and images.

Nigeria handled things with the nous required for such a situation. It was always going to take diplomatic engagement for the situation to be resolved.

Diplomacy requires time and patience. It must have taken high-wired engagement behind the scenes before getting to the point where clearance was received for the visits by the Nigerian delegation led by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Amb. Yusuf Tuggar, composed of senior officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Defence and the NAF Headquarters
pursue a constructive resolution

It is good to see that the engagement with the Burkinabè authorities and President Ibrahim Traoré in Ouagadougou has achieved results, and our men have finally been released.

Minister Tuggar reports that the discussion included an exchange of views on cooperation in several sectors, which is how it should be. This incident might have inadvertently, opened the window for improvement in diplomatic relations.

Whatever happens, it always comes back to diplomacy, as we have seen in this case.

Diplomacy always wins.