The decision of the said Countries to depart from the West African economic Bloc known as ECOWAS confirms how truly disunited the African continent has been.
Consequent upon the usurpation of power by the Military that removed the elected Presidents of the aforementioned States, things have not been in their normal shape as several sanctions were slammed by the United Nations as measures to get the military leaders to reverse their actions by restoring the toppled constituted government to power.
One would not forget in a hurry the level of corruption and misrule the citizens of these countries have undergone that led to the military coup that toppled their government. In the face of corruption and abuse of power by elected civilian leaders, coup de tat is risked to be the only alternative means through which power could change hands. When this happens, a national conference should be quickly held with comity of nations’ intervention for deliberation and resolution not through the use of illegality and sanctions.
The military in government is then expected to hand over power in lines with the consensus reached towards bringing lasting solutions to the problems but the use of economic sanctions to punish innocent citizens of the affected nation States is anti-human, for no government survives in the face of crisis and denial of access to basic life amenities.
“I do not support the military to remain in power against the popular democracy but dialogue through strategic reforms and policy implementation could have served as the best alternative to levelling strict sanctions.
This continued denial of the citizen’s access to electricity, gasoline supplies and other basic infrastructural facilities is believed to have caused the pulling out of the trio from ECOWAS. The affected sovereign States acted in the right direction to have pulled out since their continued allegiance to the Bloc was no longer serving the best interests of their citizens and left with no option but to exit. The implication is that ECOWAS, no matter how strong its current member States could be, is no longer a strong sub-Saharan African organization.
For the fact that the economic body is gradually becoming weak, Africa’s development speed is to a reasonable extent retarded and bound to experience delays and other bottlenecks in critical areas, especially in the continued fight against terrorism. The strength of every organization lies in the degree of unity it enjoys amongst the member states and unless this matter is resolved, it is difficult for Africa to achieve rapid economic and bilateral growth as obtainable in Europe and American continents where NATO, G24 and others are used to tackle national and global challenges. The faster the African Union ( AU) and other relevant bilateral stakeholders converge to resolve this anomaly the speedier Africa recovers from the heat burns of disunity, political disorder and lawlessness.
Chief Emeka Kalu
Eck Foundation CEO.
