The Financial Neighborhood of West African States (ECOWAS) was based in 1975 to advertise financial integration within the area. Forty-nine years later, the regional bloc boasts important successes in integration, peace and safety and good governance, but additionally faces some challenges.
ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Safety, Ambassador Abdel-Fatau Musah, participated in a high-level occasion on the UN headquarters in New York in June 2024, specializing in regional unity, peace and safety in West Africa.
In an interview with Kingsley Ighobor following the occasion, Ambassador Musah, talking on behalf of ECOWAS, highlighted the group’s achievements and challenges, in addition to ongoing efforts to strengthen integration. These are excerpts from the interview.
The achievements of ECOWAS during the last 49 years may be encapsulated in a single key level: we’ve got transitioned from creating a company to constructing a neighborhood.
ECOWAS was created on the very peak of the Chilly Battle. The one attainable space for folks to come back collectively and discover frequent floor was financial integration, not political or ideological.
The protocol on the free motion of individuals, items and companies (1976) permits residents the precise of abode in any member state and has been an ECOWAS calling card over time. It’s a main achievement that individuals in West Africa wouldn’t have to consider a visa once they cross borders throughout the area.
There was plenty of turmoil in Africa post-Chilly Battle; with out ECOWAS the entire area may have been engulfed in fratricidal wars. When you bear in mind, a struggle began in Liberia in direction of the tip of 1989 and continued all through the Nineties, spreading to Sierra Leone and affecting Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire.
There’s a lot the area may be happy with—the truth that ECOWAS is now a trademark, a pioneer in regional integration on the continent.
A: ECOWAS intervened by way of its multilateral armed forces, the Financial Neighborhood of West African States Ceasefire Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), which stabilized the state of affairs and finally supplied a mushy touchdown for the United Nations peacekeepers who got here in subsequently.
On financial integration?
On financial integration, we are able to discuss many achievements. It isn’t simply concerning the free motion of individuals; additionally it is about creating a typical marketplace for the area. It’s about serving to nations develop infrastructure—power, web connectivity, and constructing highway networks throughout the area.
That is ongoing. Nevertheless, studying from the unhappy occasions of the Nineties characterised by civil wars and implosion of States, ECOWAS had no selection however to pivot to safety issues and good governance.
At this time, the values of democracy and human rights are very a lot embedded in West African tradition, and ECOWAS is a component and parcel of that course of. West Africa is the one area in Africa that doesn’t have an open, high-intensity battle, regardless of the actions of Violent Extremist Teams.
There’s a lot the area may be happy with—the truth that ECOWAS is now a trademark, a pioneer in regional integration on the continent. It supplied plenty of the premise for the African Union’s frameworks.
ECOWAS morphed from an financial bloc into each an financial and political union. Is that this appropriate?
Sure, it’s.
Some ECOWAS members have indicated their intention to drag out of the group. Are there efforts to make sure they continue to be?
ECOWAS is a neighborhood. We’ve solidarity. We might have challenges or variations, however pulling out shouldn’t be the reply. The nations intending to drag out discuss their Pan-African ambitions and different issues, however the foundation of Pan-Africanism is integration. Provided that disintegration won’t promote Pan-Africanism, we’re doing the whole lot we are able to to have them stay within the fold.
Nevertheless, you will need to word {that a} nation can’t simply determine someday to withdraw from ECOWAS. There are procedures to comply with, in accordance with Article 91 of the ECOWAS Treaty.
A number of diplomatic engagements are happening behind the scenes to reunite the ECOWAS bloc.
What provides you hope these efforts will succeed?
What provides us hope is that ECOWAS held its extraordinary summit in February 2024 and lifted the extreme sanctions in opposition to Niger, and we additional inspired them to return to the Neighborhood. We hope they perceive that some great benefits of being collectively far outweigh the disadvantages.
Speaking about benefits, what additional incentives do you present these nations to encourage them to take care of their membership?
I spoke earlier about ECOWAS’ free motion of individuals, items and companies. About 10 million residents of those nations are unfold throughout the area. As we converse, 4.5 million Burkinabe residents dwell in Côte d’Ivoire alone. In the event that they withdraw from ECOWAS, the standing of their residents will change dramatically. They should regularize their keep, and those that can’t regularize might want to return to their nations.
We discuss commerce liberalization. Intra-African commerce is nearly 15 %. Throughout the ECOWAS area, exports from these three nations to different elements of West Africa don’t transcend 17 %. What ECOWAS will get from them is meat merchandise, greens and so forth. Whereas they get power and lots of manufactured items from the opposite nations with nearly no tariffs connected.
The values of democracy and human rights are very a lot embedded in West African tradition, and ECOWAS is a component and parcel of that course of.
Don’t forget the three nations are landlocked. They’ll want retailers to the ocean, which is being supplied in the present day beneath very beneficial situations throughout the framework of regional integration. In the event that they pull out, they should discover various retailers or pay larger freight fees and tariffs. It should take plenty of time and assets to try this.
We’re additionally about neighborhood solidarity, which is one thing folks take with no consideration. In truth, the three nations collectively eat greater than 52 % of the ECOWAS strategic meals reserves, which is about 15,000 tonnes of meals. Landlocked nations or these ravaged by cyclical droughts want such help.
Lastly, the simplest means of combating violent extremism is by sharing intelligence and cross-border army cooperation. In the event that they separate from us, how do they successfully battle violent extremists? We want them again within the household and I hope they rescind their resolution.
May their withdrawal have reputational penalties for ECOWAS?
A withdrawal will neither be good for them nor for ECOWAS as a result of in worldwide diplomacy in the present day, power lies in numbers. If we stay 15 member states, our affect in worldwide diplomacy is larger. In the event that they go away, ECOWAS might be weakened. That is one thing we should take into account.
Do not forget that ECOWAS is a corporation of solidarity. In case you are searching for positions in worldwide organizations just like the UN and others, ECOWAS comes collectively and backs a candidate. For the sake of solidarity, we are going to again those that are throughout the neighborhood.
So diplomatically talking, security-wise, politically, it’s dangerous for either side. However on stability, it is vitally a lot not of their favour.
Supply: Africa Renewal, a United Nations digital journal that covers Africa’s financial, social and political developments—plus the challenges the continent faces and the options to those by Africans themselves, together with with the help of the United Nations and worldwide neighborhood.
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