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ECOWAS weakness, unsolicited temerity of uniformed men
ECOWAS weakness, unsolicited temerity of uniformed men

ECOWAS weakness, unsolicited temerity of uniformed men

Recent political upheavals in the West African sub-region should definitely be a worry for the leadership of the regional comity of ECOWAS states.

The coup d’etats in Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso is indicative of ominous dark clouds gathering over the sub-regional political space and an obvious recipe for democratic backsliding.

Established 47 years ago to promote economic social and security development and the integration of its member states, the regional watch dog seems to be suffering a legitimacy deficit, which does not bode well for the democratic development of the sub-region on the back drop of the classification of a greater number of citizens in the block as multidimensionally poor; a measure of poverty not limited to income deficit.

ECOWAS must and should be seen occupied with protecting the ligaments holding the fragile and relatively nascent democracy of the regional block together. Almost all the coups that have occurred in Africa seem to have a common denominator; bad governance with its accompanying sub-sets of human rights abuse, endemic corruption and poverty, politicisation of public service and critical democratic institutions, unconstitutional extension of term limits by overzealous power hungry presidents, as in the case of Alpha Conde and high levels of youth unemployment.

In the presence of these obdurate undemocratic realities, ECOWAS is only leaving a void to be filled by “situational redemptionists” and you can always trust the men in uniform to come in handy with their unsolicited “temerity”, summed up in the words of Guinean Military leader, Colonel Mamady Dambouya, thus: “it was the duty of the soldier to save the country from one man rule’’.

They elect themselves to checkmate abusers of incumbent leaders, who they deem corrupt and undemocratic.
ECOWAS would inadvertently be giving the green light to other pushy men in uniform in other countries to topple democratically elected leaders.

The inertia on the part of ECOWAS to ensure strict adherence to the principles and ethos of democracy, strengthening critical democratic institutions, transparent, free and fair elections, ensuring strict compliance to constitutionally accepted term limits for elected presidents needs to critically examined.

This would help in ensuring compliance to the 2001 Protocol on Good Governance and further deepen its legitimacy in enforcing Article 45 (1) 2001 Protocol on Democracy and Good governance, which stipulates that where unconstitutional change in government in a member country has been accompanied by widespread human rights abuses, ECOWAS is required to impose sanctions on the member states; suspend of membership, close land borders by member states, ostensibly to halt cross boarder economic activities to pressurise the putschist to relinquish power.

Going forward

Going forward ECOWAS needs to combine toughness with incentives that in effect would call the bluff of democratically elected leaders, who after benefitting from the fruits of the sacred concept, desire to make it perverse, and challenge them to break out of the perilous downward spiral relative to the socio-political development of the sub-region and the continent as a whole, instead of always calling on putschist to return the countries to constitutional rule, which would warrant organising financially costly fresh elections when most of our countries cannot even balance their budgets.

The regional body should take a page out of the coupist play book by making them wonder and fret about its plans and capabilities; demanding reinstatement of toppled democratically elected leaders to finish their unexpired tenure with demonstrable commitments on the part of the would-be reinstated leaders, to address challenges of good governance if there were, with strict monitoring under ECOWAS’ watch.

Democracy is messy, it expedites change, but through an imperfect process of self-correction, which involves perseverance, engagement and commitment.

Even though the political risk profile of these countries have gone up a few notches, they may not yet be deemed failed states, so ECOWAS can still make amends.

The writer is with Saha Consult, E-mail: [email protected]

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