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CONFEDERATION OF NIGER, MALI AND BURKINA FASO.
Anyone reading the papers, listening to press or engaged with the social media in Nigeria these days would probably conclude that the country will soon cease being a democracy.
PBAT on the other hand lend credence to the allegation of being a Lone Ranger when he was seen in full embrace with President Macron of France which made unpalatable headlines. This was postured as if PBAT was embracing a devil. Political party Hawks and Demagogues had a field day accusing and counter accusing each other in the name of Presidential choices.
Going sub regionally, the leaders of Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali last weekend announced their “irrevocable and immediate” withdrawal from the Economic Community of West African States, (ECOWAS). They said that they are creating their own confederation to promote their revolutionary ideas of going it alone in their quest for development without France, their former colonial master. The existing FALLACY is that their monies is STILL TIED TO FRANCE A COUNTRY THEY DAMNED AS EVIL.
The question therefore remains, HOW DO THEY INTEND TO ACHIEVE THE DESIRED DEVELOPMENTAL GOALS WITH THEIR MONETARY RESERVE KEPT IN FRANCE?
The Youthful Political leaders from the trio states of Niger Abdourahamane Tchiani, aged 60 years, Burkino-Faso Ibrahim Traoré aged 36 years. Traoré is currently the youngest serving state leader in the world, and the youngest serving president in the sub-region and Mali’s Assimi Goïta aged 41 years are not old enough to appreciate ECOWAS Pact as two of the leading opponents are still around 40 years of age. With no knowledge of the struggles of the founding fathers and deeper understanding of the philosophy behind the setting of the organization, they decided to wield their newly acquired political power by bad mouthing ECOWAS to galvanize support and justify their intentions and purported actions. However, the leadership of ECOWAS was not swayed by their rhetorics, rather countered with a subtle DIPLOMACY in the context that was strategic. PBAT visit to France is a mark of diplomatic finesse and internationalism.
West African sub-region and indeed all of French Africa, is ramified with several regional organization mainly aimed at uniting francophone countries to the exclusion of the rest of Africa (Ajulo, S. B. (1989).
Apparently, the countries of this sub-region are no longer experiencing this sort of confederate arrangement. In early 1959, the Sudanese Republic and Senegal formed the Federation of Mali. On 31 March 1960 France agreed to the Federation of Mali becoming fully independent. On 20 June 1960 the Federation of Mali became an independent country and Modibo Keïta became its first President. Such examples are abound with Ghana, Mali and Songhai Empires controlling many of the present day countries in the region.
West African countries are not mutually
dependent in any significant way. Rather, they are in constant competition with one another for the ever shrinking global market for primary products and raw materials that they all so heavily depend upon. (Brown, L. (1989).
One of the major reasons for this union was the worry over the growing influence of democracy and stance of members to do as they wished. The legacy of Cold War alliances serves as a cautionary tale about the power of choices to shape perceptions and mobilize action, highlighting the importance of critical engagement with the narratives that dominated public space. (Brown, L. (1989).
What impact has national politics on the aspiration
for and development of the ECOWAS?
There is something significant, and in a way giving hope about the decision to establish ECOWAS, in that, it is hoped to endure where members would enjoy institutional support from one another to the flourishing of the West African sub-region. (Ezi, Obuah Emmanuel. (1989). After all, integration is in some sense attitudinal, which also suggests that integration progresses better in a
fairly homogeneous region, an area of relatively similar levels of development
Indeed, to my mind, the knowledge of the metamorphosis of ECOWAS from its inception in the 1970s to date is crucial. One cannot possibly begin to understand what is happening in its life today without understanding what came before. One cannot understand its transition without understanding the yearning of the people for peace and development. That was a major focus of the pact which was based on our collective experience.
If we must consider the often prevailing political culture of the countries within the region, majority of them are either military regimes or converted one-party states. Given that these societies do not
respect or honor peaceful transition of political power, one can only wonder how they can willingly give up power to a supranational body.
THIS IS WHERE IT BECOMES INTERESTING WITH THE DECLARATION ON CONFEDERACY.
What is encouraging is the response of the ECOWAS leadership, which demonstrated enough maturity by acknowledging the notice and the SIX MONTHS moratorium granted within which the parties might reconcile their differences and reverse their decision to remain in the Union.
WAY FORWARD
West African Economic
Community has managed to survive so far since its inception in 1975. It has also managed to record significant achievements in the various issue areas of cooperation.
