Africa : ECOWAS’s stubbornness in missteps, a precursor to its disintegration
Once again, ECOWAS is proving to be a sub-regional calamity that deserves to be watched like a hawk, or better yet, dissolved before waking up one fine morning to a decision that could set the entire sub-region ablaze.
Following the extraordinary meeting of the Council of Ministers of Mediation and Security (CMS) of ECOWAS, the communiqué issued at the end of the proceedings confirms that this institution is not there for the interests of the populations but rather to execute an agenda that is no longer even hidden.
The meeting last Thursday was supposed to be an unprecedented session intended to produce significant decisions to ease the current situation in the region. However, the disappointment was immense when ECOWAS persisted in making statements that could exacerbate the situation.
After outright rejecting point by point the reasons for the withdrawal of the AES from the community, almost taunting public opinion, the CMS of ECOWAS found that: « The reasons advanced by the three member states to justify their withdrawal are nothing but a smokescreen, hiding the true reason which is their intention not to fulfill their obligations », declares ECOWAS.
It is truly unfortunate to witness such ineptitude. Not acknowledging what one is accused of can be understood to some extent, considering that those who gathered last Thursday in Abuja are not direct actors of ECOWAS blunders in the community space. All these ministers who participated in this meeting surely came with notes from their respective Heads of State.
But in this story, it is after refuting all the accusations, at point 21 of their infamous communiqué, that the Ministerial Mediation Council asks the AES to reconsider their decision, as if it were the AES violating the texts. A landlocked country like Niger has seen its borders closed, financial transactions suspended, the country’s assets in foreign banks frozen, and to top it off : electricity supply interrupted, and all this, for months, without this thing called ECOWAS thinking about the consequences that its inhumane and criminal acts can have on the daily lives of Nigeriens.
This umpteenth blunder by ECOWAS and its satellite commissions suggests that one can no longer hope for anything commendable from this institution, and it is truly pathetic.
