Sequel to recent withdrawal of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and the indefinite postponement of elections in Senegal by President Macky Sall, civil society organisations (CSOs), led by Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), West Africa Civil Society Forum (WACSOF) and Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), as well as journalists converged on Lagos recently, to discuss the state and way forward for the community. TUNBOSUN OGUNDARE reports.
Before now, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was regarded as the template for regional integration in Africa. Though, formed in 1975, many other regional organisations including those that are older and at continental level, were seen the regional bloc as a model.
However, in the recent years, the unity and stability of economic, human and political development enjoyed by the organisation and its members have been seriously threatened by political instability and security challenges in some member-states.
This has been more pronounced since August 2020 when the region began to experience military incursion that toppled democratic governments and suspended anything constitutional.
The coup d’état started with Mali in 2020, and was followed by Burkina Faso two years after and then Niger just last year.
It is against this disturbing trend and several other challenges that civil society organisations (CSOs) in West Africa, particularly in Nigeria, including the West African Civil Society Forum (WACSOF), Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), the Transition Monitoring (TMG), the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP-Nigeria), Nigeria Network of NGOs (NGOs) and Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) organised a roundtable alongside the media practitioners to find a workable solution that can bring peace back to the regional bloc.
Held in Lagos on Monday, February 5, the forum was tagged ‘CSOs and Media Interactive Meeting on State of ECOWAS and Regional Integration in West Africa.’
In his welcome remarks at the forum, the Executive Director, of CISLAC, and Chairman, of Transition Monitoring Group, Auwal Ibrahim Musa (Rafsanjani), noted that, among other things, a more integrated West Africa is required to defeat violent extremism, terrorism and other trans-border crimes currently bedevilling the ECOWAS region.
According to him, “There is no gainsaying that the measures undertaken by the Community to promote and consolidate cooperation among member states on criminal matters such as the protocol on mutual assistance on defence matters and the convention on small arms and light weapons have greatly contributed to a regional effort at combating terrorism and crimes in the region.
“Therefore, having a united ECOWAS is important to defeating terrorism and other organised crimes in the region.
“As civil society organisations in Nigeria and the West African region, we are resolute in working to ensure ECOWAS stays focused on promoting genuine democratization processes in the region.
“It is against this backdrop that this interactive meeting is holding to put out a common position which emphasizes more political, economic and security stability for West Africa.
“On this note, CSOs urge politicians in the region to desist from truncating democracy at the detriment of the people. It is disturbing to see the trend of events where politicians abuse democratic processes and ascribe to themselves arbitrary powers over constitutional governance. These trends are against the critical pillars of ECOWAS Vision 2050.
“That is why the CSOs in Nigeria and West Africa condemn the indefinite postponement of the February 25, 2024 election in Senegal without consulting widely with the people.
“This type of action is viewed as an abuse of power and must be rejected in the region as it is the type of undemocratic behaviour capable of instigating a military junta. It is therefore important for the government of Senegal to immediately fix a new date for the election to be held.
“CSOs working in Nigeria and other parts of West Africa are interested in ensuring economic development that is capable of reducing the poverty and infrastructural deficit in the region.
“Therefore, we will continue to support regional stability to boost the economic viability of West Africa.”
Musa emphasised that the recent trend of events in the region can have a spillover effect on many countries and destabilise the peace and economy of the region.
“It is on this note that we reiterate the importance of dialogue in dispute resolution. Hence, whatever the disagreements are, ECOWAS must desist from the use of force given that it is operationally guided by the Protocol on Non-Aggression.”
In his own contribution, Solomon Adoga, who is TMG’s Senior Programme Officer, spoke on ECOWAS Vision 2050, saying the vision was an upgrade of Vision 2020, which if well pursued by member countries could bring tremendous benefits to ECOWAS and its member countries.
He explained that the Vision, which is people-centred, was hinged on five pillars, namely: Peace and security, stability; Governance and Rule of Law; Economic Integration and Inter-connectivity; Transformation, Inclusive and Sustainable Development; and Social Inclusion.”
He said that even though it cannot be said that Vision 2020 did not yield any result, as some important strides such as advancement of regional integration, peace and security, economic cooperation, and infrastructure development, were recorded under the vision, the regional bloc was still lacking in the area of peace, security and stability, with Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Burkina Faso, and Niger as examples.
He, however, pointed out that “By 2050, ECOWAS will have to meet the challenges of social cohesion among its people, create the conditions of a sense of belonging that is characteristic of Community citizenship that would foster the emergence of a cultural identity based on shared values.”
Speaking on the imperativeness of ECOWAS security, THISDAY Newspapers journalist, Chiemelie Ezeobi, said, the objective of the ECOWAS SSRG is to strengthen States’ capacities to respond to present and emerging threats and to deliver security and justice services to the state and its peoples.
She, however, pointed out that while ECOWAS has worked to address some security issues by developing a peacekeeping force for conflicts in the region, it has not been able to address the issues of coups by some of its members as seen in recent years.
According to her, there are many reasons members of ECOWAS may never be united.
She said, “North Africa, for example, is like another continent entirely, noting that a Cape Verdean, Moroccan, Egyptian or even Sudanese do not believe they are Africans.
“But let’s even bring it closer home. How can ECOWAS members come together and stop seeing each other as the enemy? They do not even trust each other. The cost of flight tickets to each ECOWAS state, for instance, is too high, talk more about xenophobic attacks. Africans would rather allow other nationals to thrive and prosper than a fellow ECOWAS nation.
“So we must have to address all these concerns and be united to move forward appreciably as a regional bloc and individual member countries.”
Also speaking and on the role and involvement of civil societies in regional integration in West Africa, the General Secretary of WACSOF, Kop’ep Dabugat said CSOs had not been able to do more that they had done just because all the regional integration initiatives and processes in West Africa were driven by states and not factored in the need for civil society engagement.
He said the narrative had changed since 1993 when
the revised treaty of the organisation has introduced new principles and institutional changes whose realization require meaningful involvement by a broad spectrum of stakeholders including civil society groups.
He mentioned that if the regional bloc would achieve its mandates, civil society group would need to get involved, particularly in advocacy activities.
At the end of the forum, a communique was issued with stakeholders calling on Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso to rescind their decision to withdraw their membership from ECOWAS as to stay is not only beneficial to them, but also to the entire countries in the sub-region.
They also asked the respective military leader to leave power for democratically elected president and not to perpetuate themselves in power as civil rulers.
The participants therefore recommended that “ECOWAS should urgently call for an emergency extraordinary summit to look into the state of affairs in the region and issues raised by the three countries with a view to preventing further threats of disintegration among members.
They said to stay to together as a formidable organisation is far beneficial than for each country to go on their separate ways.