The Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, under the leadership of Nigeria’s President, Bola Tinubu, is moving forward with the recent establishment of the 5,000-strong ECOWAS Standby Force.
By so doing, the ECOWAS has proved once again to be one of the most active regional bodies in the world. It has moved ahead of the European Union which is only considering its continental coalition forces due to the fear of Russian expansion into member states if it is allowed to overwhelm Ukraine.
West Africa also has its fair share of security threats. They exist mainly in form of Islamic terrorists such as Boko Haram, Ansaru, Al Qaeda in the Maghrib, AQIM, and quasi-Janjaweed groups such as armed Fulani herdsmen who operate virtually unchecked throughout most of Nigeria.
Many of these groups were confronted with the Multinational Joint Task Force, MNJTF, built by Nigeria, Chad and Niger Republic. But due to the perceived “unseriousness” by the Nigerian government and the recent pull out of Niger from the coalition, the MNJTF collapsed. The activation of the ECOWAS Standby Force may help in mitigating this void.
With the activation of this force, ECOWAS is expected to move to the next stage of its evolution: creating a common currency and market to leverage the comparative advantages of its member states.
We call on ECOWAS to learn from its own recent blunders and ensure that the Standby Force is responsibly run. It should be utilised only for peace-keeping purposes and to help member states ward off threats, such as the Jihadist outfits which have found the vast open Sahelian Africa a fertile ground to breed in. This vermin and its sponsors must be made to understand that they are not welcome in West African soil.
Also, this Force must not be deployed for offensive action against any country or regime in power. We must respect the sovereignty of countries and adopt the mechanism of diplomacy and sanctions rather than kinetic responses to internal affairs of member nations.
ECOWAS must also learn from the fallouts of its recent blunder of trying to “flush out” the military government in Niger Republic at the prompting of world powers such as the USA and France.
The region escaped war by the skin of a tooth by listening to wise counsel to drop the idea. This was what caused Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger to pull out of ECOWAS and form their own Alliance d’Etats Sahel, AES. ECOWAS should keep its doors open for the return of these former member states.
ECOWAS Standby Force should avoid the mistake of abandoning its funding and operational responsibilities to Nigeria alone. The near-absence of other member countries during its recent inauguration spoke volumes. Nigeria is already overburdened with insecurity.
We can’t carry ECOWAS defence burden alone!
@Vanguard Editorial of March 17, 2025
