The article discusses the potential for ECOWAS to overcome the current tensions with Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, who have formed the Association of Sahel States (AES) and withdrawn from ECOWAS. The author argues that both sides should work together to forge a new unity and reject French neo-colonialism.
On 28th May 2025, ECOWAS will be celebrating its 50th anniversary. It should be a time for consolidation not disintegration. My view is that both sides could ride on the current positive bandwagon of throwing out French neo-colonialism to forge a new unity. France has been an active player, over the decades, blocking the emergence of the ECO – the common West Africa currency. This is the moment to all come together and make real the new proposed date of the establishment of ECO in 2027.
This requires a strong political will. Some of us who are die-hard “true believers” in the dream of a united, integrated, prosperous and democratic West Africa of the people met in Dakar, Senegal this week to reflect on what needs to be done to preserve the dream. The meeting was convened by Professor Abdoulaye Bathily, Dr Abdoulie Janneh and Dr Kayode Fayemi. The issue of concern is that later this month, on 29th January, the statutory one-year notice period that the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) required Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger to observe when they announced their unilateral and immediate withdrawal from the organisation and launched their own Association of Sahel States (AES) will expire. The ECOWAS Charter requires a one-year period before a notice of withdrawal of membership can become effective. However, while not being unaware of that requirement, the three AES countries stated categorically that they did not feel bound by it, considering that “illegal” and “inhumane” sanctions had been imposed on them on account of the military coups they had led. Those sanctions, they argued, were themselves “illegal” in terms of the ECOWAS Charter and the organisation’s founding principles, and in any case, they were imposed regardless of the circumstances that brought about the military interventions and the dire security threats each of the affected countries were faced with from various insurgents and terrorists. Amidst ECOWAS’ insistence that all unconstitutional changes of government in West Africa will not be tolerated, and in the face of the threat particularly addressed to the coup makers who overthrew the Mohammed Bazoum administration in Niger, that a regional military expedition might be undertaken to help restore the dethroned government back to power, the AES countries proceeded to constitute themselves into a confederation with a mutual defence pact. In doing so, they stated that any attempt to attack Niger militarily would be considered an attack on all members of the new confederation and they would fight back. What began as an attempt to enforce what had become an accustomed ECOWAS collective response to unconstitutional changes of government, and for which the organisation had previously won accolades as a robust defender of its charter on democracy and good governance, very quickly degenerated into a tempestuous stand-off between it and three of its members. The “battle line” that was drawn between ECOWAS and the AES countries was complicated further when France, with its historic role of exploiter-in-chief in the Sahel, appeared to latch onto the ECOWAS criticism of the AES states, and even egged the former on for “drastic” and immediate action against the latter. For the AES countries, at a time when their militaries were actively seeking to consolidate themselves in power by tapping into a long-standing and growing groundswell of mass disaffection with French neo-colonialism, the offer of military support by Paris to ECOWAS countries for the threatened military expedition and the apparent moves that were made to that effect, was the evidence they needed to stake an argument that ECOWAS had not only deviated from its original mission and mandate but, worse, had become a tool in the hands of French imperialism. Not surprisingly, an almost complete breakdown in communication between ECOWAS and the AES countries followed. In the months that have passed since the formation of the AES, there has been a significant softening of the ECOWAS stance towards the three countries, including the lifting of sanctions, the withdrawal of threats of collective military action on Niger, and direct conciliatory overtures made to them to rescind their notice of withdrawal from the organisation. The collapse of direct engagement between the ECOWAS countries and the AES countries following the anger over the issues raised is today the main problem for forward movement
ECOWAS West Africa French Neo-Colonialism Association Of Sahel States AES Military Coups Political Crisis Regional Integration
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