Even though, ECOWAS seems to be far ahead of its time, one can argue that the strongest incentive and perhaps, the most concrete push towards cooperation and even integration in West Africa, is the recognition of the need to appreciate great achievements made by ECOWAS. And as this is true for its general history, it is even more true for sub-Saharan Africa.
ECOWAS sponsored projects include international or intra-regional highways, regionally financed telephone networks, agriculture and water resource developments, and other kinds of industrial
development projects. These can only be great sources of hope for an otherwise hopeless situation.
According to Goldstein(1994:392),to shift sovereignty upward from state to regional or global structures is what international integration is all about. Incentives for integration include the existence of diversified and
fairly developed economies which would lead to mutual dependence among the participants, given their general under development status. (Mitrany David (1975). But this requires a certain level of political maturity from the governing elite something they are accused of rarely demonstrating
One of the most intriguing things about ECOWAS and regional development
is the fact that it has managed to bring development to areas that have remained
grossly under developed since the 1960s. Although the countries of West Africa really need one another in order to
build a viable political economy, their current levels of development and the nature of their economic outputs suggests stronger cooperation.
Also, one cannot appreciate the contemporary emphasis on collective autonomy and the notion of togetherness without understanding what it means to live in a chaotic community. (Haas, Ernst B. (1964)
So far, ECOWAS has not proven to be a futile enterprise. After all, it has so far helped significantly in the economic development of the sub-region. Again in
spite of long colonial disruption, the peoples of West Africa still have some sense of common destiny. This ought to account for why the ECOWAS has managed to trudge along in the face of very debilitation circumstances.
Furthermore, it is
important to note that Nigeria has managed to maintain a respectable level of
commitment to the goals of ECOWAS, in spite of domestic detractors. The popular opinion, and especially the “giant of Africa quandary”, compels Nigeria to remain intimately involved in all of Africa, and especially in West Africa. The ECOWAS has been described as the cornerstone of Nigeria’s Africa-centered foreign policy.
Nigeria’s regional policy reflects intentions to influence rather than to dominate; and
this seems to be the right approach. This
is a situation from which Nigeria extrication would be difficult especially as PBAT finds himself in a most awkward position being the current ECOWAS Chairman and by far the most exposed and experienced regional leader.
The ECOWAS annual conferences remain very well attended; and the Community’s Secretariat at Abuja remains quite a busy center of regional planning.
POLITICAL DIMENSIONS IN ECOWAS
Politically speaking, the ECOWAS Monitoring Group (ECOMOG),
represents the most significant initiative. It demonstrates a willingness for, and actual integration of, West African foreign policy.
To the leaders of the region, ECOMOG did not signal a total failure. What they see is a regional effort that ameliorated a very difficult and tragic situation in Liberia and Sierra Leone until the international community was ready to join.
The ECOMOG experience indicates a much more fundamental need for solidarity, rather than simply coming together to share foreign/external aid. It therefore reinforces a
sense of optimism that there is a more compelling need for regional integration.
The ECOMOG venture also shows that cooperation in non-soft political issues would hardly pose a problem for the countries of the ECOWAS.
In the light of the great achievements,
the organization has made so far, one ought to be very reluctant to regard ECOWAS as simply an aspirational symbol.
The unconstitutional change of leadership in the trio confederate states has created a moral imperative for ECOWAS to threaten with ECOMOG intervention to forestall/prevent where necessary potential social conflicts.
CONCLUSION
What is the true future of ECOWAS?
More recently, many of us have begun to reject this idea of the trio-confederacy, because it negates the spirit of pan Africanism. Invariably, all initial, though unique, impetuses that led to
the formation of the ECOWAS are still alive and well. It seems likely that the
Community will endure for quite some time in the future. It might even get stronger.
The sacrifice for the greater good is crucial for maintaining morale and fostering a sense of unity in the face of perceived threats.
There are many of us in this country who are supporting the leadership to do what we consider a more principled position on unconditional change of governments in the sub-region which if unchecked could cause considerable political instability with multiple military coups and/or coup attempts. There remains the “Dilemma of Integration in a Fragmented Sub-Region” to quote Emeka Chieke Ihejirika. Unquote.
MK Ilyasu a retired foreign affairs officer author and public affairs analyst writes from Kaduna Nigeria
21/12/2024
