As the rift between Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger over their withdrawal from the regional bloc continues, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and the Media in West Africa have called on the leadership of the bloc to address the lingering issues at stake to avoid further instability and possible disintegration of the regional bloc.
In a meeting which was held on Monday in Lagos, the Organisations focused on the state of affairs within ECOWAS which before now had been regarded as the template for regional integration in Africa, reports Daily Independent.
According to the communique which was signed by relevant representatives of the groups, “The stability of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) as a regional bloc of economic, human and political development has been threatened in recent years by political instability and security challenges in some member states.
“Since August 2020, the region has recorded several coups where democratic governments have been toppled and constitutional procedures trampled.
“ECOWAS needs to urgently come up with measures required to avoid further instability and possible disintegration of the regional bloc which before now had been regarded as the template for regional integration in Africa.”
To address the challenges currently confronting the continent’s bloc, 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 (NNNGOs) and Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) organized the CSOs and Media Interactive Meeting on State of ECOWAS and Regional Integration in West Africa.
The CSOs and media organisations acknowledged the relevance of ECOWAS to the integration of the region with notable achievements among which include the free movement of persons, the trade liberalization scheme and, above all, the establishment of the Customs Union, with the entry into force of the Common External Tariff (CET) in 2015 which have contributed to furthering integration of the region.
“Given the security challenges in the region, the withdrawal of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger from the ECOWAS will cause a setback to the gains of peace and security efforts under the direction of regional authority especially in the fight against terrorism.
“The withdrawal defeats the purpose of regional economic including the establishment of an African Continental Free Trade Area. It will adversely affect the life and livelihood of the citizens of West Africa. It will further exacerbate coroperation within the ECOWAS bloc ruption, illicit financial flows (IFFs) and drug and human trafficking across the borders.”
The groups also noted that democracy in West Africa has become more fragile despite the principles of zero tolerance for unconstitutional change of government, tenure elongation, fraudulent elections and bad governance contained in the 2001 ECOWAS Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance
They further stressed that the culture of impunity and disregard for the rule of law by political elites in West Africa have continued to weaken state institutions.
Some of the recommendations from the meeting are that ECOWAS should urgently call for an emergency extra ordinary summit to look into the state of affairs in the region in order to prevent further threats of disintegration.
“Need for immediate dialogue to be pursued with the affected countries and all sanctions be removed to pave the way for genuine reconciliation and the Authorities of Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso to rescind their decisions to withdraw from ECOWAS because of obvious beneficial reasons. State and non-state actors in the region should intensify engagements towards ensuring a more united ECOWAS.”
