The Financial Group 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 could be encapsulated in a single key level: now we have transitioned from creating a corporation to constructing a neighborhood.
ECOWAS was created on the very peak of the Chilly Conflict. The one attainable space for individuals to return collectively and discover widespread floor was financial integration, not political or ideological.
The protocol on the free motion of individuals, items and providers (1976) permits residents the correct 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 shouldn’t have to consider a visa once they cross borders inside the area.
There was lots of turmoil in Africa post-Chilly Conflict; with out ECOWAS the entire area might have been engulfed in fratricidal wars. In case you keep in mind, a warfare began in Liberia in the 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 could be happy with—the truth that ECOWAS is now a trademark, a pioneer in regional integration on the continent.
A: ECOWAS intervened by its multilateral armed forces, the Financial Group of West African States Ceasefire Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), which stabilized the state of affairs and ultimately supplied a mushy touchdown for the United Nations peacekeepers who got here in subsequently.
On financial integration?
On financial integration, we are able to speak about many achievements. It isn’t simply in regards to the free motion of individuals; additionally it is about creating a standard marketplace for the area. It’s about serving to nations develop infrastructure—vitality, web connectivity, and constructing street 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 could be happy with—the truth that ECOWAS is now a trademark, a pioneer in regional integration on the continent. It supplied lots of the idea for the African Union’s frameworks.
ECOWAS morphed from an financial bloc into each an financial and political union. Is that this right?
Sure, it’s.
Some ECOWAS members have indicated their intention to tug out of the group. Are there efforts to make sure they continue to be?
ECOWAS is a neighborhood. Now we have solidarity. We could have challenges or variations, however pulling out isn’t the reply. The nations intending to tug out speak about 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 every little thing 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 occurring behind the scenes to reunite the ECOWAS bloc.
What offers you hope these efforts will succeed?
What offers us hope is that ECOWAS held its extraordinary summit in February 2024 and lifted the extreme sanctions towards Niger, and we additional inspired them to return to the Group. We hope they perceive that the benefits of being collectively far outweigh the disadvantages.
Speaking about benefits, what additional incentives do you present these nations to encourage them to keep up their membership?
I spoke earlier about ECOWAS’ free motion of individuals, items and providers. About 10 million residents of those nations are unfold throughout the area. As we converse, 4.5 million Burkinabe residents stay 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 people who can’t regularize might want to return to their nations.
We speak about commerce liberalization. Intra-African commerce is nearly 15 %. Inside 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 vitality and lots of manufactured items from the opposite nations with just about no tariffs hooked up.
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 may want retailers to the ocean, which is being supplied as we speak beneath very beneficial circumstances inside the framework of regional integration. In the event that they pull out, they should discover various retailers or pay larger freight expenses and tariffs. It’ll take lots of time and assets to do this.
We’re additionally about neighborhood solidarity, which is one thing individuals take as a right. Actually, the three nations collectively devour 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 assist.
Lastly, the simplest manner of combating violent extremism is by sharing intelligence and cross-border navy 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 choice.
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 as we speak, energy lies in numbers. If we stay 15 member states, our affect in worldwide diplomacy is larger. In the event that they depart, ECOWAS will probably be weakened. That is one thing we should think about.
Keep in mind that ECOWAS is a company of solidarity. If you’re looking for positions in worldwide organizations just like the UN and others, ECOWAS comes collectively and backs a candidate. For the sake of solidarity, we’ll again those that are inside the neighborhood.
So diplomatically talking, security-wise, politically, it’s unhealthy for each side. However on steadiness, 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 assist of the United Nations and worldwide neighborhood.
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