…Urges AU, Others To Urgently Resolve Conflict In ECOWAS
The Chief Executive Officer of Eck Foundation, Dr. Emeka Kalu, has stated that the exit of three members from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is a sign of disunity among countries on the continent.
Recall that Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, that are currently controlled by the military following coups that ousted the civilian leadership in the three countries, announced their withdrawal exit from ECOWAS on Sunday
The three countries had accused ECOWAS of “inhumane” sanctions imposed on them to reverse the coups, adding that their action was a sovereign decision.
Kalu’s reaction, which is contained a statement released today, Tuesday, said that the pulling out of the three countries is a sign of disunity among the African states, adding that the continent’s government needs to find solutions to it urgently.
He however, regretted the high level of corruption, abuse of power and misrule that reigned supreme in the three countries among the elected officials in recent years, saying that these led to the toppling of governments in the West African nations.
He lamented that in the face of brazen corruption and abuse of power by elected civilian leaders, coup d’etat seemed to be the only other available option through which power could change hands.
Kalu stated that instead of ECOWAS leaders to impose sanctions on the three countries after the coups, it should have called for a national conference with the comity of nations’ intervention for deliberation and resolution.
“The decision of these countries to depart from the West Africa economic bloc known as ECOWAS confirms how truly disunited the African continent has been. Following the usurpation of power by the military that removed the elected presidents of the aforementioned states, things have not been normal as several sanctions were slammed the nations as measures to get the military leaders reverse their actions by restoring the toppled constituted government to power.
“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 the best alternative than leveling strict sanctions,” he said.
He added that the military was expected to hand over power in line with the consensus reached towards bringing lasting solutions to the challenges, maintaining that the use of economic sanctions to punish innocent citizens of the affected nations was anti-human.
No government, he said, can survive when its country is denied access to basic life amenities, but declared that he did not support the usurpation of elected governments by the military.
The continued denial of the citizens’ access to electricity, gasoline supplies and other basic infrastructural facilities by ECOWAS, Kalu said may be responsible for the exit of the three countries from ECOWAS.
He argued that the sovereign states took the right decision by pulling out from ECOWAS since they felt their continued allegiance to the bloc was no longer serving the best interests of their citizens.
He posited that with the exit of the three countries, ECOWAS, which was regarded as a strong regional bloc, can no longer command such respect and status in Sub-Saharan Africa.
He feared that the weakness of the regional body may also lead to some delays and other bottlenecks in critical areas of life among the other West African States, especially in the continued fight against terrorism.
He said that unless this crisis in ECOWAS was resolved, it would be difficult for Africa to achieve rapid economic and bilateral growths as obtainable in Europe and American continents where the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), Group of 24 (G24) and other blocs are used to tackle national and global challenges.
Kalu appealed to the African Union (AU) and other relevant bilateral stakeholders to converge to resolve the crisis in the West Africa sub region.
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