ECOWAS is 38
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Founded in 1975 by the Treaty of Lagos, ECOWAS, which began operations in 1977, has contended with the issues of civil conflicts in countries like Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast from the late 1980s and the threat of Islamist insurgents.
Although the organisation was primarily established to ensure economic integration among the 16 countries constituting the ECOWAS, attending to issues of peace and security in the sub-region has regulated its activities for many decades.
Bold attempts by members to ensure law and order in the sub-region have, to a considerable extent, diminished efforts towards merging their economies to provide employment for the people.
It all started in the late 1980s when a civil conflict which raged on for more than a decade reared its ugly head in Liberia, which was under Master Sergeant Kanyon Doe.
The conflict did not only lead to a huge refugee problem for countries such as La Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea and Ghana, it also put pressure on the economies of those countries throwing overboard its projected economic processes towards the integration of the sub-region.
The situation became even worse following the outbreak of another civil conflict in Sierra Leone; which also left in its wake the killing of thousands of people, the dismembering of the citizens and the creation of a huge refugee problem for member countries.
The creation of ECOWAS paid little attention to the setting up of state or civil institutions for the resolution of conflicts because a majority of the member countries were under military regime at that time.
Ghana under the late General Ignatius Acheampong; General Yakubu Gown, Nigeria; Gnassigbe Eyadema, Togo and Mathieu Kerekou, Benin, all who overthrew legitimate constitutional regimes.
Therefore, democratic institutions for the resolution of conflicts emanating from differences of social, political and economic forces were absent in the sub-region, resulting in counter coups and other forms of civil unrest.
The Cote d’Ivoire unrest was, however, the result of the intransigence of politicians to accept the results of a presidential election culminating in acts of violence which claimed several lives and threatened the security in neighbouring countries like Ghana, Guinea and Burkina Faso.
The conflicts dehydrated member countries financially since they were compelled to establish a military force called the ECOWAS Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) to intervene in the Liberian crisis and encourage the main combatants to smoke the peace pipe.
The First ECOMOG Commander, General Arnold Quainoo, was appointed by the ECOWAS Heads of State to lead the military force but his first assignment in the country led to the capture and tragic death of President Doe. He was quickly replaced by a Nigerian officer but eventually, the British had to deploy a military force to intervene in the crisis which had torn the country apart.
The ECOWAS was criticised for betraying other African Heads of State which had been indicted by the International Community of war crimes. A classic example was that of Mr Charles Ghankay Taylor, who agreed to a brokered ceasefire in Liberia and, for that matter, was granted an asylum in Nigeria.
The irony was that the Nigerian President at that time, General Olusegun Obasanjo, and other collaborators in the sub-region entered into an unholy alliance to secretly hand over Mr Taylor to the International Court of Justice in the Hague, Netherlands.
Former Cote d’Ivoire strongman, Laurent Gbagbo, was also betrayed for a mess of pottage to the ICC by ECOWAS, who allowed French legionary forces to enter into that country to capture him for trial.
The writer is not subscribing to the crimes committed under their regimes per se, but finds unacceptable the fact that agreements reached between them and fellow leaders in the sub-region were sacrificed on the altar of political expediency.
The failure of countries to honour their dues and other debt obligations to the body had in no small measure affected its operational efficiency, especially during conflict situation
The organisation has been unable to raise adequate funds to procure needed logistics and evacuate military contingents to crisis areas to restore peace. An example is the recent Islamist insurgents in Mali, in which the organisation had to rely on French and British aid to ferry military contingents to that country.
These developments open the way for foreign interference in the daily affairs of the organisation, lower its image and integrity in the eyes of the comity of nations and affects the mind set of the people.
When the French government announced that the Malian crisis had cost it more that £200 million and was, therefore, contemplating pulling out within the shortest practicable time, the people of Mali pleaded with them to stay on since they did not have confidence in the ability of the West African contingents to protect them.
On the economic front, the sub-regional body has made some remarkable achievements regarding the establishment of road networks to link member countries. For example, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo and Benin are linked by a first class road to facilitate the conveyance of people and goods across the sub-region.
One other achievement of ECOWAS is the movement of people within the sub-region without passports. This has not only gone a long way to foster trade among the countries but it has also encouraged cross-country border crimes.
The movement of passengers and animals has also brought clashes between, especially, cattle rearers who travel from their countries to find pastures in neighbouring countries and the inhabitants of communities where their animals graze.
It has become a herculean task for ECOWAS to start operating a single currency, the ECO, since the majority of its members are unable to meet the convergence criteria.
While countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon and Cote d’Ivoire are endowed with resources and could easily meet the convergence criteria, other countries like Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, are struggling to meet the basic needs of their people and cannot lower inflation and others to meet the criteria.
As the organisation celebrates its 38th anniversary, it is the hope of this writer that leaders in the sub-region will muster the political courage to implement all policies ironed out by the body to facilitate regional integration and improve the wellbeing of the vast majority of people in the region.
Article by Kweku Tsen