By Olukayode Oyeleye
EVENTS in recent times within the leadership of the ECOWAS are symptomatic of a rudderless regional economic community that has lost direction and relevance in the ocean of emerging political and economic development and is doomed to implode anytime soon.
As a regional economic community (REC), ECOWAS was supposed to have taken some landmark actions on the socio-economic front, but has largely failed to do so because of the lackadaisical attitude of the country leaders towards development over the years. They have largely failed to integrate the countries in the region in the areas that touch on day-to-day endeavours, notably economic activities. The problems of most of the member countries have been allowed to fester without any real solution.
Much of the crisis rocking many ECOWAS countries today were caused directly by the political actors in power. Their proclivity for talking about precepts without commensurate examples is one of the major causes of the problems in the region. Most of them are hypocritical and corrupt. They want to eat their cake and still have it. They failed to muster joint military forces to deal with the regional insecurity challenge. But they are quick to make a statement about invading Niger militarily.
One of the lies they promote among themselves is their esoteric talk about one nebulous democracy. They like the term but they lack the qualities of democratic leaders. They are the same very people that frustrate the entrenchment of democracy within their territories. Mindful of their actions, they adopt double standard in dealing with matters of governance.
Faure Gnassingbé inherited Togolese presidency from his father since 2005. And he sits in ECOWAS, deciding on what is or what is not democracy. Alassane Ouattara has changed the constitution of Côte d’Ivoire, opening doors for his third term bid. Now on the third term, he too is sitting with others to decide on democracy.
Macky Sall in Senegal is causing trouble and trying hard to use trumped up charges to incarcerate Ousmane Sonko, the opposition candidate that has proved capable of foiling his third term bid. Yet, President Sall has held the AU chairmanship position and is a prominent player in ECOWAS. Alpha Condé wasn’t so lucky. After securing a third term bid through the backdoor, he was booted out by the military.
Did ECOWAS heads of state condemn Gnassingbé for his 28 years in power? Did they criticise Ouattara for his third term? Did they condemn Condé either? No! But when he was removed by the military, ECOWAS leaders saw a violation of democracy. But they didn’t see it in those of the others. When an election produced a controversial winner in Nigeria, they were silent.
They went steps further crowning him as their chairman, thus validating the stereotype about them as people with no real commitment to true democracy. Their new chairman has further confirmed their paranoia by calling for an anti-coup unit in ECOWAS as if that is the solution to the region’s lingering socio-economic crisis.
Now, Niger has become a hot potato for the democracy-yelling ECOWAS leaders. In Niger, their hypocrisy stinks. It’s clear they are afraid of something. Why and how would political leaders who violate the very basic tenets of democracy be posturing as if they are true defenders of democracy? Have they not just exposed their hypocrisy even further by their sabre rattling on Niger? We wait to see how much moral lessons they are able to teach the Niger military leaders.
Dr. Oyeleye is a public analyst and commentator
